Hello everyone 
This is my first post in the forum. Hope I am posting it in the right section!
I am an international graduate student from India (Fall 2015). I have been accepted by both Duke and Northwestern university for their Masters in Engineering Management program. I was hoping for some feedback about these two universities to make a decision.
Honestly, I like both schools’ course work. There is nothing wrong or lacking I find in one when compared to other. Both offer the same amount of flexibility to tailor the courses, both cost the same in terms of tuitions, both are big names. There are couple of things that make me inclined towards Northwestern over Duke
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The biggest factor is the minimum 3 yrs work experience mandate at Northwestern. A little bit of digging around revealed the average class-room experience is around 8 years. I have around 3 years of work experience and I feel I would gain more by sitting in this class. Duke’s program is typically geared for people with 5 or less years of experience and has a mix of fresh under-grads and experienced folks. At Duke, I would almost be at the upper age range of the class. I am afraid I might miss out on the perspective and thought process brought in by more experienced candidates.
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Duke’s class size each year is around 160 as compared to Northwestern’s 30-50( I do not have concrete data on this. Correct me on the numbers). The small class size fosters easier networking I opine. Also, Duke has an huge number of international intake for MEM (almost about 40-50%) whereas Northwestern’s international intake is around 30%. I am not sure whether the % of international students would become a pro or a con
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Chicago vs Durham. I feel Chicago would provide more career opportunities than Durham. The only down-side I see about Chicago is the prohibitively high living expense.
I am inclined towards operational research-supply chain concentration or financial or entrepreneurship concentration as my specialization.
A brief profile of mine:
I am an mechanical engineer with 3 years of experience in locomotive harness development.
With these points in mind, I request your feedback/suggestions. Thanks in anticipation