Northwestern or Duke?

HST
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:35:09 +0000

I wouldn’t put much stock in that single world ranking. Duke and Northwestern are peer institutions. Moreover, NU has the stronger economics department (not sure about the respective strengths of the engineering departments). Choose the place where you think you will fit best and be happiest. These are two great choices, neither of which is clearly superior to the other.

Postscript: Also, if you are concerned about rankings, probably the most widely respected international university ranking (Academic Ranking of World Universities) has Northwestern one place ahead of Duke.