Duke: Trinity [chemistry] versus Pratt [biomedical engineering]. Asian American girl 1540, 3.95 uw, 12 APs

[college-hopeful]

Hello CC!

Duke is my dream college and I plan to apply ED to Duke. Please help me decide if I should apply to Trinity College of Arts and Sciences or Pratt School of Engineering.

Desired majors: Biomedical Engineering or Chemistry
Eventual goal: Med school

I like both Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry and would be happy to study either of them.
I have a good profile for school of engineering: I have been involved in robotics for 6+ years, with awards in the world robotics tournament, AIME qualification, machine learning project with a likely paper publication

I do not have a strong backstory for chemistry, other than the fact that I took AP Chemistry in my junior year and loved every aspect of it.

Should I apply to Trinity or Pratt?
Is Pratt harder to get into? Does Pratt give any priority for girls?
If I apply to Trinity, will it be held against me that I do not have any extracurriculars related to chemistry?

Please help me decide.

[lilyesh]

Pratt is harder to get into.

Both schools are so hard to get into I don’t know if it’ll matter.

[thumper1]

1. Is Duke going to be affordable for your parents to fund for college?
2. Why ED?

[NiceUnparticularMan]

You do not need extracurriculars related to your possible majors when applying to an Arts & Sciences school like Trinity. In fact you don’t even declare a major in Trinity until your sophomore year, and even then you can change it. Instead, the whole point of schools like Trinity is to explore options before narrowing in:

https://admissions.duke.edu/trinity/

TRINITY COLLEGE

AN EDUCATION DESIGNED FOR EXPLORATION

With over 50 million ways to navigate the curriculum, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences fosters student creativity and curiosity in the classroom. Trinity students embrace our flexible liberal arts curriculum by blurring, crossing, and mixing traditional academic boundaries—all with the support of faculty, advisors, and their peers. . . . 80% of Duke undergraduates are enrolled in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. Trinity offers 48 majors, 50 minors, 23 certificates and an option for students to design their own major. Students can combine up to three academic pathways and they do not have to be related. With a flexible liberal arts curriculum, students explore diverse disciplines and create new ways of combining them together.

OK, so Trinity isn’t really looking for kids who think they decided what they want to do for a major and occupation when they were 14 or 15, and since then have been devoting themselves to just that one area in both classes and ECs. They are looking for kids who will enthusiastically explore the many different things that Trinity offers academically, possibly in unexpected directions and combinations, while being active participants in campus life in other ways too.

And you can do all that while being pre-med. But like many people, you may also start pre-med but discover in college that you have interests and aptitudes that lead you in a different direction. One of the great things about a school like Trinity is no matter how your path may evolve, it will be well-resourced.

Of course if you want to be an engineer, you should prefer Pratt. But if that idea of an exploratory, flexible, liberal arts and sciences experience appeals to you, then you should prefer Trinity.

And on the third hand, if you feel sure about pre-med and just want the best chance of med school admissions while minimizing pre-med-school costs–Duke may not actually be the best choice at all.

[merc81]

Trinity seems like a better fit for you.

[tsbna44]

Forget medical school - if you don’t go, what do you want to study?

Bio engineering will likely result in a better outcome. But it doesn’t mean it’s what you want to study. I’d study what I desired.

I don’t see one on line but you can ask the career center for career outcomes (job placement, salaries, etc.) for each major.

I used UNC as a proxy.

The 2023 class, the median salary was $47.5K and average $51K for a BS in chemistry.

Jobs included medical assistant, chemist, research assistant, biochemist. It could be that some of these kids took job to prep for med school applications. I don’t know for sure. A recent chem grad I know is now a high school teacher.

Bioengineering shows an average salary of $74.4K with a median of $70K.

One last thing - there’s no such thing as a dream school so please get that out of your mind. All colleges have issues whether roommate issues, dining issues, bad professors, etc. There is a school out there for you. It may or may not be Duke…but if it’s not, there’s many other fine ones you can excel at too.

To answer your question - forget which is easier - and focus on which one you want to study at.

Best of luck.

[twogirls]

Why ED? Will Duke be affordable given your interest in medical school (which might change)?

I would choose the major that you like. Both will allow you to work (if you decide to work before heading back to school) but the nature of the work will differ.

[happy1]

Decide if you want to study engineering or chemistry and apply to the appropriate school.

[college-hopeful]

Thank you for your input. It is very helpful. I will apply to Trinity and will pivot my essay towards exploring new areas instead of focusing on what I have already accomplished.

[MontyBurns]

I’ve had two (unhooked) kids admitted to Pratt at Duke (one, an ECE/CS, just graduated, and the other, an ME, still there) so I admittedly have more experience with Pratt than Trinity. But a couple thoughts:

First, if you know Duke is where you want to go and it’s affordable, ED is the definite call. The Duke dean of admissions, who’s been there since the early 90s, has been very clear in public interviews that there is a admissions benefit to ED at Duke beyond the impact of legacies and athletes within the early round of applicants.

Second, unlike some schools, it is very easy to transfer between Pratt and Trinity so I would apply to the school you really want to attend with the knowledge that you can change your mind later. I’ve heard of kids changing between Trinity and Pratt even during the short period between acceptance and matriculation.

Third: While Duke does not release admission rates by school, knowing how easy it is to switch between schools, I would not count on substantial differences in acceptance rates between BME at Pratt and a STEM Trinity major like Chemistry. It might be a slightly difference story if your choices were between Pratt and an underutilized major in Trinity like (say for example) religious studies, which had one spring 2023 grad (here: ‘Concerned about enrollments’: As humanities lose numbers to STEM nationwide, Duke grapples with similar trends - The Chronicle) where Duke might have more of a need to fill seats in classes. But again, because of how easy it is to switch schools (and majors aren’t even declared until after freshman year), Duke knows that applicants may try to game the admissions process. If nothing in one’s background says “religious studies major”, Duke is probably going to sniff that out.

If you think your resume screams “engineering” and your only experience with chemistry is one AP class that you liked, I would suggest applying to Pratt.

[CAGRL]

Agree with this poster. If Duke is your 1st choice and your family can afford it I would 100% recommend applying ED as there is some advantage. Good luck to you!

[college-hopeful]

Thank you for your detailed input. It was very helpful. It’s reassuring that the acceptance rates of Trinity and Pratt are similar.

[MACXC1009]

Yes, your essay should not be a regurgitation of your activities/honors that will already be on the app. Have you read through some examples of the best ones?