Would assume one of these four and someone said Princeton (wasn’t sure why) but what would it matter?
Duke has ACC sports - so yes, it will have more school spirit. And the weather will be milder. Does it have more majors - ehhh - not sure.
I’m the one that said Princeton (because it was the one that was the least like Duke.)
Its school spirit might be expressed in ways that wouldn’t necessarily feel authentic to the OP.
Just trying to look at it from the POV of the average person.
It’s either first year blues that so many get it real.
People have one life. All the names are great but if one is miserable….
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You’re assuming that the finances are going to stay roughly the same. When you transfer, you now become a “transfer student” that Duke hasn’t included in their budget.
Every university is different with their finances.
Before you transfer to Duke, you better see what that is. The best financial aid is provided in freshman year because they are trying to attract the best students.
Once you transfer, they may not have additional funding to provide you with an equitable financial aid package.
Don’t make assumptions. Check their net price calculators.
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Does it matter? They’re clearly not happy whichever it is.
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It matters to me.
Um, ok. I’m assuming from how the first post is phrased that OP doesn’t want to be specific and it’s up to them what they want to share.
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Yes! You’re focus should be on what you want. I would say transfer to Duke, as long as you have seen the numbers and used their NPCs. Do what ever makes you happy. People these days don’t care about prestige. It is an overrated thing that doesn’t get you far in the workplace.
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I don’t disagree with your point– but it’s missing nuance. SOMETIMES prestige matters a lot. Sometimes it matters a little. Sometimes it doesn’t matter at all. You can’t give one size fits all advice on something which has a lot of gray areas.
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What I am saying is that you shouldn’t look at a school just based on prestige. And it shouldn’t be your deciding factor.
??? In some workplaces it not only gets you far- it’s what gets you in the door.
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Is anyone really arguing there’s a significant difference in prestige between Duke and whichever Ivy though?
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Well if OP is not enjoying where they’re at they should, they should def. transfer, even if it is into another Ivy (Actually, that is a good idea, to get both of what they want.) I would research party scene and the rec. activities at each of the Ivy’s you got into @bluedevilorivy
There isn’t. I don’t see why it matters. As I said below, the OP should go based off what him/her want in a college, not off of prestige. Duke is considered a little Ivy and is very hard to get into. It’s the Ivy status that OP is after, but the work Ivy just refers to a football section. It’s like the ACC (for Duke).
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We are not the OP. We are not the OP’s family. And the OP clearly believes that there’s a tradeoff in prestige somehow.
It’s helpful to bring alternative points of view (“there is no difference in prestige between your unnamed college and Duke”). I find it dismissive to tell the OP that “ People these days don’t care about prestige. It is an overrated thing that doesn’t get you far in the workplace.”
We don’t tell kids who hate the food at their college that nobody cares about food (the kids who post clearly do, even if our own kids did not). We don’t tell kids who think the weather in Buffalo is dismal so they prefer Atlanta that weather is an overrated thing. And we wouldn’t tell a kid who wants marching band that “it won’t get you far in the workplace” if a kid wants to find a college where they can participate in band.
Sometimes we should just try to help the OP.
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I could not agree more… besides Harvard.
agree, and it isn’t true. I can tell you from personal experience. I have gotten my foot in door MANY times because of my “pedigree” -and have networked because of it too. Do I have to prove myself once there? of course.
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eh, I think Princeton and Yale are JUST as prestigious as Harvard and really always have been, and in fact getting through Princeton is far harder with the thesis and jr. paper.
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Straight prestige isn’t really my thing. I go by which you can most easily buy sweatshirts in an airport.
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This has been a fascinating thread since it leaves so much for us to intuit. One of the OP’s premises is that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Brown basically present to the world in similar ways. I’m going to call it, “vibe”. The OP also mentions coursework that Duke has and the other’s don’t, so I immediately thought, “Oh, they must be thinking of engineering.” But they go on to pose questions about “prestige”. Well, engineers don’t usually worry about perceptions; they worry about solid things like prerequisites and ABET accreditation. Neither do premeds.
Then, I asked AI whether Duke had an undergrad business program and, surprisingly, they don’t. But they do appear to have a slew of individual business oriented courses which Duke apparently packages in ways that the OP could find appealing.
I’m leaving weather out of the equation because that’s become increasingly difficult to predict for the future; last winter was difficult for just about everyone up and down the East coast.
So, we’re really back to vibe. The Ivies present one image; Duke presents another. At least that’s the way the way the OP sees it. Duke athletic teams certainly have a more robust following, especially in North Carolina. That may be what the OP means by “school spirit”. But again, l’m filling in a lot of blank spaces by substituting my own reading. I could be completely wrong.
Are they giving up something in terms of prestige by transferring? That’s an admittedly nebulous term that gets thrown around quite a bit. If you’re talking about straight up USNews rankings-style prestige, I’d say, no; if you’re talking about Old Boy/Girl network style prestige, I’d say, yes. I agree with @blossom; they’re not the same.
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