Duke vs Rice vs Carnegie Mellon

Houston1021
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 12:12:08 +0000

You have some great choices. It sounds like Duke is the better school for you if money is not an issue. If you can attend Owl Days or an Admit Day at Rice and Blue Devil Days at Duke, those visits would give you a very good feel for the two schools. If those times don’t work, visit on a regular school day and try to sit in on some classes. You have already visited CMU, and I can’t add anything there. http://calendar.duke.edu/show?fq=id%3ACAL-8a08708a-306bfd5e-0130-9e1e5a9c-00004a64demobedework%40mysite.edu https://admission.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs676/f/ScheduleAtAGlance_OwlDays2019_4.pdf

I have a daughter at Rice that also considered Duke. She was not interested in Greek life, and Rice was a better fit for her. We live in Houston so it was very close by. Rice’s cost of attendance was somewhat cheaper.

The two schools are very different. If you are interested in big time college sports with massive school spirit such as Duke basketball, Duke can’t be beat. Rice is Division 1, but most of the students never attend games in any sport. I would describe Rice students as happy nerds. Not everyone is in a fraternity at Duke, but the frats are a factor in social life there. Rice’s social life revolves around the residential colleges, and competition among them is fierce.

Both Duke and Rice have beautiful campuses. Duke has gothic style architecture while Rice has Mediterranean style. Duke has more of an old south vibe than Rice does. At Duke, all of the freshmen live at the East campus while upper classmen are on West campus. Buses go between the two. Rice is smaller than Duke and easily walkable. Rice has more of an undergrad focus while Duke has medical. law, and divinity grad schools to name a few.

My husband attended grad school at Duke, and my in laws both graduated from there and now live in Durham.The airport in Durham is a short Uber ride to the campus. Durham is a smaller town than Houston or Pittsburg, but Chapel Hill is just a few miles away, and the whole research triangle area has lots of places to eat, shop, etc.