<p>My son is waitlisted at Duke; accepted at U Michigan. His interest is mechanical engineering, as well as a fantastic all-around college experience. Any comments comparing the two schools in terms of both engineering and non-academic things would be gratefully welcome.</p>
<p>Mu daughter got into U of M (BME) and Duke Trinity. She is very much interested in Duke BME. Having lived in Ann Arbor (2 miles away from U of M) for 12 years and having done 3 summers of research in U of M, she would like to try other best schools.</p>
<p>I do not know much about Duke, but no doubt, U of M is one of the best engg school, esp when it comes to mech engg… ( I myself is a mech engg graduate from India). This is a small city, a quiet place unlike cities like Boston (Harvard, MIT, BU) but great place to live. U of M has great music school, if somebody wants to do a minor in music. They have wonderful research opportunities and it has a great medical school too. One disdvantage is, the school is huge, with too many people and kind of party school. And the state MI is not doing well, especially with possible auto sector bankruptacies… As long as u do not think about settling in MI, it should be OK.</p>
<p>Just because she wants to try something different and better (in BME), she is considering Duke, otherwise, U of M is great too…</p>
<p>As a Duke student, duke’s general college experience is definitely among the best and elite of the country. It has great academics, athletics, social scene, and beautiful campus. There’s something for everyone here, and you can really choose how you get involved with student life and organizations. Duke’s ME program is pretty darn good, but UM is probably better. BME is by far the most popular and strongest engineering program we have here due to the existence of the med school, which makes the natural sciences very strong. </p>
<p>The only real weakness duke has in its general college experience is the city of Durham. It’s definitely not very safe and the school-city relations are tenuous at best. There’s not much to do off campus unless you go to Chapel Hill, which is a better college town.</p>