UVA vs Duke

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
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<p>Echols Scholar and College Science Scholar at UVA, if it matters. It provides me with guaranteed freshman research and an open curriculum and priority registration.</p>

<p>Invited to Duke Up Close, so I'll be visiting in a couple weeks. And UVA soon thereafter.</p>

<p>I'm a really social, liberal person. Not into frats but love going to games. Most likely going to study neuroscience and public policy/econ. Diverse interests, likes to explore new things. Definately need a mall and lots of places to just stretch out/play frisbee... got to be an accepting social atmosphere, not clique-y or dominated by jocks/frats (yea, hard for these two schools). Also, gonna prolly apply to med school.</p>

<p>Where's best for me? What are your reasons I should attend that school?</p>

<p>Thanks in Advance!</p>

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<p>Duke's public policy is really good. One of the best. And it's much more liberal than UVA. Congrats on your acceptances but I definitely think Duke is the better of the two here!</p>

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<p>Yup. Money isn't a factor here btw. They're both prolly gonna barely give me any unless I use my full ride at UMCP as a bargaining chip.</p>

<p>Thanks! I'm more focused on the sciences than pub policy though, if that makes a difference.</p>

4

<p>I'm sure Duke has nicer science facilities. They are in the research triangle after all.</p>

<p>I'm going to tell you right now that as similar as the two schools seem, they seem, at least to me, to have very different student bodies. Although both are big schools (well UVA is anyway) and I think pretty much anyone can find there niche at either place, I just get a different vibe from the student bodies (I got to UVA and have gone to Duke for a few weekends). If your perceptive, I think you'll be able to pick up on this when you visit both places. </p>

<p>At the end of the day, go wherever you feel more comfortable. Both are great schools, with great campuses and you can get to where you want to go (med school) from either place. Duke Basketball is obviously in a league of its own, but UVA's got a brand spanking new arena, a basketball program on the rise, and big time football (and better soccer baseball and lacrosse if you're into any of those sports). Even if you decide you want to do something else with your life after you get to college, you're not closing any doors by going to either school. </p>

<p>Personally I feel much more comfortable here at UVA. But other people feel the exact opposite. I certainly wouldn't be offended if you turn out to be one of them.</p>

<p>I will add though, just to plug my own school, that Charlottesville is about 100 times nicer than Durham, the music scene is way better in Charlottesville, and that there are many more nightlife options here at UVA.</p>

<p>Oh and you're probably going to be happy at either place so don't stress too much over this decision ;).</p>

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<p>^Whoa. The music scene in Chapel Hill is nationally known. Charlottesville can't touch this (trust me I live here, and I moved from San Francisco).</p>

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<p>idunno jimbob, I've heard good things about the cville music scene :P</p>

<p>Nice indie/punk bands come by?</p>

<p>And how are the social/nightlife options anyway? like are they pretty pricey things (on and off campus)</p>

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<p>No, Chapel Hill and downtown Raleigh are awesome. Durham sucks, don't let anyone tell you otherwise :)</p>

<p>Chapel Hill is known for the indie/punk/emo bands that play at Cat's Cradle and the rest of the scene!</p>

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<p>Dave Matthews got his start playing at frats in C-Ville.</p>

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<p>1) Duke is not appreciably different from UVA in terms of political leanings. Once you get to college, wherever you go, you'll find that nearly every university leans solidly left, but that you can find whatever political peer group you want. I wouldn't base this decision of perceived political leanings of students/professors.</p>

