Duke or Brown? Engineering and history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brown of course. It's an Ivy and Duke is overrated.

I thought we were past saying “go to school xyz because it’s an Ivy.” I guess we aren’t.

Duke offers a great academic and social experience. They have a very loyal alumni network that takes good care of their kin. The weather is great , and the campus is gorgeous. Duke might not be what you are looking for, but there’s no need to attack it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD has been committed to Brown but just got off the waitlist at Duke. She’s conflicted because while she would’ve chosen Duke originally, without the Duke acceptance she has grown fond of Brown over the past month. It feels almost back to square one and she doesn’t have long to decide - any thoughts? She’s went to ADOCH at Brown and liked it a lot, but to give her a better sense of Duke we’re planning to let her fly out to Duke last minute for an unofficial visit. She likes the flexibility of curriculum at Brown too but also appreciates the stronger engineering at Duke (plus they have ample flexibility). Any thoughts would be appreciated!

In my opinion, Brown.

Both schools are great, and engineering grads from either school will have an easy time getting jobs.

But, if Duke is really better known for engineering than Brown, that might mean that the engineering classes at Duke are tougher and more stressful.

Why put up with, say, 25% more stress for the sake of what might possibly be a 2% quality and lifetime outcome advantage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown of course. It's an Ivy and Duke is overrated.

Why Brown of course? OP's child is not as shallow as you. She turned down UPenn for Brown.

Don’t feed the troll, the same PP keeps saying that as if anyone would buy it. Everyone knows Duke is better than many ivies so the “pick the ivy” statements don’t mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are your top 25 PA Scores from last year at USNWR:


1. Princeton 4.8
2. Columbia 4.7
Harvard 4.9
MIT 4.9
5. Yale 4.8
6. Stanford 4.9
U Chicago 4.6
8. UPenn 4.6
Caltech 4.6
9. Duke 4.5
John's Hopkins 4.7
Northwestern 4.4
13. Dartmouth 4.4
14. Brown 4.5
Vanderbilt 4.3
WashU 4.2
17. Cornell 4.6
Rice 4.1
19. Notre Dame 4.2
20. UCLA 4.4
21. Emory 4.2
22. UC Berkeley 4.7
23. Georgetown 4.2
U Michigan 4.5
25. Carnegie Mellon 4.3
UVA 4.3

You realize the peer assessment is literally the dumbest thing and a major reason US News is a crap ranking? They send this peer assessment to random administrators at each school annually to give their perception of other schools. Most schools don't bother and never send a response. Otherwise, it's not academics actually inputting their opinions, but just people who work at the school who are hired to fill in paperwork and surveys.

Of course the experts here at DCUM know better about academic strengths than the actual schools themselves. Right?

No one is saying that, but it's a fair observation to think that administrators whose jobs are to deal with bureaucratic paperwork just to keep schools running aren't the best people to know the details of which schools have more academic strength relative to others. Most of these administrators are local hires who clock in for their 9-5 to do work that doesn't involve knowledge of the impact and teachings at other universities around the country.

Right the people who work in higher education aren’t the best people to know who is good in their industry. But you are.

So damned ridiculous.

I don't think PP is saying they know better, just that the administrators don't know either. I agree the US News PA scores are useless. It's the equivalent of a front-desk receptionist at a gym being asked to rank all the other gyms in the country, rather than asking the instructors/owners of gyms to rank other gyms.

Your response does not make the statement any less ridiculous. And you add your own ridiculousness by comparing career education professionals, most of whom have advanced degrees themselves, to gym front desk receptionists. In fact, this is even more ridiculous then the post you are trying to support.

+1

[Anonymous]

Duke = T10
Brown = T20

Of course Duke is more prestigious

[Anonymous]

I would try to focus on the undergraduate engineering experience. Duke is a true research university while Brown has more of a pumped up liberal arts college atmosphere

My experience is that the latter environment is often better for undergraduates because they have top faculty teaching even lower level courses whereas the former will have grad students doing a lot of teaching. The upside of a research university for an engineering undergrad are the opportunities to conduct high level research, which liberal arts colleges can’t match

But Brown also has those opportunities. To me it’s kind of a best of both worlds. Ultimately she can’t go wrong, so once she makes her decision it will work out great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would try to focus on the undergraduate engineering experience. Duke is a true research university while Brown has more of a pumped up liberal arts college atmosphere

My experience is that the latter environment is often better for undergraduates because they have top faculty teaching even lower level courses whereas the former will have grad students doing a lot of teaching. The upside of a research university for an engineering undergrad are the opportunities to conduct high level research, which liberal arts colleges can’t match

But Brown also has those opportunities. To me it’s kind of a best of both worlds. Ultimately she can’t go wrong, so once she makes her decision it will work out great

Grad students don't teach at the highest elite level schools like Duke.

