<p>I was accepted into the 2012 classes for these three schools, and I am having trouble deciding which school to attend. I plan on taking a premed track. Is one of these schools significantly better than the others in terms of premed?</p>
<p>No. They are all at about the same level when it comes to pre-med opportunities. Norcalguy can explain the ins and outs of being pre-med at Cornell to you better than I can.</p>
<p>That being said, the differences in student culture and student experiences between the three schools are not insignificant. I would chose the school where you feel the most comfortable. There have been a bunch of threads to this extent recently. I would suggest you peruse through them"</p>
<p>I think that for a certain type of individual --typically preppy, a little more conservative, and very social -- Duke is a great experience. But for anyone else, it can be hard to find your niche at Duke. Since graduating, I have interacted a fair amount with some Duke grads, and the sense that I get is that a lot of them weren't all that happy with their experiences at Duke. Certainly, some Cornell grads weren't completely happy with their experiences in Ithaca as well, but I think at Cornell it is easier to find a social niche that you will feel comfortable with.</p>
<p>Northwestern and Cornell are a bit more similar. I almost attended Northwestern, and had a few close friends who went to Northwestern. I love Chicago, but I ultimately chose Cornell because my financial aid package was a bit better.</p>
<p>Great choices. Surprised that the University of Pennsylvania was not among your choices as then you would have all four overlap schools. Cornell, Penn, Duke & Northwestern are about as close to being similiar as four major national universities can be. Penn is the urban version. Duke is a hybrid urban/not-so-nice suburban version. Northwestern is the upscale suburban/easy access to the city version. And Cornell is the rural version. Probably easiest to double major at Northwestern, then Duke. All are prestigious & all will offer you outstanding preparation for medical school.</p>
<p>1.) We have access to a world-class medical center. It's close and we're actually allowed - and helped! - to do stuff in it. Some schools like Columbia don't have their hospitals nearby, so it's difficult for students to volunteer or do reseach there. Not only is it literally like two minutes from the dorms to the hospital (walking), but Duke has programs explicitly set up (HCIP) to get undergraduates volunteering in the hospital.</p>
<p>2.) Astonishingly wonderful advising systems. We have famous premedical advisors. I've ranted about this a little bit on a thread relating to UCB in the Premed topics forum (Berkeley is a good place to pursue pre-med?) but the bottom line is that advising is both key and really wonderful here. They've earned their reputation as being among the best in the country.</p>
<p>This is reflected in their numbers.</p>
<p>3.) World-class faculty in small classes. Duke's philosophy in hiring faculty is that we want absolutely brilliant faculty on the cutting edge of their fields, and we will put up with almost anything to get them. The one thing we will not put up with, however, is an unwillingness to make teaching their absolute top priority. That means that the faculty we have here love students and will go far out of their way to make sure we learn. This means partly that we learn better, which helps us once we actually get into med school, but it also means that we get better letters of recommendation, which are huge.</p>
<p>This to me is the most important point: Yes, there are schools with similarly or perhaps even more qualified faculty as leaders in their fields. But at what other school do undergraduates have real, worthwhile access to those leaders on a routine basis? Where else will a health economist who is cited repeatedly in every textbook hold multiple review sessions, some of them on Sunday evenings, just to make sure we really learn the stuff? Where else will a world famous chemist respond to freshmen questions via e-mail during his Thanksgiving day? Some schools have wonderful faculty who will do this - but I don't think any of them will top us in the access we have to brilliance.</p>
<p>4.) An encouragement to pursue co-curricular activites. And yes, I did just call them co-curriculars rather than extra-curriculars. Duke understands that we're training young men and women here, not just scholars, and so I've never heard of a student here who had anything short of astonishing extracurriculars. I'm a tour guide, and I make it a habit when I'm on my tours to mention the accomplishments of the various students I run into - I can afford to do this because Duke students are simply astonishing. Friends of mine have discovered new chemical structures, signed up for internships with the bioterrorism department of the government - it seems everybody has something incredible that they view as normal because that's what Duke students do.</p>
<p>We have a department entirely for the purpose of helping students arrange interesting, educational, or service-oriented (but usually all three) summer projects.</p>
<p>This is crucial - medical schools need good qualifications, yes, but they are also looking for people who will make good doctors. People who have shown themselves to be committed to helping others, who can dive into the intellectualism known as research, and who have proven that their interest in health is more than just "hypothetical" are standout candidates.</p>
<p>5.) Warmth. Premeds here - knowing that we will all do well in the process - learn together. You won't hear of us stealing each other's notes or sabotaging projects. We study together. We encourage each other. Frankly speaking, we take care of each other. Duke students are warm, and we will support each other through rough times along the premedical track. Is this a stereotype? Absolutely. Has it proven true for me? Also absolutely.</p>
<p>6.) Location in the research triangle. This is one of the more minor points, but our location amongst the high-powered pharmaceutical companies does make it easier to attract biotechnology-oriented professors, faculty, companies, internships, etc. Duke Medical Center attracts a lot of exciting research for this purpose, and that may impact the premedical experience somewhat.</p>
<p>That doesn't even begin to talk about reputation, courses that prepare you for the MCAT, a pre-professional slant at Duke (which is good for pre-professional students like pre-meds), really world class science buildings like the French Science Building and CIEMAS, a commitment to genomics and science as a future, the interdisciplinary focus of most of our science programs, including medical humanities classes and the excellence of our biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>PM me if you have anymore questions. Hope you decide to become a Dukie!</p>
<p>Well, now you have received the spiel straight from the mouth of a Duke tour guide.</p>
<p>evil<em>asian</em>dictator - I think most of us on this site are looking for more personalized, non-political comments. Most of what you said seem like parsed language to me. It's easy to say this and that is excellent at Duke, but the exact same in slightly different language can be said for almost any other top school.<br>
However, I might just be bitter because I heard the same type of thing going into a selective high school, things like - No one steals anything. We help each other. There is no cheating here. I believed all of it at first, but I've found more than enough exceptions to these generalizations. I also found myself trying to avoid these exceptions when I was a tour guide (for my high school).<br>
So, if anyone could speak of personal experiences, something genuine that can serve as a sample of what the prospective students' lives at the university might be like, I'd really appreciate and prefer that over what CayugaRed2005 refers to as spiel from a tour guide.</p>
<p>What different aspects do these schools have to offer in terms of social life?</p>