<p>Our D's friend must decide between Duke and MIT. She is planning on majoring in International Relations or pre-med. She's very interested in the arts, not a huge sports fan, is very social but not into partying. She's a very strong student, but wants a life in college. Any suggestions as to what's the best fit? Thanks.</p>
<p>In terms of "a life," what are her interests? If she's not into sports, Duke probably isn't going to offer her a lot. But in terms of major, I hear MIT is quite hard to do premed because of GPA, and I don't know how common International Relations majors are. Both schools are pretty centered on greek life I think for parties, but MIT offers other colleges in the area for interaction, plus Boston. Nevertheless, with the courseload I doubt she'll be spending a huge amount of time with either. So it depends what she values more.</p>
<p>Duke has cooler people than MIT and better weather.:)</p>
<p>I'll try to be fair&balanced:</p>
<p>Pre-med: Duke has more grade inflation, and MIT generally (from my knowledge) isn't known to be pre-med friendly. That is, it's more geared for engineers/business people. HOWEVER, interests may change so he/she may decide that she doesn't want to be pre-med anymore after visiting MIT.</p>
<p>Very interested in the Arts: Both of these schools aren't really renowned for the arts, but I'm guessing that Cambridge offers better opportunities whereas the students at Duke might be more "artistic" - just by virtue of the fact that it attracts more humanities-oriented people (a virtually baseless generalization that I'm making). </p>
<p>IR major: don't know much about this, sorry.</p>
<p>Can't really help you with the rest without making sweeping generalizations.</p>
<p>Grade inflation? are you sure?</p>
<p>Well MIT has grade deflation, and it is pretty rough. My identical twin went to MIT and I went to Duke. For Premed, I would certainly go to Duke. However, if she is interested in buisness at all, Sloan is excellent and would allow for International buisness. </p>
<p>I liked MIT's social scene, in some ways more so than Duke. Both have parties, but my brother's frat house is 5 stories, in the center of Boston, and it really means he is close with his frat brothers. </p>
<p>The schools are very different so I don't know how she can make this choice without visiting.</p>
<p>Well MIT has grade deflation, and it is pretty rough. My identical twin went to MIT and I went to Duke. For Premed, I would certainly go to Duke. However, if she is interested in buisness at all, Sloan is excellent and would allow for International buisness. </p>
<p>I liked MIT's social scene, in some ways more so than Duke. Both have parties, but my brother's frat house is 5 stories, in the center of Boston, and it really means he is close with his frat brothers. </p>
<p>The schools are very different so I don't know how she can make this choice without visiting.</p>
<p>I don't know much about Duke except that it's a great school. Here's a couple examples of what life was like when I went to MIT.</p>
<p>In biology (my major), most of the classes were AB centered with only a few people getting C's (thus, no grade deflation). I finished problem sets before dinner (I am of average intelligence). This left free time to participate in intramural sports at night. I was able to see the Boston Pops, Red Sox and Celtics and ate at great restaurants in Cambridge and Boston. The pre-med process was straightforward because MIT's required courses (for people of any major) were essentially the same as those required for pre-med.</p>
<p>My roommate who was an electrical engineer encountered classes where many people got C's or failed. He spent much more time doing problem sets (usually with a group of friends). However, he also participated in most of the activities that I did (though he did sleep a bit less). He ended up becoming an investment banker on Wall Street straight out of college. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Georgetown sounds like it would be a better fit...</p>
<p>for IR yes, but not for Premed...I think Duke wins out in probably both cases, but its really hard to turn down MIT</p>
<p>I know someone who went to G-town med school, I guess I'm not so sure about their PRE-med. But then again, IR and pre-med is a tough combination to match, no?</p>