<p>Is the engineering at Duke like well-known, and is it good? How does it compare with universities like uc Berkeley, ucla, purdue, Georgia tech, Virginia tech? Thanks!</p>
<p>This is probably more appropriate for the Duke board where individuals there are more well-versed in the program. In any event, it does not compare to those large public universities with huge engineering programs. It’s a very different focus and mission. It’s more like UPenn’s engineering program, for example. There are only four departments in Pratt (BME, ME, CE, ECE), while there are 12+ departments in the schools you mentioned. So, Duke is not a traditional engineering powerhouse; however, it has ramped up its efforts in recent years to try to elevate its position as a very solid engineering program.</p>
<p>US News and World Report ranked it 22nd in its latest rankings, ahead of such “terrible” programs like Columbia, Harvard, University of Southern Cal, UVa, Brown, Yale, UPenn, and ahead of a more “traditional” engineering power NC State. (I’m joking about them being terrible in case the quotes didn’t make that clear.) UCLA, by the way, was ranked 0.1 ahead and tied for 19th. Its BME department is especially notable, ranking 2nd in the nation basically every year (behind JHU). Overall ranking for engineering is typically by research output, and its hard for small programs to rank highly when they’re competing against other schools with three times the number of faculty and departments.</p>
<p>However, in the departments that Duke does have, it does attract top students and faculty, and Pratt has upgraded its facilities considerably in the past 5 years. A brand new 322,000 sq ft building and another building is in the works. It also has recently expanded the overall class size (by 50 students/class) and hired additional faculty. </p>
<p>If you look at the profile of applicants to Pratt students, you’ll see that accepted students are top notch. ACT range is 33-35, SAT Math is 750-800, SAT Verbal is 680-770, and SAT Writing is 690-780. These stats are higher than the student bodies of the universities you mentioned (perhaps not Berkeley engineering, but the rest for sure). Are these students crazy for choosing Duke over the other traditional engineering powers? No, there’s obviously something else that Pratt offers that those don’t or else nobody would choose Pratt when they obviously have the necessary stats for other more well-known engineering programs. </p>
<p>Here are some reasons people would choose an engineering program like Duke over one of the traditional powers (I chose it over Illinois and UMich, by the way, for BME though):</p>
<p>1.) Smaller classes and a smaller community - you get to know your professors and other classmates very well and the sense of community is strong. There are specific social events only for engineers, classes are relatively small, and professors are very engaging.</p>
<p>2.) Double majoring is easy - a lot of engineering programs it’s difficult to graduate in four years with a single engineering major. At Duke, people easily double major in two engineering disciplines and it’s very common to have a second major in Trinity as well.</p>
<p>3.) Undergraduate research is common - while large engineering schools obviously have great research going on and a large number of people help out, there’s a smaller number of undergraduate on a percentage basis actually able to conduct experiments for a professor. You might have to be the top 50/25% of your class, which seems like something that you will be, but *somebody *has to be in the bottom 50%. At Duke, the last figure I heard was that 90% of Pratt undergrads conduct research by the time they graduate.</p>
<p>4.) Study abroad is common - about 25% of Pratt students study abroad. Many engineering programs are very stingy about this, but not Pratt. You can easily study abroad and have the credits transfer and still graduate in four years.</p>
<p>5.) You don’t need to decide you major immediately - the first year curriculum is broad and exposes you to a wide variety of disciplines. You can dabble in different fields and then settle on you major sophomore year. You don’t need to declare until the end of your sophomore year. Some schools you are immediately enrolled in the major/you apply to a department as a high school senior. If you’re unsure, a school like Duke might be a good choice.</p>
<p>6.) You’re interested in eventually going into finance / consulting. 40% of Pratt grads go into Engineering/Technical Research & Development, which is the largest chunk of grads. Many of the top tech/engineering firms do recruit on Duke’s campus, but there aren’t as many on a sheer number basis as a huge school like Ga Tech. Many of Pratt’s grads decide engineering as a career isn’t for them (which is common amongst engineers across the nation), but realize that the curriculum and skills learned have prepared them well for a career in banking, finance, or consulting. These firms covet engineers and Duke is a target school for the top firms. For Mechanical Engineering, 27% of grads become Consultants/Analysts while 26% go into Investment Banking/Finance. That’s more than 50% of the class! So, if you decide engineering is not your ultimate career path, then you’ll have lots of company. Everybody goes in thinking that they’re 100% dedicated to engineering as a lifelong career, but believe me, things change all the time and it’s nice to have other quality options.</p>
