<p>Plan to major engineering/PreMed and am comparing these two choices. Seems like</p>
<p>Cornell has better broad engineering offering and is well respected so engineering is a real option should I decide I can't make the committment for the long haul towards med school residency etc. Classes are hard and grading is tough but if you are seriously considering med school I'm not sure that you can get by without that level of effort/competition. Opportunities for research excellent but hospital exposure seems lacking except during he summer. </p>
<p>Duke has a better biomedical program hands down but you wouldnt have any exposure to any other ranked discipline in engineering that you would have at Cornell. Grading seems slightly better or easier and competition somewhat less than Cornell. With the Hospital and med school right there I would think its rather easy to fit in quality time working/volunteering in the hospital. Obviously the weather is a lot milder. </p>
<p>Everyone posts things such as this; the schools are very different in terms of feel. Where would you rather go to school? Ithaca or Durham? And though Cornell has a better engineering (and Duke better BME), if you choose to not do pre-med you would honestly have good choices if you want to switch your focus at either school.</p>
<p><strong><em>My brother was a pre-med at Cornell. You can get alot of hospital exposure, you just have to actually try to get it. Grading at Duke is not that easy at all either.</em></strong></p>
<p>You can get a tremendously amazing education at either school, in both fields. Major engineering/technology firms recruit at Duke–sure, not all their disciplines are ranked highly, but Duke as a whole still represents a very high caliber of student, something companies realize. Same goes for Cornell premed wise. </p>
<p>In the end, 99% of this is going to be up to YOU, not the school you pick. You can be an engineer or a premed at either one and be extremely successful. It all depends on how motivated you are, how well you fit in at the school, how well you fit in/are motivated by your peers and professors. Take a tour of the school–and be sure to do more than just “the tour” (those are practically identical across the board… oh, school such and such has highly accessible professors!? NO WAY!). Try to talk to some students if you can. </p>
<p>The thing you have to understand is that engineering rankings are based on total research output which is a function of size. Duke is an absolutely brilliant engineering program, the faculty are among the best in the world and produce a phenomenal number of papers per capita. The school is under ranked only because of its size. However, the small size ensures that you will receive personal attention from your professors. Check out the NRC rankings and the faculty rankings in the chronicle of higher education, Pratt does exceptionally well on both, particularly the one that measures faculty strength. Also, Pratt is the most improved engineering school in the country over the past few years according to US News. I predict many similar surges over the course of the next few years. Look for Pratt to break into the top 10 soon.</p>
<p>^Pratt is still ranked as the 11th best private engineering school and in the top 25 overall in the country. Considering *U.S. News *ranks 190 programs, I’d say that puts Duke engineering in high esteem. (I’m not arguing with you incidentally, just pointing out the fact that while Duke engineering may be “lower ranked” than some schools, it’s still doing pretty well even if you look at total research output, which is impressive for such a small school). In any event, I assume the OP has had to decide by now since he/she seems to have gotten off the Duke waitlist 5/13 with a decision necessary by 5/21. I would choose where you think you’d be happier, though. :)</p>
<p>^ I completely agree, Pratt is doing phenomenally well. Definitely on the up and up. I was just pointing out that even though Pratt is not ranked in the top 10, it is still a worthy competitor to schools like Cornell, and Berkeley.</p>
<p>Nice name, NYLongIsland. I’m a Long Islander too!</p>
<p>Both have fine programs I imagine, but in all other respects, Duke > Cornell. Location, weather, students, atmosphere, etc. Plus, Cornell has ZERO flexibility, a fact I found pretty contradictory to its “Any Study” philosophy.</p>