<p>Honestly, USNWR is the only ranking that has that much parity between UNC and Duke. Most other rankings have UNC and Duke pretty much on par, and believe it or not, some have UNC ranked ahead of Duke. It doesn’t help that people take the USNWR rankings as the gospel…</p>
<p>@phonyreal98,
Yes, which is why I specifically stated,
</p>
<p>@wahoomb,
Hm, well comparative academic quality of institutions is way too subjective to even allow for a substantive conversation. However, if you’re talking about selectivity (and thus the quality of the students attending each university), UChicago is generally a bit easier to get into (once you overcome their eccentric essay topics) than is Duke. At least that’s my impression, based on acceptances of students at my school who applied to both, as well as the admission rates of both schools. I’d agree with your Columbia>Duke, though (except for those Ivy legacies…).</p>
<p>I do think you might be wrong about UNC taking the rivalry more serious than Duke students. I’m not saying they represent the majority but there are a lot of Duke students who use the rivalry to flout their perceived academic superiority over UNC. “it’s all right, it’s ok, you’re going to pump our gas someday” comes to mind among many other ridiculously pretentious inventions of (hopefully) a small part of Duke’s student body.</p>
<p>To be fair though, the Crazies did chant “SAFETY SCHOOL” at a WF game, so maybe it’s just a common theme during basketball season.</p>
<p>One traditional chant of the Cameron Crazies:
“Go to hell, Carolina, Go to hell!”</p>
<p>I definitely received text messages from some Dukies reading “GTHC” during the Carolina-Duke basketball games this season. And I know Duke students have their own celebrations for beating us (analogous to our rushing franklin street). However, they haven’t had much to celebrate (as far as the Carolina-Duke rivalry) the last several years. ;)</p>
<p>“However, if you’re talking about selectivity (and thus the quality of the students attending each university), UChicago is generally a bit easier to get into (once you overcome their eccentric essay topics) than is Duke.”</p>
<p>By your line of reasoning then the following schools should be ranked higher than Duke because they are “harder” to get into: Dartmouth, WashU Saint Louis, Cornell, Brown and Georgetown. Furthermore, Duke should be tied with UC Berkeley and UCLA as they both have the same acceptance rates. </p>
<p>Acceptance rates do not correlate with how good a university is. UChicago is known worldwide to be one of the best universities (in my experience living in Latin American and in Europe), Duke is not.</p>
<p>Wake is a safety school though</p>
<p>I’ll give you my take. I’m currently deciding between both USC and UNC in my college decision. Every time i talk to someone about the two schools, everyone tells me to go to UNC. Except for the one USC student I talked to, everyone likes UNC more and thinks it’s the better school. One person said that UNC is such a good school that it almost seems like it’s a private school even though it’s public. Another person said that he puts it right up there with UMich and UVA. It’s a heck of a school at a relatively cheap price compared to other prestigious public schools. </p>
<p>As for this whole Duke/UNC thing. I’ve always hated Duke (I’m from Connecticut and growing up a UConn fan made me hate Duke), which is why I wanted to go to UNC. This really has nothing to do with the thread, but i just wanted to say that. Duke is a very good school and both UNC and Duke have a lot of programs that allow students to take courses at both locations.</p>