UPenn vs Duke | ApplyingToCollege | Page 1

hasty latch Jun 22, 2023, 12:30 AM

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Schools: UPenn vs Duke
Intended major: CS+Stats, probably going to grad school. Maybe premed biochem (Let's say 20% chance I switch to premed)

I'll rank the following pros and cons also from a 1-10 importance scale, with 10 being the most important.

**UPenn **
Pros:

Close to home (1 hour drive away). I'd rather not be too far from my family. - Pathetic as it sounds, I rely on my family a lot for support. (8/10)
Better than duke for CS and stats. I'd like a wide breadth of courses and CS opportunities to prepare me for grad school. (5/10)
Slightly more prestigious overall. (6/10)

Cons:

Very difficult school coursework wise (Hard to get good grades). I'm afraid of getting overly stressed and overwhelmed. I deal with stress and anxiety pretty poorly. (8/10)
Not too big on city life. Also a little bit colder (4/10)
Heard that the pre-professional vibe makes it so that there is barely anyone thinking of grad school and that you are pressured to go into industry immediately after undergrad (4/10)

Duke
Pros:

Grade inflation (Easy to get good grades) (8/10)
More rural and warmer. I like nature walks, and I like my solitude, without the noisy and smelly atmosphere of a city. Being in outside in the busy city can give me headaches. (4/10)

Cons:

Farther from home (Plane ride). Family can no longer take a simple afternoon drive to me. (8/10)
Worse than UPenn for CS and stats. (5/10)
Less prestigious overall. (6/10)

Tiebreaking considerations:
Which one is better if I'm thinking of grad school? Are the research opportunities for CS and stats plentiful? Is there a wide range of cs courses?

I'm very socially awkward and shy. How conducive is the social environment of each school to someone like me?

Also, how hard would it be to transfer from the Arts and Sciences college to the Engineering college for each school? The easier, the better.

I'm open to suggestions about Cornell, CMU and other colleges.

ripe wadi Jun 22, 2023, 2:18 AM

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Neither of them have inflation

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But duke median curve is generally better than upenn iirc

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Cornell is nicely fit to you maybe; no need to internal transfer if u swtich between cs and biochem (all in arts and sci college)

spring prawn Jun 22, 2023, 2:06 PM

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easy to transfer from arts and sciences to engineering for duke

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dont think it's that hard for penn either

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only transferring to wharton is hard

hasty latch Jun 23, 2023, 12:55 AM

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ripe wadi Cornell is nicely fit to you maybe; no need to internal transfer if u swtich bet...

Would you say the courses are hard? Also, does cornell send a lot of cs kids to grad school?

dusty basin Jun 23, 2023, 1:58 AM

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I’m not an authority on this but I would choose here based on fit and less on academic prestige because they all have academic prestige

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Cornell of course sends cs grads to great places along with Penn and Duke

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Based on your pros and cons I think you’re leaning toward Penn

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 8:42 AM

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i think going from CAS -> SEAS at penn is pretty easy

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and its definitely a pre professional environment but if you want to grad school then you wont struggle to find support for that

hasty latch Jun 23, 2023, 6:11 PM

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How hard would you guys say is the difficulty of UPenn, Duke, and Cornell CS and engineering in terms of coursework, from a rating of 1-10 10 being the hardest?

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 6:13 PM

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hasty latch How hard would you guys say is the difficulty of UPenn, Duke, and Cornell CS and...

compared to other majors or compared to cs programs at other schools

hasty latch Jun 23, 2023, 6:13 PM

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compared to other cs programs from the three schools

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 6:13 PM

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hasty latch compared to other cs programs from the three schools

cornell prolly one of the harder ones, penn harder than average but not super hard i think, and duke would prolly be about average?

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thats my guess as a non cs major

ripe wadi Jun 23, 2023, 7:11 PM

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stiff oasis cornell prolly one of the harder ones, penn harder than average but not super ha...

Uh

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Theyd be applying arts and sci

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To double major in cs and stats

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So no transfer necessary

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 7:12 PM

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wuht

ripe wadi Jun 23, 2023, 7:12 PM

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Idk abt cs specific grad studf im sorry

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Oh i misread

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 7:12 PM

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i meant for like difficult of cs programs

ripe wadi Jun 23, 2023, 7:12 PM

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Yeah cs hard and huge at corn

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That sounds nasty

stiff oasis Jun 23, 2023, 7:12 PM

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i think cornells is pretty hard since its very prestigious

exotic mica Jun 26, 2023, 8:18 PM

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ok here's my opinion on duke cs as someone who was formerly engineering and is now purely cs...

it can be either stupidly easy or a very hard degree - there's tons of course freedom
there's tons of double major pathways with math/stat/econ for all your sellout needs
intro classes are a joke, i don't think i paid attention at all and cruised to A's
upper level classes can get pretty difficult, but are incredibly interesting and you actually want to do them
project based classes - i can't stress this enough, most classes the majority of your grade comes from the projects

and now my opinion on premed as someone was formerly BME/premed:

go. to. duke. i don't think there's a question, duke is miles better at premed than upenn

inter-college transfers are super easy at duke - it's as easy as filling out a google form

duke social life is whatever you make of it, there's a bit of everything for everyone

ripe wadi Jun 26, 2023, 8:20 PM

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:(

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u make me sad michael

hasty latch Jun 26, 2023, 11:31 PM

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exotic mica ok here's my opinion on duke cs as someone who was formerly engineering and is n...

