<p>I need a little help. I know Duke is ranked a bit higher than WashU, but still I need to make this decision. These are my top two choices! I want to do a pre-med program and I knwo that both have great ones. Any input about these institutions would help me out. Thanks</p>
<p>washu has the better pre-med program.</p>
<p>Thats total BS. There are no "pre-med" programs, outside of a little advising that doesnt matter that much. WUSTL's MED SCHOOL is higher ranked, but only slightly, and its completely irrelevant to undergrad.</p>
<p>Duke has a much better overall reputation, and this usually translates into grad school acceptances. I know many many more Duke people at my top grad school than WUSTL (granted its business school), but I would expect the same at most top med schools, perhaps with the exception of WUSTL's.</p>
<p>Slipper is right. I would go with Duke. First of all, NOBODY is 100% sure they want to go into the Medical field. In fact, over 50% of Freshmen who claim they want to go to Medical school end up chosing alternate careers. So you want to go to a school that will give you the best overall academic experience. Duke is simply better than Washington University. </p>
<p>And even for pre-med, the edge goes to Duke. Check out the links below. Those are the class profiles of the last two University of Michigan medical school entering classes. Michigan has a top 10 medical school, so it is a pretty good benchmark. </p>
<p>Duke sent 15 students to Michigan compared to fewer than 8 from Washington U. And Washington U is a Midwestern school.</p>
<p>WUSTL's ranking in the Wall Street Journal poll of top feeders to med, law, business schools was surprisingly dismal (#47). Duke was #6.</p>
<p>And as much as people diss those rankings, they are valid enough so that a difference that big is real.</p>
<p>Can anyone post a link to those rankings? That would be interesting to read.</p>
<p>I guess what i really need to condsider is this: I got an excellent financial aid package from WashU and i may get only an okay one from duke. Is duke worth paying 10,000more dollars a year, or taking out more loans. That is the big question. I know duke is the "better" university, but i want to know if it is THAT much better.</p>
<p>I have the rankings, but no link. WSJ ranked schools according to the percentage of each school's students who went on to "top 5" med, law, business schools. I don't remember their exact choices for the "top 5" 'cept that Duke Med wasn't included (if it was Duke would have likely ranked #4 or #5). Anyway, here goes:</p>
<p>1 Harvard
2 Yale
3 Princeton
4 Stanford
5 Williams
6 Duke
7 Dartmouth
8 MIT
8 Amherst
10 Swarthmore
11 Columbia
12 Brown
13 Pomona
14 Chicago
15 Wellesley
16 Penn
17 Georgetown
18 Haverford
19 Bowdoin
20 Rice
21 Northwestern
22 Claremont McKenna
23 Middlebury
24 Johns Hopkins
25 Cornell
26 Bryn Mawr
27 Wesleyan
28 CalTech
29 Morehouse
30 Michigan
31 New College of Florida
32 Vassar
33 UVA
34 USMA
35 Notre Dame
36 Emory
37 USNA
38 Macalester
39 Brandeis
40 Bates
41 Berkeley
42 Barnard
43 Trinity
44 Grinnell
45 Tufts
46 Colby
47 WUSTL
48 Washington & Lee
49 Case Western
50 Reed</p>
<p>mjs4n6, if you can save $40,000 by going to Wash. U. and money is an issue, then it does make a difference. At that point, you have to think about what you want. If Wash U had given you more, I would have said go to Wash U for sure, but $10,000 is not going to make you or break you.</p>
<p>academics aside have you visited either and which is simply a better fit?</p>
<p>I got my financial aid package today from Duke and it was horrible. I got 4,800 in aid. I cannot afford that and no college is worth that much in loans. It is sad, but Duke was my first choice college. Ah well, WashU is great too. And I have not visited wash u yet, I will in a couple weeks or so.</p>
<p>If the aid you got from WashU is need-based and not merit-based, you might want to try appealing to Duke.</p>