The Stanford-Duke Connection

<p>So, based on the text below the pie chart, the percentage of Stanford acceptees who choose Duke over Stanford is 2% or less of the total group who go elsewhere.</p>

<p>Right. That would be 16 or fewer among those admitted to the Class of 2008. Of course the story does not say how many cross-admits chose Stanford over Duke.</p>

<p>Do you have similar stats for HYP?</p>

<p>Read the article. It specifically says that the Stanford Report contacted the other schools(HYP), who either didn't have the data or refused to share it.</p>

<p>"I'm curious about the proportion of cross-admits to Stanford and Duke that select each one. Dadaist: where did you find the Northwestern cross-matriculation data?"</p>

<p>I don't have any data. This was told by an adcom member to a group of active northwestern alumni/interviewers at one of those sessions they have. No doubt its selective reporting, they wouldnt mention lower ranked colleges that are equally competitive when it comes to cross-matriculation.</p>

<p>I am familiar with Harvard cross-admit data w/ respect to SPYM etc, but can only discuss it in the most general terms.</p>

<p>I also applied to both Stanford SCEA (deferred) and Duke RD, but does anyone know how many Stanford rejectees get into Duke RD?</p>

<p>I know more than a few kids who got into Stanford (who are not on scholarship) and came to Duke--including freshman Sarah Ball, who wrote about her decision in the Washington Post (don't get Stanford people started on her! She told me she received death threats!)--but I'm sure Stanford usually wins in the cross-admit battle. That said, the schools are extremely similar, and the connection between them is evident even in recent actions such as the $25 million gift of Duke alumni Michael and Patty Fitzpatrick to both Duke and Stanford each to establish photonics centers and foster collaboration between the two universities: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/releases/index.php?story=64%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/releases/index.php?story=64&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In addition to that example, I would make these statements about both Duke and Stanford:</p>

<p>-Students at both universities are social, active, and very smart. Most of them had the choice of going to an Ivy League school but preferred the laid-back, friendly, community-focused atmospheres Duke and Stanford offered. Both student bodies are similar in size and statistics.
-Duke and Stanford both have excellent engineering and science programs, and are improving these areas rapidly, eclipsing the Ivies in this regard
-Both campuses are beautiful (granted in different ways), cohesive architecturally, and are kind of enclosed in "bubbles," i.e. they are separate and distinct from their surrounding community.
-Both schools enjoy intense athletic rivalries with renowned state schools (Cal and Carolina) while also collaborating with the other institutions academically.
-Both schools dominate their respective regions, (Stanford in the West and Duke in the South) and are among the top-10 in the nation and thus do not suffer any inferiority complexes that schools such as Tufts or Boston College (in the Northeast) do.
-Both schools lose a plurality of their cross-admits to Harvard.
-Both Duke and Stanford offer the most balance in terms of both academics (all academic departments are very strong to top-5) and athletics.
-Both schools enjoy top-10 ranked professional schools (Medicine, Business, and Law) and public policy programs (Hoover and Sanford).
-Neither school takes itself too seriously and though both are very elite cultures of elitism (such as finals clubs (Harvard), eating clubs (Princeton), and secret societies (Yale) do not exist at either school.
-Self-segregation of minorities has been a problem at both Duke and Stanford while they both enjoy the highest percentage of black students in the top-10 (11-12% vs. the 4-7% in most Ivies). Both have a large percentage of asian students (Stanford 25%, Duke 18%) in each incoming class.
-Both have a large percentage of international students (6-8%) mostly of asian backgrounds. Both offer limited need-based financial aid to them but neither is completely need-blind for internationals.
-Both have histories of conservatism but now are much more liberal than people perceive them to be.
-Tom Wolfe wrote a book about a university modeled after the two institutions.</p>

<p>I feel like I could go on forever, there are so many similarities...</p>

<p>Really, incollege? I'd be interesting to hear more about the non-scholarship kids who chose Duke. I'm in that position now: I could win BN Duke and go there or still choose Stanford (where I get loads of fin. aid). I could lose and like Duke better or still go to Stanford. Decisions!</p>