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

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for OP: just wondering which other Schools your DD looked at? Brown and Duke are on the list for us to tour. DD interested in engineering/ CS but wants the option to sr least minor in a discipline outside engineering- I know that can be hard to do in a lot of schools…just curious what you found

Thanks for asking! DD was also accepted to UPenn, Cornell, and Georgia Tech for engineering among others. She visited UPenn and Georgia Tech (along with Brown) from those, but decided she liked Brown the best so committed there. Of course the surprise Duke acceptance threw a wrench into all of that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for OP: just wondering which other Schools your DD looked at? Brown and Duke are on the list for us to tour. DD interested in engineering/ CS but wants the option to sr least minor in a discipline outside engineering- I know that can be hard to do in a lot of schools…just curious what you found

Thanks for asking! DD was also accepted to UPenn, Cornell, and Georgia Tech for engineering among others. She visited UPenn and Georgia Tech (along with Brown) from those, but decided she liked Brown the best so committed there. Of course the surprise Duke acceptance threw a wrench into all of that.

She never visited Duke? If not, and she liked Brown best from among the others, then that’s where she should go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classic DCUM, talking about prestige when OP literally said they're not considering prestige in their decision. To quote: "We know Duke is more prestigious but that’s not what we’re trying to decide from - we’re going for fit and undergraduate opportunities." Get a grip people and actually try being helpful!

Getting a grip would be to first admit that Duke is not more prestigious than Brown.

+1 Duke is an academically inferior version of Boston College - not prestigious and full of rich kids who have no real academic chops. No one outside of North Carolina or people who have no life outside of college basketball have heard of Duke, and it's for ivy rejects and people who couldn't get into a proper top school in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for OP: just wondering which other Schools your DD looked at? Brown and Duke are on the list for us to tour. DD interested in engineering/ CS but wants the option to sr least minor in a discipline outside engineering- I know that can be hard to do in a lot of schools…just curious what you found

Thanks for asking! DD was also accepted to UPenn, Cornell, and Georgia Tech for engineering among others. She visited UPenn and Georgia Tech (along with Brown) from those, but decided she liked Brown the best so committed there. Of course the surprise Duke acceptance threw a wrench into all of that.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Question for OP: just wondering which other Schools your DD looked at? Brown and Duke are on the list for us to tour. DD interested in engineering/ CS but wants the option to sr least minor in a discipline outside engineering- I know that can be hard to do in a lot of schools…just curious what you found

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classic DCUM, talking about prestige when OP literally said they're not considering prestige in their decision. To quote: "We know Duke is more prestigious but that’s not what we’re trying to decide from - we’re going for fit and undergraduate opportunities." Get a grip people and actually try being helpful!

Getting a grip would be to first admit that Duke is not more prestigious than Brown.

+1 Duke is an academically inferior version of Boston College - not prestigious and full of rich kids who have no real academic chops. No one outside of North Carolina or people who have no life outside of college basketball have heard of Duke, and it's for ivy rejects and people who couldn't get into a proper top school in the US.

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.

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.