<p>People on this thread make me JEALOUS! haha.</p>
<p>One thing to remember itsme, is that Duke has a very strong BME program, pretty much the best degree program in the Pratt School of Engineering. Depending on how much you want to trust U.S. News biomedical engineering rankings, which are based on peer reviews by other academia/faculty, Duke has the second best undergrad BME program in the country, second only to Johns Hopkins.
Another thing to consider is that Stanford does not have a undergrad biomedical engineering degree, but only a bioMECHANICAL degree. These are not the same, and if u're looking for something in the biomedical field outside biomechanical engineering, Duke may be the better option for you.</p>
<p>I'm personally also a robertson scholar. I have not got an admission decision from Stanford, Yale, MIT or JHU yet. However, based on the benefits of the Robertson Scholar's program and Duke, including the financial difficulties of attending any other college, I have already decided to accept the Robertson at Duke. Based on my family income, I am looking at around US$80,000-120,000 more for an education at Stanford/Yale/MIT/JHU than at Duke with the Robertson. No matter what my parents said about ignoring financial issues when choosing my college, I could not be either selfish or ignorant enough to ignore such real issues. As far as I am concerned, both Duke and Stanford will provide an amazing undergrad engineering education and opportunities. Both have beautiful campuses and intelligent students. With the benefits of the Robertson Scholar's program however, attending Duke was a relatively simple choice for me to make.</p>
<p>But I'll be honest with you as well. It's not as if I don't wonder what would happen if I chose Stanford or MIT or Yale or JHU instead (assuming I have the opportunity to make that choice). But I also know that really, what happens in my life is not a product of my college but a product of my own actions during and after college. Don't get caught up in the college hype. The only thing that will matter 10 years after college is how much debt you still owe on your college education.</p>
<p>pcrisp, is the same deal different name the robertson at UNC, or the morehead?</p>
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No matter what my parents said about ignoring financial issues when choosing my college, I could not be either selfish or ignorant enough to ignore such real issues.
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<p>You're a better man than I.</p>
<p>Sitk and Pcrisp - I was under the impression the 2009 Robertson Scholars had yet to chosen, and were still at the finalist stage. Have you already received the scholarship?</p>
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i'm big in to polysci (stanford)
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Assuming you mean political science (poli sci) rather than many sciences (poly sci), UNC is no slouch. While Stanford (#2) is very good in political science, Duke (#8) and UNC (#13) are not far behind. At the undergraduate level, I highly doubt there would be much difference.</p>
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i'll probably be going to law school
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Law school admission depends on almost entirely on LSAT scores and GPA. Going to Stanford would not increase your chances of getting into law school.</p>
<p>and just to clarify, since i was in the running both for the robertson and the thomas wolfe, UNC CH informed me that the scholarship offer that I will receive will likely be comparable to these two.</p>
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Sitk and Pcrisp - I was under the impression the 2009 Robertson Scholars had yet to chosen, and were still at the finalist stage. Have you already received the scholarship?
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</p>
<p>Those in Australia and New Zealand apply under a separate system for the Robertson Scholars program, and the recipients of these (including myself) have already been notified. We are still invited to the Finalists Weekend, but more as an opportuntiy to visit the colleges than anything else.</p>
<p>Pcrisp and Sitk - Congratulations! It must be an amazing feeling to have already received full scholarships. I'll bet your parents are doing happy dances. I know I will be if my son is as fortunate.</p>
<p>small twist. will a fullride at GaTech (instead of Duke) compare well against Stanford (35+ k/year) for engineering?</p>
<p>Maybe happiness really is priceless... especially when someone else is paying for you to be happy. Of course your parents will say that you shouldn't consider cost at all...but that's what most parents with an amazing kid like you will say because they feel that they should be able to match your awesomeness and not restrict your oppurtunities in any way shape or form. If they'll have take a 2nd mortgage on the house for Stanford-odds are high that they care about the financial implications of your decision. What I would advise you to do is speak to the FA office here if you think with your income paying 140k for 4 years is too much for your parents to handle. FA here is actually pretty reasonable so you may not even have to make a tough decision if the cost is much more palatable. Honestly, there is marginal if any academic difference between Stanford and Duke and it won't really matter which one you go to in assuming that you feel comfortable at Duke. As much as I have loved my freshman year at Stanford, if someone gave my parents 140k to go to Duke tomorrow, I'd be a blue devil in a heartbeat. They are both top schools and no one will look down on you for going to Duke, especially if you're a Robertson. So yeah, good luck getting that scholarship!</p>
