<p>happymedstudent, what they are trying to say is that the school’s have similar atmospheres. I’ve never been to Duke, but from what people tell me about their experiences at Duke, I would wager that Duke and Stanford are very similar in terms of campus atmosphere. I can’t say this for sure, but if I wanted to have a Stanford-esque experience, not at Stanford, I’d have to go with Duke. They both have: top academics across the board,laid-back student body, great sports, more partyish culture than ivies, not ivies, high student satisfaction, warm weather, rivalries with top public schools, more pre-professionalism than their peers, frats(but not like they dominate the campus), etc. While Duke may be less selective as Stanford, don’t for a moment think that Duke students are any dumber academically than Stanford ones. And this is coming from a Stanford student! That being said, ring<em>of</em>fire does make Duke look bad :(</p>