<p>“Duke>UChicago”</p>
<p>hmmm…</p>
<p>USNEWS: Chicago (5), Duke (10)
USNEWS World: Chicago (8), Duke (19)
Newsweek Higher ED World: Chicago (9), Duke (22)</p>
<p>Duke has the complete package-academics, alumni network, beautiful campus, athletics and social life. Only Stanford offers as much. UChicago has academics…</p>
<p>If you’re going to cite US News as evidence that Chicago is currently superior to Duke, then you’d also have to argue that Duke was far superior to Chicago in the 90s when Duke was consistently ranked 5-8 and Chicago was around 15 with a nearly 50% acceptance rate. The difference between 5th and 10th this year in Us News was a single point in raw score which is rounded. The difference is negligible. </p>
<p>Frankly, Duke was not cleary superior to Chicago in the 90s despite its rank and Chicago isn’t clearly superior now. By the mere fact that people on this thread have opposing views should show you that they’re peer schools. Both are great. They are very competitive so I’d apply to both and see where you get in and can compare financial aid. They have different feels so I’d choose based on fit.</p>
<p>This is the only year since 1983 when UChicago has ranked above Duke in the USNews rankings based on the quality of undergraduate programs. The difference between 5 and 10 is one point 93 to 92. Wow that is an earth shattering difference Chicago must definitely be far superior to Duke which has been ranked higher for 25 years. Also the only reason Chicago has a 25% increase in EA applications is because they are not binding and not restricted, in a year where applications to all elites are almost certain to increase students are using Chicago EA as a contingency plan just as I did when I was applying (and was admitted) Duke’s 23% increase in ED applications is far more significant, these students are committed to Duke they are not using it as a strategic back up plan. If Chicago is so amazing at the undergraduate level why does Duke have a lower admit rate, higher yield, and better cross admit data? You can rationalize the aforementioned facts in any way you want, but I suggest you accept that an undergraduate degree from Duke is just more valuable than an undergrad degree from the U of C. Accept that and move on with life. I don’t want to sound pompous or offend anyone but frankly its appalling how some members of this forum slight Duke to push their own agenda, and I think the readers deserve to hear both sides of the story. I am done with this particular thread, thank you all for engaging in what was for the most part a constructive debate (disregarding the few posts that spouted blind hatred).</p>
<p>
ZOMG! BME!!! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Oh, and par72 = hawkette</p>
<p>Obviously, that comment was made within the context of a comparison between Chicago and Duke, meaning: the only thing that Duke has that beats Chicago academically in general is a lower acceptance rate. Which is 100% true, I might add. But I appreciate your taking my comment out of context.</p>
<p>happyman: Actually, Chicago was also ranked higher than Duke two years ago, and has been above or tied with Duke for the last 4 years. And yes, Duke was a better undergraduate institution than Chicago in the 90s (although it has nothing to do with US News rank), which is why Chicago students are so happy that it’s finally picking up. Chicago has a higher RD yield than Duke, and as of last year, they had a higher overall yield than Duke as well.</p>
<p>I stand by my statement. Chicago is better than Duke as an undergraduate institution, and this difference will become even clearer in the future.</p>
<p>Woah! LOL! How does one make claims such as “Chicago and Northwestern are more prestigious than Duke” or “Duke>Chicago>Northwestern>>>>Michigan”! </p>
<p>So many opinionated people on CC. Opinions are great, but they are not fact.</p>
<p>“Chicago and Northwestern are more prestigious than Duke”</p>
<p>Ok. They are all peers. :-)</p>
<p>phuriku, sorry my sarcasm did not come through well in that post.</p>
<p>Thank you for your civil comments bluedog, Alexandre and tk. I wish to end this silly debate but phuriku’s fallacious and downright slanderous comments regarding Chicago vs. Duke merit a reasoned response.</p>
<p>
Interestingly enough, Chicago doesn’t release a CDS report like every other elite university in the country so its transparency with regards to admissions statistics is dubious at best.</p>
<p>Lets just compare the admissions statistics for the Class of 2015:</p>
<p>Duke
ACT Composite: 31-34 (Middle 50%)
SAT CR: 680-780 (Middle 50%)
SAT Math: 690-790 (Middle 50%)</p>
<p>Chicago
ACT Composite: 30-34 (Middle 50%)
SAT Composite: 1400-1530 (Middle 50%)</p>
