@calif2020 Did you receive the email from Duke about taking a gap year? Is that an option for you?
Iām not socaldad, but Iām wondering if the chances of Duke being online in the fall are any different from the chances of any other college.
@WWWard . . . no offense, but Niche is garbage.
I would choose neither. The economy is in a state of major recession, which means many more layoffs, or businesses going south. If a parent gets laid-off, both schools will become unaffordable VERY quickly. That scenario is already happening on THIS forum right now. If I were you, I would choose a school that I could mostly pay my way through with little cost from your parents (in-state) public.
Definitely Duke. USCās brand has been severely tarnished by no fewer than three major scandals and several more minor scandals in the past three years. President Folt has been brought in to clean house but that is going to take a whileā¦
You essentially post this same thought on every thread: āPick the cheapest option. The economy is in the toilet.ā We get it. 
Iām an optimist. I believe weāll get through this sooner than later and the economy will eventually return. Personally, I wouldnāt make any hasty college decisions based on being near the bottom of this epidemic.
What you fail to realize is that there are many families who have actually PLANNED for their kids college education for 17+years and have a college savings plan already in place instead of waiting to the last minute to figure out how to pay for their kidās college, etc. This is exactly why I always say āsave early and oftenā. While there may be some families who are laid-off, the vast majority of families are still working and will continue to work. We will get through this just like 2008/2009 and other disruptions to the economy.
Yes, unless things change drastically, my belief is that the vast majority of colleges will be online in the fall. I just donāt see a scenario where you can have 10,000+ college kids and 2,000 faculty members interacting in person on a daily basis without spreading the virus. Maybe small, rural colleges might be able to have a somewhat normal fall on campus but not for other colleges like USC and Duke. My D20 is already expecting to be home with online instruction in the fall. The best we can really hope for is a vaccine in the next 9 months, until then I just donāt see it happening.
With that said, my D20 toured and applied to USC. She pulled her app once she was accepted ED to Duke but she liked USC. She would have been in Marshall School of Business if accepted but itās a little too close to home as we also live in Los Angeles county. D20 wanted to āgo wayā to college.
Look USC is a great college with many Top 10 programs, great school spirit, athletics, excellent alumni network and is well respected by employers. But Duke is different, itās much smaller, more interdisciplinary, and you can really study anything, and has a collaborative feel within its student body. Is Duke worth the extra 80K, only you and your family can decide that.
thanks! itās actually only a 20K difference, so itās not out of the realm and we go back and forth whether the prestige/small interdisciplinary focus is worth it. i think iād prefer a smaller community but itās really finances and deciding whether ādukeā is worth the extra $. most of the time we are leaning yesā¦ although usc marshall seems like a fantastic fit for business.
did you dd think of applying for a gap year (considering probability of virtual fall semester)?
Have you spoken to Duke students from California and asked about how easy or difficult it is to set up internships in California? They have a Duke Univirtual Kickoff Experience (DUKE) where you can ask questions of current students, admissions officers, etc.
@socaldad - also is your DD planning to return to CA after graduation? I hope to live in CA and wondering if that should factor into my decision (seeing as the USC connections may be stronger in CA?)
i donāt know any duke students in CA. where is the Duke univirtual experience? i havenāt heard of that.
@calif2020 I think they sent out email invites this week. If you didnāt receive one, ask your parents if they did.
If money truly isnāt an issue, then definitely Duke. But $80,000 is substantial.
Thatās true about the UCās, Iām at Berkeley and I would like to kill myself or wish I was dead. I didnāt have good options tho well Columbia but I could not afford it and wanted to be in a college town and not in a jungle made of metal with trillions walking around manhattan everyday.