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Which school is more reputable in the US? (I'm a HK student) So...which school is most likely gonna get its undergraduates a higher paid job? Or more importantly. which school is better at getting people into graduate school? (In specific med school?) THANKS!

By Godis (Godis) on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 04:29 pm: Edit

depends on the region. columbia's more reputable in the nyc region, while duke's tops in the south. i'd say both schools are equal in terms of graduate placement.


tool.

By Breeze (Breeze) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 07:06 pm: Edit

"Which school is more reputable in the US?"

They are nip-and-tuck, but Columbia has a slight edge.

Reputation
Columbia 4.6
Duke 4.5

This is on a scale of 1-5 and surveyed from the Presidents and Deans of every school across the US. This is the "peer assessment" score you can find in the US NEWS tables.

By Insntynonchalan (Insntynonchalan) on Sunday, April 25, 2004 - 12:18 pm: Edit

umm.......Go to Columbia. I'm from the South...and Duke is not all that it's cracked up to be.

By Bahaa (Bahaa) on Sunday, April 25, 2004 - 12:35 pm: Edit

columbia has a record-breaking % of medical school applicants getting into their one of their 3 top choice medical schools. I think it is pretty good, and I am not going there!

By Johnmayerfan (Johnmayerfan) on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Bahaa-where can/did you find this info?

By Mosquito86 (Mosquito86) on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Both are incredible schools that do a great job in getting people into top grad schools. The difference between them really isn't all that much.

Think more in terms of what environment you want. Columbia is very urban. Whereas Duke is quite suburban and somewhat in the "middle of nowhere." At least that is what I felt when I visited Duke.

By Macsuile (Macsuile) on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 07:23 am: Edit

Duke is incredibly over-rated and its prestige is mostly derived from its athletic program. Schools like Rice, Virginia and William & Mary are much better.

By Forever_Lisai (Forever_Lisai) on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 04:54 pm: Edit

yes, virginia is really a good school , i think it is a little better than Duke , though the rank is much lower, and i will pick columbia between duke and columbia although columbia is too narrow and crowded

By Edmoney (Edmoney) on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 06:24 pm: Edit

Duke is fantastic. There's nothing you can do with a Columbia degree that you can't do with a Duke degree.

By Godis (Godis) on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 12:26 am: Edit

you can make paper airplanes, you can draw, you can cut out paper figures...

By Macsuile (Macsuile) on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 09:45 am: Edit

Duke just doesn't have the historical-based prestige of the Ivy League or the "ancient" Virginia schools (UVa and William & Mary). Isn't Duke less than 100 years old? Emory and Vanderbilt have the same problem (no deep history). Does Duke have any famous alumni? Is it located in a major city or historical area? The answer is no. Duke has been scamming Northeastern students and foreign ones for decades. The U.S. News rankings are a joke.

By Stanfordman99 (Stanfordman99) on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 11:36 am: Edit

"There's nothing you can do with a Columbia degree that you can't do with a Duke degree.

.....you can make paper airplanes, you can draw, you can cut out paper figures..."

lol

By Edmoney (Edmoney) on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 07:31 pm: Edit

I thought Stanfordman was going to reply "you can attend Columbia alumni meetings"

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 11:42 pm: Edit

Even though I was selected for their ol' Talent Identification Program and was able to take the ACT in 7th grade as a result, Duke does seem pretty overrated. Macsuile indirectly stated it best in implying that Duke is sort of on the same level as Vanderbilt and Emory. Columbia, on the other hand, usually fits reputation-wise somewhere around Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I admit I've never researched either pre-med program, but based on everything else I've learned about Columbia, I'd say they do beat Duke in almost everything else except sports. And who knows, maybe I'm a little biased and misinformed on this, but it seems pretty stupid to me to decide on which college you want to attend based on if it "gets its undergraduates better paid jobs". Apparently it isn't your "most important" factor, but to me it shouldn't really matter at all. What should matter is the experience you may get and, yes, the quality of the undergrad program if you plan on grad school.

By Macsuile (Macsuile) on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 03:16 pm: Edit

Let's break it down another way, this time by presidents, a popular measure of "prestige":

Harvard - 5 U.S. presidents
William & Mary - 4
Yale - 3
Princeton - 2
Stanford - 1
Columbia - 0 (Alex Hamilton was an alum)
Penn - 0 (Ben Franklin was a founder)
Dartmouth - 0
Brown - 0
Cornell - 0
Duke - 0 (Nixon was a law student, not undergrad)

This may not be a credible measure to some, but I think it is a good proxy from a histroical and influence perspective.

By Eclinchy (Eclinchy) on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 08:45 pm: Edit

Yale will tie Harvard by 2012 though... Kerry and Hillary both went there!

By Macsuile (Macsuile) on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 09:55 am: Edit

Hillary was not an undergrad at Yale. She went to Wellesley or some other woman's college.

Kerry may have a shot if Bush doesn't get a new running mate. If Bush gets Giuliani or McCain, it's all over for Kerry. Kerry and his running mate are just too far to the left and anti-business. The American Chamber of Commerce has actually come out against Kerry. That hasn't happened in decades.

By Nirvanarageatm (Nirvanarageatm) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 02:21 pm: Edit

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 1

By Macsuile (Macsuile) on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 10:25 am: Edit

Here are the latest stats on "yield," a measure which basically indicates the appeal level of a school to a respective applicant:

60-80% yield: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford
55-60: Brown, Penn
45-55%: Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, UNC, UVa, William & Mary
Under 40%: Chicago, Emory, Hopkins, NYU, Vanderbilt, Wake