<p>so, i got into washu and duke. is washu science stronger than duke? or are they equal?</p>
<p>WashU's science is it's strong point, so I'm guessing it's better.</p>
<p>But Duke's science is also its strong point. I would also like to know this, as I got into both. Though I rly liked WashU, I'm leaning towards Duke for neurosci, possibly premed</p>
<p>Duke is a Ivy-like school. Washu is a regional school</p>
<p>Hopefully, you can visit both. They're both fabulous schools. There's no doubt that Duke today has higher name recognition, however, year after year, WashU's name recognition gets better and better. To say it's a regional school is incorrect. As well, for many students today, schooling does not end with college. An education at either school will be great for you. The key at this level is to be happy and go to the school where you feel a "fit". Your chances at enjoying academic and social success will be much greater if you concentrate on "fit" over reputation (especially at this level).</p>
<p>I'm at the same point now, WashU vs. Duke for biomedical engineering...
I know Duke has the stronger bme program, but I'm still leaning towards WashU for a lot of reasons (art school for one).</p>
<p>Yeah, WashU's not regional, a ton of people from NY and NJ come here.</p>
<p>yea washu is not regional. i would put it up there as an Elite college- which includes the ivies</p>
<p>Both Duke and WashU get way more applicants than they have spots for. WUSTL is a bit more selective in terms of applicant pool this year. This year, Duke had 20,300 applicants for 1,650 maximum freshman spots. WUSTL had over 22,000 applications for 1,350 spots. How do I know? I was wait-listed at both and the waitlist letters include these stats.</p>
<p><em>graduate</em> ranking (from USN):</p>
<p>Biological sciences:
WashU: 7th
Duke: 12th</p>
<p>Chemistry:
WashU:43rd
Duke: 43rd</p>
<p>Physics:
WashU: 48th
Duke: 29th</p>
<p>Earth Sciences:
WashU: 25th
Duke: 34th</p>
<p>Those are graduate rankings though, I'm assuming the OP at the moment is just considering undergrad at the moment, much less thinking about which grad school is better...lol.</p>
<p>And while WashU may "appear" to be more selective, keep in mind it doesn't require a supplement and that in itself is quite alluring to prospective students and definitely helped WashU get more applications. If Duke did the same thing, its # of applications would inevitably increase too.</p>
<p>WashU and Duke, though, attract students of similar caliber.</p>
<p>I know they are graduate rankings and I actually emphasized that with the two asterisks. On the other hand, it doesn't seem like people have any other basis for comparison. So while graduate rankings aren't necessarily the best info, they are probably the best available info.</p>