<p>Also, I know the thread was originally more of a “TCU vs. Duke,” but I’m sure that prospectives are clicking on here thinking it’s a more general “Why Duke.” To ease away from the bickering that’s overcome this thread, I’ll give my personal perspective on what I’ve liked about Duke so far.</p>
<p>To give some background, I’m prospectively a neuroscience and economics major (one or both…I haven’t decided). I’ll stay within these fields, as I admittedly know very little about Duke’s strength in most others.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in neuroscience, Duke is an amazing place to be right now. Neuroscience itself is a new and rapidly-growing field, but Duke’s neuroscience program is expanding even faster. Every year, it’s bringing in new professors. New professors need new students to work in their labs. After realizing my interest in neuroscience, I decided to join a lab, and within weeks, I had a job set up in one. I’m not talking about the dreaded glassware-cleaning jobs. Professors here trust students. You actually get involved in their research. Also, in neuroscience classes, a big part has been reading original research papers. It’s a nice feeling when you realize that the paper you’re reading was written by a Duke professor, and I’ve gotten that feeling quite a bit. That said, I’m not going to pretend like Duke is the only school with a great neuroscience program. If you’re still reading this paragraph, I’ll assume you have a least some interest in neuroscience. If so, the schools with the top neuroscience program (judging by which names I see the most when I read papers) are (in no particular order) MIT, Duke, Caltech, UPenn, Stanford, UCLA and UCSF. I’m undoubtedly missing quite a few, but keep in mind that I’ve only been in college for one semester.</p>
<p>As for economics. Well, I didn’t hear about Duke economics specifically before arriving here because it’s not ranked top-10 or anything (at least I don’t think they are?). I’m not sure how they rank economics programs, and I personally don’t know enough about famous economic figures to say how “good” Duke’s program is by that measure. However, at Duke, most students who are brave enough to pursue economics (Duke economics is probably one of the hardest majors here, but I think it’s still the most popular) have career aspirations in the likes of ibanking, consulting, accounting, trading, etc. If you’re interested in one of those careers, you’ll soon learn that one of the most important factors in your success is summer internships. Duke gets wonderful amounts of recruiting from the top firms (see the “Investment Banking” Forum on CC–it’s generally accepted that Duke is in “Tier 1” in terms of on-campus recruiting). That might not say much about Duke as a school, but it’s about as vital to your success in those fields as anything school-related.</p>
<p>Aside from academics, Duke provides you with resources to do whatever you would ever want (this was what initially made me choose Duke). Want to start a club? Sure, there’s a bit of bureaucratic measures you have to pass through, but after that, they’ll fully fund you. Want to volunteer abroad for a summer? Check out DukeEngage. They give you freedom to pursue your own intellectual endeavors. Sure, there are those academic distribution requirements, but one look at Columbia or UChicago’s “Core” curriculums will show how marginal Duke’s requirements are.</p>
<p>In brief, I haven’t been here nearly long enough to really tell how “good” it is as a school, but I’ve made many friends (I’m not a “frat” type, but I probably will rush for an selective living group), and I’m sure all of you won’t have trouble doing that. Everyone tries to meet everyone in the first month or two, so even if you’re not the type to make an effort to meet others, you’ll find that you did anyways. However, as a school, Duke has something to offer everybody. At no point have I felt constrained by Duke. Duke opens every door for you in every field. At least I’ve felt that way.</p>