<p>Hi guys!! I would really appreciate some input as to which university I should attend. I plan on double majoring on English and Biology. I am not extremely into the party scene (I'll attend one a week...at most...maybe). As of right now I am leaning slightly more towards Northwestern; however, I am still very much undecided. Any comments are welcome!!!</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptances! I am a current student at UC Berkeley and would be happy to answer any questions you might have about it.</p>
<p>There is everything at Berkeley that you could ever want (in terms of academics, research, sports, extracurriculars, social life, easy to get around, etc). The students are awesome and very enthusiastic about Berkeley and would welcome you with open arms. Berkeley has great programs in both English and Biology (I know many people involved in IB (Integrative Bio) and MCB (Mollecular Cell bio). </p>
<p>I’ve never had a problem getting into any class (this semester I started off at #90 on the waitlist for a 600+ person class and ended up getting in), although I entered Berkeley with many AP/college credits (so I entered with sophomore standing). I suppose it depends on your intended major / AP credit standing.</p>
<p>At Cal, there are many useful tools which help you plan your schedule / find classes. Ninjacourses (<a href=“http://ninjacourses.com/”>http://ninjacourses.com/</a>) is the best way to visualize your schedule and peruse through ratings of classes/professors while Telebears Oracle (<a href=“http://telebearsoracle.com/#semester:sp14”>http://telebearsoracle.com/#semester:sp14</a>) helps in determining when certain classes fill up compared to other classes (so you can determine when to sign up for which classes).</p>
<p>Hands down Northwestern is the best university among the three. No contest, even though Duke an Berkeley are both great schools. Also, all three are big enough that you can avoid the party scene, if you are concerned about that.</p>
<p>If I was you, I would consider the weather at each location. If you hate cold weather, then Northwestern might be a problem, because Chicago is extremely cold (and windy). Berkeley has very mild weather; not cold in the winter, and not hot in the summer. Duke is more in between the other two, regarding climate.</p>
<p>Berkeley is very much a California school, with the vast majority of students being California residents (however, it has a significant number of international students). Duke and Northwestern, on the other hand, draw their student body from all of the country, and also have international students.</p>
<p>If this were my choice, I might just choose Northwestern despite the cold, because it really is the best of the three. Berkeley is a little too big for me (Northwestern plus Duke, combined, would still be smaller than Berkeley). Duke would be my second preference.</p>
<p>Good luck. You really cannot go wrong with any of these three.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great answers!! </p>
<p>@NROTCgrad in your opinion, what specifically makes Northwestern the best choice out of my other options?</p>
<p>and @mbotvinnik, I am not sure if I want to pursue a pre-med track, but I have heard that, by attending a large school such as Berkeley, it is very difficult to get to work in labs or to get internships in general. Do you have any experience with that? </p>
<p>Putting Northwestern ahead of Duke and Berkeley is based on a couple of things. First, Berkeley, amazing as it is, remains a small notch lower than either Duke or Northwestern. I have never heard anybody question that. Its main advantage (compared to Duke and Northwestern) is its climate, its proximity to “Silicone Valley,” and for some people its left wing reputation (which it shares with the region as a whole, but especially San Francisco). However, it is far larger, with a much higher student to faculty ration of 17 to 1, compared to 7 to 1 for both Duke and Northwestern. This means that you will have significantly larger classes at Berkeley, and not know your professors as well as you would at Duke or Northwestern.</p>
<p>So, comparing Northwestern and Duke, why choose Northwestern? Well, frankly, I might have overstated the case there. I might even have overcompensated for the fact that I, personally, would go to Duke if it were my choice. Duke and Northwestern are both very highly regarded, and similar in size. However I do think that Northwestern has a better reputation, but I cannot actually justify it. I think that being so close to Chicago is a major benefit, although winter weather is terrible (so, go to Duke if you hate being cold). Chicago is one of America’s great cities and living close by is an education in itself. Plus, educational opportunities are probably a little more likely to simply happen more naturally there than in Durham, North Carolina where Duke is located. Of course Duke graduates will have fantastic opportunities too, but they mostly will need to leave North Carolina to do so. In sum, if you have truly high ambition, you might want to choose Northwestern. If you want warmer weather, then Duke might be a better choice.</p>
<p>“First, Berkeley, amazing as it is, remains a small notch lower than either Duke or Northwestern.” => I guess I’ll be the first. Berkeley has tremendous academics in all fields and comparing them to any other school is rather silly. </p>
<p>I’ve never heard of anyone having trouble contacting professors, doing research, or getting involved with internships. If you are willing to put in the effort to seek out opportunities then you will be highly successful. I have several friends in pre-med and pre-vet who are involved with shadowing doctors, vets, etc. </p>
<p>@ChaChaanTeng might be able to give a good explanation of Northwestern’s strength’s compared to Duke and Berkeley</p>
<p>I just invited him. :-c </p>
<p>Probably Duke but Northwestern is a very close second…You can’t go wrong with either!</p>
<p>You’re lucky to have a multitude of riches. Socially, you seem a better fit at NU or Berkeley than Duke. If money is not at issue, I would favor NU. Promoting Berkeley as mbotvinnik does by stating “I’ve never had a problem getting into any class (this semester I started off at #90 on the waitlist for a 600+ person class and ended up getting in)” should raise alarms. NU will simply have more financial resources than Berkeley. The recession hit higher education funding especially hard in California. It’s also hard to undervalue NU’s flexibility to now allow for-credit internships DURING the school year. This means opportunities are suddenly available in the fall, winter or spring that one may have been shut out of during the hyper-competitive summer months. Chicago resources in academic or industrial research, banking, consulting, journalism, publishing, the arts . . . . is impossible to trump. These are opportunities that ultimately translate into great resume builders, LORs, and job offers.</p>
