<p>Cornell’s admit rate is 18% and Duke’s admit rate is 16% for 2010. Cornell’s admit rate includes all colleges. Cornell didn’t take anyone off its waitlist, and Duke is taking ~11% of its freshman class from its waitlist. </p>
<p>My daughter was WL at both of those schools and she got off both. She chose Cornell because of quality of its education and also its global reputation, and it is her desire to work globally someday.</p>
<p>I perceive Cornell to be more selective than Duke, including the specialty schools at Cornell which are the best in the world in their specialties.</p>
<p>I think most people perceive Cornell’s undergrad academic reputation to be better than Duke’s, but not by much. Most people think in terms of overall reputation rather than selectivity per se.</p>
<p>^The admit rate in Cornell’s Arts and Sciences school was 15.7%, which is lower than Duke’s 16%. The admit rate in Cornell Engineering is higher but, in fact, Cornell Engineering is even more selective than Arts and Sciences based on SATs.</p>
<p>I sense some subtle ageism here. Two older members completely misread what I wrote, it’s like they read my posts with a preconcieved notion of what they thought I would say instead of what I meant to say. I’m surprised my saying I see Duke as more selective than Cornell has brought out the kind of response it did.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the prompt responses; this has been really helpful.
Currently, I am planning to apply Early Decision to Cornell Engineering. I’m a little more familiar with Cornell than Duke because my father used to work there.
With that said, would I have a greater chance of getting into Cornell than if I had applied ED to Duke?</p>
<p>If anything, you should apply ED to Cornell Engineering if that is where you want to go. Don’t overthink or overstrategize. If Cornell Engineering is what you want, go for it.</p>
<p>Pratt typically has a much higher acceptance rate than Trinity (the college of arts and sciences). That means Trinity itself has a lower acceptance rate than 16%. </p>
<p>"Trinity itself has a lower acceptance rate than 16%. "</p>
<p>I don’t know what it’s acceptance rate is actually, Duke published those statistics before it turned to the waitlist. which it then utilized extensively.</p>
<p>“I said that Brown, Penn and Duke tend to be more holistic in their evaluations than Cornell.”</p>
<p>Yes, and I said"??" What I meant by ?? is, IMO this (unsupportable) claim of material differences in this respect seem dubious to me, for institutions where admissions rates and entering stats are nearly identical, for identical programs of study, where all the schools are practicing holistic admissions in what I suspect is a quite similar way. Brown is a separate case. Your claim seems more plausible to me wth respect to the specialty colleges, but even there, demonstrated affinity for their subject areas consititutes a “hook” of its own, to an extent.</p>
<p>If you’re walking around Durham during the day, even by yourself, you’re likely to be perfectly fine. I walked several blocks off campus every other day one semester to meet with an emeritus professor for an independent study, and people in their yards or on their porches would always wave and say hello (one thing I’ll miss about leaving the South…). If you’re walking around Durham at night, try to stay with a group and out of the sketchier areas. Generally this is also not an issue. If you’re walking around Durham by yourself at night – YES, that is dangerous. Not much happens except muggings, but it can still be rather unpleasant. You are, with the exception of a few places on Central at night by yourself (which has improved recently), perfectly safe on campus at all times. Most of the reports you hear from Duke police are about people wandering off campus by themselves at 3 AM. </p>
<p>I went to school in Durham for four years and am in my second year of graduate study in a far more “dangerous” city. I have found both to be surprisingly pleasant places, and I’ve yet to be mugged, stabbed, shot, poisoned, ambushed by vampires, etc. </p>
<p>
Alexandre and collegehelp are Cornell alums; oldfort is a Cornell parent. Monydad is both a Cornell alum and parent. Harambee is a Duke student, I’m a Duke alum, and par72 is an unaffiliated Duke fan (he has good taste ;)). </p>
<p>While CC is a very helpful resource, remember to consider the source and take all posts, including this one, with a thoughtful portion of salt.</p>
<p>That is why it is hard for us to make a comparison. We can only give you our personal point of view, and stats that are published. It is up to you to gather everyone’s point of view and make up your own mind. If my younger daughter ends up at Duke someday (highly doubt it), then maybe I could give you a comparison.</p>
<p>"Alexandre and collegehelp are Cornell alums; oldfort is a Cornell parent. Monydad is both a Cornell alum and parent. Harambee is a Duke student, I’m a Duke alum, and par72 is an unaffiliated Duke fan (he has good taste ). </p>
<p>While CC is a very helpful resource, remember to consider the source and take all posts, including this one, with a thoughtful portion of salt."</p>
<p>And yet we all offer relatively unbiased opinions. Nobody is bashing the other’s school.</p>
<p>^Good point. I favor Cornell but realize Duke is a great school and is pretty comparable to Cornell. My father is a Duke alum. I completely respect Duke.</p>
<p>Because I am very familiar with the school, I can recognize when significant factors pertaining to the institution are being missed, yet are relevant in a particular circumstance, and bring them to the attention of those who may be less familiar with it.</p>
<p>As for “alum”, Alexandre was (briefly?) in a grad program there only. While grad students may have an additional level of familiarity with their university, they generally feel little to no personal stake in its role in the undergrad arms race. No offense to Alexandre, but I don’t really regard him as a true “homeboy”. I certainly am not one, for the undergrad school of the university of my graduate degree. I’d throw it under the bus any time, and in fact have done so on CC. Agree with them or not, I would presume that Alexandre’s perspectives re: Cornell undergrad are pretty untainted. He didn’t go there.</p>
<p>Thank you so much - I really appreciate your feedback.