<p>itsme123, my answer is the same as before: you are just not HYPS educated if you choose other schools. And very likely you will chase money for graduate school again, and end up with HYPSM wannabe schools. Next time when you meet a HYPSM graduate, you may understand better that person not only got in but also paid to get out of HYPSM. The feeling is so unexplainable unless you are there,... and it is worth about $200,000. </p>
<p>P.S. hopefully you don't have another noname school that offers free ride all the way through graduate school. In that case, are you going to lower your standard again?</p>
<p>ewho i disagree, I personally know students currently at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford,as well as graduates of Harvard and Yale. Without exception they have all told me that the education is nothing special. They all recommend going where it will cost the least for undergrad.</p>
<p>I am very sure if your friends want to transfer to other schools, they can have free rides. Why didn't they do that? Maybe they all get free rides at HYPS?</p>
<p>I feel like people are putting too big an emphasis on money here...I recently read somewhere, something along these lines:</p>
<p>Most of you have probably heard that once you get past a certain point in terms of money, you don't get any happier. This is because it's always about how you compare to your peers, and so you could be making a ton, but if others are making more, that extra million a year or whatever will make NO difference in terms of happiness.</p>
<p>What does that have to do with anything? Well, superficially, Stanford IS more prestigious than Duke, and it might make you happier to go there.
But really, it's more about where YOU'LL be happy. I doubt you'll feel the effects of your parents second mortgage/paying the 140k. I'm pretty sure Stanford and Duke are completely different places. I've visited Stanford and love Stanford, and I haven't done much research on Duke, but the little I did ruled it out for me summer before junior year. (This is me, personally, of course). But major differences: WEATHER. Definitely something to consider. Your environment is huge. CAMPUS. No idea what Duke's is like, but I'm sure it's very different from Stanford's. THE TYPE of people: from visiting colleges and knowing people, etc., California has a very different vibe from anything on the east coast (which NC is). There are so many other factors. Try not to worry about money and choose what feels best to you, what can meet your needs the best, etc.
((Btw, Stanford basketball is actually really good))</p>
<p>I could probably go to Umiami full ride, but I already got into WashU and I know I would choose WashU (or hopefully Stanford, if I get in) over full tuition scholarship at Miami, even though I have no aid at WashU. Of course, Miami isn't as prestigious as Duke/Robertson scholarship, but money has become an issue for us, and I could probably have a lot more spending money and travel more, etc., if I went to Miami. If I somehow get into Uchicago with money and Stanford, I'd probably choose Stanford, just because of various things about the schools. It's about what YOU want, and I really don't think you should be worrying about money.</p>
<p>On a similar train thought, a friend got into Yale EA and he just got Morehead-Cain at UNC, and I wonder which he'll choose...</p>
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I doubt you'll feel the effects of your parents second mortgage/paying the 140k.
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<p>lol. This guy isn't a multi-millionaire, he's a middle class student. 140k makes a huge difference in terms of happiness for most in his income bracket!</p>
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ewho i disagree, I personally know students currently at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford,as well as graduates of Harvard and Yale. Without exception they have all told me that the education is nothing special. They all recommend going where it will cost the least for undergrad.
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I am very sure if your friends want to transfer to other schools, they can have free rides. Why didn't they do that? Maybe they all get free rides at HYPS?
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<p>The story is somewhere in between leaning towards supereagle. I wouldn't say go to UA for a full ride over Stanford, and I think it depends more on how much you're comfortable paying. Paying 200k is easy for some while for others it would be a huge trial. I personally think that no school in the world is 140k more special than Duke assuming you feel comfortable at Duke. Including HYPS as a current student here.</p>
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P.S. hopefully you don't have another noname school that offers free ride all the way through graduate school. In that case, are you going to lower your standard again?
