Duke vs. Stanford Engineering/Social Scene

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all,
I’m trying to decide if I should apply early to Duke or Stanford. I feel like Duke as a whole is a good fit and the engineering program seems challenging but inclusive (i.e. students aren’t really competitive with each other, rather they work together all of the time). I don’t have any connections there though and my scores seem to be on the lower end for Duke ED. Stanford engineering I like too but I feel like it is more competitive and the social scene seems to be a bit divided and exclusive, more so than Duke. I have connections/legacy at Stanford but nothing at Duke. My scores are 33 ACT, 3.82 GPA (top 20-25% of class) 800’s on the Math 2 and Chem SAT2’s, 790 Physics, 770 Spanish and 5’s on the AP Physics, Chem, Spanish Language, and English Language exams. I am a white female and would consider joining a sorority but I haven’t though about that in depth yet.
My main questions are:

  1. What are my chances of getting in to Pratt ED?
  2. Can anyone clarify/correct my interpretations of the overall social scenes and the feel of the engineering departments at either school?
  3. Is partying at Stanford frequent/exclusive or are most (engineering) students studying or working instead? Is Durham a boring town or is there actually a lot to do around there?

Thanks!!!

2
  1. If anybody could predict your actual chances of getting into Duke Pratt ED, they would be charging a lot of money as independent counselors. Naturally, you have a chance, but admission is random. Both universities enroll students with similar academic credentials, so admission will likely be based on fit and demonstrated interest, although applying ED to Duke will certainly go a long way in demonstrating interest. Also, Pratt will likely have a higher admit rate for female applicants as it is purely an applied science program, while Stanford will not pay too much attention to your intended field of study, and as such, being a female applicant will probably not offer much of an advantage. In case you have not seen the data"

Stanford EA acceptance rate: 10%
Duke ED acceptance rate: 30%

Stanford RD acceptance rate: 4%
Duke RD acceptance rate: 9%

All in all, ED to Pratt seems like your safest bet, assuming you really have no preference. But in Engineering, Stanford is significantly superior to Duke, unless you are interested in BME, in which case Duke is actually superior to Stanford.

  1. How can anybody quantify the social scene at a university? Neither school is Party U, but neither is the University of Chicago/Caltech either.
  2. That really depends on the student. Some Engineers find the material so easy, they party all four years and still graduate with a great GPA. Others struggle to pass and have little to no time to party. It depends on the student and how well suited she is to deal with the workload. But I do not think Engineers at Stanford are given significantly more work than Engineers at Duke.

Finally, unless you really need a large city to have fun, Durham, and Duke’s campus, should offer you ample opportunities for fun. However, if you really insist on having a large and fun city nearby, Stanford’s proximity to San Francisco obviously has the edge.

3

There are a lot of students at Stanford. Some study, some work and some party. If you have doubts about your competitiveness for Duke, you might as well not worry about Stanford.

4

Thank you both so much! Both my dad and his parents went to Stanford and we have a couple of connections so how much do you think that would help? At this point I think I am leaning towards Duke unless the pull at Stanford has a significant effect.

5

Legacy applicants at Stanford get assigned a second read on their application. That’s all.

6

I assume you’re applying to quite a few other schools as well.

7

of course @rjkofnovi this is just for applying early–these are my two top choices. Okay thank you again @JustOneDad