<p>I'm trying to decide between these two schools. How do they compare academically and socially? I feel like Brown might be more fun (Durham.....) but academically does not quite match up to Duke. I'm probably going to study humanities like english or philosophy along with a non-engineering science/math course like biology.</p>
<p>Duke has a campus centric social life. The social life at Duke is probably significantly better than at Brown (Providence is no happening place) based on talking to current and past students. The party scene is better, the sports scene rocks, and the people seem amazing. Not to mention the weather rocks hands down. </p>
<p>I got into both but it took me all of a minute to choose Duke (albeit it was my first choice RD for a while).</p>
<p>oh ya, i forgot to add music scene is kind of important to me. what's each school got to offer in that department?</p>
<p>to be honest, you sound like a Brown student and i think it would be a great fit. You can't really go wrong, i just think you would like Brown more.</p>
<p>go to brown if you want an easy cruise through college (read: grade inflation up the yin yang and pass/fail grading)</p>
<p>come to duke if you want a top tier education AND a great college experience.</p>
<p>please, I doubt the average experience at duke is better than brown. many kids at duke seem to be the type who never saw a beer in high school, and are amazed by it and think only students at duke actually have a social life. neither are state schools, simply put</p>
<p>both schools are dead even academically outside of niche programs (e.g. BME for duke). anybody telling you otherwise is simply trolling</p>
<p>^ I beg you to stop making overwhelming generalizations about colleges. These forums are supposed to be constructive ways for prospective students to learn more about these great schools. A lot of us have a lot of pride in Duke and love sharing our experiences and opinions here with other students considering our school. Please be respectful of this and stop making outlandish statements.</p>
<p>I live near Providence, and I'll vouch for the fact that there's really not much to do there. Providence Place Mall is AMAZING (ie, my favorite place in the world), but I have issues affording shopping/eating there now--I don't suspect many college students find themselves spending too much time there.</p>
<p>If you're a humanities person, though, I might say go with Brown--so long as you're also politically left-leaning. I could never survive at Brown, because the student population is about 80% liberal, 5% communist, 15% conservative.</p>
<p>(And, no, this is not an outrageous assumption on my part--got those percentages right from my Brown interviewer, though he didn't admit to the communist bit. He just said 80% liberal, 20% "other." Definitely enough to bring Brown to the bottom of my list.)</p>
<p>Now I'm going Brown, and that Providence is the place nothing is happening is not true, I guess. You can make enough dynamic here. Boston is only an hour far away, and the train fee or bus fare is not really expensive. I guess it's a lot better than Durham.
You sound like a very liberal person.. but at Brown, whether you're politically liberal or conservative never matters to adjust this free atmosphere of Brown.
For me, i'm extremely conservative....., but i love Brown so far.
Of course, Brown demands a loooooot of work but the merit is that you can enjoy your learning with OPEN CURRICULUM because you can take whatever you want. I think it's the best fit to you.</p>
<p>78% of students with this choice choose brown. you'd be in good company
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/09/17/weekinreview/20060917_LEONHARDT_CHART.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/09/17/weekinreview/20060917_LEONHARDT_CHART.html</a></p>
<p>The NYT data is old. A recent Duke admissions study found that Duke's pounded by HYP but competes more or less evenly with the other Ivies. </p>
<p>About political leanings at Duke for those interested:</p>
<p>"The viewpoint that seems to define most Duke students is moderate to liberal. Duke regularly surveys the attitudes of freshmen shortly after they come to campus. In the past five years, only small percentages have identified themselves as "far right" or "far left." The percentage of self-identified liberals beat out conservatives 36.3 percent to 22.2 percent, averaged over five years. The highest percentage, 36.7 percent, pegged themselves as middle-of-the-road. Politically active Duke students with Republican sympathies tend to talk about themselves, and their peers, in terms that are more libertarian than hard-core conservative."</p>
<p>Source Duke Magazine</p>
<p>Yeah, in my experience, you can only be conservative to a certain extent without crossing the line into the territory of ignorance and unintelligence, something I certainly wouldn't expect of Duke students. I consider myself a conservative Republican myself, but I'm definitely more economically than socially conservative.</p>
<p>But on a more relative note... I'd say visit both, and see which feel you get for each school. Trust your gut--you can't go wrong deciding between Brown and Duke, in my opinion.</p>
<p>I am also in the same dilemma. I am deciding between Duke, Brown, or Dartmouth. What's best option if i want to go into Business?</p>
<p>All are about the same with a slight edge to Dartmouth and Duke. I also chose between Duke, Dartmouth, and Brown. Chose Dartmouth (and loved it!), it came down to Brown and Dartmouth for me.</p>
<p>Check out these links: </p>
<p>From the second article:
"U.S. News, which ranks American universities and focuses on factors such as student selectivity, faculty resources and peer assessment, placed Duke eighth this year, ahead of Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Dartmouth but again behind the top five. </p>
<p>The Times Higher Education Supplement is an international ranking published from London. It placed Duke at 11th in the world in 2005-once again, behind Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT, among private U.S. universities.</p>
<p>The THES Rankings focus on academic reviews, surveys of global corporate recruiters and faculty resources. </p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal feeder ranking also puts Duke behind Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford. The Wall Street Journal surveyed what it considered to be the five top medical schools, law schools and business schools and recorded the undergraduate school of enrolling students.</p>
<p>Duke is ranked sixth overall, putting it ahead of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Penn and MIT in terms of sending undergraduates to the 15 professional schools on the survey. </p>
<p>Duke ranks higher than five Ivy League schools, even though nine of the 15 survey schools are Ivy League graduate programs.</p>
<p>Rankings and statistics all point to a similar trend: Duke consistently ranks as one of the top schools in the nation in terms of academics, but still lags behind the perennial scholarly powerhouses of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT. "</p>
<p>Yeah, it's not like an article in the duke chronicle is going to be biased or anything</p>
<p>the simple fact is that Duke=non-HYP Ivies. not any better or worse. get over it</p>
<p>
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the simple fact is that Duke=non-HYP Ivies. not any better or worse. get over it
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</p>
<p>In terms of what? Prestige/perceived academic strength? That makes sense.</p>
<p>Edit: Mmm, 2400th post ;)</p>
<p>In my opinion, Duke is currently 'a little better' than the non-HYP ivies, in terms of graduate school placement, prestige (arguably), and research. </p>
<p>But the school is certainly going to get 'way better' in the future!</p>