Duke takes our top 3 private school students. No more.

Vandy goes lower - the top 30-40% looking for different attributes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke much better school

I went to both and there’s no way I’d claim one was demonstrably a better school than the other. Nashville is clearly a better and more fun city though.

Same. Nashville is great, but Duke is by far the better school.

Finally someone with firsthand experience. Could you share two or three ways in which the student experience is better at Duke than at Vanderbilt? I’m asking about your actual day-to-day experience. Quality of professor’s quality of discussion things like that.

I can't speak to the relative quality of the professors in terms of teaching or research. That truly depends on the department and the individual professors. Super difficult to compare.

For me, it was the quality of the student body. This was over a decade ago so YMMV now. But in my experience, the students at Duke were a level up in terms of their intellectual firepower, genuine academic engagement, and substance. Not every kid, of course. And students at both schools wore their brilliance lightly, if that makes sense. No academic one-upping and far less of an overtly cerebral culture than at some other highly selective schools. But it was there underneath, for sure, and it subtly influenced the experience.

Both Duke and Vandy were very social and fun, which I think is unusual and special given their academic rigor. Both have strong school spirit and a strong campus-oriented culture. Both have ALL the resources available - literally, anything a student would need or want. It was just that for me, the day-to-day student discourse at Duke was higher, both in and out of the classroom.

To be clear, this is nothing against Vanderbilt. It's a fantastic school and lately, it seems to be almost as hard to get into as Duke if you focus on the low acceptance rate. But I'm not sure the pools of applicants are quite the same. Again, they're more similar than they were 10 years ago, and I think most kids who are happy at one school would be equally happy at the other. But on the margins, I think Duke students are a level up, intellectually.

Duke takes several kids from our private but all have some type of hook (athlete, legacy, urm) and the first 2 categories are wealthy. They all bright kids and submit scores (we see the data). Vandy takes a lot of test optional, private school kids from our region- also less competition with legacy issue vs duke, bc Vanderbilt was not as popular years ago for parents of the kids applying now. Vandy is an easier (but not easy) admit for unconnected/hooked kids but I think it helps if u are wealthy(despite fact that they say they are need blind).

My DC got into Duke ED. No hooks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rip 'em up, tear 'em up, give 'em hell Duke!

DDMF

GTHCGTH

Since it IS the Southern Part of Heaven, you would have to leave, and say, go to Derm, to follow that dumb a$$ dookie cheer. Notice there is no similar taunt back? It’s because dookies are already in hell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is 6th vs Vanderbilt at 18 this year ranking. Like Vandy but ain’t no Duke.

Duke is better than Vandy but I don't know why it is 6th.

What’s odd about these blanket generalizations about academic quality of relatively similar institutions is that they all boil down to individual classes with individual professors, in a wide variety of departments.

In contrast, it’s pretty easy to compare the weather at 2 colleges, & say it tends to be colder or rainier at one rather than the other.

And you could fairly accurately compare the dining hall food at two colleges, because there are usually a fairly small number of dining halls at a college, & they are often run by the same contractor or department.

But academics? A student’s academic experience is going to depend on individual professors in individual classes. And maybe to a lesser extent, the other students in those specific classes.

When it comes to overall academics, can we actually say Duke’s individual professors know stuff that the Vandy profs don’t? Maybe this individual prof is better than that individual prof, but to say, “If you go to Duke you will get a better education than at Vanderbilt”? Come on, you really think you can predict that a given student at Duke will get mostly great profs & a certain Vanderbilt student will likely get measurably less-talented professors? I guess Duke hires mostly Ivy PhDs & Vandy hires mostly SEC PhDs? Something like that?

Although 6 and 18 on US news. Their reputation scores on the same ranking is 4.5 for Duke and 4.3 for Vandy. Moderate difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is 6th vs Vanderbilt at 18 this year ranking. Like Vandy but ain’t no Duke.

US News rankings are BS. I can’t believe people are relying on them this simplistically.

What else is there to rely on? Superficial impressions of random people?

Seriously? You have consulted nothing except US News? Start with something like the Fiske Guide to read about schools and see which are a good match. Use The NY Times college ranking tool that lets you select criteria that is important to you by moving sliders. Don’t rely on US News which prioritizes social mobility over academics, teaching and happiness.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is 6th vs Vanderbilt at 18 this year ranking. Like Vandy but ain’t no Duke.

US News rankings are BS. I can’t believe people are relying on them this simplistically.

What else is there to rely on? Superficial impressions of random people?

Seriously? You have consulted nothing except US News? Start with something like the Fiske Guide to read about schools and see which are a good match. Use The NY Times college ranking tool that lets you select criteria that is important to you by moving sliders. Don’t rely on US News which prioritizes social mobility over academics, teaching and happiness.

Let’s Go Duke!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke much better school

I went to both and there’s no way I’d claim one was demonstrably a better school than the other. Nashville is clearly a better and more fun city though.

Same. Nashville is great, but Duke is by far the better school.

Finally someone with firsthand experience. Could you share two or three ways in which the student experience is better at Duke than at Vanderbilt? I’m asking about your actual day-to-day experience. Quality of professor’s quality of discussion things like that.

Both great schools and equals in many ways. Vandy ED2 is one of the most competitive ED2s out there - with admit rates in line with RD not ED (under 5%) so ED2 does not confer an advantage. Have your kid go with their instinct and choose. They are both high reaches for all so best to set expectations

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rip 'em up, tear 'em up, give 'em hell Duke!

DDMF

GTHCGTH

Of all the stupid things that get protested how do people NOT protest the self serving evil of the Duke family? From rolling cigarettes to rolling with Imelda Marcos, the Duke family has 120 years of awful.

Anonymous wrote:Rip 'em up, tear 'em up, give 'em hell Duke!

DDMF