<p>I've only visited Penn for about an hour, and didn't get the chance to visit Duke.</p>
<p>Here's where I stand:</p>
<p>Penn:
I am slightly worried that the Wharton courses may be too concentrated for me.
The practical business opportunities Wharton offers are unparalleled. (WLV, SBDC, VIP etc.)
Research opportunities (behavioural labs)
Wharton's prestige (and alum network). I hate to admit its a factor, but it is.
I know lots of people on the east coast, and 4 others from my school are going to Penn (3 to Wharton dual-degree programs!) and only 1 to Duke.
My family will worry about me 24/7 and will be reassured to know that a family friend is only an hour away (NYC).
Possible cut-throat atmosphere at Wharton.</p>
<p>Duke:
I'm from a London, and will probably end up working in a city when I graduate, it may be fun to take a break from the urban life (while I can).
Duke students have more school pride and seem to love their school more.
Dan Ariely is at Duke, I really like his work.
I think Duke MAY be more suited to me in terms of passion for sport.</p>
<p>PLEASE post your opinions, decision has to be made in 8 days!</p>
<p>Yes, that’s true. I want to go into business but my gut is telling me I may have a bit more fun at Duke.
Because I haven’t seen Duke, I don’t trust my gut/heart as much as I usually do.</p>
<p>Chelseaboy be very, very weary of the advice you receive from posters like noobcake. He is a Duke ■■■■■ who has previously made comments like “Duke is a community college in NC” (quoting verbatim). It is likely that he has a personal anti Duke agenda, however in this instance his advice is not too far of the mark. Wharton is a better school for business than Duke, there is no disputing that. However, Duke is one of the best schools for business in its own right, and personally I don’t feel that going to a marginally better school is worth sacrificing an undergraduate experience. Furthermore, if you don’t want to be pigeonholed into business, you should definitely make the decision to go to Duke (considering that Duke is easily on par with and arguably marginally better than Penn CAS). At the end of the day, if you are considering an MBA, there are few schools that place better than Duke (check out the feeder schools ranking by poets and quants). I would go with fit, specially since this is your last opportunity to experience life away from a hectic city.
On a lighter note, Duke has a proud tradition of supporting EPL football clubs, you’ll always find someone to watch a game with you I hope chelsea beat Barca on tuesday.</p>
<p>lol, I’m not a “Duke ■■■■■.” I’m actually a Duke senior.</p>
<p>I think I got tired of people bashing Duke few years ago, and meant to make that comment sarcastically.</p>
<p>I love my Duke education (which is about to end in less than two weeks). However, we must realize that we are here on CC not to advertise for our alma mater, but rather guide high school students into the most expedient path, so that they may one day realize their professional goals. A lot of students who turn to CC lack the necessary guidance from their school or parents to make a decision. That is where CC posters come in.</p>
<p>edit: Do you know how ridiculous you sound when you tell a kid trying to go into finance/business to choose Duke (probably econ with finance minor) over Wharton?</p>
<p>Wharton is more heavily recruited than Duke but both are targeted enough where an ambitious and resourceful student will be able to land an elite banking or consulting offer from both schools provided he/she puts in the effort. Moving away from consulting/finance, there are a lot more factors to consider when one is deciding to where to spend 4 of the most memorable years of life.</p>
<p>If Duke is truly the better personal fit, I think it is the right choice here. I strongly believe Duke is a little more undergraduate focused than Penn with unique programs like FOCUS and DukeEngage; obviously the athletic tradition, school spirit, and weather can’t be beat.</p>
<p>If there was one undergraduate business school I would even bother to attend, it would be Wharton; at least you still get a taste of liberal arts education there. That said, I can’t think of a more well-rounded place to get a college education than Duke.:)</p>
<p>haha sorry about the misunderstanding. No hard feelings? I dont think that advocating for Duke over wharton is ridiculous at all. If it was such an open and shut case why would the OP be posting a question in the 1st place. OP I can assure you that 3.8 from Duke will open the same doors as a 3.8 from wharton. The important thing is that you’ll have a better experience attaining that GPA at duke as you yourself admitted that you prefer the social aspect of duke to that of wharton</p>
<p>I know a lot of student going into finance, but if you look at the statistics objectively, Wharton is right at the top with Harvard for wall street. Not comparable at all, one “tier” above at least.</p>
<p>I guarantee you that if this thread gets posted in the general college search forum, this discussion wouldn’t be close.</p>
<p>Duke is a fantastic school, but if a student is coming all the way to America for college for business/finance, there is really no reason for him to not go to Wharton (Espicially when he has not even visited Duke ffs!).</p>
