<p>I realize that these are two REALLY different schools...but I can honestly find near equal amounts of pros and cons for each</p>
<p>I am very uncertain about my career plans; as of right now, I want to do pre-med. I applied for engineering (chemical engineering @ caltech, BME @ duke), and i might keep that major because engineering is a very useful major (incase I change my career plans halfway).</p>
<p>So how would you compare their pre-med programs?</p>
<p>Just a few of my thoughts:</p>
<p>I'm really concerned about Caltech's curriculum....I'm at the top of my class, but I am definitely not a genius; I'm actually pretty lazy, I'd rather go to the gym than read, and I love my sleep.
But I'm a girl, so I'm thinking that as a girl at Caltech, I'll have a greater advantage with resources and research opportunities (feel free to support/refute this)</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure I feel comfortable about Durham....the city doesn't seem that great...
However Duke just seems more well-rounded, especially with humanities...I do want to become fluent in French and maybe other languages too...</p>
<p>I sort of feel like I'm choosing between two extremes...I feel as though Caltech's social scene isn't enough, yet I think Duke's party scene is a bit too much.</p>
<p>I have not visited the campuses yet; I will in the next 2 weeks. I know it will come down to whether I feel like it's a good fit or not, but I appreciate any input! Thanks!</p>
I don’t know what others think, but I somewhat strongly disagree with this statement. Being a girl at Caltech isn’t going to get you that many more academic opportunities. Socially, it may, but not as far as resources or research opportunities.</p>
<p>If you want to do premed, Caltech probably isn’t the place for you. I’m sure there are other threads that go into this, but almost any techer will tell you to go somewhere else if you want to do premed. </p>
<p>As a note, most premeds at Caltech don’t do cheme because of its workload. Most Caltech premeds are bio or bioe majors.</p>
<p>I agree with jdhutchin. If you’re lazy and don’t really want to work, don’t come here. Especially as a premed. Caltech will make you work your ass off, and if you don’t 100% want that it will suck.</p>
<p>Also, visiting will definitely give you perspective on the social scene differences (they are many…)</p>
<p>Visiting is key, especially with Caltech. I visited the other day (waitlisted) and, although the academics and opportunities seemed fantastic, there are some definite cons in my POV: not many girls (I’m a guy), tons of work, and the majority of undergrads live in a one-block radius. But the campus is really pretty. All of it is really different than other schools I am thinking about. I’m still not really sure right now if I’d go if I got in off the waitlist, it all will really depend on what I want from a college. Definitely visit, and I hope you get a more definitive result than I did with mine!</p>
<p>You don’t actually pick a major until the end of your freshman year, but I just wanted to point out that doing premed as a chemical engineering major at Caltech is a terrible, terrible idea. Especially if you’re lazy, as you admit. </p>
<p>Visiting should make the choice much more clear, at any rate.</p>
<p>Being a girl won’t help you with resources or research opportunities.</p>
<p>I also have a similar situation as t4k. I’m choosing between Caltech and WashU, planning to major in Bioengineering at Caltech, BME at WashU, or Biology for both… and the pre-med route.</p>
<p>I’m going to Prefrosh this week so I can’t say I love the campus, but everything else seems great… except the crazy hard academics. I plan to participate in swimming so it might be a little harder too. I’m the top 1% of my class at high school, willing to work pretty hard, but not a genius either.</p>
<p>At WashU, I don’t really like the St. Louis area, but the kids didn’t seem totally stressed over school work.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or advice for choosing a school?</p>
<p>If you want to do premed at Caltech, make sure you really love learning math and science. If your attitude is “Awesome, I can do some hardcore problem-solving and quantitative stuff before the four years–or maybe it’s just the first two–of memorization that is med school,” then you’ll love Caltech. If you’re the opposite, ie “I can’t wait for med school and not having to do math anymore”, then you’ll probably dislike your time at Tech.</p>
<p>I did get a considerable amount of financial aid, but most of my school choices end up at around the same price, except UT which is in-state for me. I find math interesting and would like to continue on each year or my university life, but hardcore problem-solving sounds scary. I’ll ask around at Prefrosh Weekend this week!</p>