is duke as legit as stanford?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Simple answer .... NO WAY!!!</p>

<p>Duke is nowhere near the caliber of Stanford. Stanford is recognized worldwide as one of the best universities on the planet. It is truly leading the way in innovative research and technology. Duke is a good school, but Stanford blows it out of the water. Stanford is on par with the top of the Ivy League while Duke's peer schools are more along the lines of Dartmouth, Wash U, Brown, etc. Just look at the decisions people are asking for input on. Many people have trouble deciding between Stanford and Princeton, Duke and Northwestern .... but almost nobody would pick Duke over Stanford. Not even close.</p>

22

<p>
[quote]
almost nobody would pick Duke over Stanford

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Unless they get Duke's merit-based scholarships. :D</p>

<p>Small difference at the ug level. But at the graduate level, Stanford is in another league.</p>

23

<p>I can think of several reasons why a student would pick Duke over Stanford, including the desire to live in the East Coast, a great Basketball program, amazing Humanities programs, a very strong connection to Wall Street, excellent life Sciences programs etc... I agree that Stanford is slightly better than Duke, but at the undergraduate level, the gap is actually rather small.</p>

24

<p>

I totally agree. I mean, just look at the THES rankings. Stanford at #6 in the world and Duke at #13 in the world? They're obviously miles apart!!!!!!</p>

<p>:rolleyes:</p>

25

<p>Duke has very strong alumni network.</p>

26

<p>Oing? You gotta be kidding me right? There is no comparison here. </p>

<p>academics: Stanford
prestige: STANFORD
grad school: no, these two cannot be mentioned in the same breath: STANFORD
resume: Stanford</p>

<p>Stanford is on HYP level. Duke is a fwine southern school, but its peers are UVA, W&L, Vandy, Davidson Emory and JHU WUStL Northwestern.etc etc. Duke is a powerhouse for sports, but academically known as Princeton-lite</p>

27

<p>How is it that you rank Duke's peer schools geographically while the peer schools you listed for Stanford is on the other coast? Duke has been ranked anywhere from #3 to a low of #8 in the past decade. I do not believe they are as far apart as you seem to believe. Duke is a fine school regardless of its position on the US map. Most people would put it in the same league as the other ivies (sans HYP). </p>

<p>And please just look at Duke's football record. That should put your statement about Duke being an athletic powerhouse to rest.</p>

28

<p>Duke is an excellent university. But you can not say it has reached Stanford's level in terms of academic reputation.
You may want to look at the following list of the top universities winning USA National medal of science and the list of the top universities with most USA national acedemy membership.</p>

<p>


 Top universities winning most USA national medal of sciences

Harvard (33 winners)
Stanford (30 winners)
Berkeley (24)
Caltech (22)
MIT (20)
Princeton (15)
Yale (8 winners)

**Duke (0 winner)**

See http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/awards/nms/recipients.cfm


The top universities with most distinguished faculty members selected into USA national academy of science

</p>

<p>The Top 4 giants are Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley. Based on the number of current faculty members in each university who have been selected to the national academies, these 4 universites dominately have the most distinguished faculty members. </p>

<p>The national academies consist of The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and Institute of Medicine (IOM).</p>

<p>The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are private, non-profit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. New members are elected by current members of each institution. </p>

<p>Election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Academy membership recognizes those who have made distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.</p>

<p>Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice," and those who have demonstrated "unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology."</p>

<p>Election to the Institute of Medicine is one of the most distinguished achievements accorded to those in fields related to medicine and health, reflecting both an honor and obligation to work on behalf of the organization, its governance, and its studies. With their election, members make a commitment to devote a significant amount of volunteer time on a broad range of activities on health policy issues.</p>

<p>The universities with most members in national academies listed below:
================================================== ===</p>

<h1>1 Harvard (271 members in total, 157 in NAS, 15 in NAE, 99 in IOM)</h1>

<p>*#2 Stanford (260 members in total, 126 in NAS, 85 in NAE, 49 in IOM) *</p>

<h1>3 MIT (236 members in total, 102 in NAS, 108 in NAE, 26 in IOM)</h1>

<h1>4 Berkeley (209 members in total, 128 in NAS, 73 in NAE, 8 in IOM)</h1>

<h1>5 University of California at San Diego</h1>

<p>(107 members in total, 66 in NAS, 16 in NAE, 25 in IOM)</p>

<h1>6 Caltech (100 members in total, 67 in NAS, 30 in NAE, 3 in IOM)</h1>

<h1>6 Yale (100 members in total, 64 in NAS, 5 in NAE, 31 in IOM)</h1>

<h1>8 Princeton( 97 members in total, 70 in NAS, 20 in NAE, 7 in IOM)</h1>

<h1>9 Columbia ( 92 members in total, 38 in NAS, 17 in NAE, 37 in IOM)</h1>

<p>Other universities :</p>

<p>Cornell ( 62 members in total, 39 in NAS, 21 in NAE, 2 in IOM)
U Penn ( 82 members in total, 35 in NAS, 8 in NAE, 39 in IOM)
U Washington ( 84 members in total, 41 in NAS, 12 in NAE, 31 in IOM)
Chicago ( 50 members in total, 40 in NAS, 1 in NAE, 9 in IOM)
Duke ( 51 members in total, 18 in NAS, 3 in NAE, 30 in IOM)</p>

