Duke offers very little when it comes to advantages over public institutions like UNC these days. I know guys wedged in the hollers of Appalachia at tiny Methodist churches that have degrees from Duke. Where Duke excels is in its graduate schools. A graduate degree from Duke is like having the Holy Grail. I know a few of them. Anything medical/science/economics is winning the lottery
However, private school can bring the costs down to in-state levels. My son could have gone to most private schools in the country for what we pay to send him to Virginia Tech.
I agree with what you are saying.
The best way to get into a top graduate school is to have an undergraduate degree from a top school. Not saying state school undergrad isn’t possible, just harder.
The Duke endowment funds the building of Methodist churches. 10% of the endowment is slated for building/maintenance of Methodist churches.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duke_Endowment)
Daughter plans to study economics for undergrad. My daughter isn’t liberal, so I told her not to discuss politics on campus. In fact, she is somewhat bitter about how affirmative action is hurting her in college admissions right now.
She got waitlisted at Harvard. Harvard admits around 2000 students for 1600 spots. Nearly half the admits are for special categories: athletes, under-represented minorities, legacies, international students and “developmental cases” (rich/famous kids like Malia Obama who will be attending Harvard in the fall).
For academic admits not in the special categories, that leaves about 1000 spots. With 40,000 applicants, her chance was only 2.5%. Her chance to get off the wait list is probably about 5-10%, so tough. Last year, Harvard accepted about 75 students from the waitlist.