Liberal arts does include math and science. It looks like you are erroneously using “liberal arts” to refer only to humanities and social studies.
Science and engineering majors do spend more time on school work, probably due to more lab courses (and design projects in engineering). However, some H/SS courses also have large projects, and visual and performing arts can be time consuming (studio and performance). Business is probably the lowest workload major.
Something I learned from this thread, which is a change from the last time I had looked, some years ago, is that the numbers for Duke’s ED and Princeton’s SCEA have practically converged, with Princeton admitting just under 20% of its early applicants and Duke admitting just over 25% of its early pool. It’s really interesting that they are so close; I would have thought Duke’s rate would be more like twice Princeton’s – because Princeton is more popular (but Duke gets meaningfully more applications overall), because EA schools tend to get more applications than binding ED schools (but the SCEA schools have not had huge growth in early applications, and Duke has), and because Duke enrolls a larger class than Princeton (but it only takes slightly more ED).
I wonder whether part of the difference isn’t explained by Duke not using ED to admit its recruited athletes. If one hypothesizes that Duke is bringing in a couple hundred athletes via an NLI process and not counting them in ED, and adjusts Princeton’s numbers accordingly (since Princeton almost certainly is running most of its recruited athletes through ED), the gap between their early admissions rates would be 10 percentage points, not 5.
I have considerable first hand experience with both schools. Durham is becoming a much better city than Princeton (at least from a college student’s perspective) but Princeton has the benefit of being relatively close to NYC. The work-life balance probably favors Duke but I doubt stress levels will vary significantly (pre-meds at both schools can expect to be worked hard). Princeton’s grade deflation builds resilience but can prove to be an annoyance on occasion.
Duke’s campus is bigger and definitely more buzzing (probably because it has significantly more students). Princeton’s campus lends itself to quiet contemplation. Princeton’s professors are probably the best in the country. Duke’s faculty may not have quite the same luster (although that is changing rapidly) but the sheer quality is still palpable.
If your son is incredibly serious about going into academia, I’d give Princeton a slight edge. If he wants to become a professional, it would make sense to go to Duke.
