<p><strong>Disclaimer-- a bit long--</strong></p>
<p>As of right now, I'm torn between these two amazing schools. I've been doing significant research on both schools and have found Duke to be the more appealing one right now. The beauty of the campus, wealth of resources, and academic prestige are just amazing...and plus there are a billion other qualities that I like. Now on the other side, there's Dartmouth, which I love as well, but there are some things that I dont like about it. Despite the appeal of the D-plan, I dont like the idea of a mandatory summer at the school, I mean comeon, I dont care how good the school is, I dont want to be cooped up in Hanover when I can be on some beach somewhere. The drinking is also...not as appealing, I like to party, but it just seems excessive. This isnt to say that Duke doesnt have drinking, I just think it's on a much smaller magnitude. The prevalence of frats/soros is also...iffy, I dont know quite yet if I want to join a frat. The bad thing about Duke is ...well I dont know if I'm just being an idiot here, but I'm worried about Duke's prestige fading away in the next couple of decades. The rankings did go down from last year (US NEWS), not that THAT means anything, but I'm hoping it was just the lacrosse scandal or whatever. I know that Dart's Ivy League status, no matter how superficial, will always keep it up there, while DUke I'm not so sure. </p>
<p>For majors, I'm thinking about pre-med, or pre-law, and I'm sure that factors into the decision significantly, and I was wondering if anyone knew about the possibilites of double majoring at both schools?</p>
<p>And weather-wise, I could really care less, warm is good, cold is good too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input in advance!</p>
<p>I don't think Duke's prestige is "fading away". Rankings can fluctuate a lot. Duke has been a prestigious school for a long time.</p>
<p>Your D-Plan summer term doesn't have to be in Hanover. The summer term off-campus study abroad programs also satisfy the sophomore summer requirement. The Japan and China programs defn. satisfy the requirement, and I think the Morocco and Russia programs also satisfy it, though I'm not sure about the latter two. You can even study abroad Freshmen year summer and satisfy your requirement then. If you had a legitimate reason (besides not wanting to be in Hanover. but instead you had serious financial hardship, visa problems, health issues) for not taking a summer term, you can petition the registrar to waiver the requirement. But this is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say Dartmouth's drinking is any more excessive than your average college.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. More input please, if possible.</p>
<p>I was wondering if some of my pts were mere misconceptions, and it's good to hear actual experiences from students already at Dartmouth/Duke.</p>
<p>Dude, Duke's drinking is waayyy more than Dartmouth's. Remember...red neck country and Durham !! The Duke campus does not compare at all to Dartmouth. Duke is huge and not homogeneous. I have spent several summers at Duke's during the TiP program. A the end, it is just a very personal choice. I started with big cities ( Boston- H and Chicago - U of C) and in the process i fell in love with smaller, quaint places like Brown and Dartmouth... Also remember one thing... One school is in New England ( The North ) the other one is in North Carolina ( The South )... The towns ( not the students ) will let you know where you are......</p>
<p>I can say a bit more about the drinking scene at Dartmouth. </p>
<p>Lots of people (I'd say around 2/3s) are comfortable with drinking, and will go to the frats on the weekends. But, most of these people have around two cups (and the pledges that pump the keg sometimes end up pouring cups that are mostly foam) of beer the entire night, from maybe 10pm to 3am. Yes, some people will drink much more than this, but a lot of people will just have one beer for the night, and just drink it slowly while chatting with friends. People aren't passing all over the place, or vomiting in the halls every weekend. PLENTY of people don't drink.</p>