Duke vs Cornell - please HELP!!! need to decide by May 1st

We are having trouble deciding between Duke and Cornell for math an econ double major. Math is more important. Heard both are strong, but Cornell can be super competitive and difficult to succeed. I read dorms are not so great at Duke. Does anyone know why? Which one is more of party scene? I thought Cornell wasn’t .but heard from people that it is. Prefer less of party/frat scene environment. Does Duke have a disadvantage in terms of academics and the type of students it attracts? Any comments are greatly appreciated - counting hours now till decision time.

Question: What makes you think Duke would be any easier?
Doesn’t Duke have at least equally academically capable students, who are at least equally interested in attaining the best future destinations for themselves? Does Duke only give out A’s to every student?
If there are any different grades given out, do you suppose the ambitious, highly capable students there won’t try to get the best ones?

Regarding Cornell, there is not just one “scene”. There are students there with a wide range of interests, and a wide range of “types”. Due to the vastly different schools there. About 1/3 (IIRC) of the students are involved in the fraternity scene. Which means 2/3 aren’t. All of these people are not the same. There are some that party more, some who study all the time, and everything in between.The key is to find your group of compatible individuals.

For upperclassmen outside of the frats, “party” often consists of house parties in people’s off-campus houses or apartments. My D2 threw a number of dinner parties, with small groups of friends. .And went out on weekends with small groups of friends, to wherever.

To me the label “work hard play hard” was relatively apt. But that was applicable to the people I personally hung out with. There were many others. Again, the social scene there defies one particular label, the student population is too diverse.

Thank you monydad! If I understand you correctly you feel that both schools are strong academically? IMO Duke would not have top math students as at the end of the day those would go to most IVYs and tech schools. So even though Duke is so selective, they still cannot attract top tier students. Just an opinion- I can be totally wrong. From reading different posts, I almost feel that Cornell has more chances of having better social life that Duke as the student body is so huge and diverse

I have no “feeling” about academic strength that is relevant. Just what I read; which you can read too.
I can tell you that Cornell has a relatively high number of science-math-y sort of students. But it is very diverse.

IMO what would be most relevant to you is whether YOU are a “top tier math student”.

It would be hard for me to believe that such student would not be sufficiently challenged at Cornell.
But my uninformed guess would be the same would be true at Duke. Even if a somewhat smaller number of fellow students there are following that same exact path. Maybe there will be fewer students/sections in the upper level classes in such fields, but I don’t know that those fewer sections would be populated by dumber students, which I think is what you are hypothesizing.

@sal999 They are both excellent academically. You can’t make a bad choice.

Culturally, Duke does have more of a Southern feel, obviously. That could be good or bad, depending on the person.

Did you visit both? Where did you feel more at home?

Yes. We visited both on admitted students day. Cornell seemed too big and I guess weather plays a factor. Also, we got a sense that it’s tough and competitive there. The math professor there had commented he feels Duke is comparable to Cornell, but somehow its hard to believe considering Cornell math program is bigger and Duke is not IV league.

@sal999 The schools are more or less equivalent, i think for Math Cornell is a bit stronger though. But i think you should go where you fit in best. If you really care about the ivy league tag go to Cornell, but that is not an important criterion since Duke is also a top school. That said Cornell benefits from the ivy league tag and it has a bit f a stronger name internationally and maybe domestically too than Duke. Both schools have great social scenes.

You seem to believe in the myth that the 8 top schools in the country are all in the Ivy League. This is not true at all.

While all the Ivy League schools are excellent, there are probably 10 schools, including Duke, that are peers or possibly superior to certain Ivy League schools.

I vote Cornell! D #3 graduated class 2007 and trust me you won’t regret it. Duke was D #5 top choice until she did their summer program. Literally came back shaken to the core.

Daisy192 sorry to hear your daughter had a bad experience. if you don’t mind me asking, what was it related to?
Social climate? Environment? You can message me a well. This is a pretty profound statement and as we are making an important decision we are looking at, so any input will be greatly appreciated

Hebegebe, I don’t think I believe in IV league myth, but the truth is that most people would choose IV league over another school, thus making it more likely for stronger students to be committing to those schools. That’s why Duke works super hard at their admitted students day to attract the students with all the bells and whistles. I just don’t know anyone who went to Duke recently to tell me it will be great. Therefore any advice is valuable to me and my family.

@sal999 sorry was not my intention to cause anyone any worries. Just my honest opinion on how my daughter’s impression of the school was for her. By shaken to the core I meant she had an idea in her head that was totally different when she actually spent some time there.Just not a good fit for most of the reasons you mentioned. My Ds 1-4 graduated from Fordham, NYU, Cornell and Barnard all having stayed in our State so maybe it’s a New York thing. They were very surprised to hear that after Duke visited her High School it was all she could talk about. As for me after visiting frankly didn’t think the campus was anything special and I think she felt the same way. She said staff was great but the kids primarily from wealthy households seemed to be full of themselves and she didn’t want to have to deal with that for 4 years. While her sisters have attended some fantastic Schools it was never a prestige factor with them. They were excellent students with high stats so received some amazing FA awards. So please if Duke is in the cards for your son or daughter and they’re happy with that choice go for it. I’m just a big fan of Cornell.

@sal999 let us know what you end up choosing! to your point about people choosing an ivy league school over another school, it largely depends which ivy and which other school we are talking about. For example if it is Stanford or MIT then most people would choose Stanford/MIT over all ivies apart from Harvard (and maybe Yale sometimes).
Duke of course has a much harder time attracting cross-admits from ivies than Stanford/MIT and it must work extra hard to do so, but of course not all ivies are the same, Duke is much more able to attract Cornell cross-admits than Harvard cross-admits for example.

From your posts I feel like you want to go to Cornell,both for the math department and he ivy league tag. if that will make you happy then sure go for it.

They are very close peers; go with the school you like more.