Please help me choose if I should apply to Duke ED or not!

Hi everyone,
Please help me, I am so lost. I love Duke University but I am also looking at University of Michigan which I love and Tulane and some other schools. I know applying ED to Duke will increase my chances so that’s why I am thinking about applying ED besides the fact that I love it. Please take a look at my criteria to see if you think Duke would be the best school for me compared to University of Michigan. I like the academics in both these colleges so I am just going to list my non academic criteria. These are my preferred attributes in a college:

Prestige
Lower cost
Smaller classes
Strong Jewish community
Warmer weather
Live on campus all four years
Fun people that I would get along with (I have a pretty liberal attitude and not too many nerdy people)
Good social life (people like to go out and there are lots of parties)
Sports teams/ fun events before the game (like lots of people tailgating and stuff like that)
Greek life (which one is better/less competitive)

Please help me I don’t know what to do!

ED is really for your clear first choice school, and where you will not need to compare financial aid offers to other schools. Simply by asking the question, it appears that you do not have a clear first choice school.

Have you run the net price calculator on each school?

Cost isnt really an issue its just something I want to take into consideration when making my decision. I mostly posted this so people could help me decide if Duke has a good social life. I know that U-M students have a lot of fun but I am worried that since Duke is smaller and most students are stereotypically more academic that I wont be able to find a lot of people I have things in common with there.

When you say that cost isn’t an issue, do you mean that your parents can pay the full cost of Duke? I agree with the advice to run the NPC and then talk to your parents about whether or not they can afford to pay what the calculator says.

I agree with UCBalum. If you have to ask the question, you don’t have a clear first choice, and you shouldn’t apply ED.

However, Duke is one of the few schools who does admit that applying ED does give students an advantage in admissions, so here’s my take:

My opinion is that most students would be happy at a variety of colleges. It’s not like there’s one true “soul mate” college at which you might be happy, and all others would make you miserable; you might have a different experience at Duke but not necessarily a less fun one. So when you are making this decision, don’t worry about whether Michigan might be marginally better; worry about whether you think you’d enjoy the experience enough at Duke to make that a good choice for you.

Why do you love Duke? It seems to check almost all of the boxes - smaller classes, warmer weather, live on campus all four years, a strong sports culture - mostly centered around basketball, but strong in other areas too, good Greek life (30% of young men and 40% of young women join Greek organizations), and a pretty well-reputed social life. You will definitely find a lot of nerdy students at Duke because it is a very selective school, with a 10% acceptance rate and students who are admitted because of their high academic achievement. But any school that you consider with high prestige will also have a lot of nerdy students. Nerdy, however, does not mean socially awkward or that they don’t know how to party or are uninterested in Greek life or sports.

Do you think you would be happy at Duke? If you got accepted tomorrow and were told that you’d have to go there, how would you feel? Sit on that for a few days and think about it. Honestly, it sounds like you’d be fine with it, so as long as your parents are able to pay the full costs and don’t need to compare costs, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t apply ED. But if you are really torn and it’s tearing you apart, then don’t apply ED - just apply RD.

Also, are you from Michigan?

i’m not from either of the states but honestly I kind of want to be far away. Thanks though that was really helpful. Duke does have everything I want. I am just slightly concerned about the social life there. I know at University of Michigan, the social life is amazing. I only have some doubts about Duke because Duke is smaller and I am not sure if the atmosphere will be very “partyish” or if people will want to have fun on the weekends and even some week nights.

The other thing is that, since you are not from MI, Michigan will not offer you very much if any financial aid but Duke will meet 100% of your financial need.

Can you visit?

Ive actually already visited both but I was with my mom so I didnt really get to see much of the night activities there bc i didnt do an overnight