Duke, Berkeley or Williams?

College Life
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<p>I was accepted to all three for RD and I’m having trouble deciding which one to matriculate to. I’ll be visiting all three during April but I would greatly appreciate any advice/insight from current students, alumni, prospective students or whoever has an opinion on this. </p>

<p>Duke:
I’m leaning towards Duke right now, because it has the programs I want (major in neuroscience, minor in finance/econ, premed track) but I’ve heard that there are a lot of people who go partying/drinking on weekends at Duke (obviously those exist at every school, but I’ve heard that Duke has more than the average). Also, is there grade deflation like there is at many top schools right now? This is just a rumour but I’ve also heard that since Duke is in the South, there’s some racism on campus (more so than other schools), and I’m Asian so I would definitely be affected by that. All of these things weren’t backed up by any real evidence but I feel like rumours exist only because there’s some truth to them. </p>

<p>Berkeley:
It’s a pretty big school and the class sizes are huge for the first two years, which I don’t like. There’s also been allegations of students sabotaging other students in order to get a higher grade on the curve. One huge incentive to go to Berkeley is that I got the Regent’s/Chancellor’s scholarship, but the monetary reward is not great and other perks such as getting priority class selection aren’t even applicable at private schools, since they’re smaller and students almost always get the classes they want. </p>

<p>Williams:
I feel like the school is too small (550 in Class of 2018), even though the undergraduate teaching is probably better than most other schools. It’s also very isolated and I feel like there would be nothing to do off-campus, nor would there be many internship opportunities. It’s also not as well known as Duke or Berkeley, especially internationally, so I don’t know if that would be looked upon negatively by future employers. I’ve also heard from a current student that Williams is not kind to your GPA, and I want to go to med school so that would be a downside to this school. </p>

<p>I’m an international student (Canada eh) and I also have the option of going to the University of British Columbia, McGill, or staying on the waitlist for Columbia and Stanford. </p>

<p>Any input would be great. Thanks so much!! :slight_smile: </p>

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<p>Hi! I’m a current Duke first-year-- feel free to message me with some more questions. If you’re coming to campus for BDD, let me know too! (:</p>

<p>

I’m a student who doesn’t choose to party or drink, and I’m fairly happy with my choices. Many of my friends choose not to as well-- just as some of them do. I’ve never felt ‘excluded’ in any way because of my personal choices, though.</p>

<p>

Impossible to really answer. Statistics have shown that GPA, as an aggregate, has been steadily rising over the years (<a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2009/03/17/gpas-have-steadily-risen-over-decades”>http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2009/03/17/gpas-have-steadily-risen-over-decades&lt;/a&gt;), but many science-based courses are anecdotally still difficult, and Sanford Public Policy does grade to a curve.</p>

<p>

So, there are insensitive parts of campus (Asia prime party), but those don’t represent the majority of campus. As an Asian-American woman (who identifies also as a woman of color, but that’s another conversation), I find campus to generally be a reaffirming place-- TAASCON (Triangle Asian-American Conference) is happening in a week (with wonderful people like Arden Cho, Jubilee Project, Kristina Wong, D-Pryde, and Curtis Chin), there are Asian-interest Greek organizations, a several Asian dance groups… I’ve loved my time here. Duke Magazine also just ran a profile of some awesome (East) Asian people on campus. (<a href=“Duke Mag”>Duke Mag)</p>