<p>Alright so I have a blessing entrenched by a curse in its own. I'm having a tough time deciding where I actually want to go. So many people around me are saying that passing up the opportunity to go to Harvard is inconceivable and I truly agree with them. I don't, infact, agree with those that say that this decision is a "no brainer." Sure Harvard offers some opportunities that Duke probably just can't. But Duke in its self is a great university and would surely serve me well as a pre-med student. I guess my dilemma truly is, how much does going to one school over the other affect my chances of getting into top medical schools. Does going to one school over the other offer any benefits in terms of switching majors? I'm planning on doing BME or switching to neuroscience if I go to Duke, and most likely neurobiology at Harvard, or anything else that interests me.</p>
<p>Surely there’s a reason you’ve gotten no responses.</p>
<p>Well, none here.</p>
<p>Go visit and choose the one you like more.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know as much about the pre-med education specifically at either school.</p>
<p>I can explain, however, why I would choose Harvard over any other school.
I myself am pretty sure that law school is what I see happening to me after Harvard, much like you are confident that medicine is “your thing”. I do realize though that there is, say, 1% chance that my plans will change once I go to college. And that’s the cool part about Harvard - regardless of what you switch to, you will always be going to one of the best, if not the best, school in that area. It gives you a lot of freedom in that respect.</p>
<p>Take MIT. You are dead set that you will get into engineering. After your freshman year, however, you realize that politics is your major. Sure, you can take Government as a major at MIT. How much is it worth though? ;)</p>
<p>^Contrary to the misconception that people have, MIT has excellent, non science depts as well. Many science/engineering students double major in a social science field.<br>
BTW, the MIT political science dept is #9 according to US News, and if the international dept was evaluated separately it would be even higher. At a top school, any dept you choose it will still be a strong dept.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input guys!</p>
<p>Ana1, I’d still choose a degree in Engineering from Harvard over a degree in Spanish Literature from MIT. </p>
<p>The whole sounding of a degree in a humanity from MIT doesn’t click (for me at least).</p>
<p>To the OP: what are your criteria when you choose a school and what’s pushing you, on one hand, toward Duke and, on the other, toward Harvard? :)</p>
<p>Something else I can think of is that Harvard definitely is a school of infinite possibilities. True, Duke has a lot to offer, but the facts and the numbers show that Harvard is the most affluent school, so by that virtue it will surely have the most opportunities to provide you with. :)</p>
<p>Also, would you rather be in Boston, MA, or in Durham, NC? One of the factors I considered while deciding where to go was definitely location. That’s one of the (many) reasons why I chose Harvard over Cornell and Amherst.</p>
<p>I agree with your point about Harvard being able to offer better resources, however, at the end of the day its up to the student to make use of these resources either at Harvard or at Duke. I personally believe that once a university crosses a certain threshold, any differences in the opportunities it provides become marginal. Also, I would advocate spending 4 years in Durham, NC over Boston for the simple reason that most Duke/Harvard grads are probably going to spend most of their adult lives living and working in big cities. Durham gives students the opportunity to experience life in a quaint town in the south, which is something that most students will never get the opportunity to do after college. Furthermore, Duke’s beautiful and well equipped campus ensures that students never even have to set foot off campus if they don’t want to (of course this would be a mistake, Durham and Chapel Hill are filled with undiscovered gems).</p>
<p>happyman2, I agree that the difference in resources beyond a certain level is marginal. However, when choosing between Duke and Harvard, I think the whole choice hinges on such marginal factors because most differences between schools of that rank are negligible especially when it comes down to academics and opportunities. It is not like the OP is choosing between a CC and Harvard; it is more like Harvard-1 vs. Harvard-2, so, unless there is something more significant, I don’t see why the OP would not use some of these minor differences to make the choice…</p>
<p>As per the location, I disagree. Yes, I most definitely agree that we prospective college students may never have the chance to experience some location as small as a college town. However, I myself for example just cannot live in a smaller place. I have tried and having lived in a city of 2 million all my life, I do not feel well spending more than 2 weeks in a town of 50,000 people. I miss the opportunities, the crowd, the intensity…everything. So that’s a very personal criterion which cannot be generalized about in either direction. Some prefer the city with its opportunities, others the smaller village with its tranquility and assets. The OP might very well prefer the latter - I don’t know. I just pointed at a major difference between the two schools which the OP might be interested in considering… :)</p>
<p>Harvard is in a different class than Duke. While you should visit and choose, Harvard definitely has the better reputation and is in a more prestigious class.</p>
<p>That statement is simply not factually correct. Stop trolling classclown, get a more interesting life.</p>