<p>Sure, everyone has bias toward their own school. I do. But, EAD makes his points by lessening other schools that are comparable. He always says things like "Duke>Cornell", "Duke places far better into Wall street compared to Cornell', "Duke's social life trumps that of Cornell or Uchicago", "Duke grads make it to superior grad schools compared to Cornell grads", "Duke is more prestigious", "Cornell is full of HYP rejects while Duke ain't and it only attracts its own "special applicants", "Duke has tons of school spirit and Cornell doesn't and Cornell students are miserable", ..."So, choose Duke", and the list goes on. Btw, I am not making this up. These are actual things he said within last 1-2 weeks here on this board alone...</p>
<p>My point is that if he argues for Duke in rational and in less emotional level, without attempting to belittle other comparable schools esp. Cornell, Uchicago, and some other ivies, his points wouldn't sound too biased. His claims on other schools are many times factually inaccurate and thus I feel that he is pretty close to being "insanely' biased, if you will.</p>
<p>So, if a poster were to say, when asked to decide between, oh, I don't know, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown or Duke, "Duke hands down" (that's the whole post) - would that similarly be "insane"?</p>
<p>
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So, if a poster were to say, when asked to decide between, oh, I don't know, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown or Duke, "Duke hands down" (tat's the whole post) - would that similarly be "insane"?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not at all. But, he says a lot of negative things about other schools in order to bring up his pro-points for Duke, and those negative things about other schools are many times factually inaccurate. For example, I am sure he doesn't know jack about Cornell, yet he claims that Cornellians aren't happy and Duke people are somehow much happier. I highly doubt if there was any significant scientific research done on this, proving the level of happiness across the U.S. colleges. I believe I am not the only one feeling this way.</p>
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'k - how about someone stating "I haven't met a single person in real life asserting that Duke is a superior school to Cornell."?
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<p>Ok. I really haven't... that was an honest response. I always have thought of schools like Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, UVA, Brown, etc. at similar academic level. And, most people I knew around me shared similar beliefs as I did. I have a lot of respect for Duke. But, I don't think it is 'supeior' to Cornell in so many different ways as EAD believes.</p>
<p>But see, here's the thing - you still feel comfortable calling out EAD while simultaneously stating things like:
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Although I don't have numbers for H or Y med schools or other top biz schools, I suspect that similar results are the case that Stanford get an edge in better placement into other top grad schools other than law, compared to Duke.
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<p>You have a pretty clear anti-Duke bias, regardless of your respect for it, and in that you are not alone. I realize that this entire messageboard was created as a mechanism for disseminating methods for getting in to the Ivy League but, of late, that particular aspect and bias of it has gotten extraordinarily old.</p>
<p>
[quote]
One quality I absolutely admire about the Duke student body and find it exclusive only to them is their ability to prioritize. Students study a lot but still find time to exercise at least a couple days of week. You can always find kids at the gym or participating in pick-up sports on the quad. This sort of health-consciousness was visibly absent among the Ivy League schools I visited, where most of the students I saw spent an excessive amount of time playing videogames, watching TV shows online and generally being inactive. A lot of these same kids came across as the type that would make fun of individuals who chose to party and be social on weekends for "destroying their livers and lungs". I found this hilarious because these Ivy kids don't work out at all, are completely inactive and thus face much greater health risks than a 4-year binge drinker and chain smoker.</p>
<p>Even though there exists a contingent of students at Duke that consume a large amount of alcohol weekly, these kids and the student body at Duke as a whole are MUCH, MUCH healthier than their Ivy League counterparts because of their regular exercise.
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A lot of Duke students participate in varsity or club sports. It has a more athletic student body than all of the Ivies. This is basically an irrefutable fact. Also, Duke's weather is much better than Cornell's as is the campus. The students are also more intelligent at Duke(based on national merit scholars, SAT/ACT scores, etc.) and they place better in law, biz and medical schools as supposed to Cornell students. Cornell and Penn both have good social scenes but often the lack of a cohesive Greek scene/student body and bad weather act as major detriments. Duke only has two schools(Trinity and Pratt) while Penn has four schools and Cornell has like 10.
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<p>I honestly haven't come across a poster as deeply biased as EAD. Who is he to say that ivy league kids stay in their rooms all day and play video games while so many Duke students play varsity, club sports and are much "healthier" and much more "athletic"? LOL I tried to explain that Cornell has many many sports clubs for people to join, and I also tried to explain that Cornell students are very much engaged into sports as well. EAD doesn't take others' view seriously and doesn't listen at all and goes on making these kind of outrageous claims about other schools constantly, despite the fact that I should know better about Cornell than he does.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You have a pretty clear anti-Duke bias, regardless of your respect for it, and in that you are not alone. I realize that this entire messageboard was created as a mechanism for disseminating methods for getting in to the Ivy League but, of late, that particular aspect and bias of it has gotten extraordinarily old.