So its super easy to go from arts and sciences college to engineering? Usually for most colleges its super hard i heard

hasty latch Jun 26, 2023, 11:35 PM

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exotic mica ok here's my opinion on duke cs as someone who was formerly engineering and is n...

Also how would you compare duke premed vs john hopkins?

ripe wadi Jun 26, 2023, 11:42 PM

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Jhu premed sounds like cutthroat ngfl

exotic mica Jun 27, 2023, 12:57 AM

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hasty latch So its super easy to go from arts and sciences college to engineering? Usually f...

yep you literally sign a paper

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it's super easy

exotic mica Jun 27, 2023, 12:57 AM

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hasty latch Also how would you compare duke premed vs john hopkins?

they're similar in terms of placements, though i will caution JHU is infinitely harder

hasty latch Jun 27, 2023, 1:12 AM

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exotic mica ok here's my opinion on duke cs as someone who was formerly engineering and is n...

do you think duke cs or just science/engineering would be good for someone who's thinking of grad school? Also why would you say duke premed is so much better?

hollow otter Jun 29, 2023, 1:12 AM

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come to penn

stiff oasis Jun 29, 2023, 1:24 AM

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come to penn

hasty latch Jun 29, 2023, 2:06 AM

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hmmmm

hollow otter Jun 29, 2023, 3:55 AM

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i’ll put it this way

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as soon as i got into penn duke FLEW off my list

exotic mica Jun 29, 2023, 7:42 PM

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eH

spring prawn Jun 29, 2023, 10:17 PM

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A lot of people still picked duke over penn shrug

stiff oasis Jun 29, 2023, 10:27 PM

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damn i didnt think 50/50 lol

spring prawn Jun 29, 2023, 11:49 PM

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Ya

heady shard Jul 21, 2023, 12:10 AM

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It is not a very difficult school coursework wise imo. Yes the classes are very hard, but they give you so many resources to succeed, it is up to you to take them. There is free tutoring, office hours, study material, free mental health resources, Penn course review which shows you what kids think of each class before signing up for it, etc

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and lots of hard classes are curved

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It's up to you to make the most out of your education at Penn

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and tbh, I think that is a good thing

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you are forced to really learn and forced to advocate for yourself in some cases and forced to have good study habits, which is building vital skills that will help you in life! And if you are having a hard time or dont know where to start, they have specific advisors for that and specific resources for literally anything you need to help you!

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never heard that Duke is super grade inflated tho

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But if you hate urban campuses Penn is def not for you, def visit before attending the school

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You can have nature walks in Philly, but the campus is also very urban

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personally I see myself going to the biopond to chill soon

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there are spots with nature and spots that are more quiet to get away, but at the end of the day the campus is largely surrounded by city

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Penn gets very warm in the summer but very cold in the winter, Idk abt Duke

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and there is plenty of research opportunities for Penn students, you can get research opportunities your first year pretty easily through CURF

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and yes Penn is preprofessional but i have never heard of people getting deterred from grad school?? A lot of kids that give up on their passion go into consulting where they make a lot of money easily if thats what you mean, but a crap ton of students go to grad school or med school or law school or whatever so thats really not true

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And if you are an introvert you will be fine wherever, nobody is forcing you to do stuff. You get to choose what clubs to join and if you want to go to parties and who you want to make friends with etc

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if you want to switch from CAS to Engineering it is possible if you keep your grades up, I'll look into the process and let you know!

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A student that is older than me at Penn said this!

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so yes, transferring from CAS to Engineering is incredibly easy, just dont fail classes lmao

hasty latch Jul 21, 2023, 3:00 AM

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heady shard A student that is older than me at Penn said this!

bro you are actually the goat thank you so much for the info

heady shard Jul 21, 2023, 3:00 AM

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Np! If you have questions specific to Penn let me know and I can answer any u have!

hasty latch Jul 21, 2023, 3:03 AM

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heady shard so yes, transferring from CAS to Engineering is incredibly easy, just dont fail ...

Do you know what he means by high enough GPA to transfer? I mean is it really that as long as I didn't fail any class I can transfer? Or do I have to get majority As?

heady shard Jul 21, 2023, 3:06 AM

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hasty latch Do you know what he means by high enough GPA to transfer? I mean is it really th...

you need a 3.0 gpa, which is a B average. But u prob wont be getting a B in every single class you take since there are a lot of classes that are easy to get A's in, it'll be a mix.

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so don't get too many C's or D's to offput those A's and ur good

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And tbh it would be hard to get a D in multiple classes at Penn if you are advocating for yourself and studying. If you know you are prob gonna struggle in a course get a tutor, go to office hours a few times, or if you really really can't grasp the material you can always drop it and take another course if it's too much which won't hurt ur GPA

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especially since a lot of stuff in harder classes are curved to like a B

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It really shouldn't be that hard to achieve a 3.0 if you try unless an outside situation is making school harder for you

hasty latch Jul 21, 2023, 3:20 AM

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heady shard It really shouldn't be that hard to achieve a 3.0 if you try unless an outside s...

For upenn do you think that grad school placements are good? Like do you think upenn prepares you well for grad school? Also, do you know anything about the Chemical engineering major, its difficulty compared to other majors, and its outcomes?

heady shard Jul 21, 2023, 3:22 AM

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They are incredibly good

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here wait I can find a website for placements

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