<p>What does age have to do with anything? LOL. Yes, Duke makes sense.</p>
<p>phuriku, I’d rather attend a “fading power” than a school that literally begs applicants to apply. I get the mailings. Just saying. Also, this thread doesn’t really concern you, does it? Finalchild, you never explicitly state that that is your opinion. You make it seem like it’s a claim that is empirically verifiable which it obviously isn’t. Maybe you should preface your post with “in my opinion”.</p>
<p>
I am 
To your health :)</p>
<p>Not so much the full ride as the scholarship itself.
What I am seeing this year though (just my own small sampling of data) is that Duke is winning a cross admit battle with many higher ranked schools.</p>
<p>Does this seem like an opinion? I don’t know about you, but it looks suspiciously like a statement of facts to me. </p>
<p>"No contest on prestige. Amherst.</p>
<p>No contest on undergrad experience and undergrad teaching focus. Amherst.</p>
<p>And Duke has not been ranked between 4-8 for 25-30 years."</p>
<p>Also, as far as the 3rd premise is concerned, please refer to the link I posted :)</p>
<p>Phuriku, take a look at this article. Is Chicago winning cross admit battles with Duke? Not according to this data :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf</a></p>
<p>Of course, to be fair, this is before you guys started mailing post cards to the whole world and it’s aunt ;)</p>
<p>curvy, just a hint, tone down the cockiness…especially if you want to get in ED :)</p>
<p>And thanks for the tips on the mailings from Amherst. Before you know it they’ll be offering free apps into the summer and literally begging kids to come.</p>
<p>I was actually referring to Chicago’s marketing blitzkrieg but Amherst could use some good PR as well. As could Duke!</p>
<p>Also, I’m merely indulging in some friendly banter (note my intemperate use of emoticons). Surely you’re not offended. This is just like watching sports with a bunch of friends who support a different team ;)</p>
<p>“Duke is winning a cross admit battle with many higher ranked schools.”</p>
<p>Well, apparently “many” is an exaggeration since there are so few schools ranked ahead of Duke :)</p>
<p>7 to be precise. HYPSM Columbia and Chicago (shudders) :)</p>
<p>curvy, settle down. You got me on #3 in 1998 although USNWR must have been on a bender that year (and same year UK got revenge in Tampa), but seriously, you’re like 17 and presuming you are an expert on evaluating universities and colleges. For some of the rest of us, this isn’t our first rodeo.</p>
<p>curvy, I almost grew up on the Duke campus and my father died there, so I know a thing or two about Duke.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, only HYPSM ranked higher than Duke on average in the 1990s and 2000s. Maybe US News was on a “bender” in each of those years :)</p>
<p>I’m genuinely sorry to hear that.</p>
<p>curvy, you should be studying 
Duke clearly is going to be a very tough admit.</p>
<p>I have a 2340 on my SAT (one attempt). Three 800s on my SAT subject tests, and I’m going to graduate salutatorian of a very competitive high school. I’m sure I’ll be fine Thank you for your concern though.</p>
<p>You guys are making me laugh :)</p>
<p>@curvy - since you are a junior, how do you know that you will be #2?
Honestly curious…do they only look up to the junior grade?</p>
<p>That is precisely my intention! I don’t take this college humbug too seriously after a point. There have been Rhodes scholars who graduated from the university of Idaho and deranged lunatics who went to Hahvahd. College is what you make of it. Am I right or am I right? :)</p>
<p>Kelowna, I’m extrapolating based on current data. For all you know I could end up being the valedictorian ;)</p>
<p>You can browse the course listings in History and other subjects on either school’s web sites.
<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/course_scheduler[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/course_scheduler</a>
[Schedule</a> of Classes | Office of the University Registrar](<a href=“http://registrar.duke.edu/courses-classrooms/schedule-classes]Schedule”>http://registrar.duke.edu/courses-classrooms/schedule-classes)</p>
<p>The Amherst listings do not seem to show class enrollment numbers.
Less than 3% of Amherst classes have 50 or more students (see the USNWR site or the Amherst Common Data Set files to verify). You can safely assume that most History classes have far fewer than 50 students. At Williams in Fall 2012, the largest History class has had an average of 40 students over the past 4 years ([Fall</a> 2012 Class Size Info](<a href=“Williams College”>Williams College)).</p>
<p>At Duke, 6% of classes have 50 or more students.
The Duke course listings do show classroom seating capacities. For Fall 2012 History classes, the largest seating capacity I see is 50 students. Most are much smaller than that. In some other departments, some classes might enroll hundreds of students. For example, the Econ 101 lecture has a seating capacity of 400 students.</p>
<p>Instructor names are indicated in the course listings. You can look up their profiles or CVs online.<br>
<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/faculty_profiles[/url]”>Our Faculty | Academics | Amherst College;
[Duke</a> University | History: People](<a href=“http://history.duke.edu/people]Duke”>http://history.duke.edu/people)</p>
<p>The course offerings in Amherst’s History department look a little sparse to me. Where for example is a course in US history since the Civil War? However, you probably can find such a course at one of the other schools in the 5-college consortium.</p>
<p>According to NSF data (<a href=“https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/OlapBuilder[/url]”>https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/OlapBuilder</a>), from 2006-2010, 17 Amherst alumni and 22 Duke alumni earned PhDs in History. Of course, Duke is a much larger school (6500 undergrads to Amherst’s ~1800). In 2011-12, 6% of Amherst degrees were conferred in History (according to the school’s Common Data Set). In 2011-12, about 5% of Amherst degrees were conferred in History (according to the school’s Common Data Set).</p>
<p>
Curvyteen, what I don’t think you get is that most of the research at a school of Duke’s caliber will primarily be performed by professors and their grad students. At Amherst, even if the research quality is lower, the professor-student quality of interaction when conducting the research is often far higher.</p>
<p>However, for OP, research expenditures don’t matter because he’s more interested in the humanities than the sciences. Very little outside funding exists for humanities, but professors still need to publish so as to survive in the academic market, or satisfy part of their contract. Humanities professors often first utilize their grad students for help investigating some far off locale, whereas at Amherst professors need to look to their undergrads for assistance.</p>
<p>curvy, wow, impressive stats. With that profile, how did you decide to apply to Duke ED? Heck, if you can just get your scores up a little you’ll be a pretty strong candidate for Amherst :)</p>
<p>You certainly appear to have no shortage of confidence.</p>
<p>“Better” isn’t the word I’d use when comparing Duke and Amherst. Comparing LACs to Research universities is difficult and too often subjective bias is injected inadvertently.</p>
<p>Duke is more preprofessional and intellectually shallow, while Amherst is more academic and intimate. </p>
<p>Prestige is also hard to pinpoint. I think Amherst may be slightly more respected among academics, but Duke probably has a slightly more known presence among your average Americans. </p>
<p>It goes without saying that choosing between Duke and Amherst should boil down to in-quantifiable differences and personal preference, considering how different these two are.</p>
<p>I’m less indifferent on the Duke vs Chicago debate, however. Today Chicago is the stronger school. It has stronger students, a lower acceptance rate, better professional schools, and is stronger across more academic disciplines</p>