I'm having a hard time choosing...

Faline2
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:24:19 +0000

I think your chances are even for Pratt and Trinity and it really will come down to where you are most comfortable spending hours buried in the books and labs. Also I would send in my SATs…they won’t hurt you and might help you. The 36 Reading offsets the SAT Reading and the SAT Math offsets the ACT math. You have plenty of excellent SATII scores…no need to obsess on all of them being over 700 when you have Three high ones. Your scores make you look equally balanced in verbal and math…
Duke IS a liberal arts experience even though at Pratt your time is very occupied in engineering experiences that will take you away from some of the softer side of Duke. However, there are tons of cultural events for free every week…no need to cheat yourself out of a great liberal arts school if you do BME at Duke for instance…while engineering at some colleges that are stronger across the board in engineering than Duke is…can’t always offer the school cultural arts and sports availabel to Dukies. Also, opting to do FOCUS for a semester makes for a great transition from high school to liberal arts small classrooms before you take off into serious sciences…some of my son’s FOCUS friends walked right into med school and always treasured their FOCUS semester as freshmen.

Pratt is very tough and hard one one’s ego at first but in a recession, if you have the talent to do well in Pratt the rewards in the job market are there once it is time to job interview. Some of my son’s Pratt buddies did Duke Engage by the way and some did a semester abroad in Australia.
Why not start in Pratt and switch to Trinity if you feel you don’t fit in for the long run?
Also the Nicholas school got lots of attention last year…take a good look…Robert Redford received an award there on campus last spring…their field placements are great too.

good luck!