<p>To me, Duke, Yale, and Princeton are exactly same. They are prestigious and highly ranked in the nation. They have an excellent undergraduate program. Duke and Yale both have big campus; Princeton, however, has small campus surrounded by a safe town. Duke has FOCUS program, while Princeton has Freshman Seminars. Yale and Princeton are Ivy Leagues. Like I said earlier, they all are same. So, if you are accepted in all of them, how will you choose one of them? And why?</p>
<p>Duke isn't quite at the same level as Princeton or Yale. You can start with that. Princeton and Yale are always considered among the top 4 or 5 universities in the US, along with Harvard, Stanford and maybe MIT. If I were to compare Duke to private research universities, I would say it is more at the level of Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Penn. </p>
<p>However, Duke, like all of the other schools listed above, is definitely not a big drop from Princeton or Yale, so chosing it over them if it is the best overall fit for you would make sense. So the first thing you need to figure out is fit. Which of those rather distinct universities best suits your personality?</p>
<p>Personally, if those where my only three choices, my first choice between those three would be Princeton followed by Duke followed by Yale.</p>
<p>i would do personally</p>
<p>Yale.....Princeton.....Duke</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Duke
although i'm not applying to any of them! but i would like to go to princeton if i wasn't too lazy to apply.</li>
</ol>
<p>potty, you've already made some important observations that could help you decide. Other postsers have commented on the academic aspects of each, which is basiclaly true. Princeton is probably the best in the math/sciences stuff, while Yale is known for its humanities. Like alexandre said, it's all about fit and i would just visit.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
</ol>
<p>Yale and Duke have similar colors too.</p>
<p>Based on students, setting and social life (academics is a wash--at the undergrad level "learning" is the same): </p>
<p>1 Yale (best student body)
2 Duke (best campus, most fun)
3 Princeton (meh)</p>
<p>I'd take Duke over Princeton, but Yale is tops.</p>
<p>Some would say Princeton is the most undergraduate friendly, but I don't like the competitive eating clubs and overly-preppy student body.</p>
<p>in order of where I'd go
1. Yale
2. Princeton
3. Duke (too conservative)</p>
<p>Kcirsch, I figured someone from Texas would like the conservative-ness haha</p>
<p>In all seriousness, Duke is pretty liberal (definetely mostly left-leaning), but probably has more conservatives than its New England counterparts.</p>
<p>I'm actually a gay, moderate Democrat haha. Dallas is one of the biggest cities in the country - do you really think we're ALL conservative?</p>
<p>I have a gay friend who left Duke for Stanford because he hated how conservative Duke's students were.</p>
<ol>
<li>Duke (lots of unity/school spirit, friendly atmosphere, research triangle, WARM weather!, the conservatives would make for good debate :P)</li>
<li>Yale (meh...not too excited about this one, but i HATED Princeton when I visited)</li>
<li>Princeton (....elitist,too cold to enjoy the beautiful campus year-round, the liberal-arts style environment seems suffocating - i want attention if I seek attention from profs- not necessarily otherwise)</li>
</ol>
<p>Oh well...your friend must be really liberal because Duke's left of center...unless all the people he met were conservative.</p>
<p>There's petitions going around there right now complaining about how liberal the students are and the liberal bias in the professors.</p>
<p>Duke is full of ambivalent people. They do not know if they should act, think, or be conservative or liberals. They talk like liberals but love to retreat to the posh environment of their mansions and country clubs, which of course are not open to the kind they purport to be. </p>
<p>Duke's nickname was aptly chosen as The Plantation.</p>
<p>Do you go to Duke? I'm not sure if you got your perception of Duke from a visit or a stay there, but you must have ended up visiting an all-white frat or something. Duke's student body is getting to be more politically active - not to the extent of some other schools. THere are lots of political speakers, issues with bias, things like that. Lots of kids volunteer for political campaigns. Sure, its not super-liberal like I percieved Columbia. Its student body is probably more liberal than Dartmouth's. And there's also a bit more diversity (economically and socially) there then there was in the 1950's or whenever you seem to be thinking about. Its only 55 percent white now, and about 40 percent are on financial aid (I'm not sure what the numbers are for comparable schools like Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth etc. but I wouldn't assume they'd be too far off).</p>
<p>Politics isn't such a hot issue at Duke, but its silly to say that the student body is completely ambivalent and essentially unaware. Of course, since you completely wrote off an entire student body, I don't think its worth defending it to you.</p>
<p>"Of course, since you completely wrote off an entire student body, I don't think its worth defending it to you."</p>
<p>Did the description sounded like a "write-off" to you? And, no "its" not worth trying to defend the student body, especially since there was no attack involved.</p>
<p>Errr...the attack was calling the Duke student body "apathetic" and loving to "retreat to the posh environment of their mansions" and stuff...maybe thats how it was some time ago, but today its not like that aside from the usual WASPy kids that are present at most top schools. Maybe there's a higher proportion of wealthy kids at Duke, but I wouldn't ever say a majority, or even a significant portion of the students are. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what the right expression to describe that is, if "attack" isn't the right word.</p>
<p>"the attack was calling the Duke student body "apathetic" "</p>
<p>I used "ambivalent" in my post. May I suggest opening a dictionary to find the description of the "right" word?</p>
<p>So, I asked my kid (who happens to be a student at Duke) if all the students at Duke were "ambivalent".</p>
<p>His response: "Who Cares?''</p>
<p>:) :) :) :) :) :) :)</p>
<p>Xiggi:
Which guidebook were you quoting?</p>