<p>I've been searching through these forums and online a lot recently and have heard a lot about Duke, both good and bad. I am looking into majoring in BME and pre-med but I'm not totally set on the engineering aspect yet. But then, I saw that on the "Most overrated/underrated colleges" forum, Duke was listed as overrated and Cornell, the other university I'm deciding between, as underrated. What do you think? Which should I choose?</p>
<p>I definately wouldn’t worry about whether or not people on CC think a college is overrated or not. Harvard is pretty overrated in the sense that people hype it up a lot, but still, who would turn down a Harvard education?! Personally, I find Duke to be a little overrated, but it’s still a great school. Choose what school you thinks is the best fit for you.</p>
<p>ivies are overrated, go to duke.</p>
<p>Heck no! I’d die to go there.</p>
<p>Yes 10 char</p>
<p>Duke is indeed overrated academically, but it is still a fabulous institution.</p>
<p>People regularly believe Duke is up there with Harvard Yale Princeton MIT and Stanford because of its ranking, but it is not. It’s academic rankings and PA score would put it on the same level as schools like Northwestern, Penn, Columbia, Hopkins, Cornell, etc which are still FANTASTIC schools, but clearly no HYPMS. </p>
<p>Besides its great campus, its academics is comparable to or below a lot of the other schools I listed above. The thing that increases its supposed “prestige” is the name recognition thanks to Duke Basketball and the wild reputation for orgies and the like. I think anyone with a mind would agree that that is not prestige, but simply familiarity. Kind of like how the Olive Garden is a fine chain restaurant with good name recognition, but it does not exactly live up to the likes of a true 5-star Italian Restaurant.</p>
<p>Perception is more important than reality. The world we live in isn’t ideal folks. No one cares that Berkeley is as good as HYPSM academically in reality. The perception is that it’s a top 25 school at best.</p>
<p>Cornell and Duke probably are academic equals.</p>
<p>But for pre-med, Duke is a no-brainer.</p>
<p>^^^I agree with lockn even though I like Cornell’s campus the best.</p>
<p>Overrated in the sense that it is not peer with all the HYPSM schools. It is definitely peers with Cornell in the sense that they have similar prestige and both are very strong schools academically.</p>
<p>Many students boast that Duke is the best school that can top the middle tier Ivies like Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth… but that is definitely not the case… It’s definitely a great school, but it isn’t THAT great… jeez…</p>
<p>It’s definitely the best school in terms of equal balance of athleticism, school pride, and academics.</p>
<p>Is Duke overrated?</p>
<p>When it comes to basketball, yes. When it comes to academics, not so much.</p>
<p>I’d say yes. I guess it depends on what you want to study, etc… But generally, yes.</p>
<p>For me, Duke is at about the same level as Columbia and Penn. It’s not really overrated.</p>
<p>Overrated by whom? I think it’s generally regarded at near-ivy level. So it’s not overrated. </p>
<p>If, however, someone thinks it’s better than that, then they’re overrating it.</p>