“But . . .” ???
All 3 are top 20 - 8th, 15th, and 20th. If there is any value added to the student by attending #15 instead of #20 or even #8 instead of #20, I have no idea what it is.
I think what we have here is a distinction without a difference.
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I think your impression of Duke as “sport heavy” is wrong. Some people there like basketball, and Duke has a historically successful program, but Cameron Indoor Stadium is actually very small. Not that many students go to games. Far more people don’t go to a game than do go to a game. And nobody gives a flying flip about Duke Football. You can certainly watch a game at a local bar with friends if you want to, but if you don’t like sports I think you’ll be fine.
As I said on a different thread I am a UNC Alum and do not like Duke (truly, it’s the alma mater of Nixon and Stephen Miller, after all), but just wanted to correct that misimpression. The Cameron Crazies get a lot of sports coverage but they are not the majority of students at the school.
The post offered information in the form of an analysis by social scientists. My opinion was not conveyed, other than, perhaps, to suggest that Duke’s economics department does not appear to be objectively better than those of the OP’s other choices. In this sense, it was intended as a form of balance to relatively subjective comments made up-topic.
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How do you know so much about a school you didn’t attend? The comparison was between Columbia and Duke, not UNC.
There are plenty of people who care about football, lacrosse, field hockey, swimming, softball, baseball etc at Duke, an ACC school. Plus Cameron is usually full of STUDENTs unlike the Dean Dome Ram’s Club season ticket holders…ahem wine and cheese, much?
Yes, my comments up topic said that I prefer Duke for the OP, but I was equally clear to say that this was my personal preference and that the OP should look closely at the 2 choices and decide for himself.
I hope that no one thinks that I offered the subjective opinion that Duke’s Econ Dept is better because that’s not what I was trying to say. My preference - which is not a statement about which is better - was based on the breadth of choices in the options for an Econ major and the opportunity for a PP&E minor.
What I was calling into question with my reply to your post is whether such a ranking shows any meaningful difference among the three - at least as it applies to the learning experience of students.
As for my comments having been subjective, they certainly were - which is what contributors do here. We offer opinions. I thought that I was also providing analysis, which included information about the offerings at Duke, which were previously unmentioned. I do not think that the ranking system adds anything objective. It is flawed - as all ranking systems are - and presents historical information about the volume of publications coming out of each university, which frankly says little about the quality of teaching & learning at the respective institutions.
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I believe I could too. However, that school reports a 94% first-to-second year retention rate, so I’d infer that most of its students appear to be generally content there.
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FWIW Bill, the frequent references to surveys and polls and rankings on this site have become a bit of a running joke.
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Having read through the entire thread, and it’s precursor, I can confirm that there are zero participants on this thread who have not been on another thread where I’ve had to step in and give the below message. So at the risk of being repetitive:
When an OP, particularly when it’s a student, asks for college selection advice, responses should address the OP’s question. A non-exhaustive list of what shouldn’t be in posts include:
- Discussion of ranking methodology or any similar data/statistics debate
- Guessing where the OP attends school (that’s a site-wide prohibition)
- Disparaging another person’s PoV / challenging their experience (also a site-wide prohibition
Thank you for your support and understanding
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I would choose Duke based on the food!
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Columbia.
Based on this reply, I would choose Columbia. It could well be your last best chance to live in NYC on a limited budget and my suspicion is you will always harbor a little bit of FOMO, if you don’t.
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And consider yourself lucky if it is only sometimes! My typical week as an associate, get in at 8, leave at 10, half day Saturday. I did however get to fly on the Concorde when I was a second year associate coming back from Stockholm through London. Was also able to bill more than 24 hours that day (we billed for travel time back then) because of the time zone changes and getting back to NYC before I left London.
I am with @L_NewEngland that undergrad does matter, but in this case Duke, Columbia, and Dartmouth are equivalent. Where will you be happiest and therefore make the best grades? That is the question you should be asking.
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Slacker😀.
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