<p>I’m curious how the members of this thread would rank these three Universities, all of them possibilities for my son the HS Junior. He’s most likely going into some field of life sciences. In his most lucid moments, he says Pharmacy or med school to be a psychiatrist. He should make the Merit Scholarship Semi-finalist cut with 8 points to spare and has >4.0 GPA, even before taking only AP and honors classes this year, so he should get into any of them easily. Also any ideas on merit-based financial aid to Duke and NC?</p>
<p>Purdue has pharmacy but not medical school. They have had a life science initiative and give funding…Beering Scholarship may be of interest to your son. <a href=“http://www.purdue.edu/Admissions/Undergrad/costs/university_wide.shtml[/url]”>http://www.purdue.edu/Admissions/Undergrad/costs/university_wide.shtml</a></p>
<p>rank and money don’t always line up…</p>
<p>Oh, that is so true about rank and money. Purdue is such a bargain. DS thinks we’re “forcing” him to go to Purdue and he gets reams of mail from “prestige” universities. (My older son finally realized Purdue’s reputation when he got out into the real world and saw what other people thought of his PU degree…) If we were “forcing” the younger son to go to Duke he’d probably whine we won’t let him go to Purdue. The one hitch with PU is the choice of majors if he wants to go to med school. We’re not big on majoring in “Pre-Med,” I’d like him to get a real, useful degree.</p>
<p>Here’s a link that will help w/your question about merit-based aid:
<a href=“http://studentaid.unc.edu/studentaid/type/ssa_scholarships.html[/url]”>http://studentaid.unc.edu/studentaid/type/ssa_scholarships.html</a>
<a href=“http://www.finaid.duke.edu/merit_main.html[/url]”>http://www.finaid.duke.edu/merit_main.html</a></p>
<p>
Whoa there! Duke is very competitive, and UNC is insanely tough for OOS’ers. I would say they might be good match/reaches, but it’s definitely not a given.</p>
<p>For pharmacy, Purdue would be the obvious choice. UNC has a graduate level pharmacy program but no real undergrad program, and Duke lacks any pharmacy program whatsoever. Any of them would be fine for medical school, and all three have great psychology (yes, I know the difference between psychology and psychiatry) programs (as do Illinois and Indiana). </p>
<p>As for merit $, Duke offers relatively few merit awards for out-of-staters, and they’re extremely competitive. UNC Chapel Hill is actually fairly generous with aid, though, so there’s a chance he could get substantial $ there. Keep in mind that financial aid with outside scholarships to reduce or eliminate loans can make even the most expensive schools very affordable.</p>
<p>Honestly, the three schools are very different. I would strongly suggest a visit to investigate the schools more thoroughly. Colleges aren’t always what they look like on paper. Some people fall deeply in love with Duke after they visit; others run away in horror (jk).</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that it certainly won’t be easy for him to get into Duke. UNC may also be difficult for out-of-state applicants, although it’s not on the same level as Duke/Stanford/Ivy Leagues.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are also nearly impossible at Duke and other competitive colleges. I only got a 1/2 merit scholarship at my lowest safety and nothing from the others (didn’t apply for aid). Duke is popular for pre-med, and the psychology department (if that’s what he may want for undergraduate) seems very strong, based on my experience.</p>
<p>I would say Duke is at the most a high match-reach for anyone. Really, ECs are what will make/break him.</p>
<p>Id say the ranks would go Duke, UNC, Purdue. I wasn’t that impressed with Purdue, and I think it is overrated. UNC and Duke are both top-notch</p>
<p>I agree, no one’s a shoe-in at any school, especially out of state applicants…Did he apply anywhere else?</p>
<p>Good morning. He hasn’t applied anywhere, yet. He’s a junior. A few years back when we were talking to pre-med advisors they said he could take any undergraduate major as long as he took all the required courses for med school. He won’t major in Psych. I expect some field of science. Right now it’s anybody’s guess. The Pharmacy interest comes and goes. Purdue would be nice because he go pre-pharmacy and switch to virtually anything if he decides he wants something else. I don’t think Purdue is overrated in its best fields (engineering, aerospace majors, pharmacy, maybe even management.) Some of the other majors are not as great.
Next year my son may apply to Purdue and NC for real and apply to Duke just for the halibut. We’ll see. Maybe he’ll decide he wants to go in to something completely different by then. I’ve already squashed the “video game creator” career path.</p>
<p>why? People can make perfectly respectable (and profitable) careers out of it…</p>
<p>Yeah let the kid make video games if he wants to. You can make boatloads of cash in the merging interactive/ media industry. Honestly, its a 1000 times better career choice than going to pharmacy school in my opinion where the only upside is a single-digit annual raise with a cap not much above 100K. Video game creator puts you in the heart of a fast growing industry, and the upside is so much greater. Think long term.</p>
<p>dukeclassof09, unc oos is harder to get into than duke. it only has about an 18% acceptance rate oos, vs. dukes 22% ;-)</p>
<p>Yeah but the scores are lower. Its easier.</p>
<p>Harder for out of staters though I would imagine.</p>
<p>I’m guessing you’re from Indiana, why is IU out of the picture?</p>
<p>slipper, being as we only have scores (or atleast i can only find scores) of unc instate + oos, we cant say that the scores are lower. i will say without a doubt, that unc oos is easily in the top 10 hardest to get into, and, i cant say the same for duke.</p>
<p>The average SAT score for UNC Chapel Hill OOS applicants was a 1420 (go to their website and search for “institutional research” if you want to verify). Anyway, that’s on par with Duke, and their admit rate is slightly lower (18%). I strongly suspect that a good portion of those 18% are athletes and/or legacies, which makes it that much harder for the average OOS applicant.</p>
<p>yeahh…and also, if thats the average for every applicant, im assuming the average acceptance sat is higher…</p>