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<p>I don't understand where within that passage I showed any hints of anti-Duke sentiment. It is a fact that Stanford places slightly better than Duke does, at least in law school. And, the reason I said that Stanford may have an edge in med/mba admissions, as well as law school, is because many times professional school admissions are inter-related and one school, such as Harvard, that places its students into top Law schools better than others also places its grads to other top grad programs better than other schools as well. This was a reasonable conjecture, not having anything to do with my "anti" Duke bias. </p>
<p>Plus, the reason I became involved in that thread "Duke is overrated" is becasue some posters began making claims like "Duke>Cornell", etc., and I felt that I had to jump in to argue. I, however, was the one that said that "I don't believe Duke is either overrated or underrated."</p>
<p>"Who is he to say that ivy league kids stay in their rooms all day and play video games while so many Duke students play varsity, club sports and are much "healthier" and much more "athletic"?"</p>
<p>I imagine, given that he based his opinion on his having visited those places, that he has as much legitimacy making his claims as you do basing yours off everyone you've ever talked to...</p>
<p>The point I am trying to make is just how hyperbolic and hypocritical this whole enterprise has become. There seems to be very little ability to synthesize anything beyond immediate biases...</p>
<p>i am surprised you'd take "insanely" so literally. i was obviously exaggerating a little bit. that said, i'd never told anyone to take 150K debt to pick my own school.</p>
<p>I'm afraid reading various threads in the past few days has led me to giving very little in the way of leeway, if you will, with respect to what people are saying on the boards.</p>
<p>You will note, also, that at no time did I tell anyone to take 150K debt to come to Duke.</p>
<p>"So, if a poster were to say, when asked to decide between, oh, I don't know, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown or Duke, "Duke hands down" (that's the whole post) - would that similarly be "insane"?"</p>
<p>That would depend on the context. </p>
<p>Scenario 1:
The poster says that Duke would be a lot cheaper, that he really HATES cold weather and that attending awesome Basketball games is his life, then I would say that Duke hands down would make perfect sense. </p>
<p>Scenario 2:
The poster says that all four schools would cost roughly the same, that Basketball isn't a priority and that he likes both the temperate climate at Duke and the seasonal weather of the NE, recommending Duke hands down would be biased, but ok. However, to say that Duke is better than the other three schools would be overdoing it since it isn't, don't you agree?</p>
<p>Scenario 3:
The poster says that attending Duke is much more expensive than the other schools (to the point of going deep into debt), that he doesn't care for basketball and the he loves to ski, recommending Duke hands down would indeed be insane.</p>
<p>DukeEgr93,
i know you didn't tell the OP to take 150K debt to go to Duke. it's EAD that's encouraging the OP to do that and even advising the OP to pay off that debt by being IB. IB isn't even a given yet EAD made it sound like it's easy to get. that's just over the top, IMO. besides, people pursue IBs because that's what they want to do and they like making money....; it's different from trying to do it because one gets a lot of debt to pay off.</p>
<p>But Alexandre - that was the whole post (and in truth, it was "Cornell hands down") - the statement was provided without any context. Where does that go in the sanity spectrum that has been / is being defined?</p>
<p>I switched the school names for what would seem to be obvious reasons :D</p>
<p>DukeEgr93, I think the point is that stating that one top university is way better than another top university is unreasonably biased. We all favor our own university, some to the point of extremism. But to bluntly say that a university is superior to another that is considered just as good is unreasonable.</p>
<p>thanks for answering my question before but maybe if i write in all caps this one will come out stronger... WHAT SCHCOOL HAS THE BEST PROGRAM FROM UNDERGRAD TO GRAD FOR BIOENGINEERING ... any programs u guys heard about for ucsd ucla or ucb? if not wat would b the school that i could get the highest gpa and best shot to grad school. PLEASE REPLY LOL</p>
<p>^ You can ask your question in a new thread to get more responses.
UCSD, Johns Hopkins and Duke have the strongest bioengineering programs.</p>
<p>I'd say Duke probably has the least grade "deflation" for your GPA. That being said, all programs are fantastic and will be able to get you into a top grad school.</p>
<p>Biomedical / Biomedical Engineering:
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
1 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
2 Duke University (NC)
3 Georgia Institute of Technology *
4 Univ. of California–San Diego *
5 University of Pennsylvania<br>
6 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology<br>
7 Case Western Reserve Univ. (OH)
8 Boston University<br>
9 Rice University (TX)
9 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
11 Northwestern University (IL)
12 University of Washington *
13 Stanford University (CA)
14 University of California–Berkeley *
15 Vanderbilt University (TN)
16 Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *
16 University of Virginia *
16 Washington University in St. Louis<br>
19 Tulane University (LA)
19 University of Texas–Austin *
21 Cornell University (NY)
21 University of Utah *
23 Columbia University (NY)</p>