<p>Gave up Duke for Harvard. :)</p>
<p>incollege totally wrong. Dartmouth's advantage is its LAC like nature (benefits include no TAs, incredible study abroad, more tightknit campus (2000 less undergrads, smaller campus), richer per student, more spent on advising). Also the frat scene is far more northeastern and less intense. The outdoors at Dartmouth are beautiful and a real part of the experience (ski mountain, clean beautiful river, sledding hill, amazing ice skating pond). The Dplan allows for sophomore summer and 2/3 of the student body goes on study abroad.</p>
<p>These reasons and many more are why I would choose Dartmouth over almost any other school in the country. Dartmouth is a very unique school.</p>
<p>incollege88: you think those are negatives???</p>
<p>slipper - how many courses at Duke do you think are taught by TAs? That's a statement I've honestly not heard cast against us before... Recitation and discussion sessions, sure, but the courses themselves - including our required first-year writing course - are either faculty or subject matter experts brought in from industry or practice.</p>
<p>I would also say that Duke, too, has excellent study-abroad programs and partnerships maintained by a very experienced and active office of study abroad. "The outdoors at" Duke are also beautiful and also a real part of the experience.</p>
<p>I am in no way diminishing Dartmouth; I just don't believe this is a zero sum game where Duke needs to be diminished either.</p>
<p>Mondo..</p>
<p>"Knowing what I know about Duke though,"</p>
<p>Care to share or direct to a previous post?</p>
<p>Lol it says in his location "Duke!!" ... so i'd say its a safe bet to say that he's a student there.</p>
<p>Agree with DukeEGR.</p>
<p>(deleted...)</p>
<p>I'm an Economics and Political Science major at Duke, and I have never had a TA teach me anything...I avoid taking small classes because they are usually more writing intensive, but those are all taught by professors as well.</p>
<p>slipper, exactly the reasons why I chose Dartmouth over Duke. I think lots of kids have these two colleges to choose from, and I don't think you can go wrong either way. Though, I would have picked Duke over Berkeley and Hopkins any day. </p>
<p>Oh and if anyone wanted the "flawed" NY Times cross-admit link here it is The</a> New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices</p>
<p>thanks for posting the link. </p>
<p>I know it sounds like ******** - I'm a Dukie and I was pretty disappointed by NYtimes' numbers, but I'd be willing to bet the did a fair job. Their sample size is pretty large, after all. </p>
<p>I'm an elitist? Sorry, I went a little overboard, clearly. I'm way to into this collegeboard thing (also, clearly). But don't misconstrue that for elitism.</p>
<p>My D chose Penn over Duke.</p>
<p>"Knowing what I know about Duke though, to be honest, I would have probably picked D'mouth if I was in the same situation again.."</p>
<p>Mondo, can you explain your comment?</p>
<p>It isn't that I am dissatisfied with my experience at Duke.
It is a couple of little things though.
As Brutus once said, "It isn't that I love Caesar less, but it is that I love Rome more."
Turning down Dartmouth was a really tough decision for me, just as turning down Duke would have been. A part of me was hoping to get off Brown's wait-list (or Harvard, lol, but something told me that was unlikely) before I had to send a deposit anywhere.</p>
<p>First of all, I thought that the 'summer semester' during sophomore year at Dartmouth would be somewhat limiting and I wouldn't be able to see my high school friends at all. Two of my best friends are staying at their respective campuses over summer anyway.. so that wouldn't have mattered. I feared that I would get too homesick but now I know that wouldn't have been the case.</p>
<p>Second of all, at the time, I was interested in either getting a degree in math or chemistry. Both were subjects that I was told were stronger at Duke than Dartmouth. Now I am probably going to major in either economics or psychology.</p>
<p>Third, Duke has a larger campus. I felt that there would be more opportunities there. I didn't want a 'high-school experience' which was why I didn't apply to any LACs. There still is that superficiality about Duke's social scene. There is a clear hierarchy in the Greek system. I was afraid that Dartmouth would be too cliquish but I have found that to be true with Duke. However, this might have been true at the Dart though. It could be argued that I am actually part of a clique myself, however, one which I would consider open and friendly with everyone though. If that isn't the case with my friends, at least I know that I would never exclude anyone from anything. </p>
<p>Fourth, people at Duke seemed fairly laid-back and happy. This is true, but it goes back to the whole clique thing. I think it is more so a Southern thing than Northern thing, if you want my opinion.
I am very lucky to have found some great people over the year- nerdy, laid-back, intellectual types. I'm living with them next year and it is one of the main reasons why I feel confident that I can stick it out with Duke over the next three years. The intellectual type is actually fairly rare at Duke and not the kind of person who would usually go.
I feel confident that I would have picked Brown or Columbia over Duke, if I got in those places. Unless, I had a really crappy visit or something like that.</p>
<p>It is one of those 'grass is greener on the other side' mentalities.
