well, if it makes any difference, my son is the antithesis of a nerd, for better or worse, and just choose NU over Duke and some others, and I dispute that Wall Street prefers Duke, as every one I know in NY said "he is choosing Northwestern, right?"
You know what that list you just posted makes me think of? It looks like a random list of just about anybody that has a full-time job in Hollywood or has appeared on any TV show. Has any of them been nominated or awarded for anything? Seems like shameless marketing, IMO.
Go to the theater / musical theater forum on CC. Just try to find Duke on it. Hint - you won't.
Goldenboy - your love of your alma mater is wonderful. But you can't take world-class programs at one school and pretend that other offerings match it! Your "but we TOO are good" and your inability to say, "hey, I love Duke, but NU theater is a whole other level" is precisely the problem with Duke. Insecurity.
If a poster came on saying, I'm choosing between NU and WashU and I'm interested in fine arts - I'd say go to WashU, they have a better art program. What would be so hard about that?
There's the graciousness of acknowledging other good schools and the defensiveness and insecurity that prompts one to insist that one's school is bestest in all areas without reference to reality. A student applying to NU and Duke needs to decide which kind of person he wants to hang around with for 4 years.
@drewski, I don't know what it's like at Duke, but at Northwestern, you will be garner instant respect as a theater student (I was not affiliated with theater whatsoever but my friends and I had so much respect for the theater students). Theater occupies a very special place in the Northwestern community in a way theater programs don't in most schools. There's always buzz surrounding the works produced that comes from the fact that productions are consistently topnotch and professional. Your work and passion for theater will be valued for what it is and you will not be pressured to pursue a more "practical" path (as students in other schools often are) just to gain respect. It's common for even non-Northwestern affiliates to make a special trip to Northwestern to watch the student-produced works. One of my first introductions to Northwestern was actually through my aunt who regularly went to see shows at Cahn Auditorium (including the famous Waa-Mu Show). The opportunities to get involved in theater in Chicago are endless (Steppenwolf, Goodman, etc) and provide a good way to establish a strong professional career in the field whether in Chicago, NYC or elsewhere. As mentioned before, going to Northwestern will open up a world of opportunities and high-profile connections in the entertainment field and beyond.
It's hard to replicate this theater atmosphere at Northwestern in schools where theater doesn't have an established tradition or where it's seen as just something fun to do on the side. You may like it in that it will push you to be the best you can be and transform yourself in ways you never imagined, but as you mentioned, you may prefer a more low-key atmosphere elsewhere.
Your dynamic with peers and professors is extremely important and should not be discounted just for the prestige of a program, so I would encourage you to visit both Northwestern and Duke and see where you are more comfortable. As I suspect you will find at Northwestern though, our theater students are very collaborative. Their focus is not on outshining their peers but respecting what each person has to offer and complementing each other's strengths. They build strong relationships that will last well beyond college and throughout their professional careers. Northwestern theater can be intense but there's a lot of support built in. It's a really good environment to develop one's talents and that je ne sais quoi that will set you apart for the rest of your career.
Duke is harder to get in. I've seen several Duke rejects going to Northwestern. Go to Duke if you are a prestige whore. I am a Wildcat.
This is laughable. How can you generalize based on "several" people's experiences? Similarly, I know several Cornell rejects getting into Stanford and Dartmouth - so Cornell has more prestige? Hilarious to conclude something in that manner. Northwestern's selectivity is going up RAPIDLY - there's been a 10% decrease in the admission rate in just 2 years - and can be expected to decrease further.
From what I've heard, prestige-wise, both are the SAME essentially. Internationally, as another poster also said (and what concerns the OP the most), Northwestern definitely faaaar outshines Duke.
Quote:
I would expect Duke's business school (Fuqua) to match Kellogg in reputation in the next decade.
This comment is equally laughable. Rarely (if ever) do people even mention "Fuqua" in daily conversation, and to compare it to Kellogg is so pathetic, I choose not to comment. For the graduate business school rankings on US News, Kellogg is FOURTH, while "Fuqua" is 12th - a FAR cry from anything worth mentioning. For anyone who wants to pursue business/economics/finance and has been accepted to Northwestern AND Duke, it is ONLY logical that they would choose Northwestern. Not just in terms of prestige, but also in terms of the quality of education in these fields, the level of research, the job/internship prospects, the quality of alumni, the quality and renown of the professors, etc.
