<p>Hey, </p>
<p>I was looking at Duke's website and noticed that the Pratt had a RD acceptance rate of 27% while Trinity had something around 18%......</p>
<p>I am an American Indian girl applying to Pratt; will this boost my chances a lot (I'm sorry, I know people hate talking about this stuff, but I'm just curious) or minimally? </p>
<p>Also, why is the overall admittance rate to Pratt higher than that of Trinity? Is it because Trinity attracts so many more applicants?</p>
<p>Engineering is usually self selective—applicants know only those serious about engineering apply.</p>
<p>Girl + Native American = :)</p>
<p>You’ll probably be fine.</p>
<p>And yeah, I think the acceptance rate to Pratt is higher than that to Trinity because so many more apply to Trinity. Plus, I think adcoms are aware that they’ll lose more Pratt kids to other engineering schools than they would Trinity acceptees to other schools (after all, Duke’s engineering is good but it’s only great for BME and maybe ECE or ME - I always forget which) so they might accept slightly more people than they would for Trinity. However, don’t let that high acceptance rate fool you because the middle 50% of our SAT scores are higher than Trinity’s and Pratt overall is definitely quite hard…I’m double-majoring in Pratt and Trinity and my Trinity major is supposedly one of the harder humanities major, but it’s NOTHING compared to BME…</p>
<p>Thanks for the input…I am actually hoping to double major as well (BME and something like international business/relations)…what is your humanities major?</p>
<p>senator, could you expand on your comment about NOTHING compared to BME. I’m considering BME. it will be quite helpful if know more not only about quality but also about difficulty etc. thanks.</p>
<p>I’m also interested in Duke’s BME program; also, is it amazingly difficult to double major or is manageable? Do many people do it?</p>
<p>I’m doing Public Policy (aka PPS), which apparently a lot of engineers double major in. I know PPS compared to the engineering majors, sciences majors, Econ, etc., wouldn’t be considered very hard, but compared to the rest of the more humanities majors (English, Poli Sci, etc.), I would say it’s probably one of the harder ones. Also, PPS, Econ, and Math seem to be the most popular…Anyway,</p>
<p>itsme123, the “NOTHING compared to BME” refers mainly to the workload BME majors (single-majoring) have compared to PubPol majors (single-majoring). BME majors (and all other Pratt kids) are required to take math courses up through Ordinary&Partial Differential Equations. For most students, this is anywhere from 3-5 math classes to take at Duke, and in your first semesters at Duke (math is a prereq for upper-level BME courses, so you want to take all your maths ASAP). </p>
<p>You also have to have the sciences: 2 Physics, 2 Chem, and 2 Bio courses. If you have AP/IB, great, but you still have to take 1 Chem course, 1 Physics, and 1 Bio here. </p>
<p>Then add in the BME courses themselves, and you’re looking at having about 2 labs every semester until around junior year. You’ll most likely have at least one science course and one math course every semester until the end of sophomore year plus you’ll start taking the core BME courses 2nd semester of freshman year. That means you have one “free” course (usually used to fulfill your humanities requirements or, if you’re double-majoring, to fulfill your 2nd major’s requirements). No, a single (or double) major in engineering isn’t impossible, and if you’re smart/fast at understanding things, it’s not insanely time-consuming either. But it DOES mean you have 18-20 hours of class/week and usually 2-3 problem sets a week. And if your 4th course involves paper-writing or lots of reading, you’re looking at a lot more out-of-class work than Arts and Sciences majors.</p>
<p>In Public Policy, by contrast, you have 4 “core” Public Policy courses + Stats + Econ + History + 4 elective PPS courses and that’s your major. Yes, you have the T-Reqs to fulfill if you’re in Trinity and single-majoring in PPS, but you can get through those pretty easily (take Calc 1 and 2 for your math/quantitative science req), take intro Psych (a JOKE) for your natural science (engineers are allowed to take intro Psych, but it counts for NOTHING for us), etc. However, intro Econ is nothing to laugh at (even kids who got 5’s on the AP exam who took the class for an easy A ended up struggling), and the PPS core courses require some writing (memos) and some have problem sets, so overall the major is considered harder than most of the other humanities majors. But since my PPS courses are bringing my GPA up, I’d say I think the PPS is easier than the BME.</p>
<p>As far as double-majoring, a lot of people do it. Many also dual-major within Pratt. For example, let’s say you want to dual-major in BME and MechE. Many of the same courses are required for BME and MechE majors, so you take those. Then you take some of the most important courses in the BME and MechE majors (but not all), and you take a few of the electives also. Usually, your number of courses adds up to slightly more than either major individually, but definitely not to an insane number. If you complete each course successfully, you’ll graduate from Pratt with a BSE in BME and MechE (but only 1 degree, not 2). There’s no “double” majoring within Pratt (your 2nd major has to be in Trinity, or else you dual-major).</p>
<p>Hope this helps some. Bottom line: engineering is hard. But it isn’t impossible. It’s time-consuming, more time-consuming than pretty much any Trinity major simply because of allll the requirements. But if you’re good at managing time, you’ll be fine. If you’re not good at time-management, well, you soon will be…or you’ll just find yourself in Trinity =)</p>
<p>Umm…sorry about that ridiculously long post…</p>
<p>SenatorNoodles- apology accepted for the extremely long post; this was one of the most helpful things I’ve read on here in a LONG time.</p>
