<p>I’m stuck deciding between Penn or Duke. I got in the engineering program for both schools, so I’ll probably do biomed engineering and double major in something else. </p>
<p>so far, Penn is giving me 5k more in financial aid then Duke. However, Duke seems to have the better environment. It would be really nice to take some courses at Wharton, but do you know of people from SEAS that ends up dual degreeing with Wharton? If so, how hard it is to do that? Opinions?</p>
<p>Come to Penn. I'm pretty sure the engineering here is better. It's definitely cheaper. Sure, Duke has a great social atmosphere with school spirit, but so does Penn (we're not like Columbia or Chicago kids). And you can dual-degree with Wharton if you maintain a good GPA (3.6-3.7+) in your first-year. While the workload may be heavy, Wharton/SEAS dual-degrees are very lucrative. </p>
<p>And I hate the Blue Devils.</p>
<p>this is also a case of whether you want to be in a city or not. many people feel overwhelmed when they go to a city for college after not being exposed to such an environment.</p>
<p>and many...like myself love the city atmosphere...penn has many opportunities for branching out from the engineering program which jpps1 touched on. its really awesome because you can even take wharton classes as an engineering student even if you aren't going for a dual degree! good luck with your decision, if you have any specific questions please don't hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>I'm also not in Wharton (nor would I want to be) but take courses there, and I consider it an invaluable resource, for education (though not as business-savvy as a Wharton grad I am now far more savvy than the average Dukie), for recruiting, for keeping socialist moonbats at bay. I am eternally grateful to Wharton for being here and I can't imagine a college education without it.</p>
<p>Come to Penn!</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I guess I should be coming to Penn next year</p>
<p>Nooooooooo. Go to Duke; the campus is gorgeous, they just built the Fitzpatrick Center that doubles the size of the engineering facilities, and it's chillaxed.</p>
<p>The main difference for me was the campus and setting. Although I didn't really want to go to the South, I prefer Duke's campus and housing, and I also didn't want the urban atmosphere of Penn. </p>
<p>Your education should be excellent either way, and both colleges are very similar in terms of social life and reputation. If you feel more comfortable with the environment Duke, I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Well, it is oddly reassuring that I won't make a wrong choice out of the two. =)</p>
<p>That you won't! But still, go to Penn! Philadelphia is a spectacular college city. It's big enough to be interesting but not so much as to drain attention away from the campus.</p>
<p>I got into both and right now I have all but eliminated Penn. Mainly because I can certainly get a dual degree at Duke in 4 years, they have a stronger BME program, and all new labs. </p>
<p>You cant go wrong at either school. In fact, I hope to go to Wharton for graduate school after I work a few years. </p>
<p>Right now Im down to Duke and Vandy (for financial reasons) and possibly ND</p>
<p>Is there a difference between "dual degree" and double major? If you're trying to dual degree between SEAS and Wharton, isn't that for the special M&T program?</p>
<p>I can't speak for Penn's BME strength (though I know it's top-notch) but the labs are so new that they are under construction as I type this.</p>
<p>People do get dual-degrees in 4 years @ Penn, it's not particularly easy but it is possible.</p>
<p>And given that the admissions database is computerized and stored (as the whole app pool takes but a few gigabytes of space), your Wharton MBA app runs the risk of Penn finding you in their records as turning down Penn...Penn really doesn't like people who do that...MUAHAHA</p>
<p>(I'm admissions office staff)</p>
<p>OSUforme, how does the dual degree work at Duke? Do you sign up after a year like at Penn?</p>
<p>Clearly this disagreement can only be solved with violence. Fisticuffs!</p>
<p>I should clarify as at Duke I believe it is a double major rather than a dual degree. If I understand correctly, at Penn you cant double major between schools but you need a dual degree to satisfy requirements at both schools (ie Wharton and SEAS). At Duke, you can double major between schools (at least this is how I understood it) and Duke's curriculum is much more open making it easier to graduate with two majors. </p>
<p>For a long time Penn was my top choice. However, having an identical twin going to MIT, my parents really dont have the funds. I need to know that I can get out of school in 4 years and therefore I couldnt do what I want to do at Penn (degree from Warton and SEAS). Duke's freedom with scheduling is why I will choose Duke (if I chose to decline Vandy).</p>
<p>Here's a website with Duke's majors/minors and interdisciplinary options
<a href="http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/academics/majors.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/academics/majors.asp</a></p>
<p>Forgot to add if you havent visited: Durham is disgusting but the campus is nice</p>
<p>I'm troubled with the same problem-- Duke or Penn. My passions lie both in business and engineering (BME or/and aerospace --haven't decided which yet but probably aerospace like it since a little child). So its tempting to say UPenn definitely because of the Wharton school, but at the same time they don't have aerospace engineering but they do have great BME. But I'm most likely settling more towards aerospace tho. While Duke, I don't know about it's business program (I know it cannot surpass Wharton for sure) but I feel its engineering is better than Penn??! But not so sure about Duke's aerospace tho. What do you guys think???</p>