<p>I'm interested in the pre-med tract. Both schools have fantastic medical schools (top 10 in the country) and hospitals right on campus. Both schools have great advising and provide numerous opportunities to get involved in the field of medicine. Both have fairly active social communities and both provide a wide variety of majors in case I decide against medicine. The main difference I see in the schools is the area, Duke being isolated and not located in a major city, while Penn is in the city of Philadelphia, walking distance from downtown. If you were to choose Duke or Penn, which would you choose, and why?</p>
<p>I seriously cannot make this decision. I have been stressing out for the past week as to which to choose, and I've decided I should hear some opinions.</p>
<p>Both are great schools, and very similar for pre-med. I would hardly call Duke “isolated.” Durham has a very active arts community, and while not a large city, has plenty of interesting opportunities. Personally, for undergrad, I don’t think the surrounding city matters much at all. Your life as an undergrad revolves around campus. For graduate/professional school, the city plays a bigger role.</p>
<p>I had the same choice (years ago) and chose Duke. It just felt more “open” when I visited -students seemed more friendly and sociable, the campus more lively. For pre-med, Duke was superb, and I would make the same choice again. Good luck.</p>
<p>I chose Duke over Penn. Penn was my clear second choice, though. These two schools have a HUGE overlapping applicant pool and I find them quite similar in regards to academic quality and social opportunities. Even though one school is in a large city in the NE, and another in a medium-sized town in the South, I find them quite similar and could easily see myself at either. They are both great institutions.</p>
<p>Honestly, the tipping point for me was basketball. I know that sounds crazy, especially if you’re not a basketball fan, but it’s more than just “basketball” - it was about class unity, feeling proud of the university and having a sense of community, overall happiness, and feeling a connection to the university AFTER graduation. Even if you don’t like big-time sports, it greatly enhances your college experience in my opinion. It’s fun and provides entertainment, but more importantly when walking around Duke’s campus, you can tell people are proud of being Dukies and everybody is on the same boat. Basketball COMPLETELY unifies the student body (esp when going deep into post-season, which hasn’t happened recently unfortunately) and makes people enjoy their college experience more. Not only that, but it connects you to the university FOR LIFE. There are Duke Clubs all over the country that get together to watch basketball. There are certainly Penn Alumni clubs as well, but not to watch any sport’s team. Hence, you don’t use them nearly as much. This gives you a GREAT excuse to reconnect with old classmates, network, but more importantly, feel CONNECTED and PROUD of your university for life. </p>
<p>The nice weather of Durham vs. Philly didn’t hurt my decision either (nor did the very strong BME program at Duke), but really it came down to class unity and sports. I still got a sense that UPenn students were somewhat unified and proud of their university (for an Ivy League school), but Duke is on a COMPLETELY different level. Penn was my second choice, but I was going to choose Michigan over Columbia for similar reasons (i.e. Columbia students are extremely independent; I wanted a sense of community at my school and Columbia felt like it had none to me; Penn is clearly better than Columbia in this regard, in my opinion).</p>
<p>I also convinced somebody else to spurn Penn and join me at Duke! You really can’t go wrong though. Both are great schools, and I’m sure you’ll be happy at either. The sense of community, unified student body, overall happiness and connection to the university, and basketball tipped the scale in Duke’s favor for me. I’ll admit that the prestige of the Ivy League was appealing, but Duke’s prestige is similar to that of Penn (not including Wharton) and its sports dominate Penn’s.</p>
<p>My friends at Penn tell me that if you’re not in Wharton, you’re treated as a second-rate student by the administration. I don’t know how much truth there is to that statement. However, that is basically the only bad thing I’ve ever heard about Penn. You really can’t go wrong here, though. Penn is a little too pre-professional for my tastes, but that can be a good thing, too.</p>
<p>I’ve heard similar things from my friends at Penn as well. Apparently the general rule of thumb is to go to Penn for business, Duke for med. But obviously take that with a grain of a salt. :)</p>
<p>What’s the weather like at Duke? I know it’s hot in the spring and first few weeks of school. But during fall and winter does it get cold and snow? I want a change from sunny California.</p>
<p>It has snowed the last two winters that I’ve been here I think around twice. It doesn’t stick most of the time, though. However, there was actually enough snow this year to make snowmen and have a snowball fight. We even had classes canceled. Campus was beautiful. It definitely can get cold at times, though. It’s not nearly as cold as Philly, though (I’m from Philadelphia).</p>
<p>It gets close. Sometimes there’s a 2-3 day stretch where it will be in the 20s. It will never drop to sub-zero temperatures, though. I don’t understand why you would want it to be cold any longer than that. Sure, it’s nice at first, but then it just becomes a pain to walk to class. Considering Penn is in the city, you won’t see that much snow buildup, though. They plow it pretty fast there.</p>
<p>The people I know at Penn are not considered second rate citizens if they are not in Wharton - especially now with Wall Street less alluring. </p>
<p>However, I would pick Duke, but they are both great schools so you need to visit and see where you feel most comfortable. You really can’t make a bad choice here.</p>
<p>It basically came down to where I can see myself better. I mean both schools are amazing in terms of academics, so I tried to decide what the deciding factor was. This is probably not the best advice for you right now but I liked the atmosphere at Duke better. I just think I would have more fun there, while taking advantage of its great academics as well. Also, I am interested in pre-law type of stuff, and Duke provides awesome opportunities in that department.</p>
<p>There is no pre-law department at Duke. If you are talking about the advising center, that is standard at all colleges. I wouldn’t make the choice of Duke for that reason.</p>
<p>Coming from southern california
Duke is NOT too warm
Winter got pretty damn cold
Snowed multiple times (tiny flurries granted) and stuck a few times
Any more and it would have been too much for me. A few times is nice, it looks pretty cool I guess.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten tired of walking around with my feet wet from rain, or wearing a jacket, its finally 70s and amazing weather and a Socal winter is NOTHING like a Duke winter</p>