<p>So, no, Duke is not a “traditional” engineering powerhouse. It’s more of an up and comer with a smaller program. However, somebody could easily rationalize choosing Duke (or Harvard, Yale, or UPenn) over more traditional powers using some of the reasons above (which may or may not apply to specific schools). </p>
<p>Hope that helps. Good luck!</p>
<p>[Duke</a> University Admissions: Class of 2013 Profile](<a href=“http://admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2013profile.html]Duke”>http://admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2013profile.html)
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/981759-us-news-undergrad-engineering-rankings-2011-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/981759-us-news-undergrad-engineering-rankings-2011-a.html</a>
[Six</a> great reasons…to be a Duke Engineer. | Engineering at Duke University, Pratt School](<a href=“http://www.pratt.duke.edu/high-school-students]Six”>Undergraduate Admissions | Duke Pratt School of Engineering)
[Where</a> do Pratt undergraduates go after graduation? | Engineering at Duke University, Pratt School](<a href=“http://www.pratt.duke.edu/where-our-students-go]Where”>Where Our Undergrads Go | Duke Pratt School of Engineering)
[Where</a> do ME students go? | Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science](<a href=“http://www.mems.duke.edu/where-ME-students-go]Where”>Where Duke MEMS Students Go | Duke Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science)</p>
<p>“In any event, it does not compare to those large public universities with huge engineering programs.”</p>
<p>Very true!</p>
<p>^haha, well I see that you took that as a Duke is much worse than those traditional powers, but I simply meant that it’s very different than those traditional powers. As is Columbia/UPenn/Harvard’s engineering programs. But you can certainly see it as worse if you’d like - it’s a reasonable position to have. It’s obviously a fact that Berkeley/UMich/Ga Tech/Purdue/Illinois are seen as large and respected engineering schools with a long history of tradition and research output while Harvard/UPenn/Columbia/Duke are traditionally not. But some students still choose a school in the latter group for some reason - they clearly attract top notch students, so they must see something in those schools that they don’t see in the traditional powers. I’m obviously not disparaging the traditional engineering powers either - they offer a wide variety of disciplines and have some of the top professors in the world doing world-class research.</p>
<p>This is a fantastic post bluedog!! Hopefully, a supermoderator stickies your post as it serves as an excellent resource for students deciding between traditional engineering programs at large state schools vs. nontraditional engineering programs at prestigious private schools.</p>
<p>
Current National Academy of Engineering Members:
Duke = 3 (two of those are emeritus).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412.aspx[/url]”>http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412.aspx</a></p>
<p>^^^^Thank you for mentioning that UCB. Hopefully, a supermoderator stickies your post as it serves as an excellent resource for students deciding between traditional engineering programs at large state schools vs. nontraditional engineering programs at prestigious private schools. :-)</p>
<p>Man, was that really necessary to point out? Way to not pay attention to the main points that helpful post was trying to make. My father’s business partner did his undergraduate engineering education at Duke and went on to get his PhD in MechE at MIT. The almighty MIT didn’t throw out his PhD application because he went to Duke like they should have if the adcoms at a top PhD program truly cared about the prestige of engineering programs at the graduate level and faculty membership in the NAS/NAE. Trust me, there are more than enough qualified applicants from MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, etc. to fill up the size of the entering cohort in most of MIT’s graduate programs.</p>
<p>rjkofnovi, I’m glad that you’re proud of the Michigan’s Engineering program’s faculty superiority over the nontraditional programs like Columbia and Duke. However, don’t forget that Columbia and Duke engineers are MIT-level smart and would make Michigan engineers look like a bunch of unaccomplished simpletons in comparison. Its the student that matters at the end and that makes a university great, not the faculty.</p>
<p>@vengasso, what firm are you a recruiter for? Unless you have first hand knowledge of the “disparity” amongst Michigan engineers versus those in “nontraditional programs”, you hardly have a basis for such a statement. At the end of the day, the very top companies like Google (who’s founder btw is a Michigan Engineering graduate) recruit at UofM, Illinois, and Georgia Tech because they must be, gasp, among the most talented across the country.</p>
<p>Fact of the matter is, there is little disparity amongst the students at the top traditional engineering programs compared to those in traditionally liberal arts schools. As has been stated before, the final decision for the matriculant has to be fit as the programs are very different.</p>