[Anonymous]

Aww congrats to your dd. I fell in love with Brown for myself (didn't get in) and then also hoped my dd would end up there (got into another awesome school that was her own first choice) so of course I want to say....Brown! But, agree with every above poster who speculates that the school cultures are different enough that your dd will know in her gut which is the best place for her. And both should be an incredible experience and launching pad. Let us know what she decides!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would try to focus on the undergraduate engineering experience. Duke is a true research university while Brown has more of a pumped up liberal arts college atmosphere

My experience is that the latter environment is often better for undergraduates because they have top faculty teaching even lower level courses whereas the former will have grad students doing a lot of teaching. The upside of a research university for an engineering undergrad are the opportunities to conduct high level research, which liberal arts colleges can’t match

But Brown also has those opportunities. To me it’s kind of a best of both worlds. Ultimately she can’t go wrong, so once she makes her decision it will work out great

Grad students don't teach at the highest elite level schools like Duke.

This just isn’t true— my friends who went to Harvard had lots of classes taught by TAs.

I think the post you were responding was a good post (one of the only substantive sensible posts in the last few pages)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown and Duke have very different cultures. Is your kid more preppy (Duke) or more crunchy/granola(Brown)? Dies your kid like watching sports and want a school with a lot of spirit in the traditional sense of the word (Duke)? Does your kid get really stressed about school and therefore would benefit from Brown's more lax grading policy?

Both are great schools but they are super different.

Brown does not have a “more lax grading policy”, Wtf that is. You made that up.

Brown is well known for its lax grading system
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/09/serrano-browns-grading-system-and-advising-culture-are-suppressing-student-achievement

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/04/brown-grade-inflation-continues-to-soar-data-shows

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would try to focus on the undergraduate engineering experience. Duke is a true research university while Brown has more of a pumped up liberal arts college atmosphere

My experience is that the latter environment is often better for undergraduates because they have top faculty teaching even lower level courses whereas the former will have grad students doing a lot of teaching. The upside of a research university for an engineering undergrad are the opportunities to conduct high level research, which liberal arts colleges can’t match

But Brown also has those opportunities. To me it’s kind of a best of both worlds. Ultimately she can’t go wrong, so once she makes her decision it will work out great

Grad students don't teach at the highest elite level schools like Duke.

This just isn’t true— my friends who went to Harvard had lots of classes taught by TAs.

I think the post you were responding was a good post (one of the only substantive sensible posts in the last few pages)

Really? I'm sure lab sections are managed by TAs but actual classes??
My kids go to semi-elite schools, but no classes has been taught by TAs at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown and Duke have very different cultures. Is your kid more preppy (Duke) or more crunchy/granola(Brown)? Dies your kid like watching sports and want a school with a lot of spirit in the traditional sense of the word (Duke)? Does your kid get really stressed about school and therefore would benefit from Brown's more lax grading policy?

Both are great schools but they are super different.

Brown does not have a “more lax grading policy”, Wtf that is. You made that up.

Brown is well known for its lax grading system
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/09/serrano-browns-grading-system-and-advising-culture-are-suppressing-student-achievement

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/04/brown-grade-inflation-continues-to-soar-data-shows

From your own article:

"Grade inflation is not unique to Brown. Students across the country in a wide range of higher-education institutions have transcripts that tend to have higher grades than their counterparts decades prior."

Try and read what you post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would try to focus on the undergraduate engineering experience. Duke is a true research university while Brown has more of a pumped up liberal arts college atmosphere

More stupid. Brown is also an R1 research university, with a large compliment of graduate programs and more grad students than Duke (3000/2200).

https://graduateschool.brown.edu/about#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_School_of_Duke_University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown and Duke have very different cultures. Is your kid more preppy (Duke) or more crunchy/granola(Brown)? Dies your kid like watching sports and want a school with a lot of spirit in the traditional sense of the word (Duke)? Does your kid get really stressed about school and therefore would benefit from Brown's more lax grading policy?

Both are great schools but they are super different.

Brown does not have a “more lax grading policy”, Wtf that is. You made that up.

Brown is well known for its lax grading system
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/09/serrano-browns-grading-system-and-advising-culture-are-suppressing-student-achievement

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/04/brown-grade-inflation-continues-to-soar-data-shows

From your own article:

"Grade inflation is not unique to Brown. Students across the country in a wide range of higher-education institutions have transcripts that tend to have higher grades than their counterparts decades prior."

Try and read what you post.

Also this: https://today.duke.edu/2003/01/20030128.html#

At Duke, Pomona, Harvard and elsewhere, D's and F's combined now represent about 2 percent of all grades given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown and Duke have very different cultures. Is your kid more preppy (Duke) or more crunchy/granola(Brown)? Dies your kid like watching sports and want a school with a lot of spirit in the traditional sense of the word (Duke)? Does your kid get really stressed about school and therefore would benefit from Brown's more lax grading policy?

Both are great schools but they are super different.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Crunchy/granola versus preppy. Which does she prefer? Both are great schools, but totally different.

You think Brown is “crunch granola”?

You have obviously never been there.

I went there. It's not Reed, but Brown will definitely more crunchy/less preppy than Duke. Also much smaller Greek scene. So it really depends what your kid wants.