and though I am aware that I am asking for subjective opinions, thank you for the warning warblersrule86 and oldfort.</p>
<p>At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m applying to Cornell ED. Although now I’m having trouble deciding whether or not to use the primary/alternate option. If I’m seeking to major in Biomedical Engineering (prior to med school), should I apply to COE or both COE and CALS? Since I’ve heard COE is more selective, would applying to both give me an advantage, though subtle?</p>
<p>Typically 2/3 of the courses one takes in college are outside of one’s major . If you did not get into COE, would Cornell CALS actually be your second choice, compared to all the other colleges in the world? Are not its detailed courses requirements, major aside, materially different from those of COE, and those of most other colleges?</p>
<p>“As for “alum”, Alexandre was (briefly?) in a grad program there only.”</p>
<p>That is correct monydad, but I do not consider 2 years to be “brief”. That is a pretty significant amount of time.</p>
<p>“While grad students may have an additional level of familiarity with their university, they generally feel little to no personal stake in its role in the undergrad arms race.”</p>
<p>That is a fair observation. I certainly have a stronger connection to Michigan.</p>
<p>“No offense to Alexandre, but I don’t really regard him as a true “homeboy”. I certainly am not one, for the undergrad school of the university of my graduate degree. I’d throw it under the bus any time, and in fact have done so on CC. Agree with them or not, I would presume that Alexandre’s perspectives re: Cornell undergrad are pretty untainted. He didn’t go there.”</p>
<p>I would never throw Cornell under the bus! hehe! But I agree that my feelings toward Cornell are untainted.</p>
<p>One does not need to have attended the school to be able to know something about the school. some of the things you thought you know about your school are not really facts and or not existing to some students. and some of the things about the school are hidden from you or your schoolmates. a lot of students know more about cambridge than i do, even those who haven’t attended there, and i’m not surprised.</p>
Umm pretty much every Cornell matriculant from my HS class of 2010 is A&S or Engineering (and that’s 20+ kids). Yes it’s a public but it’s one of those publics where taxes make most of lower incomes unable to really live here and the average income is somewhere close to 300k so college tuition really isn’t a concern for the vast majority of these kids.</p>
<p>I personally know two kids from one of the highest income areas outside NYC who are attending contract colleges there. Maybe it’s even your school (though I believe their # is above 30). In one case the parents have multiple kids, the economy has adversely affected the dad’s business, he was very relieved that Junior picked ILR (I think). The other case money was no object but the kid happened to want a major that was in one of the contract colleges. In other cases I’m sure, even where it’s not about the money, people apply to a less selective one of the colleges precisely because they have a better chance of admission and it’s a close enough fit. My own son would be in this boat, if he decides to apply. His stats are not strong for CAS, much better chance at one of the contract colleges. He wants to attend college within a reasonable driving distance from home, which is another consideration for many people.</p>
<p>I think you’ll find that multiple colleges are represented in that Naviance data, even in your area, once you go back to school and ask your counselor. It’s certainly true here, though this community is more mixed economically.</p>
<p>Lots of wealthy people have no problem saving some money, and besides there are other reasons to attend them.</p>