Hi,
I am an international applicant from Brazil. My dream school was Stanford, but I got rejected. However, I am very fortunate to have been admitted to Duke. My biggest concern now is Duke’s location. Do companies recruit at Durham? Can I, as a Duke graduate, work at Silicon Valley or is that not possible? Is a degree from Duke a lot worse than one from Stanford?
I am planning on going into economics and civil engineering (got admitted to Pratt).
Grateful for responses! 
Duke ranks #5 on the list of colleges fueling Silicon Valley, after Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Yale, and MIT.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/17/the-top-10-colleges-that-fuel-the.html
Many top companies for Wall Street, Tech, and Consulting all come to Duke to recruit on campus. There’s tech connect which is big and there is also a Duke in Silicon Valley program where you can study in Silicon Valley for a semester and go to a lot of different networking events.
Duke is a big feeder to Silicon Valley tech companies (specially when you adjust for its size). Stanford is unmatched in this regard but if you had to go anywhere else Duke is as good a bet as any.
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/rankings/us/undergraduate-software-engineering
^ Duke is at 8 (Stanford is ranked relatively poorly because many of its graduates choose to work for startups. It is first on the corresponding ranking of software engineers at startups)