<p>
Temper, temper! While all of you are no doubt puffed with pride over your EA/ED acceptances, most of you know these universities only from glossy brochures and perhaps a couple of visits. Let’s tone down the vehemence a bit. </p>
<p>As for Duke…</p>
<p>1. Great pre-medical program
Assuming you apply yourself, Duke will get you where you need to go. Pre-med advising is phenomenal, as are research opportunities. Pre-meds bug me, but most are collaborative rather than competitive. </p>
<p>2. Location in or close to a large city
As was noted, Duke is not in a thriving metropolis. I personally love the feel of a sprawling campus isolated by patches of forest, and it was one thing that initially drew me to Duke. Urban campuses simply cannot emulate that feel, although some admittedly do better with this than others (e.g. Rhodes’ campus is far prettier and less claustrophobic than Brown’s). Others prefer the bustling feel of urban campuses like BU and NYU, in which all of the resources of a large city are a subway or bus ride away.</p>
<p>Duke is not exactly in the middle of North Dakota, however, and usually there’s more than enough going on. At any given time, one has film showings, lectures, art exhibitions, parties, theatre performances, cultural festivals, etc. on campus, and there’s considerably more stuff off campus. Durham and the Triangle regularly perform extremely well in rankings of food, music, quality of life, etc. I’m in a much larger city for graduate school, and truthfully I miss the Triangle terribly…particularly the extremely low prices for tickets and other things. Large cities are great but can be very expensive for students!</p>
<p>[Duke</a> and Durham Rank Among the Best in the World | Duke & Durham](<a href=“Durham, Our Hometown - Duke Undergraduate Admissions”>Durham, Our Hometown - Duke Undergraduate Admissions)</p>
<p>**3. Really nice campus vibe **
Duke is rightfully known for this.</p>
<p>**4. Pretty respectable status **
That applies to all four schools.</p>
<p>5. Nice people
I found the people at Duke noticeably more friendly than several of the other universities to which I applied/was admitted for undergraduate or graduate work (namely Brown, Chicago, Hopkins, Penn, and Yale), but the students are generally less friendly than those of several more “southern” schools (e.g. Wake and Furman). In general, students are very friendly and outgoing.</p>
<p>Try not to be overly swayed by people saying that a particular college is “preppy” or “intellectual” or any other adjective. When a college has upwards of 6000 undergraduates, it is difficult indeed to maintain a monolithic campus culture. I turned down Chicago (my #1 choice in high school) for Duke for financial reasons and got along with the students there swimmingly; I found plenty of people with similar interests and mindsets as well as many others that challenged my thoughts and beliefs. While I’m sure at least some students at each of the four universities would absolutely hate being at any of the other three, I think most people would do quite well at any of them.</p>