<p>Absolutely cannot choose. I'm looking to go into something mathy/sciencey (yeah really vague...i know) which I hear Chicago is better for, and I really like the fact that the city is close by, but I think I would fit in better at Duke and I love the school spirit of it all, which isn't there at Chicago. Pros and cons for each please?</p>
<p>Have you visited Chicago? I spent a weekend there and did not sense a total lack of school spirit. I think they’re just different types of spirit. Duke students are likely to attend more games, but Chicago students have a blast doing activities like the four day scavenger hunt. Also, there def is an intellectual bent. Just my impression.</p>
<p>Just to let you know, the fact that Chicago is nearby isn’t really going to change your college experience a whole lot. My friend who graduated from Chicago in 2011 rarely ventured into the downtown area (maybe once a quarter) and mostly immersed himself in the offerings of Hyde Park.</p>
<p>That being said, Duke is the far more spirited school. It is the most prestigious university in the country that has athletic school spirit like Texas and Notre Dame as well as alumni loyalty matching Dartmouth and Princeton. You really get the best of both worlds as a Blue Devil.</p>
<p>Our lacrosse team is on its way to another national championship too.:)</p>
<p>Goldenboy:</p>
<p>Is that a subtle undermining of Stanford? Stanford has strong athletic spirit and alumni loyalty that is on par with Duke’s, and is Duke’s superior at a wide, wide array of academic disciplines. Don’t sell Stanford short!</p>
<p>Stanford doesn’t have strong athletic school spirit Cue. Most Stanford students don’t really attend athletics events and the university doesn’t have a specific culture attached to a given sports team like Michigan and Notre Dame do with their football teams and Kansas and Duke do with their basketball teams for instance. I think Stanford’s alumni giving has been less than Duke’s for some time now too according to USNWR.</p>
<p>“I think Stanford’s alumni giving has been less than Duke’s for some time now too according to USNWR.”</p>
<p>Stanford alums give far more money than Duke alums. It is not even close. Stanford is usually #1 (by a significant margin) in terms of $$$ raised from alums annually while Duke does not usually crack the top 10. I only have data up to 2007. In 2007, Stanford alums donnated $433 million. That was good for first place in the nation. Yale was second with $271 million. Like I said, a significant margin. My list only includes the top 20, and Duke did not make the list, which means alums donated less than $60 million in 2007.</p>
<p>According to US News, 36% of Duke alums give back, in comparison to 34% of Stanford alums, and (just to note it) 33% of UChicago alums. In terms of amount given, Stanford leads the pack by a lot.</p>
<p>Also, in terms of school spirit, Goldenboy, I dunno, I think that’s really hard to quantify. Duke men’s and women’s basketball get a lot of support, and the UNC-Duke rivalry is great, but would you want to go to a Duke football game? Does anyone go to those games? Stanford seems to get a broader range of support for a broader range of sports. Cal-Stanford in football is HUGE, and the student body seems to support all sort of random sports at Stanford, from good attendance at basketball to support for swimming and water polo.</p>
<p>Stanford’s school spirit might not be focused on one sport (as it is at Duke), but there’s great school spirit generally at the school. Then, when you compare the general academic clout of the two schools, Stanford leads by a wide margin.</p>
<p>From an academic point of view, Chicago has few peers in the Sciences, but Duke is excellent too. I would visit the two universities and go with your gut. You are really lucky to have two such mega-selective, mega-elite universities to choose from…and even luckier that they should be so different. Once you visit, you will know for sure where you belong.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago definitely has school spirit. While it may not be predominantly for the athlectics, one can find that students at UChicago are excited and proud of their school. This can be attributed to many thigns but one of the big things is the house system. Chicago does an amazing job of making its students become very close with one another. The whole “where fun goes to die” is a stereotype created due to the fact that UChicago students are very commited to their academics, but you’ll find that the social life is very much there.</p>
<p>This spirit also comes from the fact that many students choose to attend UChicago over many other top schools and Ivies for the sake of learning. While you can find a stellar and fantastic education at many of the top schools, one will find a pervasive spirit of inquiry and an innate curiosity in most students. While it is not glaringly obvious, there is a deep commitment for the sake of learning and a strong academic curiosity. I’m sure Duke students are like this as well, but at Chicago it is especially so.</p>
<p>Chicago also excels at the math and science programs. Chicago has one of the BEST math programs in the country and in rankings, significantly beats out Duke as well as 4-6 of the Ivies depending on what site you go to. This is the same for many sciences. Comparing the programs side-by-side with Duke and Chicago, Chicago will generally have the more reputable and solid program. In addtion, Chicago is near Argonne Laboratory, Fermilab, and has the graduate school of medicine and a hospital right on campus.</p>
<p>
[Top</a> 10 Colleges with School Spirit](<a href=“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■)
- Texas A&M
- LSU
- Ohio State
- USC
- Penn State
- University of Michigan
- UCLA
- University of Texas
- Duke
- UNC-Chapel Hill</p>
<p>This is the most authoritative source concerning school spirit that I am aware of and Stanford isn’t present and neither is UChicago.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure where you got your fundraising data from but here’s the most up to date information:
[Top</a> 20 fundraising universities - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57382280/top-20-fundraising-universities/]Top”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57382280/top-20-fundraising-universities/)
- Stanford University ($709.42 million)
- Duke University ($349.66 million)
University of Chicago: not among the top 20</p>
<p>A lot of Stanford’s donations stem from its incredibly powerful MBA program which has a lot of loyal and exorbitantly wealthy alums Alexandre. I’m not aware of a data source that compares total alumni donations from just undergraduates of universities.</p>
<p>As Cue pointed out, in terms of percentages of undergraduate alums donating, Duke slightly leads Stanford and UChicago.</p>
<p>
Oh yeah? Here’s a ranking based on citation impact which begs to differ.
