Northwestern vs. Duke vs. Berkeley

Crimsonstained7
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 20:31:17 +0000

Alright, let me put this the best way I possibly can.

Durham is not a nice city.

With about 2x the crime rate of Evanston, Durham is pretty dangerous, it’s not attractive, and when I visited twice I saw approximately 0 amounts of culture. People say the research triangle is a nice area, but they mostly mean Raleigh and Chapel Hill plus the confines of Duke, not the actual surrounding area of Durham. If you’re looking for a nice area as a major part of the fit, Northwestern is in a way nicer area. Plus add in the cultural capital, historic nature, and general awesomeness of Chicago, I’d say there’s no argument if those kinds of things were a major factor.

However, if you’re looking for prestige, Duke is far more well known on the East Coast. When my friend said he got accepted to Duke people were amazed, when I got accepted to Northwestern, people wondered where it was (I’m from SC). That didn’t matter to me, but it was just something I’d like to note.

Duke has great basketball, while we don’t have any great teams in the major sports, so if you’re looking for a huge sport to rally around, Duke’s probably better.

If you care about weather a ton, Duke’s better.

If you want a huge amount of flexibility in your courses, Northwestern’s quarter system has Duke beat (I might be a Major + 2 Minors with at least 7 or so left over classes after school and major/minor requirements).

If you’re looking for a larger diversity of students, Northwestern’s the way to go. My group of friends includes a theater major, journalism major, hard science majors, and more liberal arts type majors. I know tons of musicians, a dancer, and tons of other people into tons of different things. Duke, as far as I saw and have heard from my friend there, isn’t nearly as diverse in terms of what people are interested in.

Point is, look into your fit at schools. If you care a lot about the weather and sports, then you won’t like NU as much, almost assuredly, but if you love watching student theater and might double major (which you said you might) then NU’s probably better.