<p>So I have narrowed my choices down to Duke and Barnard. Both are very different, and many people are quick to say pick Duke because it is ranked higher, and Barnard is small, doesn't have enough resources, etc., but often don't realize I will have all of the resources Columbia University and New York City have to offer at my fingertips. But Duke also has plenty of resources and many great programs, ie Focus, DukeEngage, which Barnard doesn't have.</p>
<p>I’d be one of the people who would be quick to say pick Duke. Frankly, without being condescending at all, Duke has a vastly superior student body. Even from anecdotal evidence most of the people I know who go to Barnard were rejected by schools like columbia and duke. Furthermore, a number of people who attend Barnard claim to be going to columbia but that is just not true. At the end of the day go to whichever school you are comfortable at. Personally, I chose Duke over top ranked LACs (not to mention ivies) because it was a good fit. If you are the type of person who wants to be mollycoddled go to the LAC. If you think that you will be able to thrive in a medium sized university pick Duke.</p>
<p>Mollycoddled in New York? Must be a novel concept. Fwiw, you might have helped her pick Barnard. And she will have a diploma with the name of an Ivy League school on it. Annoying as it might to many at Columbia and to other Ivy Wannabes.</p>
<p>mollycoddled at an LAC, and the ivy league is an outdated concept, only the lower ivies actually gain anything from the association with HYP. A harvard grad will always say he went to harvard, its only students from the ‘lower’ ivies who say that they were educated at an ivy league school.</p>
<p>I am not interested in going to Barnard so I can say I went to Columbia. I am interested in having access to the resources of Columbia, but frankly, I do not care for the school much anyway. One of the things that I am worried about is which school would be better suited to take me to my future goals. I live in NC now and hope to live in NYC. That doesn’t necessarily mean I need to go to Barnard to meet that goal, but I am afraid that if I go to Duke I will never get out of NC. Also, when I visited, the Alumni connection seemed much stronger at Barnard than at Duke, which I think is instrumental in networking and moving up in the world. I know it seems like Barnard would be better and that it is unreasonable that I am so conflicted, but I am worried that my education at Barnard would not be up to Duke’s standards, and that it is lacking in major service programs like Duke Engage, something that is really important to me.</p>
<p>I say Duke - NYC is expensive to live in as well and Duke is OUTSTANDING. I get wanting access to Columbia but there is nothing there you can’t find at Duke academically speaking.</p>
<p>It looks to me like you do want Barnard, but are a bit afraid to go out of your comfort zone. If costs are the same, I say take the challenge and go to Barnard. You are correct about the alumnae network. It will be unbeatable.</p>
<p>Duke attracts kids from all over the country. Just think how many NC kids are admitted to Duke and go from there. It would be nothing like UNC or something like that. Duke has national recognition and you could end up any where after college. A Duke degree will definitely NOT limit your options to NC.</p>
<p>fliquer - I don’t think NYC is all that expensive for a student. I think she needs to go with her heart as both schools are great. You must be a smart cookie. One of my girls went to Barnard and had a good GPA and while she went on to Graduate School, it wasn’t one of her top 3 choices. Her twin (boy) went to Duke and had pretty much the same gpa, and he was accepted to his top two choices of grad school. My girl was the social one, and my boy is not. My girl had a GREAT time in NYC and still has great friends, my son, came out of his shell at Duke and has grown into an incredible man - he struggled a bit with not wanting to drink and some peer pressure but he figured out quickly that those weren’t the friends he wanted and he found some lifelong friends. My daughter is a social worker in Florida working for the county. My son has finally figured out that he should have gone to Med school and he is now at the University of Washington in Seattle. My daughter thought she wanted to be an MD and my son is the one following that dream. I have a second set of twins and they are both seniors at Arizona State University. The rest of my kids are now in HS/MS and I am just gearing up for the next round of applications. Best of luck to you and I am sure you will make the right decision for you. (I hope this helps, I just joined and my daughter (Junior in HS) is interested in both of these schools so when I googled them I found college confidential)</p>
<p>I can’t imagine the same kind of student wanting both Barnard and Duke. Different, different, different. Everyone who goes to Duke seems to want to wear a Duke hat, watch, sweatshirt, tattoo. It’s the bestest place ever. There is no irony or humility there, it seems.</p>
<p>I guarantee you that “lower-tier” ivy kids will not have any shame in stating their institution’s name rather in place of “an ivy league school” (I do not know any one who has ever said this). This has to be one of the dumbest things I have seen in the past month on CC.</p>
<p>Also I will be attending a less selective school than aforementioned “lower” ivies, so you can take your elitist attitude somewhere else.</p>
<p>The post wasn’t meant to come off as elitist, why do you think I put ‘lower’ in quotation marks. The point I wanted to make was that people shouldn’t attend one college over another just because it is a member of the ivy league. I made the comparison between harvard and the other ivies just to further that point, it was not meant to be read into. Perhaps I could have phrased it a little better, but I can assure you that the last thing I wanted to do was push an elitist agenda. I was actually taking a stance to the contrary. I apologize if you felt that my comments came off as insensitive, I did not make them maliciously.
Also, I must confess that I found your last comment rather amusing, you seem like a fun guy. I hope my clarification helps you put that comment in perspective.</p>