<p>I was wondering which school, Cornell or Duke, would be a better choice. I plan on majoring in biology for pre-med. I am also interested in chemistry. I would greatly appreciate any information.</p>
<p>I would choose Duke (even if you removed my bias from being a student here). They have outstanding pre-med and science programs here, and you will have all the research opportunities you want.</p>
<p>Statistically, Duke students are more competetive, while from that is rumored, Cornell students are more cutthroat. Either way, it should come down to preference of what you want from a college. Since you are premed, Duke is a top notch choice in terms of feeding into top med schools. Don't know how Cornell is.</p>
<p>I don't know where Cornell got its reputation for being cutthroat... I'm a Cornell student and I've never seen it among anyone here. (I realized you'd post in both places so I checked to see what Duke students would say.) Both are excellent places to be if you plan to be a premed but watch out for stereotypes like those. (By the way, thoughtprocess, what's the difference between "more competitive" and "more cutthroat"?)</p>
<p>nekkensj are you a premed student at Cornell?</p>
<p>Can any pre med Duke student tell me if Duke preselects students who want to apply to med school. I saw that statistically, for one year, Duke had 400 students who expressed an interest in premed but four years later, only 120 of those students actually applied to med school. Do Duke, perhaps, not allow students with a certain GPA to apply to med school? Or can anyone apply?</p>
<p>Duke does NOT screen its applicants. (Very few schools do.)</p>
<p>First off, we generally get about 280 kids applying to med school in any given year. Many of these have taken time off in between, such that you might see about half of them applying "as seniors". This may explain the 120 number.</p>
<p>Second, many students enter college as premeds simply because they aren't familiar with other fields. Some students even enter college as premeds because they watch too much Noah Wyle. That there is some turnover is natural. In fact, nationally speaking, among students who take the MCAT, only about half of them will apply to med school! Many more who enter college never take the MCAT at all. So for us to have a turnover rate of - if the 400 number is correct, and if you use the more-reliable 280 figure - roughly 30% overall is pretty incredible in and of itself.</p>
<p>I was one who was strongly considering pre-med or business when I entered here a year ago, so I signed up for all the pre-med stuff. However, I've had a great experience this year in econ and Chinese so I'm going to pursue the business option. Many students enter college not sure what they will do after it, but they say they are planning to do pre-med. However, plans can easily change.</p>
<p>More Competetive - Higher test scores for incoming students, thus a more selective body (this assumes SAT score are related to having smarter students, which is iffy at best)</p>
<p>More Cutthroat - Students work harder and less with one another</p>
<p>Again, cutthroat is just a stereotype that may have some basis, but also might not</p>
<p>I think your term "competitive" is not the normal way that word is used; normally it's a milder version of the way you use "cutthroat". But your distinction makes sense to me, at least. </p>
<p>Duke premeds are definitely NOT cutthroat (I'm agreeing with TTP).</p>
<p>wait a minute...I though Duke was famous for its helpful students, students who don't try to compete with each other, but rather try to defeat the system; students to whom you can turn for help in any subject. somebody clear this up for me please</p>
<p>I feel like Duke students are not really competitive with others, but very much competitive with ourselves. I mean, I know that I've never EVER seen anyone feel the need to "sabotage" someone else or compete with someone in a negative way like that, but most people here are very determined and not satisfied with mediocrity (e.g. if someone gets a B- on midterm grades, he/she will work his/her ass off to end up with a B, B+ or A- on finals...stuff like that). It is very "competitive" in the sense that students are incredibly DRIVEN...but not at all in the sense that it turns into student A vs. student B. Does that makes sense?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Statistically, Duke students are more competetive
[/quote]
</p>
<p>He's clarified what he means in post #9. He does not mean that we compete with each other; he merely means that we have stronger qualifications coming in.</p>
<p>This is an important distinction. In the usual sense of the word, Duke students are not competitive at all - we get along very well, and we help each other out in many ways.</p>
<p>see my previous post #12 in this thread
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=166359%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=166359</a></p>
<p>I'm a physician, Cornell alum (bio major), and my daughter attends Duke.</p>
<p>The bottom line is... you can't go wrong academically with either school.. they will both provide you with an excellent education, and a great chance at getting into medical school.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Oh, and just wanted to comment on the debate re the "statistics" of Duke students being higher than Cornell. That is very misleading, and I will explain why. Cornell's overall stats are based on all the undergrad colleges.. this includes the hotel school (where boards and grades are significantly lower), engineering (where math is very high but verbal SAT's much lower), and the AG school, and human ecology college, which are State supported schools, also with slightly lower stats overall. Arts and Science has the highest stats and is on a par with Duke stats.</p>
<p>Now the premeds are distributed mostly between the College of Arts and Science and the Agriculture and Life Sciences College (the Biology dept is a joint dept, and if you are a bio major you will take exactly the same science courses regardless of what school you are in, although your other required courses will be different.</p>
<p>If you looked just at the Cornell premeds, I am sure they would match up very well with the stats of the Duke premeds. In fact many of the premeds in the Cornell Ag school would not consider going to other private colleges because they are paying highly reduced tuition as NY state residents. These include many brilliant NY city kids from Stuyvesant and Bronx Science ( if you are not familiar with these schools, they are magnet public high schools that attract the most brilliant kids in NYC, and their alumni include many nobel prize winners, and tons of Westinghouse science winners.. I guess it's Intel now)
They are brilliant and they study all the time. I remember them well from when I was a premed. They would frequently destroy the curve in the larger classes. I have not seen any kids like them amongst my D's premed friends at Duke. </p>
<p>Don't let that stop you from going to Cornell if it is your choice. I loved it and did get into med school.<br>
But don't think you'll be "competing" against a lesser caliber student... it's not so.</p>
<p>
engineering (where math is very high but verbal SAT's much lower)
I couldn't pass this up. It has nothing to do with Cornell, which was rds248's point, but still. (so, as an aside, Cornell is an excellent school with a great spectrum of majors, an engaged faculty, and a motivated student body. A lot of these "vs." threads really boil down to 'which one is calling you,' and this is one)</p>
<p>That having been said - Pratt students have higher SAT scores than Trinity students. In Math. And Verbal. I will admit to mentioning that occasionally during class :-D</p>