<p>Keystone & Kasmokia: Would like to second the opinion that you both have great options to choose from and should be proud of what you have achieved. </p>
<p>There are numerous inaccuracies in post #13. UGA’s Honors sections have 20 or less students in them. I have a daughter in the Honors Program and in her first semester the largest class was orchestra. Besides the mandatory Honors 101 and an Honors seminar, she didn’t take any Honors section courses that first semester. The calculus class (non-Honors section, regular science/engineering calc) had less than 30 students in it. Every one of her professors knew her name and she had no trouble having access to them. This semester her largest class is calc based physics. Started with 130 students, not sure how many are left after the withdraw date. Again, no problem with professor access.</p>
<p>Your academic career will be what you make of it. All of these schools have amazing opportunities available to their students. You have to have the maturity and drive to seek them out. In general, participation in an Honors Program facilitates that process. Honors has staff to help direct you to research opportunities (CURO program at UGA is excellent), study abroad opportunities and scholarships, and has groomed top students for prestigious national/international scholarships.</p>
<p>Not having personal experience with these particular schools dorms and food services (Emory, GA Tech, Duke), I can’t really comment there. But I will say that UGA’s food services is top among schools i do have experience with such as UVA, UMD, and Furman. And dorms are basically dorms. It won’t likely be as nice as your room at home, but that’s life.</p>
<p>All of these schools are likely to experience tuition/fee increases in the future. That is the national trend. Keystone, as a full pay student, you will likely have to absorb 100% of that increase at Duke. Since you both likely qualify for the Zell Miller scholarship, your tuition will be covered as long as you maintain a 3.3 gpa in college. Keystone, I’d have a serious talk with your parents about the $50,000 for Duke versus the instate prices for GA Tech or UGA and whether the difference might be available to help with your medical school costs.</p>
<p>If you guys are concerned with medical school admissions, you’d get better advice from directly contacting either the pre-med programs at these schools or better yet the medical schools that you are considering. As has been said a million times on cc, your MCAT scores and gpa are the largest determinants in medical school acceptances.</p>
<p>As far as the party reputation goes. I agree that this is a tired story. Try googling Duke and parties and see what you get.</p>
<p>[Duke’s</a> party scene in spotlight’s glare - Education - NewsObserver.com](<a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/22/936442/dukes-party-scene-in-spotlights.html]Duke’s”>http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/22/936442/dukes-party-scene-in-spotlights.html)</p>
<p>Not a pretty picture, but I as an adult wouldn’t say that every Duke student is accurately represented in stories such as that one.</p>
<p>Athens is a great college town. If you like to party, you will surely find parties. If you aren’t into that scene, you will also have many opportunities to have fun that don’t involve alcohol. You can even enjoy the sports scene (football, basketball, gymnastics) without alcohol.</p>
<p>Keystone & Kasmokia: Hopefully by this point you have attended Admitted Students days and made contact with departments and programs that interest you. Actually meeting with these people will answer a lot of your questions. Another point to consider is that you should remain open to possibilities. You haven’t even started college yet. Most college students change their majors once in college. You might find that college biology isn’t what you thought it would be or that another subject is what you truly emjoy and excel in.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>