You and your daughter should choose based on fit and your own evaluation rather than biased input on an anonymous forum.

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about NW, but Duke is brutally intense academically.

Yeah, right. Rampant grade inflation at both.

Northwestern

Nod to Evanston over Durham

Nod to Durham over Evanston.

Duke / Durham will be a very different experience than Chicago. Where does she want to end up geographically? Does she like activities available in large cities or will she plan to hang out mostly around the campus.

Both great options. Another vote for Northwestern based on what you described of DD's preferences

Anonymous wrote:You guys, Duke is not “southern” in the traditional sense. It’s just not. The student body comes from all over the world, many from the Northeast, as others have stated.

I went there, loved it, and found my peers to be really intelligent and engaging. I enjoyed the whole “work hard, play hard” mantra, and I loved having competitive college sports teams to cheer for as part off the experience.

As for performing arts, there are several a capella groups that your daughter might enjoy. They are quite popular on campus.

Doesn't like every college have a capella groups lol

You guys, Duke is not “southern” in the traditional sense. It’s just not. The student body comes from all over the world, many from the Northeast, as others have stated.

I went there, loved it, and found my peers to be really intelligent and engaging. I enjoyed the whole “work hard, play hard” mantra, and I loved having competitive college sports teams to cheer for as part off the experience.

As for performing arts, there are several a capella groups that your daughter might enjoy. They are quite popular on campus.

Anonymous wrote:NU is soooo cold. I think Duke is markedly more prestigious. Duke for the win.

I am from the West Coast and have always seen Northwestern as the more academically prestigious school. But both are prestigious. Certainly more so than Vanderbilt.

Most of the people I know who went to these schools are a bit douchey. However, they’re not as douchey as Princeton and Dartmouth, so they’ve got that going for them. Probably Northwestern has a slight edge over Duke because Southerners can take douchery to a whole new level.

https://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=Duke+University&with=Northwestern+University

According to Parchment, 77% of cross-admits would choose Duke. (Sorry, can't figure out how to attach a screenshot.)

Anonymous wrote:NU is soooo cold. I think Duke is markedly more prestigious. Duke for the win.

Duke is not more prestigious. While they are peers, NU has better across the board academics.

Duke is very much a Southern school, similar to UNC and UVA, perhaps slightly less so because its a research powerhouse which brings a lot of international grad students and also has a large number of wealthier undergraduates from the Northeast.

But as someone else said, students from the Northeast attend these schools and cosplay themselves as Southerners, and that includes the very casual, classy racism of the South.

Also, while the Research Triangle is an oasis of intelligence in the otherwise intellectually barren South, the vast majority of workers in the area are going to be coming from the surrounding, stereotypically Southern areas to work.

NU is soooo cold. I think Duke is markedly more prestigious. Duke for the win.