<p>What areas of study is Duke really known for?</p>
<p>Pretty much anything any motivated undergraduate pursues with a passion.</p>
<p>according to US news, international policy</p>
<p>how are they in physics, engineering, and economics/business</p>
<p>I suppose I should recuse myself from talking about Engineering since...I work there...Needless to say, my opinion on it is quite high :) My line about it would be that we have the faculty and staff, facilities, and curricula that are both nationally recognized and provide undergraduates with the opportunity to obtain the depth and breadth in the subject required for the spectrum of occupations and vocations engineering students wish to pursue.</p>
<p>For Econ / Business - there is no specific "pre-business" program but there is an amazing econ program - I am awed at the amount of effort and infrastructure they put into making the undergraduate experience for folks getting a BS or AB in Econ as fulfilling as possible. I had the opportunity to work with the chair of the department (among several others) this past year and it is clear that he will continue the awesome stuff that's been going on there.</p>
<p>For Physics - again, full disclosure - two of the faculty members who have been or are currently in administrative positions within the department were on my Ph.D. committee. That being said - they <em>really</em> like their physics majors and they have a slew of courses you can take to personalize your degree. In my opinion, the department is a bit more on the theoretical side than some - which is an appeal to folks who are more mathy-physics people than engineringy-physics people, but there are certainly enough of either to mentor both sides.</p>
<p>How's that?</p>
<p>excellent, thank you</p>