<p>Sentiment, I think UCB was referring to the following statement you made earlier"</p>
<p>“I’d be reluctant to even call Berkeley a “peer” university to any college over USNWR rank 14.”</p>
<p>Cal’s peer assessment score is slightly higher than Duke’s.</p>
<p>^^^Oh, that makes sense…</p>
<p>Berkeley performs well in terms of faculty review but it doesn’t perform nearly as well in terms of prospective student review, however. -.-</p>
<p>Prospective students, as well as current students, are not qualified to pass judgement. They may rate their experience, but that should never be used as a measure of institutional quality, especially when the university reminds students that those ratings will be factored into rankings!</p>
<p>Cal PA 4.7
Duke PA 4.4</p>
<p>Cal has NO weaknesses academically.</p>
<p>“Cal has NO weaknesses academically.”</p>
<p>Neither does Duke. But what sets Cal apart from all other schools save Stanford and Harvard, is that it is ridiculously good in every single field of study. </p>
<p>But back to the OP’s question, assuming cost of attendance is the same at both schools, I would recommend Duke over USC (even for Engineering now that I think of it).</p>
<p>UCB is hardly a random poster.</p>
<p>As a UNC grad, and a Trojan parent, I would certainly recommend USC over Dook. In reality it depends on lots of things. Duke is rated higher, but there are lots of attractive things about SC. Your choice; can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>“This said, I am not sure I would recommend either school for Engineering majors. For students serious about Engineering but who still wish to attend a top university, I would recommend schools like Cal, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Rice and Stanford.”</p>
<p>What about Ga Tech? I’m always curious as to why Ga Tech gets left out so many times when there is a discussion about Engineering schools, when it is consistently ranked as one of the top Engineering schools in the country and around the world…</p>
<p>
The problem is that assessment from “peer” faculty is clouded by graduate education and research output (wholly unrelated to education). They’re not as directly concerned by the quality of education or the success of students.</p>
<p>Opinion from the general public isn’t necessarily any less valid in this case because we’re the only ones ranking what we’re concerned with, even when we’re not well informed.</p>
<p>“The problem is that assessment from “peer” faculty is clouded by graduate education and research output (wholly unrelated to education). They’re not as directly concerned by the quality of education or the success of students.”</p>
<p>I am not going to argue the virtues of the PA. The pros and cons have been hashed and rehashed more times than I care to remember. Nevetheless, the PA is still a pretty accurate reflection of what academe thinks of undergraduate institutions.</p>
<p>“Opinion from the general public isn’t necessarily any less valid in this case because we’re the only ones ranking what we’re concerned with, even when we’re not well informed.”</p>
<p>sentiment, I only care for the opinion of people who make decisions. i.e., coroporate executives and graduate school adcoms. The PA is a pretty accurate gauge for what graduate school adcoms think. There is no assessment score for what coporate executives think. It would be interesting to see what an assessment of CEOs and heads of HR at Fortune 500 companies and top Consulting firms would look like. The opinion of high school and college kids really does not matter to me.</p>
<p>I’d say football. The only aspect that detracts me from USC is the stereotype of ignorant rich kids. But overall, I think USC is a great school. Duke is also great, but since I live in Cali no one talks about Duke. How is Duke in terms of job placement after college and their alumni network?</p>
<p>I totally agree with what alexandre or whatever said. So true–employers and grad school adcoms are all that matter. </p>
<p>But instead we have institutions that try to underscore their competition or pass it to their secretary. Plus high school counselors. I loved my high school counselor, but I think I can speak for most college kids when I say they don’t really aspire to be a high school counselors or really care what they perceive.</p>
<p>What kind of job placement? If you are talking about Investment Banking and Management Consulting, Duke is second only to Harvard, Princeton and Wharton and matches other super elites and major BBA programs such as Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Haas (Cal), MIT, McIntire (UVa), Northwestern, Ross (Michigan), Stanford, Stern (NYU) and Yale…to name a few. </p>
<p>If you are talking about placement in Engineering powerhouses (you indicated that you wanted to major in Engineering, so this is obviously a propos) such as Apple, Boeing, BP, Chevron, Cisco, Daimler, Exxon, Ford, GE, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Google, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Schlumberger, Shell and so on, Duke is probably not going to be that highly recruited. Schools like Cal, Cornell, Michigan, MIT and Stanford will be the primary hunting grounds, placing literally hundreds of undergrads in such companies annually.</p>
<p>In terms of alumni networks, Duke is one of few universities that is truly amazing. I would say only Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale have more powerful alumni networks and no university will have a more loyal alumni network. USC is also strong in this respect, but I think USC’s network is more localized (Southern California) whereas Duke’s network, although not large, is more spreadout.</p>