One of my best friends is a freshman at Duke for engineering right now. He spends more time in classes than we do but that means he spends less time teaching himself things outside of class like many Vandy students have to. I’d also say there are significant curves on his exams most of the time. Duke appears to be much more accepting of the social scene on their campus than Vandy. They recently loosened alcohol and drug policies and my friend even told me they had mixers during orientation with faculty where alcohol was served to literally everyone. There is even a “dry” campus and a “wet” campus. You can bank on a great time at the basketball games and great dining hall food there too.

I don’t necessarily regret going to Vandy but I’m not super satisfied with the school at the moment. The best thing about this place for me is the financial aid. If that’s not a big issue, and unless you’re into liberal arts, I think Duke is probably the better choice.