<p>Why is Duke even being discussed on a thread titled “What’s the best college in the Midwest”? Because a Northwestern grad brought it up. The obsession with Duke on this board is very odd, in my mind. Personally, I find people (incorrectly) generalize student bodies far too often and the makeup of classes at Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Hopkins, etc. are much more similar than different. I think people who characterize UChicago as full of nerds who have no social lives are completely off base. The most common schools that Duke applicants apply to are Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. With so much overlap between the applicants, if you argue Duke students are obnoxious, you’d also have to argue all private school elite students are obnoxious. The only small difference may be Duke students are more into athletics than their peers due to the high profile nature of the basketball team - but that’s the same at other high quality institutions like UMich, Notre Dame, etc.</p>
<p>A few Duke posters may come off as overly defensive because for some reason Duke is always brought up in a negative light from other posters. I could say the same with UMich/Berkeley posters, too. I don’t think anybody on this site refers to Northwestern students as “poo faces,” but routinely people use the derogatory spelling “Dookies.” That refers to crap and was created by UNC/Maryland grads. It’s offensive. The proper spelling is “Dukies.” As for the happiness of students, I’d look at transfer rates to see a more accurate picture. Duke’s transfer rates are very low and the vast majority of students have a great positive view of the school.</p>
<p>Getting back to the topic at hand, Wash U/UChicago/Northwestern/UMich/Notre Dame are all great and I don’t think any one of them is clearly better than the other. You’d be well prepared in life at any of these fine institutions and I’d choose based on personal fit. People on this site in general are very prestige obsessed, but in reality it’s more about the individual than the school you attend for the VAST majority of individuals. If you’re a student that can get into Harvard and instead attend Illinois (still a fine institution), you’ll probably be just as successful attending Illinois. This is based on academic research.</p>