<p>I’m planning (heh) to try to do BME with a double major in Econ. I realize this sounds crazy, but if I can do it I’d be completely satisfied. However, while trying to plan out what I would actually be able to do, I could never really find a good explanation of what exactly I would have to do to pull it off. How many classes a week? How hard are they really? How many labs? etc, etc. Though you are doing PPS instead of Econ (something I was/am considering, btw), it gave me a much (MUCH) better idea of what exactly I would be up against. Now, I will still just have to see how things work out for me individually, but it is nice to have an idea. Thanks.</p>
<p>Okay, as far as planning out a specific major goes, the best option is to go to the BME Majors Handbook and look at specific pages. Since it’s the BME Majors Handbook, so it’s going to be REALLY overwhelming and you SHOULD NOT try and read it through (yet). Instead, I would recommend you go here: <a href=“http://www.bme.duke.edu/downloads/undergrad_handbook.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bme.duke.edu/downloads/undergrad_handbook.pdf</a>, then go to page 6 and just read the bolded TITLES (don’t bother with text - it will just give you a bunch of class numbers that won’t mean anything to you yet) under “Pratt School of Engineering and BME Major Requirements.” This gives you an idea of the categories of classes you’ll need (so “2 Biology Courses, 2 Chemistry courses,” etc., very general stuff which I already told you earlier). Once you have a general idea, go to page 12 and you can see when Duke recommends you take each course. Once again, DO NOT worry about the course numbers - just look at what department it is, and if the number has a little L by it (lab). This table does NOT take into account AP/IB credits, so whenever you see a class for which you have a 4/5 on the AP exam just make that a “free” space (for example, AP Physics C Mech = Physics 61; if you have AP credit, you can take some other course 2nd semester of freshman year instead). </p>
<p>The Econ requirements differ based on if you want an AB or a BS in Econ.
BS Requirements: <a href=“http://www.econ.duke.edu/ecoteach/undergrad/forms/bs_f06.pdf[/url]”>http://www.econ.duke.edu/ecoteach/undergrad/forms/bs_f06.pdf</a>
AB Requirements: <a href=“http://www.econ.duke.edu/ecoteach/undergrad/forms/ab_f06.pdf[/url]”>http://www.econ.duke.edu/ecoteach/undergrad/forms/ab_f06.pdf</a></p>
<p>The nice thing is that the math reqs and the stats reqs for Econ and engineering overlap, so the only extra courses for Econ that you need are the Econ core courses (and the history course if you’re doing the AB). You can fit those Econ classes into the spots on the BME table where it says “general elective” or wherever you have a free space due to having AP credit for that course. </p>
<p>By the way, if you have AP credit for a math course, you’ll still have to take math right away, just start at a higher level. For example, AP credit for Math 31 and 32 (AP Calc AB and BC) does not mean you don’t take math your freshman year - it means you take 103 and 107 your freshman year, 108 your soph year, and THEN you get 2 “free” spaces in which you can rearrange courses/sub in Econ. Does this help?</p>
<p>Also, don’t feel discouraged. A LOT of engineers double-major with Econ. From the Pratt website - “Among the most common non-engineering second majors are public policy studies, economics, mathematics, physics, history and religion.”</p>
<p>Surprisingly enough, i’m also looking at double majoring in BME and Economics. I was wondering, can this be done in four years? Or is it expected that this will take greater than four years?</p>
<p>Nope, it should be doable in four. Most finish in that time span. Maybe you’ll have to take a couple summer courses, but if you’re class of 2013 when you enroll, you should be able to graduate in 2013 with a double major.</p>
<p>Admission to Pratt is less capricious than admission to Trinity, but you will need higher stats on the objective measures, particularly math SAT 1 and math and science SAT 2. The vast majority of Pratt students score above Duke’s 75th percentile for math and science SAT’s. The good news is that for admission to Pratt, the personal views of the readers in the admissions office are trumped by objective standards.</p>
<p>^^^I think the conclusion is a bit of a leap. Yes, there are objective standards in math and science that must be met. But within the ranks of those individuals who meet those standards, some are offered admission and others are not. Admitted students are expected to be able to communicate effectively and bring with them something to contribute to the university in addition to their test scores. I know that, at BDD the year our son was accepted, one of the engineering deans looked at my name tag and recalled the topic of our son’s essay. So it would appear that they are paying attention.</p>
<p>how would you compare BME at Duke with at GaTech. isn’t GaTech much better engineering school?</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. BME at Duke is among the finest in the nation. It is the first accredited BME program (1972) and ranked #2 according to US News (behind only JHU). Ga Tech also has a very strong engineering school. The main reason it’s ranked much higher than Duke as a whole, though, is sheer size. When you have 14+ departments and five times as many faculty, more people know about Ga Tech’s engineering accolades/professors’ research initiatives since there is a lot more going on. If you are interested in aeronautical engineering, choose Ga Tech obviously since Duke doesn’t have it. </p>
<p>If you’re interested in any of the 4 available majors that Duke offers, though, Duke definitely matches or exceeds Ga Tech. Duke’s engineering students are more impressive as well and I’d say it’s harder to get into Pratt than Ga Tech. Not that that is everything. Both schools will provide you with a great background and research opportunities with great faculty. Ga Tech is much much larger and has more departments/history, so it might be more well known/recruited among engineering firms, but, trust me, Pratt is certainly no slouch and the quality of student is definitely strong than the average Ga Tech engineering student. BME is particular strong at Duke and all the top medical device companies recruit HEAVILY at Duke.</p>
<p>If you are considering GA Tech and Pratt, be sure to inquire about what percent of the students graduate in 4 years at each.</p>