<p>First of all, thank you all for your thoughtful answers. I really appreciate all of your help!! I have narrowed down my choices to Northwestern and Duke. I feel that I may be a better social fit for Northwestern; however, it seems like many people I have talked to (including my mom, counselor, and friends) regard Duke as being the more prestigious university. I personally am not that influenced by minor differences in prestige. However, I am now wondering: Is there any substantial advantage in attending the slightly more prestigious university? </p>
<p>You will get different responses regarding prestige based on geography and people. Go with fit in this case. </p>
<p>I think the category below is one for which Duke is consistently top 5…</p>
<p><a href=“10 Douchiest Colleges In America”>http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/10-douchiest-colleges-in-america</a>
<a href=“GQ: America's 25 Douchiest Colleges | GQ”>GQ: America's 25 Douchiest Colleges | GQ;
<p>“I personally am not that influenced by minor differences in prestige.”</p>
<p>Outstanding! Prestige is one thing, but what is this thing about getting so nuanced about it? purpledinos, I don’t get it either.</p>
<p>The other great thing about going to Northwestern is that you can go to the greatest baseball park ever built, Wrigley Field, anytime the Cubs are in town. Close to paradise.</p>
<p>In terms of prestige, Duke is probably the most prestigious in the U.S.–closely followed by Northwestern. (Internationally, Berkeley is definitely the most prestigious out of the 3, though). Among employers, I would say that Duke and Northwestern are both highly (if not equally…) regarded. Thus, if you’re trying to choose between Duke and Northwestern, please don’t take prestige into account, unless you want more bragging rights to your mom, counselor, and friends. </p>
<p>If you really do plan on double majoring, Northwestern would be the better fit, since it runs on the Quarter System, thus making it easier for you to double major. I’d recommend actually visiting Duke and Northwestern, and joining a class or two–it’ll probably make your decision-making process easier. Again, both are great schools, so you can’t go wrong. Which college would I personally pick? Northwestern. </p>
<p>Congratulations on your college choices! Frankly, you cannot go wrong with any of the three. If you boil down to either NU or Duke, I’d say Northwestern. You’d get plenty of prestige from NU so prestige should not be a factor of consideration.</p>
<p>alicejohnson, you might want to notice that I backed down on my view in my second posting, and in fact stated that I would probably choose Duke if this was my personal choice.</p>
<p>However, your post overcompensates for my own errors (which I agree that I made). The difference between Duke and Northwestern is not wide, even if it is consistent. For example, the selectivity for Duke is 14% compared to 18% for NU… which is not a huge difference, perhaps even less salient given that Duke is far better known to most people and thus probably draws more applicants. SAT scores for entering freshman are somewhat higher for Northwestern than for Duke, which might lead a person to reasonably assume that Duke is simply attracting less qualified students than is NU.</p>
<p>In short, I was wrong in my original “hands down” comment, but it is not clear cut that Duke is significantly better than NU either. A fantastic education will be obtained from either one. Or Berkeley, for that matter.</p>
<p>alicejohnson, you should work for the marketing department for Duke. But we all know marketing shouldn’t be taken seriously, including yours. Obvoiusly, you wouldn’t mention the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many of Duke’s Rhodes and Marshall winners were on various merit-based scholarships given by Duke. In other words, if Duke didn’t have these merit-based scholarships, their numbers would have been significantly smaller. There’s nothing magic about Duke education vs other peers like Northwestern, JHU, or Georgetown. The main difference is those others don’t use merit-based cash to lure the best of the best from HYPMS.</p></li>
<li><p>Most of Duke research dollars are for its highly ranked medical school. It’s not like their other fields, such as sciences and engineering are all that (except only BME)…</p></li>
<li><p>Duke has less faculty with AAAS & NAE memberships than Northwestern. Duke has higher “productivity” than UChicago too but I highly doubt Duke’s faculty are more prominent.</p></li>
<li><p>As for campus beauty, I would take the lakefront over those copycat Gothic buildings any day.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, weather at Durham is better but I would never choose Durham over arguably the greatest American city, even if the winter freezes my b*tt off. I believe most people wouldn’t either.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In conclusion, Duke and Northwestern are peers. Don’t make it sound like Duke is at the level of HYPS, it’s not.</p>
<p>As for grad school placement, please show us data that show a Duke candidate would somehow has the edge over candidates from other peer schools with identical stats (GPA, test scores, etc). Please also provide data that show the number of applicants vs number of admits and their stats. Until then, you have no basis to back up your claim.</p>
<p>Supernova123,</p>
<p>You are confusing the difference between raw data and the (mis)interpretation of them. Just because the faculty are more “productive” doesn’t necessarily mean they are more prominent. Productivity is in constant flux anyway; faculty can easily publish several papers in one year and not a single one in the next year. At least AAAS and NAE take a much longer and more holistic view when they grant memberships.</p>
<p>Anybody can easily come up with arbitrary criteria such as whether one school has more beautiful people than another school. That person could use the number of blondes as the measure and concludes that University of Alabama has more beautiful people than Duke because Bama has higher percentage of blondes. Just because you got “objective data”, number of blondes, doesn’t mean the claim is right!</p>