Duke is an awesome school. When it comes to the top schools, I think personal preference plays a role.</p>
<p>"The intellectual type is actually fairly rare at Duke and not the kind of person who would usually go."</p>
<p>Really Mondo? Does anyone else agree with Mondo? (Who goes to Duke?)</p>
<p>This is really kindof disappointing. I like Dukies because they aren't smug. They aren't limited by intellectualism, either. They know how to have fun. </p>
<p>But I guess I just assumed that intelligence was paramount to intellectuality - if you are an academic, I would think you would enjoy exercising your intellect. This isn't the case?</p>
<p>Lemme rephrase the question: If I'm taking a Philosophy course with the average kid across the hall, would he engage in debate over Aristotle and Sophocles with me, or would he call me a tool, or something worse?</p>
<p>jct30, if by "intellectualism" you mean people going around reciting pi to the 50th digit, no you won't find any of that. if by intellectual you mean people who talk about their classes, find the concepts interesting, want to have philosophical conversations, you will find those people. but no, there isn't very much of the nerdy/geeky intellectualism. </p>
<p>as far as your philosophy course goes, i think the average kid (in my experience, maybe i've been limited, but this is what nearly everyone i've met would do for sure) would have a pretty long conversation with you provided s/he had the time...</p>
<p>EDIT: that's another thing i realize i love about duke - i'm a BME major and i've NEVER met anyone who's called me a geek/nerd/anything. never. people are like "omg, how do you handle those classes?" or "wow, i'd die with having to take 3 labs a semester," but people REALLY understand that everyone is unique and has his/her own interests and really respects that.</p>
<p>Senator Noodles! Thank you :) </p>
<p>Maybe the word "intellectualism" is too vague.</p>
<p>"EDIT: that's another thing i realize i love about duke - i'm a BME major and i've NEVER met anyone who's called me a geek/nerd/anything. never. people are like "omg, how do you handle those classes?" or "wow, i'd die with having to take 3 labs a semester," but people REALLY understand that everyone is unique and has his/her own interests and really respects that."</p>
<p>That's what I was really looking for :).</p>
<p>"The intellectual type is actually fairly rare at Duke and not the kind of person who would usually go." -Mondo</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry to quote you twice...but this is partially why I turned down Duke. That and, as referenced several times already by those who'd "turn down Duke for prestigue reasons" (rolls eyes) people are a bit too snob and superficial for me there. It's like people who go to Harvard "because it's Harvard!" There does not seem to be an inherent love of the school for any other reason than its label. I'd personally choose the U of Chicago over any other school. </p>
<p>It was hard choosing between Duke and UChi at first, but after a bit of probing and visiting, I ended up enrolling at the U of Chicago, because there I found an inherent love of the school, especially for its education and rampant intellectualism. BTW, intellectualism in its connotative sense refers to an intrinsic admiration of ideas and knowledge, I believe...there are two senses of the word that can be embodied in two different types of students: the valedictorian, and those who once intimidated the valedictorian, the latter being the sense of the word the OP was probably talking about, aka those who learned for the sake of learning and were ideationists.</p>
<p>Nathan T off of our thickenvelope forums: "When it comes right down to it though, you should take pride in the fact that many do not know your school. That defines a Chicago student: looking past superficial prestige and aiming to learn for learning's sake. When people confuse your school, you can just reassure yourself by knowing that you will be recieving arguably the best undergraduate education America has to offer."</p>
<p>I went to a kind of ghetto high school with a lot of drinking and **** going on. Duke somewhat resembles that to me, being that there is clearly present social delineations and cliques. Duke gave me a full ride (majority was need + some outside scholarship money), while UChicago gave me 4K/year. I chose UChi. Plus Chicago > Durham, obviously :D</p>
<p>As you may have hinted I came from a not-so-wealthy family. In the socioeconomic perspective, I don't consider Duke very diverse, so I figure that I'll probably have less people to relate to by going to Duke. </p>
<p>Anyways, those are my thoughts.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My D chose Penn over Duke.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>well thus far n=3, but 66% ain't bad!</p>
<p>..actually, it would be pretty much right where that NYT article said!</p>
<p>^ilovebagels, do you have like anti-Duke agenda or something? The NYT article is incredibly flawed and outdated. Duke loses cross-admits to HYPSM, ties with Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Caltech and wins over Brown, Cornell, NU, Georgetown and UChicago. There's no need to keep bringing this up.</p>
<p>bohbeep, certainly UChi is the much better choice for you. I have a great amount of respect at Chicago even though I personally prefer strong school spirit/a good social scene/a strong athletics program/pre-professional opportunities over intellectualism. Which is kind of weird for me to say now since in HS I was a definite intellectual nerd who could care less about a lot of the things that I value now. Chicago is the only school in the nation I feel that still believes that getting a well-rounded liberal arts education should be the main goal of a college education and that all career considerations are secondary. That's something extremely special in my opinion. I wish you the best of luck my friend.:)</p>