Duke vs Emory Pre-Med

College Search & Selection
1

So long story short, I got into my dream school of Duke. I plan on majoring in Neuroscience and following a pre-med track to go to medical school.

My ultimate goal is to get into the best medical school I can. Unfortunately, undergraduate financial aid is something that I have to consider especially with the looming medical school costs I will have to incur.

Emory costs (~45k including merit scholarships), Duke is at full sticker price (75k), about 30k higher.

In terms of my actual financial situation, my parents are middle/upper middle class, definitely not wealthy enough to pay for both Duke and med school.

They have generously given me two options. 1.) They can pay full sticker price at Duke for undergrad, but I will have to take on loans for med school. 2.) They can pay for Emory and fund more than half of my medical school education.

I guess my first question is, objectively, how would you rank the two schools in terms of getting their students into the best med schools in the country, considering things like grade inflation/deflation, research opportunities, premed advising, quality of education etc… I read that Emory’s med school acceptance rate is 54% while it is 85% at Duke, although this may be because of less weed-out courses at the former?? Also which curriculum is more challenging/takes a greater hit to one’s GPA?

Secondly, if you were in my position, which of the two options would you choose, including the financial aid? Is a “prestigious” Duke education really worth the extra 100k+ in the long term? If not the 100k, how much would you pay over Emory to have a Duke pre-med education? (I know Emory shouldn’t be short charged but in terms of national “prestige”, Duke is surely more recognizable, at least where I am from) I have often heard that having a top 10 college education has opened many doors for people that they would have never thought of.

I know its a little long but thanks so much!

2

Top med schools and really any med schools will not care whether you went to Duke or Emory.

Where are you seeing those admit rates? Anyway, admit rates aren’t trustworthy because of how they’re manipulated. I doubt that a student attending duke would have a higher admit chance than the same student attending Emory. Silly to spend extra for duke.

You can get into a top med school from either school. However, don’t be focusing on any particular med school. The goal is to get into at least one med school. Med school education is flat. Your residency program will be more important anyway.

3

@mom2collegekids Thank you for the advice!

4

My wife and I both entered college as committed pre-meds and ended up at Harvard Business School, where we met. Many (if not most) students find that their interests and passions change as their perspective is broadened in college. If we had attended lesser colleges (one a top 3 Ivy and the other a top 3 LAC) it might have been difficult to shift gears as easily and pursue our new found career interests (it is very unlikely I would have been able to get to HBS and have had as fascinating a career). All of this to say that Duke will provide an on-ramp to the broadest set of opportunities available today (not to mention an incredibly stimulating academic and social environment where you interact with exceptional students and professors), whereas other universities you are considering may not. Everyone has a different risk profile, however, a $120,000 differential to attend a top 10 university (#1 in Outcomes in the 2018 WSJ College Rankings tied with Harvard) seems like a small investment relative to the opportunities it may enable.

5

@CatchUpMustard
Whatever Emory does well Duke does better, except Neuroscience, immunology/biomedical, and Creative writing which Emory does just as well if not better. For med school, where you go does not matter as much, also Emory has a Med school acceptance of 86% with a 3.5 and a 30. A lot of students still apply even if they have a low(er) GPA. Also If you wanted to change gears from medicine Emory will get you there, albeit not as easily as Duke. For instance if you wanted to work in finance, your GPA would need to be higher at Emory than it would at Duke.

6

It’s not as if you are choosing between Duke and a decent flagship. Emory is a great school, especially in the sciences. As the post above says, even if you want to do something else, Emory has premier business school. Congratulations on the Emory merit scholarship. They are more a need based financial aid institution and give out very few merit awards.

7

I’d choose Emory - better value, will get you where you want to go and still very prestigious if you don’t go to med school.

8

Talk to someone at Duke’s financial aid office. They might be able to lessen the difference. Contrary to popular opinion, med schools do care about your undergraduate institution. You’re fortunate to be picking between two great schools. All things being equal, I’d recommend Duke in a heartbeat but the money does complicate things.

If you decide not to go to med school, a Duke Econ/CS degree will hold you in better stead.

9

You best option is probably to see whether Duke can lower their price, it is your dream school after all…

10

“All things being equal, I’d recommend Duke in a heartbeat but the money does complicate things.“

All things being equal the OP would be heading off to Duke right now. Duke is not worth 120K more than Emory for pre-med period!

11

My wife and I both entered college as committed pre-meds and ended up at Harvard Business School, where we met. Many (if not most) students find that their interests and passions change as their perspective is broadened in college.”

Duke is still not Harvard, no matter what some think, and suggesting someone to spend that much extra for a marginally better school is not good advice. If the OP’s family were very wealthy, then it would make a bit more sense to attend Duke. Noting that he/she will more than likely be heading off to grad school upon graduation, tells me that the intelligent choice ( if nothing else gets changed) would be to attend Emory.

12

@rjkofnovi
Well yes, I understand that, but the fear of “what if” is pertinent. I implore OP to visit Emory before making a decision, but it is possible that they’ll always regret their choice.

13

@rjkofnovi, you are correct, Duke is not Harvard, but, Emory is also not Duke. If the OPs career objectives change, as most often happens as a student goes through their college experience, Duke will provide a better set of alternative opportunities. There is a reason that Emory has to provide merit scholarships to try and pull students like the OP away from universities like Duke.

The parents are willing to pay for all of Duke or Emory + 50% of med. school. It is a question of risk. If the OP continues down the med. school track, Emory may make more sense, but if she changes direction she may have lost some of her flexibility related to career alternatives.

14

@CatchUpMustard Be very wary of some here who push their schools to you. The very same people who accuse Emory of buying your love have advised people to take Duke money instead of going to Harvard. For what it’s worth, there is little if any risk in going to Emory. The only risk, obviously, is in your performance.

@VANDEMORY1342 gives good advice on this one. Visit Emory. Duke was your dream school until Emory came through for you on the merit scholarship. Once you’re on campus, see if you find a fit and that it would be a place where you would like being for four years.

15

No way is Duke worth $120k more than Emory. Duke’s better reputation is partly a terrific student body (kids who would have been successful anywhere they went to school) and partly Coach K and tremendous media exposure from the basketball team. This is the classic example of sweating two incredible choices and splitting academic hairs—in a vacuum, I might choose Duke given the better name recognition in general, but a $120k price differential is very, very far from a vacuum. The point about changing your major cuts both ways—sure, you may very well not go to medical school, but the savings from attending Emory could be used for ANY graduate education, and someone at your level of accomplishment is very likely to pursue some sort of graduate study.

16

I am cringing at the thought of you spending that much more for Duke. Yikes.

Honestly I think the BEST choice is a zero cost undergrad degree for PreMed- do you have any other options that are free?

17

“There is a reason that Emory has to provide merit scholarships to try and pull students like the OP away from universities like Duke.”

There are reasons that Duke enrolls 40% of its class through the ED option. All schools play their games to try to enroll top students.