<p>Yes, college is a place where we stay for 4 years. Fit matters, but we all do what is best for us professionally. Why did you take that difficult class in college? Why are so many students pre-med/finance?</p>
<p>I don’t have a horse in this race, but I have to agree with noobcake here. People are underselling Wharton on this thread. In terms of strength of recruiting in biz/finance, Wharton is right up there with Harvard and Princeton. Duke is certainly a cut below that. </p>
<p>Again, fit matters, but Penn generally offers a lot, and most students at Duke would be perfectly happy at Penn - the atmospheres are similar in a lot of ways. </p>
<p>Given that fit probably won’t be too much of an issue, Wharton is the clear-cut stronger school in the area of OP’s interest. For biz/finance, the only other schools in Wharton’s tier are Harvard, Princeton, etc.</p>
<p>Right but Duke is recruited extremely well so its appropriate to choose it if it is indeed a better personal fit than Wharton and Penn. People shouldn’t just choose colleges based on the availability or lack thereof of certain postgraduate options, especially when 18 year olds change their minds about careers like leaves change color in the Fall.</p>
<p>I strongly feel that Duke is a bit more undergraduate focused than Penn and has unparalleled school spirit. You can go into investment banking from a dozen schools but there’s only one places where you can go to basketball games at Cameron Indoor.;)</p>
<p>Chelseaboy, you are going to work and live in europe. Hello, what is the only think important there? Prestige. They only see rankings and the number 1 undergrad in business is UPenn, alma mater of Donald Trump. And an ivy.How many people know Duke globally? If you were going to be in the USA I would say look for best fit. People here choose Williams over HYPS, a virtual unknown school outside the US border. Since you are going to live in countries with strong identity of social class status, forget the basketball and think of the cache that the Wharton name will give you. That’s priceless.</p>
<p>Sorry, Ana1. I’m not sure where your information is from, but you’re incorrect.</p>
<p>Here is the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings for 2009</p>
<p>2009 rankings
01 Harvard University United States
02 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
03 Yale University United States
04 University College London United Kingdom
05 Imperial College London United Kingdom
05 University of Oxford United Kingdom
07 University of Chicago United States
08 Princeton University United States
09 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
10 California Institute of Technology United States
11 Columbia University United States
12 University of Pennsylvania United States
13 Johns Hopkins University United States
14 Duke University United States
15 Cornell University United States
16 Stanford University United States
17 Australian National University Australia
18 McGill University Canada
19 University of Michigan United States
20 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom </p>
<p>Duke is well-known globally, very similar in the ranking to Penn. Duke doesn’t have an undergraduate business school, so you can’t compare it directly to Penn in that sense.</p>
<p>Personally, if I were a Penn grad, I’d try to downplay the association with Donald Trump.</p>
<p>I’m saying the schools aren’t different enough to make fit that big of an issue. Besides the basketball, Duke and Penn actually have really comparable atmospheres. This isn’t like deciding between Williams and Columbia. </p>
<p>As both schools are quite similar fit-wise, the biggest question is, which is the better school for OP’s goals? The answer, in this case, is clearly Wharton. Wharton has the stronger network, bigger global reputation, etc.</p>
<p>Hey my school (UChicago) is ranked #7 on this list, but I have no problem admitting that schools ranked well below it (like Stanford) and also just behind it (Princeton, MIT) have MUCH bigger global reputations. That’s not to say UChicago is a lightweight internationally - it’s certainly respected, but this list is questionable from a global reputation point of view.</p>
<p>The ranking measures research, and isn’t as much about strength of global brand. If that was the case, I’m sure Wharton specifically would be high, and schools like UChicago, Duke, etc. would be a bit lower.</p>
<p>Based on what - your opinion? At least I’m presenting data.</p>
<p>My point is - to claim Duke and Penn are in different spheres in terms of global reputation is just wrong. To argue that #16 is, in reality, “better” than #7, is an exercise in futility. The two are mentioned in the same cohort, globally speaking. </p>
<p>We’re discussing a necessarily subjective metric, and the ranking you provide (essentially, research output) does nothing to assess global strength of brand.</p>
<p>The data I’d present is what appears to be Wharton’s sterling job placement data in the areas of interest to the OP:</p>
<p>The Wharton statistics are absolutely superb, and while Duke has great placement, I doubt Duke can match Wharton in that regard. Duke’s stats, however, aren’t as comprehensive or publicly available. </p>
