Columbia vs Duke

pbr
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:09:13 +0000

My younger son is both a dedicated club athlete and a frat boy at Columbia, and he could not be happier. He could have a similar athletic/fraternity experience at Duke, I have no doubt. He would not have been in the City, however, which is important to him. He has a nice part-time office job/internship just a few blocks from campus. More importantly, even though he is utterly consumed by a college life that keeps him on campus virtually all the time, it is nevertheless important to him to know that he can take a long walk or subway ride to get away from it all, while remaining connected to his larger NYC community.

Duke is a fine school. I suspect that most folks who visit both Columbia and Duke will feel much more comfortable at one over the other. The choice should be made solely on the basis of which feels best as a place to spend four of the most important years of your life. In my son’s case, Columbia was it.