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The cost of the two colleges is almost the same. You see, both schools have very different environments. Northwestern is in the midwest while Duke is in the south. Both are environments that I am unfamiliar with. I honestly have not clue how I'll warm up to both, which is why I'm here sourcing for opinions.
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<p>While there are other differences, the biggest difference imo is Durham vs. next door to Chicago.</p>
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I don't know about NW, but Duke has unbelievable Econ and PubPol departments
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<p>Duke has a good, not great Econ dept. - NU's Econ is stronger overall.</p>
<p>The strength of specific departments at the two schools is of little importance to you since you will be an undergraduate at the respective schools. Even with a slightly weaker Econ department, Duke still does slightly better in job placement at the top I-banking/Consulting firms than Northwestern. If you're keen on Public Policy opportunities, Duke is only 2nd to Harvard in this regard. Duke's campus is also incredibly beautiful and vibrant. There's so much to do on campus that I hardly ever leave the confines of the Duke campus except to go to a club or a restaurant. For what its worth, I really like the restaurants and clubs in Durham. Anyway, consider that you have the rest of your life to live in the city. You can only have a true "college campus" experience once.</p>
<p>EAD, NU provides a true "college campus" experience too. IBanks recruit as heavily at NU as they do at Duke, I know since I actually recruited very actively for the world's premier IBank for 2 years. Admittedly, more Duke students applied for interviewes, but on an individual basis, NU students were taken as seriously and the ratio of interviews-to-offers was just as high.</p>
<p>And Duke's Public Policy program is not 2nd to Harvard. That honor would most likely go to Princeton. In fact, I have never seen Duke's Public Policy Department ranked among the top 5. Here is the latest USNWR ranking of Public Policy programs:</p>
<h1>1 Syracuse University</h1>
<h1>2 Harvard University</h1>
<h1>2 Indiana University-Bloomington</h1>
<h1>4 Princeton University</h1>
<h1>4 University of Georgia</h1>
<h1>6 University of California-Berkeley</h1>
<h1>7 University of Kansas</h1>
<h1>7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</h1>
<h1>7 University of Southern California</h1>
<h1>10 Carnegie Mellon University</h1>
<h1>10 Duke University</h1>
<h1>10 New York University</h1>
<h1>10 University of Chicago</h1>
<p>non-quantitative econ? there's no such thing, especially if you plan on going to graduate school. baby econ is just for high school. real econ has lots of math/proofs in it.</p>
<p>Alexandre, at the undergraduate level, only perhaps Harvard and Princeton surpass Duke in the subject of Public Policy. The higher undergraduate focus, smaller class sizes, more qualified faculty, higher research output and state-of-the-art Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy that Duke provides in comparison to Syracuse, UGA, Berkeley, Kansas, Michigan, etc makes it an excellent choice for Public Policy.</p>
<p>Even though Michigan and Berkeley are much larger research schools than Duke, their faculty output is still lower than Duke in the subject of Public Policy.
Chronicle</a> Facts & Figures: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index</p>
<p>"There's so much to do on campus that I hardly ever leave the confines of the Duke campus except to go to a club or a restaurant. For what its worth, I really like the restaurants and clubs in Durham. Anyway, consider that you have the rest of your life to live in the city. You can only have a true "college campus" experience once."</p>
<p>NU has both a true "college campus" experience AND exposure to a great city. There's nothing less "collegiate" about NU's campus than Duke's. </p>
<p>It would be different if you were comparing, say, a Boston University or a NYU, neither of which has a college campus feel because they are buildings scattered in an urban setting. But you're not.</p>
<p>Sorry pizzagirl. I meant in the sense that if you want your entire social life to revolve around a major city like Chicago, then you have the rest of your life for that.</p>
<p>Much larger classes? LOL! Michigan's PP classes are tiny. There are only 50 undergrads enrolled at the college of PP and a faculty of 30. </p>
<p><a href="http://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/files/umaa_enrl.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/files/umaa_enrl.pdf</a></p>
<p>Classes cannot be all that large. And research output, although never telling, is roughly identical on a per-professor basis. I am not saying that Cal and Michigan have better PP programs than Duke, but they are all roughly equal in terms of quality.</p>
<p>EAD,</p>
<p>That "productivity" ranking is NOT a measure of faculty strength. It's just a measure of how "productive" the faculty are in <em>one</em> year. The irony is so often, it's the junior faculty that tend to be the most productive and tend to publish more papers; but whether those papers of the highest quality or of greatest importance is a completely different issue. Also, the most important and comprehensive work probably tend to take more time to complete. </p>
<p>Please don't tell me UIC (u of illinois at chicago) is #9 in economics!!!</p>
<p>I'd rather go to Duke, personally.</p>