brit08

So, I wanted to go to duke since i was a freshman, but i was waitlisted earlier this year. I stayed on the waitlist but i didn't really think i would ever get accepted off of it. I ended up visiting uva and falling in love with. I'm from virginia so the tuition is much easier to cover than duke's. However, I just found out that I was accepted off the waitlist for duke and im torn between the school i wanted to go to for three years and the school that is wayyyy cheaper and i just fell in love with. I wanted to know if anyone knew which school has a better international relations and/or economics/business major, and which school in general has the best social life/academics/etc. i am completely torn about this so any help is amazinggg!!! thanks

evil_asian_dictator

I'm not sure about the quality of those specific departments at either school but Duke is a better school overall and worth the extra money to attend over Virginia IF your famiy can afford it. Duke's student body is stronger than Virginia's and is more racially/geographically diverse as well. There is more focus on undergrads at Duke and the advising is better. The social life at both schools are excellent and strongly Greek-dominated.

If you plan to work in financial firms/think thanks/non-profits, then the Duke degree will take you farther than the Virginia one. The alumni network that Duke has in NYC and Washington D.C. is astounding.

rjkofnovi

They are peers. Go with fit.

DCforMe

how much difference in price are we talking?

Knights09

I do not think Duke is really worth the extra money. They are very similar prestige-wise. Go with the one that fits best.

K9Leader

Brit08:

You are going to get responses touting one over the other, usually based on which one is the poster's alma mater or where they are currently attending.

You've already gotten one Duke partisan to weigh in. He is very, very pro Duke, as you will see if you look at any of his other posts on other threads. However, while he may be qualified to give an opinion on some aspects of Duke as he is just completing his freshman year there, his passion for Duke is so great that his comments on any other school cannot be relied upon, so take everything he says with a grain of salt.

I'm not going to lobby for one school over the other on the basis of academics or social life or athletic success or size or location or any of those very important things (although I see them as quite comparable to each other in all of these areas). I will, however, point out that the financial considerations weigh overwhelmingly in favor of UVa. In-state T&F+R&B would be $16k/year versus Duke's $48K. This is a no-brainer -- $32,000 a year, $128,000 over your four years? It's not like your choice is between Duke and Nowheresville State University and Carwash.

You love UVa, it will be a bargain top-tier education, it's cache/prestige/reputation/whatever you want to call it is comparable to Duke, and all of the other top schools in the country. The opportunity to go to one of the many great public colleges in Virginia at the in-state rate is something many people would kill for. I am extremely envious - I'm originally from Virginia, went to W&M (Class of '83) and my son is at W&M now (Class of '10 - well, actually he's not there right now, right now he's out front mowing the lawn) and we pay OOS for him. I looked at the chart of tuition rates -- we're paying about 11-12 times for him what my parents paid for me.

Even if your parents have the discretionary income to easily absorb the $128,000 difference, why would you willingly pay three times as much for pretty much the same thing, especially when the major intangible, fit/in love with the school/wow factor is there with UVa?

Go 'Hoos! Wa-Hoo-Wah!

hawkette

I think that Duke is probably the best undergraduate college and undergraduate experience available in the South (I’m sure that Rice and Vanderbilt also have their supporters) and maybe even in the East (sorry, Ivy League). But, having said that, U Virginia is also an exceptional place with a very unique offering. In name, U Virginia is a public university, but in feel and size, the college has many of the benefits that one associates with private universities.

IMO, U Virginia is the best public university in the country for undergraduate study. It offers excellent academics, outstanding social life and a strong athletic life and it does it all within a very manageable size of 14,000 undergraduates and a campus that is not academically subservient to its graduate programs.

One of the biggest differences between these two colleges will be in the make-up and the strength of the student population. About 60% of U Virginia’s applications come from OUTSIDE of the state of Virginia. It can be a very tough place to get into from OOS (typically 25-30% acceptance rate) and many high quality applicants will apply. But it is also true that the OOS yield is only about 35% (IS is about 67%) as many OOS applicants are looking also to the most selective universities, including Duke and the Ivies. Duke is undeniably more selective and enrolls a much more national and diverse student body. At roughly ½ the size of U Virginia, Duke will also offer advantages in class sizes and access to resources. The question, of course, is whether these advantages support a significant increase in cost of attendance.

The choice that one must weigh is whether U Virginia is going to provide the level of education, postgraduate opportunities and overall undergraduate experience that will be available at Duke. For many students, this will be true and this is especially so for a Virginia applicant as, perhaps most importantly, the financial difference is substantial (tuition & fees at U Virginia of $8500 vs $35,756 at Duke). Given this enormous cost differential, I think that U Virginia is the better choice for an IS U Virginia student.

Globalist

Haha, evil_asian_dictator's statement about Duke's alumni network in NYC made me laugh. Their alumni network in NY sucks. They hardly do squat. They don't even have a clubhouse. UVa has a clubhouse with Yale and Dartmouth. (We may even have more members than Dartmouth.)

UVa has the McIntire School of Commerce which a big feeder to Wall Street firms. So, I don't believe a Duke degree is better than a UVa degree up here in NYC.

kenf1234

It depends on whether the extra cost is worth it to you. I wouldn't go deep into personal debt to go to Duke. It's not worth it.

reverberating

i'm also making the same decision as you, OP, except that I just got into UVA as a transfer and am currently enrolled at Duke. andd i have to make the decision by tomorrow as that's when the deposit has to be postmarked by and I am also in-state.

what makes it extra difficult is that i am pre-med and duke has a much higher rate of getting its students accepted into med school. anyone have further advice for me then?

lgellar

It depends how much debt you're going to be in for each school.

slipper1234

Duke > UVA. But not by enough to justify a huge difference in price tag.

evil_asian_dictator

You have no idea what you're talking about. I was speaking more along the lines of attaining a job with the help of the alumni network. Haha, I find it hard to believe that our alumni network sucks in New York when 30% of our class annually ends up working there. UVA is a bigger school so the possible larger presence of alums in the city as compared to Duke is not surprising. However, if you think undergraduate business at Virginia can match Duke in terms of job placement in Wall Street, then you are delusional. Only University of Michigan Ross and Wharton at UPenn can compete with Duke in this regard.

Globalist

Instead of your braggadocio, please show me Duke undergraduate placement stats. Business Week doesn't consider the McIntire School of Commerce one of the best (#2 for the last 2 years in fact) for nothing.

mini

UVA plus the educational opportunities you can buy with the extra money is MUCH better than Duke educationally speaking. (Straight up, I wouldn't know.)

Of course, if you want to give me the extra $128k, I'll be happy to spend it for you.