<p>I'm a Cali resident accepted at both, which are my top two choices as of now. I have an interest in business, maybe finance and i-banking in particular but im really not completely sure. Any help in chosing between these two great schools would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Berkeley:
highly ranked undergrad business school, duke doesn't have one (any comments on econ undergrad vs business undergrad?)
better area for job seeking and such right next to silicon valley and san francisco, I've heard of Duke's research triangle but it just doesn't compare
economics is ranked higher than duke
many programs in top 10, which is appealing since I might change my mind in college</p>
<p>Duke:
higher prestige and rankings (both are debateable)
more personal attention from professors which i'm assuming equals better networking, alumni network, and internship and job placement
anecdotally and without evidence or numbers, I've heard many people say that duke is great for recruiting in business, finance and such fields, on on par or slightly inferior to dartmouth, HYP, chicago, and such (if anyone has hard numbers for duke recruiting that'd be awesome)</p>
<p>Please feel free to correct or qualify anything I said or bring something new that is relevant. Thanks!</p>
<p>Berkeley is renown for its Haas School of Business, but that is NOT available for undergraduate studies. I’m not so sure whether or not Duke has a business program although I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t and I’m also not sure about how the economics compare.</p>
<p>I was accepted to both and to be honest, it wasn’t even a decision for me: Duke hands down! Every high schools gets students into Cal, the people you will find at Duke will definitely be more self-motivated and I would imagine that the learning environment is considerably better.</p>
<p>yeah… im gonna have to agree. I’m from sf-bay and got into both cal and duke, and i’d take duke hands down for all majors (except maybe engineering).</p>
<p>When I was choosing schools and got into Duke, Berkeley left my radar immediately.</p>
<p>Although Duke doesn’t have an undergraduate business school, notice that MOST of the top schools don’t (in fact, the only one that does is Penn - Wharton).</p>
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<p>Graduate departments do not correlate to undergraduate departments. Duke’s undergraduate education is top-notch across all fields. That’s a reason I chose Duke, actually, over Cal. At Cal, it can be a pain switching majors, dealing with administrative stuff, etc. Those are problems a Duke student just doesn’t encounter.</p>
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<p>Duke’s network is global. If you want a job in the SF area, going to Duke is not going to stop you. In fact, I have many friends who are graduating this year who are going to be working at consulting firms or other high-tech firms in silicon valley.</p>
Berkeley’s undergrad is top-notch across all fields as well. Berkeley’s academic programs have more breadth and depth than Duke. </p>
<p>The profs give the academic departments their renown and most all of them teach grads and undergrads.</p>
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I’ll agree that dealing with Cal’s byzantine administration can be a pain. However, since the OP is interested in Haas, the path is pretty clear and once in Haas, the environment is very different.</p>
<p>Since you’re from California (awesome state, by the way), the cost of Berkeley is going to be 30K. A year at Duke is around 50K.</p>
<p>Assuming you aren’t getting financial aid at either institution, you’ll be saving around a total of $80,000 by attending Berkeley. That’s a ****load of money.</p>
<p>Of course, if you go to Berkeley you get what you pay for. Berkeley’s probably gonna have more bureaucracy, tougher grading, and pay less attention in general to you. You have to ask if it’s worth $80,000.</p>
<p>Finally, this may not apply to you - but if you’re Asian (especially from the Bay) Berkeley might feel more comfortable. I know several people who went to fairly white schools, and they said it felt kind of weird being so obviously in the minority. It’s probably good for them (since those places are more representative of America), but keep that in mind.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to hijack the thread but what about Duke vs Berkeley for Comp Sci? I got into both Pratt and Cal engineering and I’m kind of stuck.</p>
<p>My main worry is that if I go to Duke, I’ll lose all the post-graduation advantages of going to school in the Bay.</p>
<p>Also, I’m from NC, so the cost of both is about equal.</p>
<p>If Duke is the same price as Cal, Duke all the way. Duke is not a regional school - you’ll get to work/go to school wherever you want after. I have friends here going to MIT or Stanford for their masters (schools that are not in NC, obviously). Also,</p>
<p>Academically, I think the difference between berkeley and Duke doesn’t really matter all that much. Both are strong schools. However, the two are completely different in other respects. Duke has 6500 undergrads and berkeley has 25500. The student experience will likely differ drastically.</p>
<p>@ eatsalot
yeah i agree duke is global, which i think it trumps haas in that respect, according to businessweek 96% of haas grads (by choice or habit) stay in the west, dont know the same figures for duke though
do you have any statistics or recruitment numbers for your tiers? or is it mostly general perception? I hear everywhere that duke recruiting and network is great but i cant find anything to back it up</p>
<p>@hadoren
yeah cost is somewhat of an issue, but not huge, id get zero financial at both places because my parents make over 300 k,
as to the asian issue, i actually think i’d prefer a school thats not overwhelmingly asian, i grew up in a predominately white area so i actually think i socialize better with whites and would find an overwhelmingly asian school kinda weird</p>
<p>They’re very different schools as institutions, in terms of their culture, and so on. In terms of faculty, Berkeley is the best public university on the face of the earth — certainly in the United States. They’re under a lot of pressure financially these days, but still: it’s not just some state university. </p>
<p>Duke is a very good, wealthy, private school, with all of the benefits to undergraduates (in terms of class size, resources, and so on) that come with that.</p>
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<p>The closest you can do at Duke as an undergrad is the Markets and Management Certificate program, which is a concentration (not a major or a minor) that many undergrads take. (It’s by far the largest certificate program on campus.) See [Markets</a> & Management Studies](<a href=“http://www.markets.duke.edu/]Markets”>http://www.markets.duke.edu/) for more details.</p>
When you apply to Berkeley as a freshman, you can apply as a pre-business major. Haas business school is a two-year upper division program in which you’ll apply during your sophomore year for admission your junior year. Haas has about a 50% acceptance rate among enrolled Berkeley students.</p>
<p>If a career in Investment Banking is your main motivation, then Haas is slightly superior to Duke. Don’t believe that it’s otherwise. Almost all the top banks (even those whose headquarters are in NY) recruit talents at Haas. There are data that would support this claim. And, Haas grads make more than Duke Graduates do.</p>
<p>i’m an international student who wants to go into molec biology/genetics as an undergrad. i am choosing between duke and berkeley also. i think i am leaning more towards duke because of the student-teacher interaction, and the quality of education i would get there. would definitely consider somewhere like berkeley seriously for post-grad though. what do you think?</p>