[Times</a> Higher Education - Top institutions in Mathematics](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=416399]Times”>Top institutions in Mathematics | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<h1>10 Duke University</h1>
<h1>26 University of Chicago</h1>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Mathematics - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124743/]NRC”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124743/)
Based on the R-Rank (reputational score),
Duke: #14-47
University of Chicago: #12-39</p>
<p>Based on the S-Rank 9survey score),
University of Chicago: #27-57
Duke: #13-38</p>
<p>I would say the programs are fairly similar in research output and faculty reputation. Also, I don’t trust USNWR, which ranks Chicago a lot higher, since it relies completely on outdated Peer Assessment that doesn’t actually reflect modern changes made to the department and the success of the faculty/graduate students currently.</p>
<p>Duke’s Putnam team has also done a lot better than Chicago’s Putnam team in modern history.
[William</a> Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putnam_Mathematics_Competition]William”>William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia)
Since 1990, Duke has 12 top five finishes compared to 2 top five finishes by UChicago. Also, Duke has won the Putnam Mathematics Competition 3 times while Chicago has only won once.</p>
<p>Cousin was stuck between UChicago and Duke. He chose Duke, and he hasn’t looked back once. He’s interning at Barclays in his third year, and he’s found incredible opportunities to conduct research (sometimes paid) with his professors. The student body at Duke is not one which channels its passion and spirit solely towards the school’s obviously unbelievable athletics program; pride in the school itself is also strong. Realistically, in terms of prestige and reputation among employers internationally and domestically, both are very similar, so you shouldn’t feel at all like you are “settling” for one school or the other. Impartially, I would suggest Duke.</p>
<p>Goldenboy:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Fundraising and aluni donations are not the same thing. Fundrasing includes donations from corporations and federal gifts for research. If you scroll to the bottom of the page on that link, it clearl states that on average, only 25% of fundraising donations came from alums. The remaining 75% came from foundations, individuals that are non-alums and corporations.</p></li>
<li><p>The NRC rankings are rubbish and the fact that they lump Chicago next to Duke in Mathematics proves that. Chicago’s mathematics curriculum and faculty are hard to match. Duke is also excellent, but not in the same league. Comparing Duke to Chicago in Mathametics would be like comparing Columbia to Stanford in Engineering. And the Putnam competition is not an indication of how strong a Mathematics department is. Do you honestly believe that Brooklyn, MSU and WUSTL are as good as, or better than, Brown, Cal, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Michigan, NYU, Stanford or Yale in Mathematics?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Times survey is an interesting one, that’s for sure. It also says JHU’s math > Princeton, much to the amused surprise of both departments. Whatever. My own feeling is that people who are torn between UChicago and Duke probably belong at Duke…</p>
<p>Here is a complete set on your question.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1292772-duke-vs-uchicago-vs-usc-marshall-possibly-trustee-v-emory-goizueta-scholarship.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1292772-duke-vs-uchicago-vs-usc-marshall-possibly-trustee-v-emory-goizueta-scholarship.html</a></p>
<p>Listen, go where you feel you will fit in the best and be happiest. I know a guy who turned down a full ride at Princeton to go to the University of North Florida. He’s doing perfectly fine and is extremely happy. You have great choices, ignore all these rankings and stuff and go to the place which fits you the most.</p>
<p>OMG. You mean there’s another thread populated by the same people arguing the same things about the same places?!</p>
<p>Ok, time for everybody to drop this and move on. And if that seemuntil much to ask, think about it this way: Within 75 years, odds are that every last one of us will be dead. Not only will we not care about UChicago v Duke, we won’t know that UChicago or Duke even exists! Why? Because we’ll be dead!</p>
<p>There. That helps, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>As someone who grew up in a family of Duke alums and strongly considered UChicago, I find a hard time believing someone would be as happy in one social environment as in the other. That’s not to say that one is better or right, but they attract different kinds of people. Wildly happy Duke alums are very different people (at least socially) than wildly happy UChicago alums. </p>
<p>Therefore, if Duke strikes you as more your style–well, it’s probably where you want to be.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure I agree, glasses. Chicago was my #1 choice in high school. I was pretty nerdy, set on grad school, and liked the intense academics. I visited twice and really loved the university, and something like Scav Hunt seemed more appealing than watching a football or basketball game. [Its</a> financial aid offer sucked](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/54179-u-chicago-worth-extra-money.html]Its”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/54179-u-chicago-worth-extra-money.html), though, so I went to Duke instead, which I had mostly applied to because it was a good school fairly close to home. I wound up absolutely loving it and don’t regret my decision in the slightest. </p>
<p>Every college is unique, admittedly, and each has its own distinct personality. That said, I think too often we underestimate the ability of students to bloom wherever. If you took 80% of the students from any given top university and put them at another one, I’d wager they’d do quite well.</p>
<p>Duke all the way!!! So much more fun! Better academics overall! Better weather!</p>
<p>Duke has better academics overall? Elaborate please!</p>