I was wondering what the best undergraduate majors were at Duke that rated really high. Does anyone have an idea? Are their engineering programs any good or their biology/chemistry/computer science? What makes them so tough to get in?
Here is a recent story from the Chronicle that explains. The story’s focus was on comparing majors from Athletes vs non-athletes. But figure 2 in this article shows the distribution of most common majors. The most common major for athletes was sociology, followed by psychology, public policy and computer science. Doesn’t mean these majors are ‘easier’, just that they were popular. My guess is that some of the more lab intensive majors (biology, chem, engineering) are harder for athletes simply because of the practice and travel schedules.
Also note that Duke admits by college (Trinity or Pratt). So once you get accepted to a particular college, there is no restriction on what major to choose.
Interesting article, although it seems somewhat biased against Duke Athletics. Very helpful in regard to majors, though. It says it’s the first part of a two-part feature. Do you know if the second part was published because I haven’t found it online? @sgopal2
@turnandrake sorry I don’t know. You might consider emailing the reporter. They are pretty good at responding back to questions.
Is their science department stronger than the engineering department?
There is no “science department” or “engineering department”…Those are way too broad. There is an entire school dedicated to engineering (Pratt) and depts for Chemistry, Biology, Physics, etc. Here are the majors at Duke:
http://admissions.duke.edu/education/majors
If you’re looking at which ones are “strongest” and equate that with prestige/reputation, you can consult US News or similar publications. But, honestly, all majors at Duke will provide a strong foundation for a career or additional education in that field.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/duke-university-2920
Top Ten Trinity Majors (BME would certainly be among the top 10 for undegrads as a whole): Economics, Public Policy Studies; Biology, Psychology, History, Political Science, Neuroscience, Computer
Science, English, Mathematics
https://trinity.duke.edu/sites/trinity.duke.edu/files/page-attachments/2012Trinity_College.pdf
Here are grad school rankings for depts within the sciences. You can see Duke is well represented:
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/duke-university-198419
Does anyone know what makes Duke Engineering different/special from other engineering programs?
I was never in Pratt myself, so what I’m about to post is more along the lines of what I’ve heard around campus in the past.
I would say VERY generally speaking, Duke places a heavy emphasis on how to think as opposed to how to do. They’re not out to teach you what to do when you face problems A, B, C in the real world. They’re here to say here’s a project, anticipate what problems might come up and think of possible solutions. I’ve heard the engineering and physics aspects of Duke is extremely theoretical compared to other schools. Since we’re a research university, you can imagine the heavy focus on forward thinking and push to innovate. We also have a smaller student body so there are more opportunities for students to get involved in projects with faculty. Duke as a whole has a great faculty:student ratio, which in my opinion, is a more important aspect of the undergraduate experience - it is important to be in a classroom where your professors can know your name, have a meal with you, advise and mentor you, and where you can learn to work with others in groups (and not drown in a lecture hall with 350 people).