<p>Hello All
My daughter is currently a junior in high school and is starting to narrow down colleges. She is an athlete and will be competing on scholarship wherever she ends up going. Although we will most likely make the decision based on her scholarship offers, her top choices are Duke and Stanford. She has been in contact with the coaches but we obviously do not know yet if either will end up making her an offer. Nevertheless, she has quite a few preconceived notions about both schools(who knows how she thought these up) Can anyone confirm if these stereotypes are true???</p>
<p>1) Duke is easier on student athletes
2) Durham is a **** hole
3) Palo Alto is boring
4)There is no social life at Stanford
5) The Duke student population is snobby and southern</p>
<p>Stanford senior here. Palo Alto as a whole is boring, unless you’re interested in tech (lots of major companies like HP and Facebook are headquartered just a short walk off campus), but downtown is decent and has lots to do. Students can also go to San Francisco, San Jose, the Bay, Santa Cruz, etc. among many other smaller cities nearby (like Mountain View).</p>
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<p>That’s not a stereotype about Stanford, so I’m not sure where you got that. The perception in general is that Stanford has one of the strongest social scenes. The perpetually awesome weather is conducive to that. Princeton Review puts Stanford at #3 in happiest students (sometimes #1) and #17 overall quality of life, and I think the social scene contributes to that.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which is “easier” on student athletes. I have read that Stanford has one of the highest graduation rates for student-athletes (if not the highest; and definitely the highest among the top athletic programs).</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think any of those stereotypes are all that true. In this situation, I think a huge factor has to be the quality of the particular sports program and coach. I realize the school is also very important, but when you’re talking about such great schools like Stanford and Duke as an athlete, I’d think the day-to-day activities on the team and competition will have a larger bearing on the enjoyment/success of the student athlete. And nobody can really tell you what’s “better” in that situation - your daughter has to speak with the coach and current players on the team to make that determination on her own. Having said that…</p>
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<p>Both have very high graduation rates. The last report I can find is from 2008 and has Stanford at 94%, while Duke edges it by a bit at 97%, for second in the nation. Notre Dame just beat Duke at 98% to claim the #1 spot. </p>
<p>Duke and Stanford are model schools for how to excel both academically and athletically AND get their students to go to class. NCSA Collegiate Power Rankings - which combines academic rank (US News), athletic rank (Director’s Cup), and athlete graduation rank (in equal parts) - had the following rankings:</p>
<p>Durham isn’t the greatest city in the world, but many parts of it have been revitalized in the past decade. You’d be surprised at how many nice restaurants are in the area now - there still are some shady parts, but there’s plenty to do and bars/clubs have no age limit since it caters to a college crowd (you just don’t get a wristband to drink), which is nice. Duke’s campus makes up for Durham’s shortcomings in my mind, but that’s a judgment you’ll have to make for yourself. If you visit Brightleaf Square, American Tobacco Historic District, Southpoint, and 9th Street, you’ll see that Durham isn’t as terrible as people say and there are lots of restaurants, shopping, theaters, etc.</p>
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<p>It’s funny the Southerners say Duke is full of Northerners and Northerners say Duke has a lot of Southerners. (I’m a Northerner, by the way). If you ask a current student, though, they’ll quickly tell you Duke is not very southern - the top 6 states represented at Duke are always California (had the most applicants this year), New York, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey. I don’t see Florida as particularly “southern” and Texas is its own entity…Northerners feel plenty at home at Duke.</p>
<p>I think all elite schools have a similar level of snobbery - honestly, I think Stanford and Duke are more down to earth than perhaps other schools. Maybe it’s just a geographic thing. They probably don’t get as many New England prep schoolers, but simply richer students from other regions of the country. All top schools are disproportionately represented by the wealthy - but that doesn’t mean all wealthy students are snobs, and if you visit the campus, I think your daughter will see this and feel comfortable. It shouldn’t be much of a concern, in my mind.</p>
<p>In the end, I think it comes down to simply where your daughter feels at home and can succeed the most on the field and in the classroom. I wouldn’t put too much credence into the above stereotypes. The decision making process for an athlete is different than that of the “normal” student. Good luck!</p>
<p>Surely, the rigor for student-athletes has to vary by sport. Yes, I know that Duke basketball players get a lot of breaks in admission and are probably expected to be more pre-professional in their orientation to basketball. I’m sure that the same wouldn’t be true of Duke swimmers.</p>
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<p>Southern New Jersey, perhaps. Duke and Emory are anomalies - they’re IN the South but not OF the South.</p>
<h1>1 really depends on the major. Engineering at both schools is gonna be really difficult. But like all colleges, some majors are “easier” than others.</h1>
<p>2-5 are probably 85% incorrect (sure, there is an element of truth in most stereotypes). If your D is a city-person, i.e., would love Columbia, then yeah, Palo Alto will appear boring (as will every suburban school). But there is PLENTY of social life to be had on The Farm.</p>
<p>Duke probably has more school spirit as hoops has been a constant top10 team, while Stanford football had a great season but will be interesting to watch the Cardinal fotunes withour Harbaugh. Both schools are the 2 most special schools in the country with academic, athletics, campus atmosphere, and weather. The Ivies have no answer.</p>
<p>Does your daughter have some good back-up choices lined up?
Over 30,000 students applied to Stanford last year. 177 freshmen got athletic scholarships (averaging about $17K). About 22,000 applied to Duke for Fall 2009. 102 freshmen got athletic scholarships (averaging about $37K). So for both schools, about 1/2 of 1% of all applicants wind up attending on athletic scholarships.</p>
<p>While I agree with this roughly, I think it underestimates the difference in athletic prowess. Stanford has not only won the Director’s Cup all but once (so about 16 times), but has the most individual championships (437, a huge margin between it and #2 USC), has the second-most team championships (100, behind UCLA’s 106), and dominates in the Olympics every time. Duke breaks the top 10 in the Director’s Cup only a few times (and has been ranked outside the top 20), has 17 individual championships, and 12 team championships.</p>
<p>For a combination of athletics and academics, the difference between Stanford and Duke is significant (not that Duke isn’t also top, probably #2, but a ranking doesn’t capture absolute differences, only relative ones).</p>
Stanford and Duke are the only two schools to be in the top 3 in DI every year.</p>
Duke and Emory are anomalies - they’re IN the South but not OF the South.</p>