<p>I have a high-schooler who really likes Duke and will apply. Can forum members recommend some other schools with similar qualities? Here are some criteria we have in mind: </p>
<p>o Strong academics
o Reasonable weather
o At least some enthusiasm and school spirit
o Sororities
o Less than Ivy League difficulty for admission
o Perhaps a strong core curriculum
o Preppy is ok</p>
<p>Any suggestions appreciated!</p>
<p>Well, I know this is an Ivy, but UPenn is always compared to Duke. I'd probably put them on about the same level in terms of difficulty of admission.</p>
<p>Here are my thoughts on the schools that are most like Duke of a decently wide range of selectivity:</p>
<p>Princeton
Stanford
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
UPenn
Georgetown
Rice
UVA
UNC
UMich
UC-B
UC-LA
USC
Tufts
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Emory</p>
<p>aside from harvard, princeton, yale, mit, columbia duke has similar selectivity. i would agree with the ccer's post above for schools that have similar rates. </p>
<p>you may also want to check out vanderbilt, it has great weather and satisfies all of your criteria.</p>
<p>higher selecitivity
Princeton
Stanford</p>
<p>Similar Selectivity
Dartmouth (slightly higher)
Penn (slightly higher)
Northwestern (Slightly lower)</p>
<p>Lower Selectivity
Emory
Vanderbilt
Rice</p>
<p>i don't know why no one is mentioning johns hopkins or cornell... both are easier to get into, especially cornell (not by that great of an amount).... jhu is very close</p>
<p>I think Rice has a similar selectivity to Duke...it's definitely more selective than Vanderbilt or Emory. And Rice's selectivity is higher than that of Northwestern, but lower than that of Dartmouth and Penn.</p>
<p>Just adding comments to the overall reasonable list above.</p>
<p>Princeton **doesn't have sororities.
**Stanford fits criteria, except for difficulty in admissions (i.e. definitely one of the five hardest in the country).
Dartmouth having "reasonable weather" depends on your definition of reasonable. It can get pretty cold up there in NH. It's preppy too (like Duke).
Williams **doesn't have sororities (or school spirit really).
**Amherst doesn't have sororities (or school spirit really).
UPenn fits criteria assuming you're not from Florida and Philly's weather is ok for you.
Georgetown doesn't have recognized sororities (although they might have some "underground" ones, I'm not sure).
Rice doesn't have sororities.
UVA fits your criteria.
UNC fits your criteria.
UMich fits your criteria, although A^2 can get brutal in the winters.
UC-B, UC-LA, USC <a href="I%20don't%20know%20anything%20about%20UC%20schools">/B</a>
**Tufts doesn't have school spirit (does have sororities, though). Weather is subjective.
Northwestern fits your criteria (except, again, weather in Evanston is debatable).
Vanderbilt fits your criteria (super southern preppy too).
Emory fits your criteria, although school spirit not as good as at places like UVa, UNC, Vandy, Northwestern, UMich (i.e. ANY school in DI sports).</p>
<p>I think Duke's biggest overlaps are UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell, UNC, UVa....</p>
<p>Thanks, all, for helpful suggestions. We'll do some more research based on them.</p>
<p>I'd say personally that Cornell is Duke's best match. It's only marginally less selective than Duke, and from what I've seen lately on this board, a LOT of people who got off Duke's waitlist turned down Cornell to go to Duke!</p>
<p>Myself included!</p>