Northwestern vs. Duke vs. Berkeley

Jeremyjoe
Fri, 11 Apr 2014 02:41:57 +0000

I worked a top bulge bracket investment bank for 7 years in NYC and can confidently say that Duke and Northwestern are very much peers. It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise. Objectively speaking, look at the numbers, they speak for themselves - see below

from collegeboard.com’s profile…obviously, a year outdated but you get an idea for the class strength of both

Northwestern SAT - 1390 to 1550 SAT…ACT - 31 - 34…91% in top 10 of their class
Duke SAT - 1360 to 1550…ACT - 31 - 34…90% in top 10 of their class

This year - NU’s acceptance rate is around 13% and Duke’s is close to 11 or 12% (including ED and RD).

It looks like they are very close from a student body strength perspective. In fact, Northwestern has a sightly higher SAT average. And the argument that Northwestern has a much higher concentration of students submitting ACT scorers as opposed to SAT scores, is also an exaggeration. Please look at the numbers below.

Duke - 75 / 49: SAT / ACT Split
Northwestern - 64 / 60: SAT / ACT Split

At both schools, the majority of students submits SAT scores but there is a large portion at both schools that submit both SAT and ACT scores.

Also, from a reputation standpoint, both schools in US News have comparable (if not the same) reputation scores from academics.

Both schools have very strong grad programs. Northwestern wins in the MBA category (top 5 b school). Duke wins in the med school ranking (top 5-10). Both have top 15 law schools. Northwestern has one of the best econ programs in the world and Duke has some solid programs as well.

Please choose based on fit. Both schools are fantastic. Personally, being close to one of the best cities in the world (Chicago) would make me inclined to choose Northwestern over Duke, since it is in Durham. Northwestern students have access to many internship opportunities, world-class restaurants and theatre, etc.

Best of luck. My choice would be Northwestern!