Duke or Yale?

bluedog
Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:52:48 +0000

^agree with illumin4tus about social life/academic balance at Duke

Really, there aren’t many better places for the social life/academic balance than Duke. People at Duke for the most part are not cutthroat at all and are very down to earth. Sure, there are some arrogant individuals, but I expect it’s not at the same level as Princeton, for example. For the most part, Duke students are pretty chill and everybody wants to help each other. The vast majority of the student body loves Duke (as evidenced by the low transfer rate; I think Duke has a 97% retention rate) and that can be attributed to the people, the social scene, and academics. I only have one friend who goes to Yale, so I don’t know too much about it, but I got the feeling it is slightly more cut-throat competition academically. Although it’s not on the level of UChicago or anything. Now, to attempt to answer your questions.

1- Is the student body at either of these universities worse than the other in terms of over-ambitiousness?

I don’t know for sure as both have individuals that are super ambitious, but I think you’d find there are a greater number of jock-types at Duke who are definitely not overly-ambitious. Not many people who just like to chill would choose to go to Yale, but there are some at Duke - and most of them are still smart! So, I’d expect there is a slightly higher percentage of “overly-ambitious” students at Yale, because, I mean, it is Yale after all.

2- If I’m an int’l student in need of at least a half-ride, would it be easier to get into Duke (non-need blind) or Yale (need-blind, but terribly hard to get into the first place)

No idea. I guess you’ll just have to wait for the admissions committee to decide that for you. At least if you get into Duke, they do guarantee to meet 100% of your demonstrated need, just like Yale.

3- Which institution would you (CCers) say that cares more for diversity?

Don’t really know, but Duke has a much larger Asian population than Yale for some reason. I think the numbers for African American and Hispanic students are about equal. Duke is sometimes said to have little race/class interaction, but I haven’t found that to be completely true. I have more asian friends than white ones (i’m white), although I’m an engineer. There are many cultural groups, though, so maybe certain individuals hang out with people they meet from those. Also, the greek system is largely separated by race as there are strictly African American frats/sororities, and the other frats/sororities are primarily white (although there is a bit of diversity, but not a lot) - so that separates it a bit. Yale has the residential college, so I bet there’s slightly more class/race interaction. I don’t think there’s a huge difference, but I might give Yale the edge.