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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Unless you're a huge sports fan, there is zero reason to attend Duke over Harvard.[/quote]

Engineering would be one reason. And that does tend to be where a lot of smart boys go these days. And Harvard is nothing in that field. Whereas Duke has a solid engineering program.

Also, these days, many employers are wary of this generation of Harvard grads - lazy, entitled, privileged. Outside of investment banking, I don't think there's much of a career bonus for going to Harvard anymore compared to a perfectly good and prestigious school like Duke. And like it or not, lots of students like going to the "big game" with all the hoopla that goes with it.

As a grown adult, I would choose living in Cambridge for four years over Durham every day of the week. But it's not at all unreasonable for students to choose Duke over Harvard in 2026 for their college experience.     [/quote]

Even this is not correct.  Paulson gave Harvard $400 million in 2015 for engineering, and it has shot up the rankings in this area.  Now right behind Duke in the US News rankings, the Paulson school of engineering is now ranked ahead of Duke in the more serious international rankings like the Times ranking.[/quote]

We are talking undergrad. Harvard does well almost everywhere for grad school, which is what something like the Times and all the international rankings care about. But in engineering, very few students go on to grad school. The field changes so quickly.

Some private equity whatever dropping a bazooka of dollars doesn't change Harvard undergrad overnight. I have one kid at a top 20 school known for engineering. DC and their friends didn't even think about Harvard for that field. It doesn't even compete with UIUC, Purdue, or Georgia Tech - or Princeton and Cornell, which had the foresight to invest in engineering far before Harvard woke up.

For undergrad, Duke will often be the better choice - besides those with Wall Street ambitions. [/quote]

U.S. News literally ranks the undergrad engineering programs for Duke and Harvard one place apart, i.e. the same.  And Harvard is better funded and rising quickly.[/quote]

Or put differently, there is a strong argument for choosing MIT or GaTech over Harvard for engineering, but also a strong argument for choosing those schools over Duke.[/quote]

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