<p>Deadline is approaching everyday(3 days, in fact), and I still don't know where I'm going. Now I narrowed down my choices to two: Duke and Cornell. Right now I think I'm going into engineering, what kind I don't know yet, though I have a particular interest in nanotechnology. I have visited both places, and I like them both equally. I like Duke's small, close community and Cornell's breadth of academic programs. I love Duke's fun atmosphere but I also love Cornell's food. Each have its own pros and cons but basically I made a list and pretty much every thing cancels out each other, so now I have no idea what to do. The two reply forms are sitting next to me right now, and I don't know what to do with them. </p>
<p>If anyone have any suggestions or comments about these two university, like why should one go to Duke or Cornell or why should NOT one go to these universities, please tell me. I really need help here. Thank you.</p>
<p>It sounds like you've considered everything. Really, there's absolutely NO edge you can find? I personally would attend Cornell, in part because their linguistics program is top-notch and part because Duke has a religious affiliation.</p>
<p>Cornell has the Ivy tag, but Duke has its own name. This sounds pretty difficult, so you might talk to current students. Post on the respective forums (if you haven't already) and see what others think about each school.</p>
<p>For engineering, except biomedical eng, Cornell would be preferable. Cornell's program offers a breadth of curriculum and course choices. The quality of teaching is high. Reputation is excellent. Resources and facilities are top-notch. Duke is excellent, too, but I would give the edge to Cornell in engineering (except biomedical). Cornell's program is very demanding but a very high percentage of students succeed in engineering and graduate in engineering. Cornell's program in engineering is much larger than Duke's.</p>
<p>Cornell has a beautiful new facility for nanotechnology, Duffield Hall, that brings together faculty and resources from various disciplines with a common interest in nanotech.</p>
<p>It sounds like you should go to Cornell. The things you seem to like about Duke (social life, size) trump the reasons you like Cornell (food?). You can only pick one academic program, so the breadth of choices at Cornell isn't critical. Both are incredible schools so that's pretty much a moot point. But Duke sounds like its the better fit. I would go there.</p>
<p>Cornell vs Duke, degrees awarded
notice the differences in number
notice the lack of degrees at Duke in materials eng and eng physics...two areas related to nanotech</p>
<p>engineering degrees awarded at Cornell last year:
Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering 134 </p>
<p>Mechanical Engineering 121 </p>
<p>Operations Research 101 </p>
<p>Agricultural/Biological Engineering and Bioengineering 89 </p>
<p>Chemical Engineering 58 </p>
<p>Civil Engineering, General 41 </p>
<p>Materials Engineering 40 </p>
<p>Engineering Physics 26 </p>
<p>Engineering, General 16 </p>
<p>Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering 2 </p>
<p>engineering degrees awarded by Duke last year
Biomedical/Medical Engineering 114 </p>
<p>Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering 52 </p>
<p>that's not really a fair comparison, duke is almost 1/3 the size of cornell. Cornell probably awards more engineering degrees than Caltech, too, does that mean the program is better/more rounded/etc.?</p>
<p>Social life is cancelled out by food? Either you need to get your priorities straight or call Jenny Craig ASAP! jk tho ;)</p>
<p>Fact of the matter is that engineering at the undergraduate level is highly standardized. There isn't that much more you will learn at an engineering school ranked 10 than at an engineering school ranked 25. Engineering salaries are also standardized for the most part as the salaries between a Cornell mechanical engineer will be more or less the same as that of a person from Polytechnic University. It sounds like you def want Duke just that you are too caught up in engineering rankings. </p>
<p>I also urge you to reevaluate whether you definitely want to do engineering. If you want to go into say pre-med it will be significantly easier to do so at Duke than at Cornell. I know a ton of people at Cornell (and got in there as well) and for the most part it seems like a very bureaucratic place. Basically you need to spend time to get things done with the administration. So transferring from Engineering to CAS will be a burder there than at Duke where its easier to switch or create multi-disciplinary courses of study.</p>