<p>I want apply one of the schools as my ED schools.</p>
<p>I'm unsure about my major because I kinda like to try on everything before I decide.
But I'm certain I don't want pure research science or engineering.</p>
<p>I think Northwestern's strength it's location/ Duke is large and more diverse/ Middlebury's Foreign Language learning is great and I like its academics/ Vanderbilt has a great education program and generous about finical aid.</p>
<p>can you guys give me some thoughts about these colleges? thx</p>
<p>Middlebury stands out as the odd one out, there. Although Duke’s not metropolitan, Middlebury’s much more remote than the other three. Duke and Vanderbilt are both pretty preppy and have strong preprofessional contingents. I think Northwestern’s less preppy, but otherwise has a pretty similar student body to the other. Middlebury’s much more traditional liberal arts learning-for-the-sake-of-learning-even-if-my-major-is-impractical, and much more left-leaning/politically active. Have you had a chance to visit any of them?</p>
<p>I am a big Vanderbilt fan, and there isn’t a better place to live than Nashville- college student or otherwise. Weather is good, campus is gorgeous, lots of music and nightlife…</p>
<p>I would really shoot for Northwestern or Duke, then consider Vandy as a third option. </p>
<p>As others have mentioned, Middlebury is a small LAC and not a national university. It is a bit odd to throw it in with these other three powerhouses, but if you really like the school, consider it fourth.</p>
<p>Really, Northwestern, Duke and Vandy are all smaller elite private national universities that will open doors for you. You can’t go wrong with any of them. I would visit and see where you would like to live for four years.</p>
<p>If you think NU is just good for it’s location and Duke’s only awesome for being large
Choose a school where you think you can thrive. You seem to talk about Middlebury and Vanderbilt, in somewhat researched terms, why not shoot for Middlebury ED (or Vanderbilt if you need the scholarships)</p>
<p>I’d seriously consider Middlebury. Of the options you mention, it will provide the most intimate learning environment, and its location in the mountains of Vermont, while remote, has its advantages as well. You’ll get more personalized attention at Midd IMHO. Furthermore, you will only have one opportunity in your life to attend a small liberal arts college. You can always save the “national powerhouses” for grad school.</p>
Duke and Vandy have roughly the same number of students, and both are smaller than Northwestern. If you’re talking about campus size, however, Duke is of course by far the largest.</p>
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Its offerings in the languages it has are well-known. It offers a lot fewer languages than most universities, however - something to keep in mind. </p>
<p>Honestly, I think if you’re unsure this late in the game (almost one month before ED deadlines!), you’re better off not applying ED at all. It’s too binding for anything but your absolute, hands down top choice. Applying ED if you haven’t even visited is especially risky. Many people visit a college they love on paper but discover that they dislike it in person; similarly, many visit a college on a whim only to discover that they love it. </p>
<p>As for which one to choose if you do apply ED, well, that depends on your personality and interests. I attended Duke and, in your shoes, would pick it over the other three in a heartbeat. Arcadia attended Middlebury and obviously feels the same way about it. Others on these boards would say that about Northwestern or Vandy. Everyone has different things they want/need in a college, so pick based on fit. You can hardly go wrong with any of the four.</p>
<p>Some important factors have already been brought up - rural vs. urban, feel/atmosphere, academic offerings, etc. Consider drawing up a list of things you want in a college and then seeing how well each of these matches up to that list.</p>
<p>Sounds to me like you should be considering Dartmouth. It combines many of the features/strengths of the other schools on your list: strong undergraduate liberal arts education, strong sciences, particularly known for languages, access to an engineering school.</p>
<p>I think there is a fairly large amount of application crossover between D and Mid/Duke/NU.</p>
<p>Duke combines the undergraduate focus of Middlebury with excellent research opportunities and financial aid. It is arguably also the most reputable of the bunch-I would ED there.</p>
<p>I disagree. While Duke has an excellent undergraduate program, it is better known as a national research university with a significant amount of resources devoted to its myriad graduate programs (medicine, law, public policy, environment, etc.). Duke has more graduate students (8,200+) than undergrads (6,500+). Each class at Duke is around 1,600+ students. Each class at Middlebury is 600 students. I’ve attended both, and would never recommend Duke over Midd for undergrad. OP–feel free to PM me if you’d like more info.</p>
