<p>I got a likely letter from Duke and I was wondering how it stacks up to Dartmouth in terms of well, everything.</p>
<p>However, I am doing medicine so is it Duke then? No brainer?</p>
<p>Rankings for medicine:
1. Harvard
2. Duke
3. Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>I would personally go to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>DMC,</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that if you want to go to Duke Med school your chances are much better if you are a Duke undergrad because they kick up a disproportionate number of their undergrads into their med school. Beyond that, I obviously prefer Dartmouth (I'm going there 09, duh) but you need to do some research on this. They are both great schools, you can't go wrong either way.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I would caution you to place too much emphasis on those Med school rankings in general. They reflect the Med schools themselves, not the undergrad pre-med programs. I believe most of the top LAC's have spectacular med school placement even though they have no med schools of their own.</p>
<p>You need to know what you want in a college and what *you * think is better because at the end of the day, it is you that will have to attend and get the education.</p>
<p>I don't think that you can compare the 2 schools because they are so different. Duke is a large research university with a focus on their graduate school education and reserach (which where the bulk of their bread and butter comes from). There will lbe a lot of classes taught by TA's, where as Dartmouth functions more like a liberal Arts college with a focus on undergrauduate education and all classes are taught by professors. </p>
<p>What are you looking for in a school because you will get a great education at either school (you haven't been accepted to Dartmouth yet so to say to stack one gainst the other is a moot point). </p>
<p>I don't want you to think that I am being hard on you but I am not asking or saying anything that I haven't said to my own child (currently on the pre-med track at Darmouth)</p>
<p>Some questions you should consider for any school are</p>
<p>[ul]
1. What is the 4 year graduation rate at the schools which you are interested in?
2. What is the medical school placement rate for each school?<br>
3. Where do graudates of these programs end up matriculating.
4. If you are looking for research opportunities, what are your chances of participating in cutting edge research as an undergrad/
5. What are the internship opportunities available to you as an undergrad at the schools which you are interested in attending
6. What percentage of courses are taught by TA's
7. If college has world renowned professors , how many undergrad classes do they actually teach (most of the time they are only teaching grad student, doing research and writing books which are revenue streams for the school)
[/ul]</p>
<p>As far as which school will improve your chances of getting into medical school, why rank medical schools when you haven't made it through undergrad as it sounds much like putting the cart before the horse because you must first get through undergrad with good grades, take the MCAT (score well) hopefully have some good internship research opportunities under your belt, get stellar recs. </p>
<p>Duke, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and other medical schools routinely reject students who are graduates of their undergrad programs every day, so my personal take is that going to school A or school B is not going to guarantee you easy access into any professional school, because it is not a matter of what school you attend , it's what you ** do ** when you get there.</p>
<p>Sybbie has made my post superfluous. Thank god.</p>
<p>Sorry, I saw your post after I posted (but I forgive you for leaving on the parent's board yesterday)</p>
<p>You are right as the LAC's especially Williams and Amherst have a 90% medical school admissions rate</p>
<p>Duke and Dartmouth, actually have a lot in common in terms of the student body, Duke has more Southerners (well, maybe not next year ;)), but is not a particularly "Southern school". The kids tend to be pre-prof, active, smart, but fun-loving. Many of the differences are related to size, Duke is definitely larger, with more electricity, if you will, on campus. Duke has Chik-Fil-A on campus aBIG advantage.
Both schools have a lot of school spirit, although at Duke it is centered on basketball, both have an active Greek life, and ongoing controversies with the administration over Greek life. The close proximity to Chapel Hill means that even though Duke itself is not in the greatest place, it forms part of college student central in terms of concerts, etc.
