<p>Yesterday DD was fortunate enough to be accepted to both Duke and Vanderbilt. She is undecided on a major, but leans towards economics. She seems more excited about Duke, but not by much. Vanderbilt would be debt-free, Duke would require her to take on $5,000 per year in loans. Thoughts or advice?</p>
<p>Visit both! I have only seen Vanderbilt but I hear that the two schools are very different, despite being prestigious schools in the south. </p>
<p>Can’t help much more than that…tell her congrats!</p>
<p>If she is majoring in Economics then I assume she would be going into Finance. I would go with Duke. It’s a targe school for many Ibanks, and a much more recognizable name nationally and internationally. $5000 loan is nothing for Duke.</p>
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<p>What?? I don’t know a thing about this OPs daughter, but that is one rash assumption. Since my husband is an economics professor, I have known a whole lot of econ. majors. It is a pretty basic field for people interested in a wide variety of occupations, not to mention a lot of different graduate and professional programs. Relatively few economics majors ‘go into finance’.</p>
<p>Assuming the student in question is not set on a career in finance, this decision probably will be settled by a visit to both. The setting of the two universities is very different. I agree that 5K a year, if that is the extent of the difference, should not be a significant factor in the decision if she really prefers Duke.</p>
<p>EDIT: You do plan to visit both, right? It would be a mistake not to.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your replies to date. I greatly appreciate them.</p>
<p>My daughter does not have a specific interest in Finance but rather an broader interest in economics and the flexibility afforded by that degree.</p>
<p>I know Duke is somewhat more prestigious overall and it seems their economics program may be more highly rated. I also have read basically good things about their job placement track record. In my mind, these things, if accurate, may merit a modest amount of student loan debt but I am also interested in others opinions.</p>
<p>And we definitely will visit both, because if either of them does not feel like a good fit then the rest of this probably won’t matter.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D! Those are two high-powered destinations. We visited Durham with elder D a few years ago, and she fell in love with the place, as did I. Unfortunately, it was the only school to which she was not accepted. No regrets tho, as she loved the Big Ten U. that she attended.</p>
<p>Not to begrudge–just curious–what general attributes besides academics got your D a full ride at Vandy and a $45K/year scholarship at Duke? Since we visited in '04, the overall economy has deteriorated a LOT.</p>
<p>jnm123 - While my daughter is awesome, we would be paying quite a bit at both schools. Vanderbilt we could handle without loans and Duke would require her to take on a $5,000 per year student loan. Sorry if my initial message created a false impression.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D! S graduated in '06 with a double major in economics and mathematics. He started out in engineering, but quickly realized he wanted to do econ after his initial classes in economics. Vanderbilt typically has about 200 kids graduating in econ each year from a class of approximately 1600, yet he still seemed to feel he got the attention he needed/wanted. He participated in the honors program for that major and I think felt that was well worth the extra work required. While I can’t speak to the quality of Duke’s program, I can say the Vanderbilt program is excellent. Of course the economy was quite different as S approached graduation, but S had a job offer at Thanksgiving for a substantial amount (at least in the eyes of his teacher mom) with a firm that only recruits from top schools. Maybe by the time your D graduates the economy will be back in that position or close to it - we all wish!</p>
<p>GWNorth–HAH! I was thinking to myself, man, these people have got it MADE. A choice of two great schools for nothing!</p>
<p>FWIW, although we visited Duke and D would have attended if accepted, two of younger D’s pals ended up at Vanderbilt this last fall & seem to be doing swimmingly there as well.</p>
<p>Tough but wonderful choices!</p>
<p>FWIW, we were in the same situation, but it was Duke Engineering vs. University of Michigan Engineering. This is how we handled it:</p>
<p>Son was fine with UM, but loved Duke. He would have graduated debt free from UM. He is very debt averse by nature, so I let this be his test: if he loved Duke enough to take on the $20,000 debt, he must prefer it by a lot. (Didn’t hurt that I believed that the engineering degree would be sufficiently marketable and remunerative that the debt would not be unduly burdensome—that was before the recession started!)</p>
<p>He chose Duke and is graduating in May. Fortunately, he does have a job after graduation.</p>
<p>Duke and Vandy are totally different. I would suggest visiting both. Duke really isn’t what I would consider southern compared to Vandy. Not alot of twangs you will hear at Duke, but both have tons of SWEET TEA!</p>
<p>The one thing I think Duke has over Vandy is the athletics. I know this sounds insane, but college is not just about academics, it is about the whole experience. Let’s face it Duke has K Town, and what would be college unless your folks paid for your dorm, but you decided to live in a tent for months just for basketball games :eek:</p>
<p>OBTW congrats to your entire family, you have a very special child on your hands and I am sure they would have never gotten to this point without your help.</p>
<p>^^^yeah, well, there’s that! :eek:</p>
<p>(but it turns out that many of our son’s best friends were his tent-mates freshman year)</p>
<p>Vandy’s football team is superior to Duke’s. There’s more to sports than basketball. :)</p>
<p>just about any one’s football team was better than Duke’s until quite recently (no disrespect to Vandy intended).</p>
<p>A Blue Devil is a much cooler mascot than a Commodore. Wasn’t Thurston Howell III a Commodore? Nuff sed.</p>
<p>PARENTS Forum. Says it all. Bye, bye now, young’un. Feel free to return in about 25 years.</p>
<p>OK folks, let’s stop being enablers and get back to the OP’s question. Duke’s a huge brand name in higher ed, and Vandy’s star has been rising as fast as any school’s in the country. But if you look on Princeton Review, Duke’s Quality of Life rating (according to student surveys) grades out at 75 on a 60-99 scale - a solid “C”. Why is that?</p>
<p>gadad- I wonder if it is because of Durham and the campus surroundings.</p>
<p>Some thoughts for OP. Visited Duke last year and was overall impressed. Great campus - great facilities. Duke basketball! Now to the negatives - have you seen or read about the east campus where the freshman live? It is not that far from the main campus and there are shuttle buses. It has it’s own library and dining hall, I believe. On one hand, I could see that being a good bonding opportunity for freshman - having their own mini-campus, but I could also see the shuttle bus back and forth being a drag. Do give thought to that. I also feel that Duke students are sometimes described as rude and entitled. I got that vibe from our tour guide. Actually, the entire Duke admissions department is fairly rude. We visited during spring break, there was no parking and the info session had about twice as many people as chairs. The attitude was, we are Duke, we don’t have to try to impress you. That being said, I still think it is a great school with a great reputation.</p>
<p>Have not seen Vandy. My impression is that it is much more southern in flavor - very “girls in pearls”. If you are not from the south - that might be an adjustment for your D.</p>
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Beats me. I can only assume it’s for the same reason that Princeton Review has Goucher behind several schools for “most popular study abroad” despite it having a 100% participation rate. Translation: the PR ratings are bogus.</p>
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Not the norm. In fact, I lived right across from admissions and would encourage my parents to park at admissions when they visited. Free parking!</p>
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East-West buses run every 5 minutes, and often faster, during the day. At night, they run every 10-15 minutes. It’s really not that big of a deal except on weekends, when it is admittedly more of a pain. That said, East and West are not separated by vast expanses of space…I regularly walked it in about 20 minutes, and people jog back and forth between the two for exercise all the time. </p>
<p>I personally LOVED being on a separate campus, and I think it’s one of the great things about Duke. There is still a ton of mingling with upperclassmen, but being on your own freshman campus with your own gym, library, dining hall, music facilities, etc. is really nice, and it’s a really supportive atmosphere.</p>