<p>Duke’s engineering statistics are even higher and Chicago doesn’t have an equivalent program. Duke has the slightly stronger student body as a whole. I don’t know how this is debatable.</p>
<p>
No it doesn’t. It only has a high total because Chicago and Northwestern, unlike their other private peers, give any student who reports to NMSC that Chicago is their “1st choice school” a a National Merit Scholar designation.</p>
<p><a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml</a>
National Merit Finalists are granted awards from one of three sources: the National Merit Corporation, a sponsoring corporation, or from the University of Chicago. If you are a finalist in this competition, simply report to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that the University of Chicago is your first-choice school. If your award is sponsored by the University of Chicago, it will be in the amount of $1,000 (for students with no financial need) or $2,000 (for students with financial need) and is renewable for four years.</p>
<p>All of Duke’s 101 National Merit Scholars actually won the honor through NMSC which is the actual definition of a “winner”. It’s much easier to become a National Merit Finalist than to actually win the whole thing. I’m not sure why Chicago sponsors this scholarship anymore at an institutional level; it just makes the school look desperate and needy.</p>
<p>For those interested, here are the top 10 undergraduate destinations for the bona fide winners of the National Merit Scholarship:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a></p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard: 261</li>
<li>Yale: 224</li>
<li>Princeton: 192</li>
<li>Stanford: 142</li>
<li>MIT: 136</li>
<li>Penn: 125</li>
<li>Duke: 101</li>
<li>Dartmouth: 84</li>
<li>Berkeley: 83</li>
<li>Brown: 78</li>
</ol>
<p>I rest my case that Duke has a higher number of academic superstars than Chicago.</p>
<p>
No, its about accurate as you can be with the available data. It utilized the academically sound Elo point reporting system. Look up the methodology yourself. From personal experience, the vast majority of cross admits between these two schools pick Duke.</p>
<p>
This statement has no relevance to the subject matter at hand. Parchment’s statistical compilation isn’t an “online poll”. It has a clear methodology and set of defined variables.</p>
<p>
Once again, you are wrong. Duke had a Rhodes winner last year as well in addition to 3 Marshall winners as supposed to Chicago’s 2. They are both excellent in fellowship production.</p>
<p>The Fullbright is not a measure of the strength of advising or institutional prestige. Its a low-hanging fruit in comparison to the truly renowned academic fellowships (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Churchill, Mitchell, etc.).</p>
<p>
I can’t find Chicago’s yield for this past admissions cycle but for the year before that, it was 39%. Duke’s yield was 44.3% this year following the summer melt which was 2% higher than in 2010. There’s no way Chicago’s yield in 2011 was within 3% of Duke’s figure let alone above it. You are outright lying at this point to promote your agenda.</p>
<p>Source: [Admissions</a> yield steady as application numbers skyrocket | The Chronicle](<a href=“http://dukechronicle.com/article/admissions-yield-steady-application-numbers-skyrocket]Admissions”>Admissions yield steady as application numbers skyrocket - The Chronicle)</p>
<p>Please provide documentation of Chicago’s 2011 yield figure.</p>
<p>
No it didn’t, stop lying. Duke does lose students to other schools but Chicago isn’t one of them. Chicago is at where Duke was 5-6 years ago-an Ivy League reject school, no more no less. Only now is Duke splitting admits between Dartmouth and Penn and soundly crushing Cornell. High school students still prefer Cornell to Chicago. This is a fact.</p>
<p>
WSJ Feeder Ranking
<a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a>
Duke: #6
Chicago: #14</p>
<p>This is with the inclusion of Chicago Booth and Chicago Law. None of Duke’s or Stanford’s professional programs were surveyed. How sad for U of Chicago.</p>
<p>College Degree Return on Investment
[What’s</a> Your College Degree Worth? - Businessweek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_collegeROI_0621.html)
Duke: #11
Chicago: #35</p>
<p>Duke grads are better compensated than Chicago grads as well.</p>
<p>Average GMAT score by Undergraduate Institution
Duke: 720.2
Chicago: 712.9</p>
<p>Duke grads do better than Chicago grads on the GMAT.</p>
<p>I can keep piling on the statistics if you wish.;)</p>
<p>goldenboy8784
so you like duke and do not like uchicago…
(I saw your post about uchicago)</p>
<p>let it go </p>