<p>2) Socially, UVA wins. Simply put, the student body gets out more on weekends and there are more social outlets. If you don't drink, there are plenty of things to do. I have more than a few friends who don't drink and they don't have any trouble getting out and having a good time. On the other hand, if you do want to go to parties, there are plenty on grounds and off grounds. There are all kinds of house parties and apartment parties, as well as frat parties and parties in upper class housing. There's also a fairly active bar scene. Duke has a much more restricted party scene, and from what I hear, it's not getting any better. The frat scenes are not dominant at either school. If you want to do your own thing and stay away from them, then you'll have no problem doing it. I wouldn't judge greek life prematurely, though, as you're probably fairly ignorant of what exactly it's like. I don't understand why you included "jocks" in that statement. Do you think you'd be going to class with meatheads at either school? Lol. Chances are, they're be mostly (well-rounded) nerds.</p>

<p>3) If you like going to athletic events, it's probably a toss-up. Basketball is <em>huge</em> at Duke, but it's got a lot of momentum right now. Our team recently completed its first season playing in the brand new John Paul Jones arena (which is stunningly nice) and had a surprisingly good season (finished second in the ACC and went to the second round of the NCAA tournament). We also have football games in the fall, which are huge. Duke doesn't. (Well, they do, but no one goes). Lacrosse is moderately popular at both schools, and baseball is moderately popular at UVA. Both schools rank very highly (top 10, I believe) in the Directors' Cup, which is a ranking of athletic programs at american universities based on team success.</p>

<p>4) Both schools have lots of green space, but I'd wager that UVA has more. We have a very spread out campus with a number of large, open green areas, most notable the Lawn (a UN World Heritage site, BTW).</p>

<p>5) Both schools are good enough at the undergraduate level to get you where you want to go academically. The economics departments have similar rankings at the graduate level and likely are similar at the undergraduate level. I can't say much about the neuroscience program, but I do know that it's an honors program here and the people in it tend to do extremely well.</p>

<p>5) Both schools will get you into any medical school you want, provided you follow through with appropriate hard work and talent. It's popular on CC to say things like "XYZ school has a GREAT premed program" (and XYZ is usually Duke, JHU or WUSTL), but from what I've observed and heard from people involved in the process, there's little truth to that. What matters in medical school admissions are your cumulative GPA, your BCP GPA, your MCAT score, your medically-related extracurriculars, and possibly higher level science courses and research. Both schools give you excellent opportunities in all of those areas. </p>

<p>If I were you, I'd visit both schools and make the decision. I wouldn't make the decision on points 1, 3 and 5 that I picked out from your OP. For me, the social scene at UVA would tip the scales in UVA's favor (especially after having been in college). I'm assuming you have a negative view of partying, but it's likely that your preferences will change when you get to college, so keep an open mind.</p>

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<p>Well I'm not really sure what you're interested in.</p>

<p>Theres a pretty big Greek presence (by the way, don't write this off before you get to school). </p>

<p>The bar scene is ok I guess.</p>

<p>Lots of random house parties on any given night.</p>

<p>The downtown mall is really nice, and pretty close, but not all that frequented by students (at least not undergrads).</p>

<p>Good restaurants. And a lot of them.</p>

<p>JPJ has attracted some big time artists. Since the beginning of the year Eric Clapton, Kenny Chesney, Billy Joel, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Dave Matthews have come. Common is coming next month.</p>

<p>The kind of acts you seem more interested in go to Starhill (<a href="http://www.starrhill.com/Home%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.starrhill.com/Home&lt;/a&gt;) and the Charlottesville Pavilion. There are some more places around town to hear live music, but I've never really done that scene.
FYI the Charlottesville music scene is pretty much as famous as the Chapel Hill. Here's an article from the Washington Post from a few years ago where the author visits three of the South's classic music towns: Charlottesville, Chapel Hill and Athens.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112301720.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112301720.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In my opinion the Duke social scene kind of blows. You basically have two options on Friday and Saturday nights. Theres this really sketchy pseudo club place. Or you can go to the parties that people hold in the dorms on West Campus. They have a lot of fun doing that, but I always found the partying in a dorm thing to be kind of stupid. Can't dance, can't really even move. I guess there's also a small bar scene. So really before I guess I was more dissing their social scene than talking ours up.</p>

