<p>Stanford, in my opinion, is the best school in the country (yes over HYP). So, that over Duke.</p>
<p>If you’re 27 minutes away from Duke, you’re not 27 hours away from Stanford. There should be plenty of flights from Raleigh to the SF Bay Area, although maybe no nonstops. You can fly into San Francisco, Oakland, or San Jose.</p>
<p>We visited Duke and really liked it but in the last analysis liked a number of things better about Stanford, including weather and the surrounding community. And yes, the reputation, although that was pretty far down in our list of important attributes. Duke is a wonderful school, but Stanford is one of the few that has a truly international reputation, especially in engineering. Occasionally that can be a convenience.</p>
<p>Still, you can’t go wrong with either, so follow your heart.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>ring<em>of</em>fire,
I don’t think Stanford is anything less than YP. I don’t see HYP > S and I think the general concensus is more like H > YPS and then the rest…</p>
<p>HYPS all go together, none are more prestigious than the others. Harvard is only ranked higher because obviously one of them has to come first, but overall they are basically equal. Duke’s got nothing on them, except some h*rny lacrosse players.</p>
<p>…and arrogant supporters.</p>
<p>^Uhmm? Clearly people do not consider sports as merit. Either way, it is better than the college the large majority of people/CCers will end up going to.</p>
<p>^Uhmm? The reason I say Stanford, and not some other HYP, is the best university in the country is due to HYP-level education + Pac-10 Athletics. Perfect mix of academics and athletics.</p>
<p>Duke has that too. A good mix… In spite of that go Stanford… The reasons some people are spewing, though, are imbecilic at best.</p>
<p>Wow, I really can’t belief someone is trying to put Stanford down by mentioning:</p>
<p>(1) weather like San Francisco’s (I’d say that Seattle’s weather is closer to San Francisco’s than Palo Alto’s is)–and since when is San Francisco (the absolutely favorite spot with tourists in this country, along with New York and Orlando) such a bad-weather spot</p>
<p>(2) saying Stanford doesn’t measure up to HYP. Really?–then why are the top schools in terms of prestige, academics, professional programs and the like always considered to be HYPSM (with S being Stanford and M being MIT)? Since when is Duke mentioned in this group?</p>
<p>(3) comparing Stanford’s architecture to Taco Bell’s (yes, I’m sure Spanish colonial may not be to everyone’s liking, but it’s in a very updated style, much closer to Pepperdine’s look than to Taco Bell’s.)</p>
<p>(4) Arguing that Duke must be better for social life (I guess because you can go stand with a bunch of crazies who painted themselves blue out in Cameron Indoor Stadium.) </p>
<p>Personally, I’m fairly sure the local San Francisco Opera, ballet company, theatre companies, the two major league baseball teams and the major league soccer team and hockey team (currently in 1st place I might add–Go Sharks!) and the major metropolitan museums, art galleries, libraries, some of the top restaurants in the country, and the local redwood forests, nearby mountains with great ski resorts, a 3-hour drive to the Nevada casinos, Monterey and SF Bays and the boating within one hour, and the many local wineries and breweries certainly can stand up to the culture available in Raleigh-Durham, which while not bad, might lack just a few of the features available locally here in northern California.</p>
<p>Look, Duke is a good school–and their medical program is certainly top-notch, but let’s not get into an argument over a fairly clear-cut choice.</p>
<p>Alright guys, Duke has been pwned enough.</p>
<p>/thread</p>
<p>^You guys make it seem so “easy” to chose. Not everyone is a prestige whore. Just thought I would let you guys know that… Does prestige matter? Clearly, yes. To this extent, no…</p>
<p>Like many Duke supporters on CC aren’t prestige whores?</p>
<p>With Stanford, it’s not necessarily about prestige. It’s about the whole package. If this were a fight between stan and harvard and ppl pushed Harvard…then maybe the prestige thing. But overall, Stanford is just stronger than Duke.</p>
<p>It is pretty clear that HYPSM is more prestigious than HYPSM. Stupid comments like “blah blah blah… Has Duke ever been included in this group”.</p>
<p>Why do people attack Stanford because it’s prestigious? You realize that most schools that are prestigious have good reputations for REAL reasons right?!?! </p>
<p>The prestige, if anything, should add to the experience of going to Stanford. It is truly an elite school, and you should be extremely proud of going to the school if you choose it.</p>
<p>Notice I didn’t put Duke down in this post – it is an excellent school, but it just does not offer you the same opportunities as does Stanford.</p>
<p>OP:
This article in the Stanford Daily on a Princeton Review survey may assist in your decision:
Stanford is “Dream College” of prospective freshmen
[The</a> Stanford Daily - Breaking News from The Farm Since 1892](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=3368]The”>http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=3368)</p>
<p>Nobel prize winners in current staff: Stanford (16)>>>Duke (0)</p>
<p>National medal of science winners in current staff: Stanford (21)>>>Duke (0)</p>
<p>membership in national academy of science: Stanford (131)>>>Duke (18)</p>
<p>membership in national academy of engineering: Stanford (89)>>>Duke (3)</p>
<p>membership in Institute of medicine: Stanford (56)>Duke (33)</p>
<p>So it is fair to say that Stanford’s faculty is far more distinguished than Duke’s. In fact, only Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley can compete with Stanford in terms of faculty quality.</p>
<p>^^^Isn’t Peter Agre in the Chemistry department at Duke a nobel prize winner? Also, Robert Lefkowitz of the Cardiology department won the Medal of Science in 2007.</p>
<p>Anyway, despite being a graduate student at Duke, I realize that Stanford is substantially better in a variety of fields in the biomedical sciences. On the other hand, there are a number of reasons why Duke might be better for graduate school, not the least of which has to do with quality of life and institutional support for grad students.</p>
<p>Stanford is superior to Duke in virtually every field!</p>
<p>@ principalviola:</p>
<p>Yeah, about Kentucky Kommunity Kollege…that’s where I met your mother, remember?</p>