<p>for pre-med, any thoughts?</p>
<p>I would say Duke and WashU are about the same, with Northwestern trailing slightly behind. If I remember correctly, Duke first years have it pretty rough, and WashU and Northwestern are average.</p>
<p>All three are great schools. Posting this here will mean you will get more WashU advocates, of course.</p>
<p>I’m trying to decide between WU and Duke. </p>
<p>My mom feels that Duke has a bigger name. I feel that Duke has a bigger focus on athletics and Greek life, two things I don’t really need in a college. </p>
<p>I’ve lived in STL from second grade to senior year and I can tell you the weather here is very humid during summers, but overall the temperatures are acceptable. </p>
<p>I have many friends also going to WU next year from my high school, so I think that’s a pro and I’m 60% sure I want to go into medicine at this point, so I’m leaning towards WU I guess. </p>
<p>Any thoughts? Thanks!</p>
<p>I like Duke a lot but common drawbacks are the culture (very greek and more conservative or religious leaning than other schools, very sports heavy) and my personal opinion that it has more name recognition bc of it’s athletic programs.</p>
<p>At Wash U you’ll find all of the things Duke has but in slighter moderation (Greek life but nit as much, amazing sports but not the peer pressure that everyone has to go to a game, etc), not as conservative, more cohesive campus ( no 30 minute walk from the dorms and much much more to do off campus in terms of walking distance), and am amazing pre med program.</p>
<p>They are similar schools in lots of ways and I had lots of friends who debated between the two options, but the cultures and student bodies and locations are so different!!</p>
<p>Northwestern is also a great school but it’s too far from “real Chicago” and winters would be longer and more brutal than STL or Duke.</p>
<p>
My goodness, the stereotypes are a-flyin’. </p>
<p>“very Greek” - Duke has almost exactly the same percentage of males in frats (29%) as WUStL (25%) and less than Northwestern (32%). Greek life can be as big or small a part of your social life as you’d like.</p>
<p>“more conservative” - Incorrect. A survey of Duke students found that 36.3% classified as “extremely liberal,” with an additional 36.7% identifying as “liberal” and 22.2% as “conservative.” Duke is by far the most gay-friendly of the three universities, something I’ve always looked into carefully when considering colleges. The faculty is even more liberal, and many have been savagely attacked by conservative writers like David Horowitz.</p>
<p>“more religious leaning” - Despite 1/5 of Duke students claiming to be Catholic, I’d notice about 50 showing up to mass. Despite the chapel’s domineering presence on campus, religion is not taken terribly seriously by at least 50% of the Duke student body. As an interesting tidbit, the Duke Chapel performs same-sex unions.</p>
<p>“very sports heavy” - This one I’ll agree with, although athletics are not exactly absent at Northwestern. Basketball is taken pretty seriously at Duke, with lacrosse a little less so. You’ll find TVs in the gym so that people can watch the games while exercising (I bet you think I’m kidding). That said, nobody is going to tie you up and drag you to a game if you don’t want to go, and there are people who spend four years in Perkins or the Engineering Quad without ever setting foot in Cameron. It’s a bit like having a house with cable TV - it’s nice to have, and other people in the house may choose to partake of it, but you have plenty of other rooms to visit should you want to avoid it.</p>
<p>(Also, you might want to inform RLHS at Duke of those 30 minute walk dorms. Housing has been tight recently, and they’d be happy to know they’re apparently missing some.)</p>
<p>^
regarding Duke’s dorms… I was referring to the Duke “east campus”, which is where all freshman live. It is a 30 minute walk to Duke’s main campus according to google maps. Surely there must be shuttles or people bike, but nonetheless that is a very long walk and may get annoying depending on someone’s preferences. </p>
<p>Upperclassmen do live in the main campus area at Duke, but I was referring to specifically freshman for the residence hall situation.</p>
<p>My daughter is at Duke (full ride AB Duke Scholar) and my son will go to WU. Although he is a NMS and Presidential Scholar candidate, he didn’t get in to Duke. He would have gone there, I think, mostly because his sister is there already. But, the 2 campus thing is inconvenient. </p>
<p>Freshman dorms are really on their own campus, with own cafeteria, library, etc. So, freshman go to West Campus for classes during the day, but mostly live on East Campus. Downside - these dorms are not air conditioned (too old???) and my D spent a rough first 2 months sweating at night during a killer hot Aug and Sept.</p>
<p>There are buses that run continuously between the 2 campuses - almost no one walks it. The buses run every 10 minutes at most so it isn’t too inconvenient.</p>
<p>Academics? Duke has a more liberal arts tradition than WU and they offer many very interesting, unusual courses. Ethics of Aging, Feminism in Arabic Film. Graduating is a bit complex because all students in Arts and Sciences need to pick up a variety of types of courses and areas of study. But, that makes for lots of courses in topic X that are designed to appeal to majors that are not in department X.</p>
<p>Student Body? My daughter is very liberal, but she does find Duke too conservative for her. She is working it out and has some friends now, but she felt a bit out of her element for the first 3 semesters. Some of that is due to her not really engaging with groups that were likely to be more compatible.</p>
<p>Prestige? Duke is certainly higher. WU is well known and up and coming. Duke was up and coming 50 years ago :-)</p>
<p>Both are great schools and we are proud of both kids for getting in. Mystery of why my son, with higher SATs than his sister, didn’t get in while she got a full ride is left as a testament to the unpredictability of the admissions process. Well, we do know (or suspect) - poor alumni interview (son is shy budding engineer); too few APs (function of his tiny school - not his fault!!!).</p>
<p>A few minor corrections:
The freshman dorms on the main quad lack air conditioning. The newer ones do not. It is luck of the draw, and your chances of getting A/C range from roughly 1/4 to 1/3. </p>
<p>Duke had originally planned to start renovating the dorms on East, but alas, its budget is not quite the same as it was two years ago. It is not so bad if you keep a fan going, and I personally used mine for noise control even long after the temperature cooled. I agree it’s a definite downside, though. </p>
<p>
Almost nobody walks it, but many people run it. 
I got to Duke about a week early last year and was flabbergasted to find people jogging back and forth between East and West even then. Health nuts to the end!</p>
<p>You’d have to wait 10 min for a bus during nights and the weekend, but you’d have to wait 5 min at the most during the day. </p>
<p>vbball90, I was joking and knew what you meant. As someone who made that walk many times, I can assure you it’s only 15 minutes, not 30. The distance between East and West is roughly 1 mile.</p>