<p>Duke's highest ranked department is biomedical engineering and even that program lags behind Johns Hopkins'. How does Duke compare to JHU in other Engineering fields? I know Johns Hopkins surpasses Duke in History and Biology and but both have strong English programs. Duke is considered good for Political Science, however Johns Hopkins is particularly strong in Political Theory and International Sudies...</p>
<p>Is there any concentrations at Duke that are unmatched? For instance, at Johns Hopkins, the Public Health and Writing Seminars majors are both unique and outstanding.</p>
<p>If Duke was ranked #15 in US News and didn't have a Div I basketball team, would Duke be a lot less popular? Even with US News' help, fewer than half of the students admitted to Duke actually enroll. Is US News and basketball keeping Duke competitive with the Ivy Leagues or is it Duke's acedemics that are attracting students?</p>
<p>"BME lags behind"? = one ranking behind, nothing to get hot about. Don't know where you got that JHU surpasses Duke in history (havent heard anything special about either of the two really). Biology in both schools is filled with overzealous pre-meds and they probably couldn't tell you the difference. Johns Hopkins yield rate is lower than Duke's...and their acceptance rate is higher. Is that because of US News? Then maybe US News is making you think that JHU's BME program is noticably different from Duke and you shouldn't criticize it. </p>
<p>JHU is a very good school, no doubt, but the undergraduate schools are filled with highly competitive pre-meds in a very high-stress environment with very little grade inflation. Students there are either very driven or unhappy. Sink or swim environment. Plus it's in Baltimore...</p>
<p>Ritchieboy: You use USNews to validate your argument, saying that BME is Duke's highest ranked department and therefore somehow its best department (and I don't even know where you're getting that information about the other departments, care to share your source?)... then you say that the rankings are no good because they, along with our basketball team, are the only things keeping us competitive with the Ivy League. You can't have it both ways. Either you agree with the rankings or you don't. I don't, yet I'm still at Duke.</p>
<p>But anyways, are some people here primarily because of the basketball team? I won't lie, yes, some people are. A few. But the vast majority are here for the academics. The way academics combine with the social scene here, which I guess Amused is referring to, is something that puts it above JHU.</p>
<p>Duke's academics are top notch. As I said, I have no clue where you're getting that stuff about English or history departments. I don't know what proof you want. I'm at Duke so I know what it's like, but I can't define it in terms of numbers or statistics. The school attracts top professors and leaders (including 2003 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Peter Agre away from JHU just last week...) and the students here are smart and fun.</p>
<p>You do realize that Hopkins has sports teams too right? I believe their Lacrosse team is ranked #1 or #2 in the nation. I don't believe every single one of those players is a pre-med major and had a 4.0 gpa in high school. Hopkins is known for their science, everything else I'd say they are the ones that "lag" behind Duke.</p>
<p>mensa160 I'm about to tell you a secret. People have sex in college. Rape happens in college. People do drugs in college, lots of them. They drink UNDERAGE. Athletes get special benefits the rest of us don't. People cheat. This happens at 99% of colleges. Wolfe didn't even mention Duke as one of the schools he researched. Are you refusing to apply to UNC or Stanford cause Wolfe visited those places to write his book?</p>
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[quote]
I would never go to Duke after reading Charotte Simmons.
[/quote]
Uh, first of all, the author stated that he did research at many colleges, never once mentioning Duke as one of them. He seems to have used Duke as a setting, but none of the things uniquely Duke (basketball team, campus, etc.) are the negative things. Things in that book happen at many, MANY colleges around the country.</p>