<p>To me, the actual placement of grads matters much more for this thread than a given school’s research production on the international stage, where both Duke and Penn are good but not in the very top rung.</p>
<p>Fair enough. Let’s look at the ranking published by the NY Times that surveyed CEOs and top executives of some of the most successful companies in the world and the top universities according to them:</p>
<p>However, I realize this is Penn in its entirety and not just Wharton. I just point this out to suggest that Duke does very well in business/finance placement and not just research output rankings.</p>
<p>Wharton as a subset of Penn does amazing with its placement, though. I’d definitely say if you’re 100% committed to business/finance/consulting/etc. then Wharton is the default choice unless there are other “fit” aspects of Duke that appeal to you, then I wouldn’t hesitate to choose Duke since Duke will also provide ample opportunities. On a per capita basis for placement into top business jobs, Duke can’t compare to Wharton, but that is also largely because most Duke students aren’t interested in those types of jobs. I only know a few people who attended Wharton and they all hated it, but all got great jobs, ha! (Certainly, not a scientific study and this isn’t meant to suggest everybody dislikes Wharton who attends, simply an anecdote). </p>
<p>If you think you’ll be much happier at Duke, you’ll still have plenty of opportunities and I don’t think choosing Duke is ridiculous. If you are more or less indifferent and don’t have a stronger affinity to one or the other, Wharton has more top firm recruiting on a per capita basis and job placement is second to none there. Clearly, Wharton’s reputation is amazing. Good luck.</p>
<p>In the business world, Wharton trumps Duke in terms of reputation, hands down. Wharton trumps almost every institution in this regard. The New York Times poll that you refer to is extremely flawed in terms of the nature of the questions posed to executives about the “best schools.” Whether you will be more happy at Wharton than Duke is a different question. With regards to bluedog’s few friends who “hated” Wharton, I can tell you that I have known many people at Penn and Wharton who absolutely loved their time there.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I was rejected by Princeton and Yale, and I know far more qualified applicants who were rejected from both Duke and Wharton.</p>
<p>I do want to study business, that’s why it made sense to apply to Wharton, but at Wharton, I could only take up to 43% of my classes outside of the business school. This might be too low for me, but I would consider pursuing a double degree in that case.</p>
<p>“personally I don’t feel that going to a marginally better school is worth sacrificing an undergraduate experience”. I dislike the idea of doing something because it will help you, not because you enjoy it, so in that respect I agree with you. But on the other hand many people who I’ve spoken to would disagree with you (my father included).</p>
<p>I haven’t actually considered an MBA. I am under the impression that when I finish University, I will feel too indebted to my parents already to ask them to pay more tuition fees.</p>
<p>@goldenboy8784 I’ve heard focus really isn’t worth it, duke engage and all those other factors are obviously appealing.
And my choice is not “based on the availability or lack thereof of certain postgraduate options”, but it is a factor.</p>
<p>@noobcake, I have spoken to several Duke students who have really sold their school very well. I haven’t had quite the same from Penn students. My mother also seems to think that Duke would be a better fit for me, I have no idea why though and she cannot justify that thought. Neither of us have visited though!</p>
<p>@Ana1 I’m very open-minded as to where I will work in the future, I am really interested in Japanese culture (and will learn the language at University) so I haven’t ruled out moving there. I guess it depends on where I’m offered a job.
Also, you underestimate Duke’s global reputation. It may not be comparable to that of Wharton’s, but people certainly know of it.</p>
<p>Well if we have to do it by data, is there a reason not to use this year’s info from times that is available, instead of going all the way to 2009? Duke has dropped to #24 in overall, and #33 in international reputation. We can also go to the Shanghai rankings that are considered the most reputable as they do not use as indicators fluff subjects like number of minority professors and students (that are used by times in order to improve the position on the list of UK schools). Penn #14, Duke #35.</p>
<p>@chelseaboy, your father has experience that’s why he is advising you in that manner. Wharton and Penn have an old money prestige overseas that Duke just does not have. Being in Japan does not change what I said for Europe, to the contrary, prestige has even more weight, otherwise Japanese companies would not spend so much money in programs in the ivies so they can use the name-relationship in the annual company reports and brochures. If you graduate from a top school, you can work for a few years and make the money yourself to return and pay for an MBA.</p>
I hope chelsea beat Barca on tuesday.</p>