<p>^ Two words...</p>
<p>Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</p>
<p>Hawkette, I agree that on an absolute scale, Duke is more or less liberal. And yes, from my experience, UNC is more liberal than Duke. I LOVE UNC and Chapel Hill...even though, as I often confess, it is the only school that turned me down. </p>
<p>UCBChem, Ahmedinejad fits in nicely in Columbia's campus! LOL! I don't know about you, but I think it is pretty amazing that Iran, which has a population of 70+ million people, has absolutely no gays! hehe! What a shame really. Iran is such a beautiful country with a beautiful people (especially the women! hehe!), an incredible history and culture and truly limitless potential.</p>
<p>so you guys would say duke's econ is better but columbia's poli-sci is?</p>
<p>No way. Duke Econ verg Good. COlumbia Econ used to be top 5, now top 10 and working its way back up...look at the nobels won by faculty in the last 10 years...look at the young star Profs recruited recently....</p>
<p>so columbia's better in both poli-sci and economics?</p>
<p>Don't choose for what's "better". They are way to close in prestige and placement and so different socially. choose for fit. Would you choose between a rolls royce and a ferrari on meaningless objective measures?</p>
<p>I'm not a fan of either school. I suppose I'd go with Columbia. It's incredibly pretentious, though, and I'd find that unbearable. </p>
<p>Duke, however...you could not get me to go to that school with a full ride.</p>
<p>hellohi, as you may have noticed, nobody is talking about academics. That's because you really cannot go wrong academically. Both are awesome academically. You really should focus on fit. Nothing else matters here. Go with your gut and make sure your gut is not influenced by others.</p>
<p>tulsadem, I feel exactly the same way about those two schools! LOL!</p>
<p>Its hard sometimes to not want to go to the "best" school, but this is a case where there is no "better." Its a gift that one would get to choose between these great schools with very different social experiences. </p>
<p>(Personally I would prefer Duke because of the stronger community).</p>
<p>Here is my observation based on people that were admitted from my daughter's HS to those schools last year. Columbia took more academic, "mousy" kids. Duke took kids that were more social and had more school spirit. </p>
<p>I would encourage OP to read some threads on those school's sites. What/how students post on those sites, tells you a lot about those schools.</p>
<p>As a Columbia student with more than a handful of friends that attends Duke...</p>
<p>Columbia is more prestigious (it IS an Ivy). In and of itself it really doesn't matter all that much--- There's nothing you can't do at Duke that you can at Columbia. It may take a bit extra of work. However, it is indisputable that outside of the Basketball crowd, Columbia University carries that extra "oomph" on Wall Street, Law School admission. I think I read somewhere that Duke places incredibly well for medical school though. Columbia does however, have much, much better international prestige (if that matters, which it probably shouldn't).</p>
<p>In terms of academics I agree it's probably a draw. One thing that you'll quickly learn is that at the top tier of Universities, there really isnt much of a discrepency between quality of education. That said however, Columbia currently holds the most Nobels(Nobel</a> laureates by university affiliation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
I've met incredible professors here -- already had TWO Rhodes Scholar professors, one who works at the Federal Reserve, another (Gulati) who's one of the preeminent Economists in the world not to mention head of the US Soccer League (a bit random, I know). Columbia has won something like 5-6 Nobel Prizesin Economics in the past 10 years but i STRESS that Nobel Prizes is a poor proxy for quality of undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Okay on the downside... Columbia is in the city. It's great... to an extent. It certainly can get distracting. But more problematic I feel, is that the city leeches away the coherency of the campus. Physically, Columbia maintains an exclusive, beautiful campus in Morningside heights. But, socially, during weekends, people disperse throughout the city (in groups). You'll never get that HOORAHRAH BONFIRE feel you might see at Duke or Dartmouth or Princeton (this is not helped by the fact that Columbia's sports teams SUCK). </p>
<p>From anecdotal experience... Columbia is more diverse than Duke. Columbia's new financial aid is better (completely free for all families making less than 60K and significantly reduced up to 150k). </p>
<p>Anyway, both are great and hopefully you'll get to make this choice.</p>