I agree with HappyAlumnus. In addition, if you attend a top notch undergraduate school and do very well, your chances of being admitted to an Ivy/top tier law/medical/graduate school is higher than doing well in a mediocre college (also assuming everything else is equal, i.e. LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, etc.). The same is true for attending a top notch undergraduate public school like Michigan, UCLA, UC Berkeley, etc. The top tier of undergraduate schools (private and public) seem to be feeder schools to the top tier graduate school programs.
A lot of people forget that OU is full of National Merits. We have the most of any public university. While there are a ton at Duke and the like, it would be remiss to think that you could automatically be in the top 10%, given the previous statistic. Also, these NMs tend to all be in the Honors College and sticking out is not easy. OU does send a nice number of top students to T14 law schools but not nearly as many as Duke-duh.
That being said, a 4.0 at OU is definitely possible. I am completing my MS in engineering at OU right now with a 4.0 (granted grad school grades are inflated). So, yes it can be done! I think OP would be more likely to make a 4.0 out of OU than make a 3.6+ at Duke.
OP needs to consider whether the opportunity to network and be around some of the brightest people in the US is worth a free ride at OU vs. 60k/year at Duke. I think that is the real factor in most cases.
OU enrolled 267 NMS in 2014 out of 4,700 freshmen (6% of the class), so it’s definitely not a cakewalk to get a 4.0.
^ Those are scholarships sponsored by the university. That doesn’t count in my book. Schools use it as a way of inflating their numbers.
All of Duke’s National Merit Scholars are “genuine” (i.e. Duke doesn’t sponsor their scholarships in any capacity).
I agree that the number of NMS can’t be compared across universities because of the college sponsored ones. But my point was more that 6% of the class scored high enough for NMSF, so the top of the class is quite competitive despite the mediocre overall test scores of the student body.
“if you like a subject and have a strong work ethic, you’ll make As no matter where you go” hahah
LOl. Sure at a SUNY in English or social science-antropology, psychology, sociology- But in a rigorous program in a rigorous school? Nope. . Engineering? Biochem? CalTech? CMU? MIT? Nope. Yes there are distinct differences in the level of education across schools and sometimes across majors within schools.
@lostaccount, perhaps not electrical engineering, but please explain the As that I got at my Ivy League grad school vs. the mediocre grades at my ratty high school? A higher-ranked school does not necessarily result in lower grades.
Some assumptions here seem to be that the University of Oklahoma is somehow an unchallenging school where you won’t get faculty support or be surrounded by motivated students or something. A quick glance at stats shows that overall, Oklahoma students’ test scores are above-average, over two-thirds of students were in the top quarter of their high school class and over one-third were in the top 10% of their high school class. Given that OU has 22,000 undergraduates, they actually have more students who were in the top 10% of their graduating class than Duke has at their entire undergraduate schools.
I likewise wouldn’t assume that you would get a 3.8 at Oklahoma but a 3.3 at Duke. First of all, top schools are known for their grade inflation (with the exception of some). Second of all, as others have pointed out, your GPA is more about motivation and interest. It could be that the large lecture classes at OU don’t suit you as well as the smaller seminars at Duke. Or maybe the pressure and competition at Duke gets to you while the more carefree and less competitive nature of OU allows you to flourish. Who knows?
And, as someone else pointed out…you have no idea whether or not you are really going to law school. I wanted to go to law school when I was a senior, too; I think probably 50% of high schoolers think about it at least once at some point. You shouldn’t pick a college solely on the basis of going to law school, or thinking you might.
Duke will, no doubt, offer you more opportunities. That’s an elite school with connections to top firms and the kind of recruiting and alumni benefits that can launch you into top places after college. But OU is also no slouch, and you might prefer the experience or the money might be a better sell there. One of my favorite new coworkers did his undergrad (and PhD) at OU. We work at Microsoft.
You can have great post-college outcomes at either, so pick where you want to go based on where you want to go.