<p>While Duke is a fine school, Stanford wins this competition hands down. Who would want to give up four years in paradise to be in Durham??? I don't know anyone who would unless he/she is paid off. While it might be true that some people get rejected by Duke but admitted to Stanford, that is very unlikely. Most people at Duke would prefer to be in Palo Alto. C'mon, admit it!!</p>
<p>Not really. I didn't apply to Stanford because I didn't see the point in going to the other coast when Duke was practically in my backyard. I don't plan on heading to the West coast for grad school either. I prefer cold weather. :p</p>
<p>Yeah...I go to Duke (and love it), and I never even considered applying to Stanford. Sorry, Smart Guy.</p>
<p>Gosh what a fun first post, Smart Guy!</p>
<p>1.) I vastly prefer Durham to Palo Alto. No question. And it's not because I'm Durham's biggest fan. (I grew up in the Bay Area.)</p>
<p>2.) The question from the OP refers to selectivity, which I agree Stanford wins hands down. As for the rest of SG's post, I think I'll ignore that.</p>
<p>Well after all, Duke is SLIGHTLY worse than Stanford academically...</p>
<p>about 10-20% of students who get into both Duke or Stanford come to Duke btw</p>
<p>BDM,
Why on earth would you prefer Durham to Palo Alto? Where in the Bay Area are you from??? Other than tobacco farms, what else is there to see in Durham? If I had to study in the South, Duke definitely would be my choice though.
TTP,
I don't buy that statistic. I would venture to guess more like 1-5%. Did you get this statistic from Duke?</p>
<p>Yeah, the Duke Dean of Admissions has said that statistic over and over again to the media...your guess is wrong lol</p>
<p>I mean, looking at Stanford versus Duke...it doesn't really beat Duke by much in any category (in terms of student body strength , grad placement, reputation, etc), though Stanford IS better overall its not by much (I mean, none of HYPSM are that much better than Duke and Columbia and Penn and Dartmouth - they are better though)</p>
<p>ok ok ... well here is a perfect example of "tufts"</p>
<p>one of my friends from high school was ranked #1 out of 400 or so, got a 1550 on the SAT, was on the track team, did french club, and was in the jazz band. His ECs were kind of weak... but did he deserve the array of waitlists from these schools?</p>
<p>Princeton -- waitlist
Duke -- waitlist
Williams -- waitlist
Dartmouth -- waitlist
Cornell -- waitlist</p>
<p>He is now an echols scholar at UVa, but should have been given the chance to go somewhere else. Maybe not princeton, but come on, waitlisted at cornell with those stats?</p>
<p>The catch all, I think, is that he did not visit a single one of the schools that waitlisted him -- he merely applied. He fell into the Category explained by BlueDevilMike of We want you but we think you'll go elsewhere if you get in.</p>
<p>My guess - and this is completely making stuff up - is that he fell in between Princeton/Duke - Princeton probably wasn't interested, and Duke probably thought he'd get into Princeton and so didn't admit him.</p>
<hr>
<p>I grew up in Berkeley, CA. I find Palo Alto to have some of the worse qualities of the Bay Area (but not all; it's one of my favorite places compared to the rest of the Bay Area). Things are hideously expensive. There is extreme socioeconomic segregation (which people don't talk about because... well, they never see the poor people). I find the people much less friendly and greatly more narrowminded (don't confuse cosmopolitanism with openmindedness).</p>
<p>I honestly breathe(d, I suppose) a sigh of relief every time I stepped off the plane into RDU. I may have spent 17 years in CA, but it took me all of a week to feel at home in NC. It's the people that make the place, and I'll take Durham over the San Francisco area anyday.</p>
<hr>
<p>And re: 1-5% vs. 10-20%:</p>
<p>Don't be ridiculous. If only because some kids who get into Stanford are from NC, or are offered merit scholarships at Duke, or prefer a school that doesn't have an outbreak of mono every October, trust me: 10% really isn't a very high threshold to meet.</p>
<p>see bballstr8, this is an example of what I call "doing just fine". UVA is one of the best schools in the country, and being an Echols Scholar means he is one of the best at UVA. His future is still bright.</p>
<p>And besides, I hate to say it, but the way admissions are now, simply having good grades (even a 4.0) and a 1550 on the SAT can't guarantee you ANYTHING at the "top schools." Especially if, as you even say yourself, his ECs were weak...there are a TON of "track team, french club, and jazz band" kids. What colleges are looking for are the kids who have 4.0s, 1550s on the SATs, AND have something truly special other than the ability to...study a lot. Everyone I know at Duke is here for something other than academics. Congratulations to him for being an Echols Scholar, because that is truly an accomplishment, but I can't say I'm all that surprised that he was waitlisted at the 5 schools you named. Especially Williams, a TINY school that can't really afford to give their precious few spots away to people who they don't consider "ABSOLUTELY AMAZING."</p>
<p>he was really ****ed about cornell and duke... (Duke mainly because I got in and he didnt :) )</p>
<p>well, and uva was the only safety he applied to. he got into georgetown, rice, and chicago, so he had some options... but chose echols at uva.</p>
<p>If I could do it over again I'd pick UVA (with or without Echols) over Duke in a heartbeat. So I can't feel too bad for your friend. :p</p>
<p>bandcampgirl, I soundly disagree with the content of your post. You're good bit off on just about everything you said.</p>
<p>cavalier - not sure what you find so objectionable? Grades and a high SAT can't guarantee you anything, college is looking for people with outstanding abilities other than just numbers, being an Echols scholar is "truly an accomplishment," and they saw something in the record that perhaps the other schools didn't or didn't consider, so perhaps it is not a surprise the other five schools were a waitlist. It's certainly nothing against UVA that I can read, just an assessment of, to some degree, what a crapshoot admissions has become.</p>
<p>Haha -- seriously, that really was all I was trying to say. It was nothing against UVA, which is a great school, and I was just saying that admissions is a crapshoot not just determined by numbers...which, sorry, is true. Oh well.</p>
<p>why would you pick UVA now, bananainpygamas?</p>
<p>DukeEng, Stanford and Duke, like their peers, are academic institutions. Their primary goal is to provide academic training for their students. The key indicators of academic potential are grades, test scores and relevant academic EC's and awards (USAMO, Physics Olympiad, Writing contests). Top grades and test scores don't guarantee anything at top schools, but they should put someone in a significantly better position to get in than someone with less impressive academic credentials. What exactly is so special about kids with lots of ECs? Not every high school provides debate teams and teachers who can take students to the "next level" in science fairs. And not every student without a laundry list of EC's is uninteresting. Quite the opposite, in fact - many of those people are too busy going to parties to spend their saturday nights planning DDR tournaments with the student council. I'm not a particularly "involved" person and I take it as a personal offense that you'd consider me "less interesting" than someone who compulsively joins clubs.</p>
<p>Admissions is a crapshoot and subject to the highly subjective evaluation of highly biased and "human" admissions officers. Great academic credentials don't "guarantee" admission to top schools, but they increase the probability of one being accepted to those top schools - as they should. This should make sense to you, as it is fairly logical and can be shown both empirically and anecdotally.</p>
<p>Oh, and bandcampgirl, my main problem with your post was the comment about Williams, but the whole post sounded like something from the parents' forum. Lol.</p>