UCLA vs. UCB vs. Duke

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Ladies and gentlemen, the situation is quite complicated.
A background:</p>

<p>UCLA admitted to Engineering
UCB admitted to Pre-Business
Duke admitted to Engineering</p>

<p>I personally life in the north bay of CA, about an hour north of San Francisco.
I need to decide between these three colleges.</p>

<p>Considerations:</p>

<p>-Duke gave me $35,000 in gift aid, a huge amount. Nevertheless, most of this aid is based upon my brother being in college right now (Princeton). When he graduates next year, my financial aid will likely go down.</p>

<p>-UCB at least to me seems a bit too intense and/or close to home and I don't particularly like Berkeley as a city.</p>

<p>-I really think that Los Angeles as a city would provide me with many unique opportunities that I haven't had before.</p>

<p>-I've been wavering between engineering/business/computer science as a major. (Leaning towards business at the moment)</p>

<p>-Duke is a private university, and that may mean lots of good things in terms of the quality of the education. It would be an entirely different experience for me (I've been in public school all my life)</p>

<p>So, college confidential, what do I do? (1 week to decide)</p>

<p>I'll answer additional questions if need be.</p>

2

<p>Seems like it’s really just between UCLA and Duke based on your post. As far as I know, UCLA ranks a fair amount above Duke in engineering. UCLA’s engineering is very strong, and your peers will be very smart (so you don’t need to worry about anything like that). If you switch out of engineering though, Duke is the better school.</p>

<p>With that said, it would probably be awesome to move out to Duke and get a totally new experience. It’s tough to advise you when I don’t know if your financial aid will be decreasing. If you think that you’re going to wind up with considerably more debt from Duke than UCLA, I wouldn’t do it.</p>

3

<p>I’d leave rankings aside and consider where you most want to spend 4 years. Does your brother like the east coast? Would you like to try out a different part of the country? If so, I’d go to Duke, where your engineering classes will be just as hard as those at UCLA but smaller, the sports teams just as fun to watch as UCLA’s, and you can always return to California when you’re finished. OTOH, if you really want LA, it’s an easy decision.</p>

4

<p>Thanks guys, decided just yesterday on Duke just to get a completely different experience and the feel of a private University.</p>