<p>"Duke is a great school and all, but my question is about financing such a school. Is 40K+ really worth it for an education from Duke? Maybe so, but to all of you attending Duke right now and those of you who have graduated, how did you finance it and was it worth it in the end?
"</p>
<p>I second this question</p>
<p>That is a good question, I agree. I don't know if it can ever be answered, though, because if you go to Duke you obviously haven't experienced college at any other place, so it's impossible to say whether it was "worth it" to choose Duke.</p>
<p>That is true :-</p>
<p>Its really between Duke (and a few other schools) and Penn State honors, which would be less than twice the price. I'm having trouble deciding.</p>
<p>I don't think it is black-and-white. It is worth the money to choose Duke, but at the same time it can also be worth the sacrifice to choose Penn State. College is what you make of it <em>shrug</em></p>
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Luckily there's a great thing called financial aid. ;) Duke is actually much cheaper for me than UNC Chapel Hill or NC State would've been.</p>
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No, but I could if I wanted to. I came in with 11 IB/AP credits and have enough to graduate a year early or with a master's degree. I'm choosing to study abroad for a year instead.</p>
<p>So do you think your education at Duke was worth the money, warblersrule86? I mean, is there a difference in your opportunities between you and your friends that finished other schools through employment, pay, etc?</p>
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[quote]
I mean, is there a difference in your opportunities between you and your friends that finished other schools through employment, pay, etc?
[/quote]
Well, I haven't finished yet, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that (bluedevilmike might be a better person to ask). For me, it's certainly worth it. My major is fairly uncommon, and I would not have had nearly the same amount of resources at my disposal had I gone elsewhere. As someone planning to go to grad school, research opportunities/funding and faculty-student interaction were huge factors.</p>
<p>As for pay, no, I don't think there's a big difference. A civil engineer from NC State will probably make more in his first year than I will with a PhD. :eek:</p>
<p>20_07,</p>
<p>What do you plan on doing? It definitely is worth it if you want to go into Investment Banking or Consulting. Duke has an amazing Alumni network</p>
<p>does anyone know where i can find stats about where duke undergrads end up after graduation? particularly those majoring in ibanking/economics? thanks</p>
<p>Is 40k a year for an education at Duke really worth it? </p>
<p>For me, University of Florida would've been free (vs. $18,000k per year at Duke), but after going to Duke and having such amazing experiences with my professors and campus activities and even just the people I've met here, I'm so grateful that my parents let me go to my top choice school. College is what you make it, but there's something to be said for getting your education in a more intimate atmosphere at a top school, with the dense concentration of motivated, accomplished individuals you find here. The amount of personal attention you get here is astounding, with everyone from your professors to your academic advisors to the peer tutors pushing to help you do well.</p>
<p>nashi, here are some hirings from BB firms last year. Duke is obviously not in the very top, but in the second tier with the other ivies, Ross, Berkley, etc</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibankingoasis.com/node/3595%5B/url%5D">http://www.ibankingoasis.com/node/3595</a></p>
<p>If I go to Duke, we would have to pay a lot. My question is whether or not Duke offers any opportunities to earn that money through internships, research grants, etc. I hope to meet a professor in the first week and try to get in on a research project with him. Duke's endowment is $4.5 billion. Is there a chance that some of the grant money would go to paying all or part of my tuition or are there any internships that would cover that or anything else?</p>
<p>Also, for those of you who are in graduate school, what is the money issue there? Do you get pretty much all of your education paid for through research and grants/scholarships?</p>
<p>"I hope to meet a professor in the first week and try to get in on a research project with him."</p>
<p>As a freshman just meeting a professor, odds are the best you will get is $8/hour doing menial lab work. This is not going to come close to paying all of your tuition.</p>
<p>Graduate school - if you are a (strong) PhD candidate you will have all of your tuition paid for plus a 20-30k stipend (how much depends on your field and your university's funding, some are even lower, some are higher)</p>
<p>Duke's endowment isn't just for financial aid. Most of that actually comes from the annual fund and such not the endowment itself.</p>
<p>As for jobs, you are capped at how much you are allowed to work a week (~20hrs max) and I haven't heard of beginning salaries that go higher than $9/hr. Most people I know start at $8 and maybe work up to $10 if they stick with it long enough. Even if you work $10/hr for 20hrs a week, that's only $200 a week. Assuming 12 weeks a semester, that's $2400. Two semesters is $4800. If you stay for all the breaks and work (that includes summer) that's 22 weeks (give or take) at 40hr/week and $10/hr, that's $8800. So all together, 2X2400+8800=13600. Which is about 30% of your total costs per year. Yeah, so working at Duke to pay for you education is not very feasible for a freshmen. </p>
<p>If you are really having trouble paying for Duke (as in your parents will go hungry, your house will be foreclosed) talk to financial aid about it and ask for readjustment. If it's a couple of thousand dollars shortfall, consider some form of student loan or look for some scholarships.</p>
<p>Just a thing about the dorms. . . I visited this past week, and I must say that while the dorms are fairly sized, the condition on the older buildings in East campus was horrendous. It made me gawk to believe that such a wealthy and prestigious school had dorms where the conditions looked as bad as a housing project. Maybe it's just me, but I would think that with the endowments and the 45k each year, they could at least have decent dorms.</p>
<p>That aside, I love Duke! The campus is not enormous (at least compared to Berry College), but it is intuitive, and I hope I will have a great 4 years!</p>
<p>Class of 2011 Pratt BME! :D</p>
<p>(If anyone cares, I had 800CR, 770M, 790W, 750 Physics, 790 Math I, 800 Math II. National Merit finalist, star student. 4 AP english, planning on AP Phyiscs BC, total of 5 AP classes taken total, 9 at the local college. 1 year of 9th grade wrestling, a few math awards, a few club things, and pretty much it.) :p</p>
<p>Which dorms did you think looked that bad?</p>
<p>Eh, I guess you just learn live with it (pun intended). I mean, all you really do in a dorm is sleep and work and maybe watching a couple of movies. You won't be admiring the decor and stuff while you are doing any of that stuff. Personally, I've never really noticed except when I go to the bathroom :D</p>
<p>Duke dorms were roughly on par with my experience visiting other schools. About as nice as Penn's, nicer than Princeton's, nicer than MIT's, worse than Chicago's, slightly worse than Harvard's. Most of them were all pretty similar.</p>
<p>Obviously these were small samples of dorms at those schools. On the other hand, they were the dorms my tour guides chose to show me, so they were probably the nicest ones they could find.</p>
<p>How is the bathroom situation? I'm planning on picking the A/C buildings because I think I'd like it and I think having a newer building is worth it...but at the same time I have a slight germ phobia and such and I hate the public restroom look of many bathrooms.</p>
<p>Enteril: as you've probably heard, it's not possible to pick AC buildings. That aside, I think the bathrooms are as clean as they can be considering 5-10 people share them.</p>