<p>I am deciding between Cornell school of architecture and Duke pratt school. I heard that both respective schools are ranked high in their respectively. Can anyone tell me the strengths of both school with respect to the career opportunities after graduation? What should I study, which courses should I take, and what do I do after graduation? It would be best if one has concrete information, not "whatever suits you" answers.</p>
<p>Well...here's the problem...when deciding among (or in your case, between) great programs, a lot of it boils down to "whatever suits you." For Pratt, we have strong placement statistics in a wide variety of fields from our engineering school - folks can pursue careers in anything from actual engineering to iBanking to anything else. We have an architecture certificate program that requires two architecture courses, an art history course (architecture themed) and some structures courses, but we do not have a degree in architecture the way some schools do. On the other hand, we have had graduates go on to become architects by taking the certificate program and obtaining internships with architecture firms.</p>
<p>DukeEngr93, I take it you are a Duke alumnus? How strong is the Pratt School compared to other engineering schools like MIT, Princeton, GA Tech, ect. Is a Pratt graduate likely to get as many employment opportunities/offers? I'm wondering if at this caliber of schools (Duke, Harvard, Penn, etc.) the particular school within the university matters.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's really important. The value of your school as deemed by the employers in your profession. In addition, some of the specific schools in university benefit too much from the prestige of the university itself. I.E.: Fu Foundation at Columbia.</p>
<p>I've heard that Duke's BME program is 3rd, behind Johns Hopkins and Harvard's. Obviously, it is a very good program, but I have no idea on the availability of job offers after graduation, the starting salary, and the intensity of the job itself. My uncle, who is a doctor, recommended me to take primarily medical and biology courses so I could directly test for medical school after graduation form BME. However, in that case, I would just go for a 7 year med program at my state university that's paying me to go.</p>
<p>Frisbee - please keep in mind I am <em>hugely</em> biased - I received my BSE and Ph.D. from Duke, and teach here now. My take on this is that our students get what they are looking for, which is generally a strong engineering education with a proven track record of placement success, all in the context of an awesome liberal arts university. I would say that our graduates go into a broader array of careers than our counterparts that involve the word "Tech," and for potential students, it is really important to look at that distinction. Note that I am not using that as a ranking one way or another - as an example, Georgia Tech is a totally kick-butt place with tremendous facilities and their graduates get great jobs. I would just say that we have a higher proportion of graduates that go into non-traditional vocations (for engineers) such as iBanking and consulting, the MBA world, pre-med (especially the BME folks, who have posted simply stunning placement numbers), and law school. There are just so many factors to consider - I would say the best thing is to visit the schools if you can, talk to students at the school (and not the ones that are placed in front of you to talk with, really, but if you can just go up to Jane or John Undergraduate and have a conversation) and feel it out. The really good news in all this? If the conversation centers on places like Duke, Harvard, Georgia Tech, Penn, Princeton, Cornell, MIT, UNC, NCSU, etc., then you can hardly go wrong, you are just heading for some personal version of right.</p>
<p>Now on to tooting our horn mode (hey, at least I warned you) - we've opened up a 250000+ sqft facility (Fitzpatrick Center) that brings together fields such as genomics, biologically inspired materials, photonics, nanotechnology, n-dimensional visualization, environmental science, and many more. We have strong programs meant to have Pratt students really create their own education with things like the Pratt Fellows research and internship program, various independent study opportunities, and the Delta Smart House that we're building. The natural sciences component of Trinity College is building a fantastic new facility for the sciences that c/o 2010 folk will get to enjoy. And, to top it all off, we are getting a new food vendor for the first-year campus, so even <em>that</em> will rock :)</p>
<p>Wow, that you so much for that detailed response DukeEgr. I'm going to Duke.</p>
<p>Thanks, dukeEgr. :-)</p>