<p>both are great schools and OP needs to get into these two colleges first</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed, it’s interestingly enough that you know Duke doesn’t release CDS data either (otherwise, you wouldn’t just pull the ADMITTED numbers from Duke’s website) yet you only criticized Chicago for that. At least Chicago published numbers for the ENROLLED. People who don’t matriculate are not part of the class, hence, Duke is actually the misleading one when it calls that “Class of 2015 Profile”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, Sam, Duke does release CDS data. See this link:
ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/CDS%202009-10.pdf</p>
<p>I agree that it’s misleading to publish accepted students instead of enrolled. Here are Duke’s numbers for admitted students in Fall 2009 (i.e. this data is a bit old and I’m sure has improved this past year):</p>
<p>ACT range: 30-34
SAT CR: 660-750
SAT Math: 680-780</p>
<p>These numbers are basically the same as UChicago’s. Thus, I think it’s fair to say phuriku’s statement that “Chicago has significantly higher SAT scores than Duke and Stanford, and Chicago’s average 2400 scores are even higher than MIT’s.” is incorrect. Stanford also has similar ranges as Duke and UChicago. Frankly, at some point for these super elite schools, SAT scores are not that indicative of the quality of the institution. **Duke, Stanford, and UChicago could fill their entire class with only 1550 CR+Math students if they really wanted to. **They have enough applicants from that range. However, they choose to select students based on other attributes. Stanford and Duke also have world class athletics with something like 10% of the student body participating in varsity athletics, so that is certainly something that can compensate for perhaps weaker test scores and perhaps affect the low end of the ranges. UChicago isn’t known for its athletes. If all schools only cared about test scores, they’d all be like CalTech, but they choose not to be. (CalTech is a great school, obviously, I’m just saying what it looks for in its applicants is quite different in many circumstances than that of Duke or Stanford.)</p>
<p>Yes, OP actually needs to get into both (which is challenging) to be able to make this decision, but ultimately both schools are great and it won’t make a significant difference in the least as to your success as an individual if you choose one over the other. If you are lucky enough to have the choice between these schools, I’d visit them and see where I felt more comfortable and the potential for a more enriching experience.</p>
<p>
Academic superstars = faculty. Chicago faculty achievements > Duke faculty achievements.</p>
<p>^^^Exactly what I was thinking too UCB.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>By this “logic” - I don’t want any more comparisons of Duke to Penn, the most similar Ivy w/ regards to social scene, since Penn is “more prestigious” than Duke.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>More desperate Dukies desperate to attach Duke to schools like Stanford, I see.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even say even in athletics.</p>
<p>While Duke has a powerhouse BB program, its FB program (the sport in college) hasn’t had a winning season in ages and the breathe of sports in which Stanford is excellent is broader (which is why they continually finish 1st in the Sears Cup rankings or whatever it’s called these days).</p>
<p>Duke usually finishes in the top 10-15 in the Sears Cup. Again the Duke alumni network is fantastic similar to that of Dartmouth, ND, and Holy Cross.</p>
<p>Duke students have a 1.004% higher average GMAT score, so therefore the entire university must be superior to everything about U. of Chicago.</p>
<p>Give it a break, folks. They are in the same league. It is simply a matter of determining which one fits a particular student.</p>
<p>Last year, Duke ranked 5th in the NACDA Directors’ Cup (Sears Cup).
<a href=“LEARFIELD Directors' Cup - National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics”>LEARFIELD Directors' Cup - National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics;
Duke consistently ranks within the top 10 through 15 schools in the nation with regard to success in collegiate athletics.</p>
<p>In any regard, I find it ludicrous for k&s to bash upon Duke’s athletics by bringing the Sears Cup into account in a thread in which we’re comparing Duke to UChicago. o.o
Word of advice to k&s: next time you’re trying to make an argument, at least get say something that proves your point.</p>
<p>My cousin went to Uchicago and majored in econ. He graduated with about a 3.9 gpa and made six figure salary out of college. He is currently at Oxford university in England. I would pick chicago because of the connections he made while he was there that presented him with great opportunities. But, you can’t go wrong with duke.</p>