Calling All Duke (Fuqua) 2011 Applicants

To call Fuqua the safety school for many top tier applicants is a gross generalization. While undoubtedly true for some, I think it takes too much away from the school to make such a blanket statement. I know of a number of folks who are seriously considering Fuqua over offers from higher ranked programs.

I do, however, believe that the reduced application fees charged by Fuqua are deliberately designed to boost their application numbers and thus, lower the acceptance rate at Fuqua. I suspect that those additional applicants are drawn both from those whose sights are set on H/W/S and those considering lower ranked programs.

The difference between $50 and $200 is minimal considering the amount of time required to put together a competitive application. I don't think many people apply to a school just because the fees are lower, regardless of how much essay material can be recycled. There is that whole essay "Why Duke?" which will take more than 5-6 hours to write. Add to that two additional letters to ask your recommenders for and a likely $600 trip to Durham for the interview...

Agree... But, Kellogg/UChicago could be called safety schools for people that are applying to HSW.

Conversely, Duke could be a dream school for people applying to Notre Dame, USC, Georgetown and the like.

I agree with you both in certain respects. However, after looking at these threads for the first time in a few months, nobody really mentions how important a school choice is as it relates to their personal lives. Sure, husbands and wives/boyfriends and girlfriends, might be willing to put their lives on hold for a few years so their significant other can get an MBA and advance their career. However, there are also many folks that must make a school decision based on their family needs.

Does anyone know if Fuqua Admissions will call the admitted students? I am freaking out waiting for Duke decision...

They don't call. All decisions are posted and made available online on the published decision date. For r2 applicants, that means this Friday.

In the past (i.e. last year or the year before), Duke has released decisions earlier in the week, but those appear to be outlier cases where the early release followed a breakdown in Duke's online system.

In R1, from what I recall, our decisions were posted on the published date, sometime after noon EST.

No need to freak out. The decision is completely out of your hands at this point. What will be, will be. Good luck.

Is anyone surprised by the huge admit rate gap between Duke and NYU/Yale? Supposedly only one spot off from the two schools according to US News but psychologically it seems more significant.

Agreed...I turned down my offer to Fuqua and will be attending Cornell because my wife is in med school in upstate NY. The difference between Duke and Cornell isn't worth my marriage.

I'd agree with a lot of the concerns listed above about those of us who are bringing along a sidekick (or two), but I'd point out that it's not just about location. If this is a family affair, then money and perceived value matter too. If you think that you can spend $100K plus $200K in opportunity cost in a family without justifying the cost (and really the risk), then you're probably from a pretty wealthy family.

Fuqua is not a great option location-wise, in my opinion. Durham is a sleepy college town with next to no employment options any closer than Charlotte, which is really too far away for most people. That said, it's still a great option if the school matches up well with your career goals, as it does in my case. Putting $300K on the line, hoping that Fuqua is all it's cracked up to be is a scary concept for a family, but it's a bet I'm willing to make.

I completely agree about opportunity costs. When I think about moving with my wife to Durham, both of us giving up our jobs and paying my tuition, in this market, without knowing what the job market will look like in 2013...it begins to feel like a completely irrational decision.

I disagree about Durham not being a good location. It all depends on what your spouse does for a living. The Research Triangle is a fantastic place especially for anyone who works in tech, health care or education. Even if your spouse doesn't work in one of those fields, Durham has a population of about 240,000, Raleigh a population north of 400,000 and the greater research triangle area a population above 1.5 million. That isn't New York City, but it isn't exactly Mayberry either. Unless your spouse works in a niche field, chances are he/she will be able to find work in their field.

Durham has found its way onto several "best" lists, including best cities for business and best places to retire. Durham is also home to Branford Marsalis, Christopher "Play" Martin (of Kid and Play "fame") and...(drum roll)...Clay Aiken. LOL.

I think it's worth mentioning population density. Raleigh has 400k people over 143 sq mi. of land. NYC has 8.4m over 305 sq mi. of land. You're right, it's def. not New York City.

Why is it worth mentioning population density?

guess he's saying the crowdier, the merrier.

What is the gap between Duke and Yale, 7 or 8%? I'm not sure how "huge" I'd call that. If we're going to parse numbers, is anyone else surprised that Yale SOM has a yield rate around 45%? Does that mean that Yale, not Duke, is the backup school for applicants looking for an elite program? Is anyone else surprised that Yale has an endowment reportedly worth in excess of $400,000,000.00 and they haven't managed to convert that into a top five ranking? Or how about the fact that Yale isn't ranked nearly as high in other rankings as it is in the U.S. News rankings?

How about the fact that Duke is ranked higher than Harvard and other supposedly superior b-schools in some sub-field rankings? Seriously, we could go round and round trying to quantify what is largely a subjective choice. At the end of the day, what matters most is whether school A is the right fit (for personal, financial, career development, etc. reasons) for you.

Good luck to those of you still waiting to hear from Fuqua. I hope you hear good news this Friday.

Completely agree.

While I agree with the point made here, I think the endowment figure is off. I believe it's more around the ballpark of $16 billion (16,000,000,000). I know this figure because I just had a similar conversation with a friend of mine

I turned chose Ross over Duke primarily because of the location. Maybe that's just me and I had other reasons, but I really couldn't envision enjoying living there and felt I would be a bit secluded, the school itself seemed great though, so it was a difficult decision for sure. Then again, I will probably end up in Chicago, so I guess I'm just more of a city person in general