Yes, Duke is good for MANY things (anyone in doubt, read Goldenboy's... "thorough" posts), but since this is what the OP is concerned with (in addition to engineering), and seeing as Northwestern offers both, plus has more recognition and reputation internationally (by a landslide), it's self-evident that he should choose Northwestern.
>> As a theater major, you will be required to take at least 18 credits outside the theater department. A lot of them probably double-major in something like English or history..etc.
Actually, D has Theatre friends completing double and even triple majors in virtually every school at NU. For some reason, economics seems especially popular.
Since admissions to Theatre are capped at 100, the renowned school has an exceptionally large number of applicants (many of them who have chosen NU over HYP since NU's Theatre program is in another league), and the initial admissions screening of applicants involves selecting the most academically-qualified students, you will study among people who are capable of doing anything they chose to.
drewski,
You say that you want to major in theatre, so I am assuming that you have been accepted to NU's School of Communication as a theatre major. There really is zero comparison between the theatre program at NU and the program at Duke. (Duke is a phenomenal school but not for purposes of a discussion of the theatre program.) My son is currently a theatre major at NU and after his junior year in high school he attended an intensive summer program on NU's campus. One of his friends from that program applied to NU's theatre program and was not admitted. He's at Harvard. Another of my son's friends from that program is currently at NU and chose it over Princeton.
wildcatalum-wonderful post about the acceptance of theatre students on campus.
Awesome conclusions. Now show us some proof or statistics rather than just making baseless statements, which needless to say, are not true.
"Rarely (if ever) do people even mention "Fuqua" in daily conversation, and to compare it to Kellogg is so pathetic, I choose not to comment."
Tell us the corporate job that you have taken on for you to say this.
I love how you continue to discuss graduate programs at both schools like the OP should be concerned about that right now. What the OP should be concerned about is how well the undergraduate program prepares the students for those programs--an aspect Duke excels at.
^I don't think you'd know one prepares better than another without taking any undergrad classes in either institituion. The OP is interested in many things, including ISP and MMSS which are not even offered at Duke. Whatever was specificly on your mind, I bet it's also not this: 2011 Rotman International Trading Competition - Kellogg School of Management - Northwestern University
The graduate team from Fuqua is nowhere near the top while MMSS/Kellogg cert UNDERGRADS from NU placed fourth against mostly graduate teams. That was last year. This year, NU UNDERGRADS placed higher again.
AND not this: College National Fed Challenge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quote:
Northwestern University won the first three Nationals competitions, from 2004-2006. In 2007 and 2008, the team from Harvard University placed first in Nationals. In 2009, the team from Lafayette College placed first in Nationals. In 2010 the team from Bentley University placed first in Nationals. In 2011, the team from Harvard University placed first in Nationals.
But if you are talking about appearance on reality show called Bachelor, yes, Dukies seem more represented. Not sure if that got anything to do with classes at Duke though.
k&s the point of my original post was that many adults on this site endlessly engage with these students and perpetuate the prestige talking points that have been so shamelessly propagated by the professional educators to justify the ridiculous cost of tuition.
SAY - I understand your point, but there is a diff. btwn the (numerous) threads here on CC where posters post their subjective thoughts on which schools they think are most prestigious/ranking schools by prestige (which I ignore) and an assertion stating such a thing as fact.
There is nothing wrong in this case of correcting such an erroneous assertion.
And case in point, CuseAmbassador can a learn a thing or two about reasoning when I pointed out that USNWR rankings isn't exactly the greatest indicator of "prestige."
Should we just let such posters continue to go forth w/ their ignorance?
"And case in point, CuseAmbassador can a learn a thing or two about reasoning when I pointed out that USNWR rankings isn't exactly the greatest indicator of "prestige."
I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my very first post on this thread. Go back and read it again. Carefully this time.
k&s how old are? I have no argument with you but C Amb is a current Duke student and as such incapable of realizing just yet how the real world works. An 18-20 year old will never be convinced of anything by a posting from an adult on this thread. Or he/she could just be pulling everyone's chain just to get a rise from everyone on a NU thread.
^He or she claims to be at a professional school at Duke- extremely unlikely it's the medical program so I'm guessing Law or MBA, since only a law student or an mba student would have such an impressive level of unearned self-importance.
Thanks for the info, everyone! I just wish I could find a second major in WCAS that really appealed to me. It's Duke's Public Policy major and flexibility (and okay, I'll admit it: the weather) that's making me so torn.