<p>What specifically are you interested in?</p>

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<p>Also our basketball team didn't come in second in the ACC last year cav. We finished tied for first.</p>

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<p>Depends on who you ask, holla9. Given that we lost to UNC, it's probably more accurate to say that we came in second. Not that there's anything wrong with that.</p>

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<p>its strange everyone i know who got into both duke and uva chose duke. personally, my bro wants to go to duke and i went to visit with him in the fall and it weirded me out. i am glad to be here. if it werent for the basketball i would have assumed it to be the artsiest school ever haha. ummm and also like 50% of duke juniors study abroad.</p>

<p>i would disagree that the frat scene is not big here - at least among the 1st yrs in old dorms that is where they go every weekend. but on the other hand i do not drink and i have no problem having a great weekend every weekend.</p>

<p>i think it is important for you to visit both schools and then decide which you like better. we can't do that for you.</p>

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<p>i'm obviously biased towards uva.</p>

<p>however, ill try to give you a few objective observations.</p>

<p>dukes social scene is miserable. spend 1 weekend there and you'll realize how bad it is compared to uva's. if walking around outside and sitting on the big frat benches/playing beer pong in a tiny dorm rooms is your idea of fun--its sweet. if not, then thats the best it has to offer. however, unc's social scene is vastly superior, and is only a $10 cab ride away.</p>

<p>i don't think you'll find you'll get a better education at duke, even though its degree definately has more of a "wow" factor than a UVa degree--which I honestly believe is solely due to its basketball program. if you ask most older people about georgetown...it wasn't exactly the "academic powerhouse" it is today until patrick ewing went there.</p>

<p>UVa is cheaper.</p>

<p>You are in a bunch of scholars programs at UVa...you'll find you're experiences through them will be superior to those you'll receive at duke.</p>

<p>You won't have to sit through a 0-48 football schedule like you will at duke your 4 years...and if recent trends keep up, UVa basketball is looking just as good, if not better than Duke basketball. That aside, UVa has numerous amazing sports programs.</p>

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<p>If you're socially liberal, I would definitely go with UVA over Duke.</p>

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<p>I wonder how the Duke kids would respond to the OP's query. Maybe we're a little biased here? =D</p>

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<p>I'm stepping in just to talk about the music scene. Charlottesville is home to three things, all related, that make the music scene here superior to some cities twice its size: Coran Capshaw (here's</a> an interesting bio), MusicToday[/url</a>], and [url=<a href="http://www.redlightmanagement.com/%5DRed">http://www.redlightmanagement.com/]Red</a> Light Management. </p>

<p>Bands that stop in DC usually hit Charlottesville on their way to Asheville, but rarely on their way to Chapel Hill. The number of venues in Charlottesville is greater than the number of venues in Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>The town of Charlottesville is full of musicians, artists, and academics. While the triangle area is obviously full of academics, I don't think it has the concentration of musicians and artists.</p>

<p>Now, we don't have Time Out Biscuits, but we do have The White Spot for late night food.</p>

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<p>Dave Matthews was the house band at a place in Charlottsville, too. S2 bartending while at UVA and worked with DM.</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE]
Dave Matthews was the house band at a place in Charlottsville, too.

[/QUOTE]
That was Trax, a "hole in the wall" type club and the first venue Coran Capshaw owned.</p>

<p>Story has it that Coran didn't even like the DMB sound. He just saw kids pack the club every Tuesday and decided to apply the Grateful Dead touring practices to DMB. Obviously, it worked.</p>

<p>MusicToday, which does merchandising for a host of bands, used to be run out of the office at Trax. Customers would call to complain that merch they ordered smelled like smoke and the staff would act clueless, pretending not to know why that could be.</p>

<p>MusicToday is now housed in a warehouse just outside of town and Trax is now a UVa parking lot.</p>

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<p>:) If you're in Chapel Hill, check out the Cat's Cradle, the place where you'll hear all the indie bands!</p>