<p>In attempt to steer away from goldenboy’s painfully obvious inferiority complex, I would tend to say that a visit is critical to your overall decision.</p>
<p>goldenboy,
Duke doesn’t have swimming?</p>
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Never heard of Duke being known for any of these and it’s good that you were happy with them. But I am pretty sure those at Northwestern are of much higher quality. There’s a reason why Merrill Streep and Tom Hanks sent their children to NU. :D</p>
<p>Just a few adds. We visited both campuses and a few comments according to my junior d. You can’t go wrong with engineering at either schools… but Duke does not have Chem E; no facilities to support the major. However, we did see that they have labs for chemistry.</p>
<p>Food and Pharmacy: The suburb of Evanston has many eclectic restaurants (not your usual college fare) within walking distance. While it’s not a huge factor in choice of a school, my d wants to be able to get some great food and to go off campus in a safe neighborhood. We have a friend with a d at Duke and there is nothing in walking distance. Also, they have had issues getting prescription medication filled at a local pharmacy since her daughter does not have a car at Duke. </p>
<p>Campus Appeal: Yes, Duke’s buildings are beautiful but my d also thought that NU’s campus location right on the lake is equally beautiful.</p>
<p>Freshman Campus: my d also really disliked that the freshman have to go back and forth between dorms and classes for the whole year. Furthermore, she was not impressed by the building on east campus. (Not thrilled with Michigan and the Engineering on a separate campus either).</p>
<p>My d clearly likes NU better… the staff and students also did a much better job welcoming her and answering her questions. Duke was pretty sub-par with their info session and campus tour.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>It’s funny…we visited Duke with each son…oldest is WashU/St Louis class of '11 and youngest is just about ready to commit to Northwestern (both kids narrowed their decision down to those two schools and we think that both kids, for them, made or will be making the right decision)…that being said, when we visited Duke, we were excited to go each time…with youngest, we went to Cameron for Duke-NC State (incredible experience)…but, each time we left there, we were far less excited about the place than we were going in…I think Duke is a great place to go to school…I’ve said on other threads that I hated East Campus and the bus ride…but, I really think, as a parent, that the place is more interesting in theory than in practice…I mean, the academics are the academics, but…the more we got to know it and think about it, the less interested all of us became in it.</p>
<p>^For the record, NU doesn’t HAVE a men’s lacrosse program, and we don’t have a men’s fencing program, which means we can’t be ranked since it’s a composite ranking. Our women’s fencing team is one of the very very best in the nation.</p>
<p>And, on the info session…it’s funny, with older son, the info session person had to be one of the most arrogant Dukie’s I’ve ever seen…we couldn’t stand her…but, with younger son, the info session at Duke was undoubtedly the best, funniest and most informative of all the schools that we’ve visited with both kids (and we visited a lot!)…so, hey, ya never know!</p>
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I wouldn’t be too sure of that Sam; Duke has one of the best Improv groups on campus and its alums are still performing on the Comedy circuit at Second City/IO in Chicago as well as the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> University Improv Alumni](<a href=“http://dukeuniversityimprov.com/alumni/]Duke”>http://dukeuniversityimprov.com/alumni/)</p>
<p>Duke has one of the best All-Male acapella groups as well called The Pitchforks. There are over a dozen themed a capella groups for freshmen to choose from.</p>
<p>The school has been heavily investing in The Arts so no Duke student will really find a shortage of opportunities in that realm.</p>
<p>Ok now you’re just embarassing yourself. </p>
<p>[The</a> Titanic Players - Northwestern](<a href=“http://thetitanicplayers.com/Pages/NorthwesternUniversity.aspx]The”>http://thetitanicplayers.com/Pages/NorthwesternUniversity.aspx)</p>
<p>[Mee-Ow</a> - StuCoWiki](<a href=“http://nustudenttheatre.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mee-Ow]Mee-Ow”>http://nustudenttheatre.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mee-Ow)</p>
<p>
NU is the undisputed center for comedic improvisation.</p>
<p>@artbiter213 - your list of NU comedians could easily be MUCH longer… Stephen Colbert, Jane Curtain, Cloris Leachman, Zach Braff, Ira Glass, Zooey Deschnel, David Schwimmer, Paul Lynde, etc… I could go on and on.</p>
