<p>Now I am experiencing big difficulty in choosing one out of Duke and JHU.
I applied to the computer science phd program to both schools. Duke gave me admission + sufficient financial aid. JHU still has not given me any answer regarding admission. Duke is now pushing me to make decision, though it is still weeks from April 15.</p>
<p>First of all, which factor/which aspect of a school should I consider first during decision making?</p>
<p>Then, can someone make some comparison for me between these two schools in terms of:</p>
<ul>
<li>overall fame in the U.S.</li>
<li>strength in terms of science and engineering</li>
<li>I want to work in academia in the future, hopefully in the U.S. In this regard, which school would give me better chance?</li>
<li>comfortableness of student life, such as housing, dining, entertaining etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you very much in advance! Any answer/information is appreciated:)</p>
<p>Both are overall excellent schools but that is irrelevant when talking about PhD programs where quality and compatibility of your principal faculty mentors and overall strength of the department are much more important factors.</p>
<p>It sounds to me that you are in similar but opposite situations at the two schools. Neither wants to admit someone without full funding but a department cannot admit more students than it has funding for. So you are probably high on Hopkins’s list but they can’t commit until they hear that someone turned them down. Duke is pressuring you because they have others (like you at Hopkins) waiting. I say stall Duke for as long as you can. I believe most universities have committed to a candidate reply date which prevents them from withdrawing the offer before that date. The purpose of that is to protect applicants in your exact situation.</p>
<p>As to location, remember that being a PhD student is very different from being an undergraduate. It is far more lonely. Being in a big city helps. Baltimore is a big city, and is close to DC, Philly, and even New York. Durham is a small city with not much other than Duke.</p>
Not really. Having a good cohort helps. Having good advisors helps. Finding an activity or two in your free time helps. The size of the city…eh, not so much. I know PhD students here in LA who were perfectly miserable at first and PhD students in Ithaca and State College who took to grad school like ducks to water. It all depends on your program and your personality.</p>
<p>Additionally, I’m sure JHU being near nice cities is a good draw for undergraduates, but most graduate students barely have time to explore their own areas of town, let alone do much traveling. </p>
<p>acryingman – No news at this point is likely bad news for Hopkins. Let Hopkins know Duke made you an offer and expects an answer; most programs are willing to let a student know if he’s either waitlisted or rejected if they know he has programs waiting on a response.</p>
<p>“No news at this point is likely bad news for Hopkins.”
Thanks for telling me this. At the moment I would rather see a bad news from JHU rather than no news. I just want a solid reason for myself to accept Duke’s offer.
And, yes, I contacted JHU to pressing them with my offer from Duke. It seems they are enjoying the weekend.</p>
<p>bonanza, thanks for your informative answer. Your analysis of the state of mind of both schools are really trenchant. The thing is, I guess the faculty at Duke who is pressing me is likely to become my future boss. I need to be careful when stalling him.</p>
<p>^^^NEWFLASH: This isn’t the Duke forum. This is a thread in a general forum. I read almost all the threads in this forum. In the meantime, it is of my opinion that the overall fame and prestige of Duke is not any better than JHU. If JHU does indeed have the better program for the OP and that is where he prefers to attend, I wouldn’t let someone else’s misconception cloud his judgment.</p>