<p>Daughter chose Wash U over Vanderbilt, UVA, Tulane, Florida.</p>
<p>Why would you choose Wash U over AB Duke?!?!?!?!?!?</p>
<p>^
why wouldn't one?</p>
<p>It was a hard choice, but in the end I knew where I would be happier.</p>
<p>Reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>Money. WashU and Duke both offered me full-tuition scholarships but WashU gave me $5000 in addition. It's not that much more, but it adds up. If a couple of other things go through I'll be able to attend WashU pretty much for free. I hate having to rely on my parents to pay for my college, so the less I have to pay the better.</li>
<li>The scholarship programs. At WashU I'll be in the Danforth program, which feels a lot more like a "family" than the A.B. Duke. I liked a lot of the A.B. Duke kids, but they seemed way more focused on pure academics and research than involvement in campus organizations and real-world things. I'm probably going to major/minor in something involving Classics, Writing and Computer Science, which is a little different from stuff like Physics and Math.</li>
<li>The Nemerov Fellowship at WashU. It was the second scholarship I got there, and I'll be part of a really small-group writing "fellowship", which is awesome because I want to be an author. Duke didn't have anything like this.</li>
<li>I live in Cincinnati. WashU is 6 hours away driving. Duke is a pain to get to because I'd have to drive through WV the whole way.</li>
<li>All my extended family lives in Missouri.</li>
<li>But, most importantly, the feel of the campus itself. Duke was a little too preppy/northeastern for me, and I just liked the people at WashU better.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, even though you can say that Duke's however many spots higher in the U.S. News rankings or whatever, and that it's more "prestigious," in the end I didn't really care about that stuff. People might get more excited about somebody going to Duke (at least, that was what I saw when I told people I was deciding between WashU and Duke), but again, that doesn't matter so much to me. I'd actually rather have to prove myself and go to a school with a "lesser" name.</p>
<p>A lot of people (especially on CC) probably still can't understand why I would turn down the A.B Duke, but that's their loss.</p>
<p>I didn't realize that you had the Danforth Scholarship at Wash U. You explained yourself very well and I now totally understand your reasons for choosing Wash U. I'm sorry if I sounded rude!</p>
<p>Achill, congratulations on your Danforth scholarship, and I'm glad you're coming to WashU. I always wondered where they took the danforth people during selection weekend. I mean, I was with the Ervin group and I remember we were with the Rodriguez group @ some point, but I don't ever remember seeing the Danforth people. Where the heck were you all?</p>
<p>United States Military Academy (believe me, hardest choice I have ever had to make.....was set on USMA for over a year, but chose Wash U in the final couple weeks) and University of Illinois. lol, no ivies for me...still can't believe I got into Wash U.</p>
<p>chose wash u over umd honors program, brandeis, and northwestern</p>
<p>I chose Wash U over Northwestern, Case, and BU</p>
<p>hmm... UCLA, Cal, UCSB, RISD, and Boston University. And San Francisco State, but wouldn't have gone there anyways.</p>
<p>Tufts, BU, Cornell</p>
<p>BU, Carnegie Mellon, U Chicago, Emory, and safeties</p>
<p>Didnt even apply to any other schools, WashU was definitely the place I wanted to be.</p>
<p>i don't understand the fascination with choosing wash u over duke. someone care to explain?</p>
<p>Duke has some issues...don't you think?</p>
<p>not only that, missmolly, but i think wash u has an amazing lack of issues and high quantity of plusses</p>
<p>I did ED2, so I'd only heard from UI:Honors, Brandeis, and NYU by the point...so I turned those down and withdrew applications from Brown, JHU, and Northwestern.</p>
<p>Vassar, NYU, Emory, RISD, Syracuse,</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Lehigh, Maryland, UPitt</p>
<p>heyllama1, join the RISD-rejecter party! i thought i'd be the only one...</p>