Duke’s professional schools have several advantages for undergraduates and virtually no disadvantages. Each professional school has its own section of campus, its own courses, its own faculty, its own library, its own career center, etc. Undergraduates do not compete with professional students for resources. They do, however, get to benefit from things like great medical research opportunities, which you simply don’t get at a LAC. Duke undergraduates compete with graduate (PhD) students for faculty attention, true, but the undergraduate population at Duke is more than double that of the graduate population. In any case, Duke has more than enough money to go around – Duke offers plenty of funded research opportunities for undergraduates (some money each year even goes unclaimed!), and Duke is readily willing to fund any new club that gathers sufficient interest. Undergraduates are hardly neglected. </p>
<p>Goldenboy’s statement about Duke’s undergraduate focus should be modified to state that this varies from one department to another. I double majored in classics and earth & ocean sciences at Duke, and both offered the best of all worlds – small courses (< 15 students), lots of available courses, good research opportunities, and extremely reputable faculty. I would’ve actually been doing myself a huge disservice by choosing a LAC, except possibly Haverford. A good many of Duke’s other programs - religion, education, dance, theatre, women’s studies, linguistics, Middle Eastern studies, biological anthropology, etc. - are small, focused on undergraduates, and range from very good to superb. The most popular departments like political science or econ? Eh, not so much undergraduate focus. When you’re graduating 100-150 majors a year, it’s hard to stay on top of all of them. Even in those departments, however, it’s easy to get the attention and opportunities you need if you bother to seek them out. Biology is one of the largest departments, for example, but Duke absolutely flings money and research opportunities at undergraduates interested in marine biology. </p>
<p>Incidentally, most graduate students are pretty clueless about the day to day life of undergraduates. I can think of very few grad students here at UCLA who socialize much with undergrads or even take the same classes.</p>
<p>Arcadia, I don’t think its fair to include students enrolled in Duke’s stand-alone professional schools (Nursing, Medicine, Environmental Science, Divinity, Law, Business, etc.) as part of your total graduate population as Duke undergraduates virtually share no resources or funding with these programs. As warblersrule eloquently pointed out, these programs have their own career centers, professors, research funding, classes, etc. and they have no interaction with undergrads whatsoever (except serving as RAs and GRs in Duke residence halls on East and West Campus).</p>
<p>Arguably. Middleburry is an elite LAC; Duke is an extremely good, but non-elite research university. Personally, i’d give the edge, in reputation at least, to Middlebury.</p>
<a href=“http://mup.asu.edu/research2011.pdf[/url]”>http://mup.asu.edu/research2011.pdf</a>
Total Research: Duke is #2 among private schools.
Federal Research: Duke is #6 among private schools.
Endowment Assets: Duke is #11 among private schools.
Annual Giving: Duke is #9 among private schools.
National Academy Members: Duke is #11 among private schools.
Faculty Awards: Duke is #10 among private schools.
Median SAT: Duke is #14 among private schools.</p>
<p>Duke excels in nearly every area that a research university is measured by. Jealous that you couldn’t get admitted to Berkeley and had to settle for UCLA?</p>
<p>And that’s why it’s ‘extremely good’ as i claimed. But lets face it, the elites compete with one another, and Duke is just slightly outside the periphery. This can be seen here:</p>
<p>and in the Stanford faculty minutes. I needn’t repeat the point, as this was most eloquently stated by phantasmagoric:</p>
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<p>Again, Duke is extremely good. But non-elite. I’d actually like to see some cross-admit statistics of how Middlebury fares against Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, etc.</p>
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<p>I SIRed to UCLA before i even received the rejection from Berkeley. The rejection was largely arbitrary (with as many applications as they receive they sometimes have to be) and i was essentially rejected because i missed a phone call. I hold no regrets. I received an extremely good education for very minimal debt (under five figures) which i could have completely avoided had i wanted to. I got an education from the top UC in the field (historically and this year) and i am completely satisfied with my education. You and your petty comments aren’t going to change that.</p>
