| To the OP, the quality of the undergraduate engineering education and the job prospects you will get from both Duke Engineering and Michigan Engineering are roughly similar. It's true that the Michigan engineering faculty is probably overall stronger, UMich Engineering offers more breadth in terms of majors and the school generates more research than Duke at the graduate level. However, these factors shold matter very little in your decision-making process as much as overall prestige and fit(like Alexandre said).
Think about it this way. Cornell is much better in all engineering disciplines than Harvard. However, I would venture to guess that the vast, vast majority of engineer cross-admits between the two schools would still choose Harvard because there's a very good chance they will change their minds about their career plans. If they do this, the Harvard name carries more weight in nearly every other professional circle and they will have access to the unmatchable academic resources that Harvard has to offer. |