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</p>
<p>Duke a noname school? What planet are you on? This isn't some hick state school in the middle of nowhere offering him a free ride, this is one of the ten best undergraduate schools in the country! Trust me, if this were ASU or even a decent school like Wake Forest, I'd say don't compromise. But seriously, Duke? You gotta be kidding me.</p>
<p>Morsmordre, I believe that you have finals to go through now, and you may want to read more before to make comments on them,... after the exams. Obviously I am on a planet you are not on.</p>
<p>Ah, here we go. I always like digging this up when people say ridiculous things like "The feeling is so unexplainable unless you are [at HYPMS],... and it is worth about $200,000."</p>
<p>
<p>You wake up in the morning to the sounds of trumpets acknowledging how special you are. As you walk out of your dorm room, you give a quick wave to the common, Non-Harvard people on the way to class, maybe tossing them some loose change or a piece of advice about the SAT IIs.</p>
<p>Your professor reminds you at the beginning of class how fantastic he is, then teaches material that everyone in the classroom finds easy. Everyone scores perfectly on all the tests- that's why they got into Harvard.</p>
<p>After classes, you might run into Bill Gates, Natalie Portman, or Conan O'Brien around the campus- after all, these celebrated alumni have nothing better to do than spend all their time at the school. My roommate says he saw W.E.B. DuBois at Urban Outfitters once, but I think he might be lying.</p>
<p>You hang around with other students in the evening, talking about the things that Harvard students are interested in- differential geometry, Somerset Maugham, postmodern surrealism, computational economics... The only problems with the conversations is that everyone already knows everything, so there isn't much to discuss. Sometimes, therefore, the debates just degrade into games of fox-hunting and discus throwing (after all, everyone who goes to Harvard is both rich and an Olympic athlete).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, just to relax, you might grab your Harvard acceptance letter and head into Boston. After all, a Harvard acceptance letter gets you into any club or party in Boston, lets you buy alcohol in bars whatever age you are, and can be used to get out of speeding tickets and most misdemeanors.</p>
<p>The fact that John Adams went here has an impact on your everyday life, as does the school's age and the size of the its endowment. In particular, having such a large library makes a huge difference! Harvard's 14 million volumes, most of which are held elsewhere in the country or around the world, offers you SO much more than Yale's 9.9 million volumes or Columbia's PATHETIC 6.9 million volumes. Can you imagine having only 7 million books at your school's library? You'd probably run out of things to read by junior year!</p>
<p>At the end of the day, you curl up in your luxurious dorm room that only Harvard could provide, fully appreciating the advantages that Harvard gives you...</p>
<p>The truth? IT'S JUST LIKE ANY OTHER SCHOOL! You have classes, you have homework, you have friends, you go to parties, you eat junk food, you date, you drink, you act irresponsibly every once in a while just to see how it feels. You go to the extracurriculars you like, you take the classes that interest you, and you graduate after four years having hopefully learned something.</p>
<p>Do you really want to know my day? I finished my Physics problem set early this morning before rushing to a Life Sciences lecture, followed by a Physics lecture. I had pretty bad pizza for lunch at the cafe, then did some work before going to Expository Writing in the afternoon. I went home and hung out on the computer before taking a long nap, then woke up to get to my Life Sciences section a little late (sections are once a week and taught by TFs). We did some work in the lab, then I came back to my dorm to do my math homework, talk to the people across the hall, and then visit collegeconfidential before doing my Life Sci problem set. Overall, it was actually a busy day.</p>
<p>Was that really all that enlightening? No! I just went to classes, did some work, and hung out and had some fun. IT'S A SCHOOL! IT'S NOT A METAPHOR ABOUT PERFECTION AND ACHIEVEMENT OR SOMETHING!</p>
<p>Sorry- I'm just tired of the perception that Harvard offers a fundamentally different experience than most other selective colleges. It's absolutely true that you can meet brilliant and wonderful people here, that the classes are usually taught by (in my opinion) great and engaging professors, and that the campus and location are fantastic. However, that doesn't mean it's a fundamentally different kind of college. Harvard's not perfect, and it's not even all that special. So keep a sense of perspective.
</p>
<p>Many years ago I was trading commodity futures at Merrill, mainly copper and gold. And many times I could not tell the difference between them, especially from distance and to the untrained eyes. Copper was $1.5 per lbs and gold was $500 an ounce.</p>
<p>ewho, my friends havent transfered because they love their schools. They never said they didnt. They just are very quick to point out that the HYS of the world is not some promised land like alot people think it is and it really doesnt matter if you go there or not.</p>