I was lucky to be accepted to these universities last month. However, I’m at an impasse in deciding which to attend. Financial aid is not an issue with either. For some background on myself:
- I'm planning to major in political science or international/global studies. Also looking to study languages (Spanish, Hebrew, Russian) intensively.
- I may enter as pre-law.
- After college, I'm hoping to attend a top law or graduate program and then eventually pursue government work (State Department/Foreign Service, etc.).
- I'm looking for a school whose extracurricular culture is as equally vibrant as its academics. I'm specifically interested in joining Debate, Model UN, publications, and political organizations.
- I prefer a balanced social life -- I'm not into partying 24/7, but the opposite extreme isn't appealing to me whatsoever. I'm also ambivalent on Greek life.
- I do prefer city life but it's not a huge factor in my decision.
My main concern with UChicago is that their intense academic culture stifles extracurricular involvement. I’m also a bit concerned about grade deflation (though, of course, I’m ready to work as hard as I can to get the grades I want). The “where fun goes to die” stereotype has also been dispelled by multiple students I’ve talked to. However, there is certainly a distinct difference between Duke and UChicago in terms of social life. I’m also worried that Duke’s Greek scene monopolizes social life. Could anyone speak to this?
Also, would one be better for pre-law and/or poli sci than the other? Is one looked upon more favorably by employers? Any comments on this would be much appreciated.
I really think that you should visit both schools and make a decision based on fit. Traditionally, Duke has been more pre-professional and Chicago has been more focused on academia but those distinctions are fading now that Chicago’s student body has become more “mainstream”.
Duke has a very good mock trial team (they were national champions quite recently) and Chicago has a reputation for producing good debaters so you will have ample opportunity to participate in those events at either school.
The WSJ’s ranking of “feeder schools” placed Duke 8 spots ahead of Chicago but that was a while ago and I can’t find a similar ranking that is more recent. However, Duke does have better placement at top B-schools (including Booth ironically). Whether that means that applicants from Duke are stronger is open to debate. I’m sure the Chicago partisans would argue that it’s because Chicago students are less interested in going the B-school route. There may be some merit to that argument but it’s all conjecture until someone can provide hard data.
It’s also worth noting that fewer students from top schools like Duke and Chicago are applying to law schools because many people believe that the legal job market is becoming saturated. On the flip side, that improves your chances of getting into HLS or Yale Law!
I picked Duke over Chicago when I was applying to colleges (although Chicago is a very different school today) but no one would fault you for choosing either university.
If you go to the school you feel more comfortable at, you will do better in your classes and it’ll be that much easier to be admitted to a top graduate program.
@NerdyChica Thanks for your response! In a pamphlet I got from Chicago, I found that 3% of Class of 2015 grads were pre-law – but that 85% of those students matriculated to top-14 law schools. Similar to your reasoning with B-schools, I think Chicago grads are perhaps less inclined to pursue that route of education. However, they still clearly fare well if they choose that path.
I think my choice will come down to the environment. Any other opinions?
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Can you revisit both? I think spending 2 to 3 days on campus might help you.
@brooklyn13, Of course, you should visit both, but I will address one of your concerns. D1 is a fourth-year bio major at UChicago and very, very, (can I emphasize that enough?) involved in theatre. Like every quarter involved in acting or production both on-campus and in Chicago with grads. Given that she is a science major, the most time-consuming of her classes are the 3-4 hour labs. (I imagine you would have few labs with your major although much of your work would involved papers, which is also time-consuming.) Her GPA is about 3.6-.7, so I would say that the academic culture has not stifled her extracurricular involvement. I know only a little bit about Duke, so I can’t really compare them, but fwiw, UChicago has a pervasive academic culture. Does that inspire or scare you (socially)?
Do you live in Brooklyn? Not sure I can add much but don’t let anyone try to tell you that Durham is a city. Not sure how things are now but in the 80s parties were dominated by the frats at Duke.
^ Durham is a city that is home to 250,000 people. It is 30 minutes away from Raleigh, a city that is home to half a million people.
Durham is one of the 100 largest cities in the country. Raleigh is in the top 50.
http://www.citymayors.com/gratis/uscities_100.html
I meant to put city in quotes. I lived in Durham and have been back recently and sure it can be defined as a city by some population standard but it’s not a city like NYC, Boston, Chicago, Philly, DC, etc.
Yeah, it’s not NYC. That should be obvious to anyone…
If you are considering law school, you can choose pretty much any undergraduate major you’d like, since there is no “Pre-Law” major per se – but it would behoove you to take a wide range of courses, including some Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, and Communications courses.
Compare program strength in especially these areas – maybe one school consistently outperforms the other, giving it a slight advantage for academic fit.
These schools are different:
- Chicago vs. Durham, NC --> Culture, food, activities, etc.
- More intellectual vs. more pre-professional
- Midwest weather vs. Coastal South weather
- Less robust campus social scene vs. Large Greek/party scene
Maybe the only thing that’s really similar, aside from undergraduate quality, is the architecture. I think both are pretty campuses, for what it’s worth.
UChicago has a bigger international rep, likely due to its outstanding faculty and research awards through the years, but here in the US they probably carry about the same cachet in terms of undergrad quality.
You can’t make a wrong choice here, but do pick the one that fits you best culturally, environmentally, socially, academically, and financially.
Durham is not even Richmond as far as what a real city offers.