<p>As someone whose D THOROUGHLY investigated every program in the country (and beyond), when it comes to Performing Arts Duke doesn’t even make the top 30 list and NU lands at the very top.</p>
<p>Duke is an awesome school. I have many friends who graduated from there and loved their experience. That said, it is a different kind of experience and I personally feel I would have been stifled there since I’m a big-city type of person. Many others don’t care about this, and you may be one of them, I don’t know. I really urge you to visit both schools and just go with the one you like best. Reputation-wise, I grew up thinking Northwestern was more prestigious, but I’m from the Midwest. Now, I know the differences between the two in prestige are marginal. Nationally, they are the same.</p>
<p>Globally, their reputation is about the same. Northwestern’s business reputation cannot be matched. Law school rankings are essentially the same. For med school, Duke is top 10 but President Schapiro recently said he expects Northwestern to climb to top 10 by 2020 (it’s #18 now). Northwestern has an aggressive strategy to pursue this, and I am confident it will reach its target.</p>
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<p>This isn’t nearly as embarrassing as gb’s pathetic attempt to make NU look bad when he cited a fly-by-nite Bay area college prep company that had totally inaccurate stats.</p>
<p>It’s posters like him which give Duke students/alums a bad name - and why Duke is so highly ranked on this list (hey, gb - Duke is ranked highly on this list and NU is not even on it so go all nuts!).</p>
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<p>Read More [America’s</a> 25 Douchiest Colleges: Humor: GQ](<a href=“GQ: America's 25 Douchiest Colleges | GQ”>GQ: America's 25 Douchiest Colleges | GQ)</p>
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<p>Any sport fan knows that a particular year’s result isn’t indicative of any other year.</p>
<p>As already noted, NU doesn’t have men’s programs in lax or fencing and one can add programs to the list where NU is better such as softball, men’s swimming, volleyball, etc. (and in other years, NU came out ahead as in for women’s tennis).</p>
<p>And regardless, while Duke is ahead, my point is that Duke fares better in the Director’s Cup standing b/c they get to pick and choose from a greater no. of sports than NU which gives them an advantage, just as Stanford’s ridiculous amount of varsity sports gives them an advantage.</p>
<p>Anyway, the no. 1 sport in college is football - and it’s been a loooong time since Duke fans have experienced a winning season, even w/ the lowered academic standards and all.</p>
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<p>USNWR med school ranking is largely contingent on research $$ which NU med hadn’t focused on in the past until about 8-10 yrs ago.</p>
<p>NU med has been creeping up the rankings as its share of the research $$ pie has gotten larger.</p>
<p>I would expect Duke’s business school (Fuqua) to match Kellogg in reputation in the next decade. My point is no elite university is just sitting on their laurels; they are all aggressively looking to hire the best faculty, recruit the best students, and improve their reputations.</p>
<p>^ Harder to do w/ b-school b/c for med, all it takes is to increase research $$ (NU med was already up there when it came to GPA/MCAT scores).</p>
<p>Fair enough, I don’t know the specifics of how they rank business schools. Anyway, I like NU a lot and have lots of friends that went there so I didn’t mean to rag on the school. I was just teasing you all a little bit.
The OP has 2 great schools to choose from.</p>
<p>As Lord Keynes once said, “in the long run, we are all dead anyway”…while in the sort run, every tid bit seems to matter :-)</p>
<p>Oops! Meany “short run”, not “sort run”!</p>
<p>Haha the “in 10 years NU med will be top 10 is absolutely hilarious”. Thats like Brodhead saying in 10 years Duke will win cross admit battles with Princeton. I love how the NU posters are making ludicrous predictions in an attempt to lure the OP. Absolutely priceless.</p>
<p>Northwestern Med has been moving up 1 every year, from #23 and now #18. If it continues at this pace, it makes sense to think it will move to top 10 in a decade. I know every institution is striving to maintain their spot or move up, but Northwestern has a very aggressive strategy to outrank these schools despite the improvements they are making.</p>
<p>^^I love how you made a big deal out of it. Only one poster said it. A Duke poster also made a similar prediction. I don’t know what so hilarious about either one.
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