<p>Brown ( 17 members in total, 10 in NAS, 4 in NAE, 3 in IOM)
Dartmouth ( 11 members in total, 2 in NAS, 3 in NAE, 6 in IOM)</p>

<p>see <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir?sid=1011&view=basic&pg=srch%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir?sid=1011&view=basic&pg=srch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

29

<p><em>yawns</em></p>

<p>As I said before, Duke is just as strong as Stanford in my areas of interest (Ecology, Marine Biology, and Classics), among others. Anyway, why don't you consider how many undergrads have won the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for science/engineering? You know, the one where Duke is #3 and Stanford is #9.</p>

30

<p>Great post datalook!</p>

<p>This only further proves the fact that Duke should not even be mentioned in a comparison with Stanford. Despite what some US News ranking may have said several years ago, look at the people who get accepted to the two schools and those who end up going. Stanford is another league. Just look at the faculties. Stanford way superior again. </p>

<p>In fact, Stanford overall has the best graduate programs in the nation. Just about everything from physics to political science to business to biology is ranked in the top two or three nationally. Duke cannot touch that, whether undergraduate or graduate.</p>

31

<p>
[quote]
The Top 4 giants are Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley.

[/quote]

I agree with datalook 200 %</p>

32

<p>I don't think Goldwater Scholarship is that important though. If you think you are smart, and you want to change the world, then you want to stick with the smartest faculty members and learn from them. Hence Stanford should be your destination, along with Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley (perhaps Caltech and Prinecton as well).</p>

33

<p>warblersrule86...</p>

<p>I am not "clinging" to the graduate rankings, as you say. To me, clinging to the rankings would mean using them literally, so as for example to say that the #4 school is necessarily better than #5 school. This I would never do.</p>

<p>However, when one school just dominates the rankings like Stanford does and the other (Duke) is not even remotely close, it is clear the one school is superior. Just look through any ranking of individual departments. Only several Duke departments are truly up there with best. Yet Stanford appears on virtually every single list, with the best department in the nation in many many fields.</p>

<p>Objectively, there is no reason to compare Duke to the likes of Stanford.</p>

34

<p>
[quote]
If you think you are smart, and you want to change the world, then you want to stick with the smartest faculty members and learn from them. Hence Stanford should be your destination, along with Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley (perhaps Caltech and Prinecton as well).

[/quote]

I disagree in the sense that plenty of other good options are out there. The Nicholas School does a superb job of placing EOS, biology, and public policy majors, as well as being a major research unit. There's a reason Duke faculty and alumni like Orrin Pilkey and Sylvia Earle are frequently cited when discussing environmental issues. Personally, I'd rather have beaches than new elements. ;)</p>

35

<p>Assuming that money and distance are not factors, I cannot think of a reason why anybody would turn down Stanford for Duke.</p>

<p>Stanford is up there with MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. A more proper comparison for Duke would be Wash U, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, etc. Just look around all of these forums at the decisions people are facing. Almost nobody would consider Duke if he/she gets accepted to one of HYPSM.</p>

36

<p>Agree with RCMan13. Stanford is in a different league.</p>

37

<p>Stanford is up there with MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. A more proper comparison for Duke would be Wash U, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, etc. Just look around all of these forums at the decisions people are facing. Almost nobody would consider Duke if he/she gets accepted to one of HYPSM</p>

<p>I think Berkeley and Caltech are also in the same league of HYPSM. Caltech students apparently are uniformly smart. For any metric, if normalized by size, Caltech is #1 or there about. Berkeley is a university excellent across virtually all fields. It is the most balanced university in US (only Stanford and Harvard are comparable in that regard). Its faculty members are as brilliant as those from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. It was the most underated and mistreated university in US NEWS college ranking by its questionable ranking methodology.</p>

38

<p>There's a reason Duke faculty and alumni like Orrin Pilkey and Sylvia Earle are frequently cited when discussing environmental issues. Personally, I'd rather have beaches than new elements</p>

<p>Isn't Stanford #1 in environmental engineering by US NEWS graduate school ranking?</p>

<ol>
<li> Stanford University (CA) 4.8 </li>
<li> University of California?Berkeley 4.5 </li>
<li> University of Illinois?Urbana-Champaign 4.5 </li>
</ol>

<p>where is Duke?</p>

39

<p>
[quote]
Isn't Stanford #1 in environmental engineering by US NEWS graduate school ranking?

[/quote]

Sewage treatment and hazmat management weren't exactly what</a> I had in mind, but yes, Stanford obviously has a good program in it.</p>

40

<p>How did Berkeley get into the equation? For undergrad, I don't think its in the same league. You can't deny Berkeley's grad school prowess but both Duke/Stanford will provide a better undergrad experience than Berkeley. </p>

<p>The point was that for the undergraduate level both Duke and Stanford provide a great education with very little difference. Grad school isn't being measured here in which case Stanford would win. Some posters, however, were making it seem as if an undergraduate education at Duke is horrendous when compared to Stanford when both are pretty much equal. </p>

<p>As for yet another ranking (I do not like rankings but just making a point) check out the feeder school ranks: <a href="http://www.collegejournal.com/special/top50feeder.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegejournal.com/special/top50feeder.pdf&lt;/a>
A 2% difference isn't that great. So yea, point is both will provide a great undergraduate education. Duke is indeed as "legit" as Stanford.</p>