<p>Which school, University of Southern California or Duke University, is the overall a best school? Your thoughts and reasons please?</p>
<p>
USC
'Cause this is the USC forum… :)</p>
<ol>
<li>I know more about Duke than USC</li>
<li>My son chose USC…hated Duke when he visited twice and refused to apply in spite of being “recruited”. He got into Harvard so he had good credentials.</li>
</ol>
<p>Duke is great school. campus is more spread out and is not in good neighborhood. The cit of Durham is simply not that nice.(I am from NC). The school has great reputation and qualified students and faculty. Duke has a higher ranking than USC.</p>
<p>The Duke atomosphere is toxic though for many students. The kids are bright but in many areas are “cut throat” competitive(expecially the sciences) and many have a chip on their shoulder attending Duke because they didn’t get into the Ivy of their chosing. It is not a happy place compared to USC. In spite of being in the south, the students/faculty are not as friendly as USC and the faculty are often not supportive of the students(note the lacrosse incident and the faculty that turned on the students before the evidence was presented). My son didn’t think he would be very happy for 4 years and thus, didn’t even bother applying. Several other of his super bright friends, did the same thing.(They all applied to UNC-CH, UVA , Vandy and some Ivys but not Duke).
So, that is personal opinion without statistical evidence. If you are considering Duke, apply and VISIT for more than the campus tour. I recommend staying for at least one night on campus and 2 days walking around to get a true feel for what it is like to attend the school. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think most people myself included would consider duke to be a notch above USC academically. However, you should choose the school that you feel most comfortable at; don’t make your decision based solely on perceived prestige. I suggest that you focus on being admitted to these schools before you think about choosing between them. Going to either school would open doors for you in the future.</p>
<p>
This is simply not true. Most Duke students weren’t admitted to HYP but nearly the entire student body was accepted at at least one of the other 5 Ivies and turned them down. The Ivies represent the pinnacle of American higher education but Duke along with Stanford, Caltech, MIT and the University of Chicago are the big 5 universities that manage to compete with these schools just fine.</p>
<p>The sciences and the premed curriculum is going to be competitive everywhere but Duke is one of the most collaborative learning environments you will find.</p>
<p>
Neither is USC but you conveniently choose to ignore that. Durham has been rated as one of America’s fastest growing cities with a great restaurant scene though.</p>
<p>
The faculty was stuck in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. I bet the administration at Penn State is feeling the heat now for not being proactive enough for instance. The lacrosse scandal is an isolated incident and the faculty in general has a very cordial relationship with the student body at Duke. It’s one of the reasons that Duke grads are among the most represented at the top business/law/medical/graduate programs. The professors go out of their way to give students interesting research opportunities, great mentor ships and glowing recommendations.</p>
<p>SC is dominant in football.
Duke is dominant in hoops.</p>
<p>:-)</p>
<p>I am extremely familiar with Duke medicine and undergraduate programs. I will leave it at that. It is a great school but has many negatives. Our son has more opportunities in his double major than he would at Duke. Duke does have a higher ranking but happiness is key for success in the big picture. Like any college…visit the school for more than one day(don’t just look at ranks and do the standard tour) .Every student is different and that makes the world a great place. Sounds like you will have wonderful options. Good luck!</p>
<p>Duke’s the better school. However just because it’s a better school doesn’t mean you should go there. Los Angeles, CA is much more appealing than Durham, NC. And this would probably be assented even by the people living in Durham.</p>
<p>That being said, Duke’s probably the best school in the south; and, i believe, it’s part of the so-called ‘research triangle’ (which includes UNC and Wakeforest iirc.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>she said the ivy of their ‘choosing.’ It’s very much coherent with this statement that they got into one of the other five ivies, but the ones of ‘their choosing’ were HYP and hence, they didn’t want to go there. </p>
<p>Also, i’m not really sure how true your statement is, but i suspect it’s false. Duke’s acceptance rate for fall '10 was 16%; compare this to Columbia (10%) or Brown (9%). In fact, the only ivy that has a higher acceptance rate than Duke is Cornell (18%) although UPenn’s comes close to Dukes’s (14%).</p>
<p>Duke is more selective than Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell as of this year (class of 2016). Just check out the ED stats of these schools, and the best part is that penn accepts nearly 50% of its class ED as opposed to Duke’s 37% so there is a greater incentive for a student to apply ED to Penn.</p>