The biggest downside I saw to Duke was the freshman ghetto - fresmen live on the other side of campus and have to ride buses to many classes. It is a walkable/bikeable distance, but didn't look too safe after dark. Duke grads don't seem to "love " their school the way Dart grads do, although they remain obsessed with basketball.</p>
<p>I visited Duke with my daughter prepared to hate it, because most of the people I had come into contact with professionally that had Duke connections were, aahhh, arrogant (please don't flame me, it is the simple truth), but I was pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>Let me add, I also visited Duke, it looks like a clean Yale, but it is located in a city I find dirtier (if that's possible) than New Haven. A big crime problem. As I recall, the student newspaper had numerous articles about safety concerns on campus.</p>
<p>You go C , </p>
<p>using the big letters. You deserve a big letter too (can you see greensleeves rolling her eyes at us about now:rolleyes:.?) We're hangin out too much with yemaya :)</p>
<p>Okaay, I'm challenged and don't get out as much as I need to. Whats a Chik-Fil-A ?</p>
<p>Oh, and Sybbie's right on about med school - that is not the reason to pick either school. In fact, the more pre-meds a school has, the less I would encourage my child to go for pre-med at that school.</p>
<p>ChikfilA is the reason God made chickens, He knew that we would eventually figure it out :).</p>
<p>It is the original chicken sandwich place, found in every mall in the South. Never open on Sunday, now has free standing fast food places. You Yankees finally caught on to Krispy Kreme, and now it has imploded - we may not want to share ChikfilA.</p>
<p>Cangel,</p>
<p>Speaking of Southern Food, I was sorry to hear about the economic demise of that southern institution, Piggly-Wiggly. lol</p>
<p>Out with Piggly-Wiggly, in with Wal-Mart---that's progress?</p>
<p>Haven't had chikfila though.</p>
<p>Wow, no more Piggly-Wiggly? Hey there's no walmart in NYC either they are fighting hard to keep it out of Queens center.</p>
<p>Never heard of Chikfila or Piggly-Wiggly...I guess that's what living in Maine does to you. Up here, we also eat icecream year round and wear shorts as soon as it hits 40 degrees or so.</p>
<p>P-W has been dying a slow death for many years sad to say, it was an institution when I was little.
Chik-Fil-A is the best - when DD got to the Atl airport after 3 weeks at Yale, she wandered until she found the Chik-Fil-A - their mascot is a dairy cow and their slogan (from the cow's perspective)is "Eat More Chikin"</p>
<p>Hmmm interesting. My brother goes to Duke and I'm going to Dartmouth. In fact, I deliberated over whether I should go ED for Duke or Dartmouth for a little while. Basically, my deciding factors were: class size/undergraduate focus at Dartmouth, at Duke the administration is cracking down on underage drinking and the Greek system much more, pushing all the parties off-campus to bars and off-campus houses, where the Durham police then crack down, and meaning people have to drive or take cabs every weekend, my brother says there's really not much of an intellectual culture among his friends...and yeah I dunno. I liked Duke a lot both times I visited, but I fell in love with Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I chose between these two and I quickly chose Dartmouth due to the stronger community oriented atmosphere. Duke is much more spread out as a campus, and the student body is more southern. </p>
<p>As for med school, that wouldnt even be close to a factor in my choosing either school. Both do amazingly well in grad/ med school placement at the top schools.</p>
<p>same dilemma as slipper... came down between Duke and Dartmouth for me. I am very happy I chose Dartmouth; all my classes have been relatively small, I can interact with my professors, and Greek life isn't the be-all-end-all of my social scene. Don't stress too much about a better "med school prep program"... really, you'll just be taking general chem, orgo, bio, physics... they're going to be basically the same at any college.</p>
<p>haha I love Chick Fil A! They have them in NJ, which isn't by any means in the South. The best is their billboards...cows painting a sign that says "Eat More Chikin", as cangel said lol. It took me a while, in one of my dumber moments, to realize that Chick Fil A stands for "Chick Fillet" lol</p>
<p>Wow, I didn't know they were as far North as NJ?! Sybbie you gotta get down there and try one sometime! The best is their regular chicken sandwich - bread, meat and a pickle :). They make the WORST grilled chicken sandwiches, I don't understand why because everything else - chicken salad, chicken noodle soup (starting to get a theme?) - is great. They also have an exemplary scholarship program for their teen employees, a job at Chick is something of a coup here.</p>
<p>Back to the regular scheduled programming</p>