U.Chicago vs Cornell vs Berkeley vs Duke

_aubergine
Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:57:57 +0000

bump

@Grumpster (and everyone else)

Unfortunately, money is a big issue for me right now. Chicago and Cornell cost about 30k more than Berkeley for me (I’m in-state), and Duke costs about 20k more than Berkeley. To add to the issue, USC has offered me a full tuition scholarship. I would prefer to have a well-balanced undergraduate experience, but I would like to get the best value for my money and get into a good grad school as well. Also, I prefer private out-of-state colleges to public in-state ones, but are the costs of my current out-of-state options enough to justify their locations/better fit? Help!

How would you had to rank these 5 schools (Chicago, Cornell, Berkeley, Duke, USC) based on Econ reputations/ease of getting into a good grad school?