Anonymous wrote:Northwestern. If you are from the NE, southern culture will be a shock for your kid & not in a good way.

lol. duke is about as far from "southern culture" as it gets.

Definitely Northwestern.

This is 10 years old but yikes.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-hazards-of-duke/308328/

Op. Interesting to hear all this - I think I am thinking similarly re: NU. Daughter is also leaning that way. Will feel good about her decision either way!

Unless college basketball is very important to her, it sounds like NU is a better fit.

I had a friend from college who transferred from Duke to Northwestern. She very much preferred Northwestern. She said the student body was a lot more down to earth and nice at Northwestern. So, she is the only person I know who experienced both schools.

I would choose Northwestern over Duke in a heartbeat.

Northwestern. If you are from the NE, southern culture will be a shock for your kid & not in a good way.

Northwestern sounds like a better fit, judging from what you've provided about your DC. We had the chance to tour Duke and while it is a lovely campus, we were ultimately a little turned off by what we heard from students about the campus culture and the environs. Northwestern is a little bit "grittier", but has the interesting balance between arts/humanities and STEM that appealed to our kid a bit more. Especially if your kid loves theater, there's a thriving community at Northwestern, with lots of productions and opportunities open to even non-majors.

Anonymous wrote:She does like the appeal of being close to a big city and says she doesn't mind the winters. We are originally from the Northeast and I imagine it's not much colder in Chicago.

She has interests in theater, is in her high school choir, very friendly girl with a little bit of a shy side but I think she wants to break out of her shell a little bit in college. Didn't we all!

I loved Northwestern (came from the deep south). Fantastic life changing exp for me. Pol Sci and American Studies double major in the College of Arts & Sciences...

She does like the appeal of being close to a big city and says she doesn't mind the winters. We are originally from the Northeast and I imagine it's not much colder in Chicago.

She has interests in theater, is in her high school choir, very friendly girl with a little bit of a shy side but I think she wants to break out of her shell a little bit in college. Didn't we all!

Northwestern would be my own preference, far and away. But what are some of your kid's interests?

Anonymous wrote:Duke is a lot warmer.

I’m not kidding. It can make a big difference.

Duke is a lot warmer.

So it has come down to the wire for these two schools for DD. She's in love with both schools and is having an extremely hard time making a decision. Fin aid packages are almost identical from each school, and cost is not an issue; would be roughly the same at both. She will most likely major in math or chemistry but isn't your traditional nerdy student. So, what to do?

For the record, she is responsible for making her own decision and we are making that clear to her. But with Covid we have not had a chance to visit either school. Thoughts?