Karan Shethia Review at Duke University [DUKE UNI], Durham | Collegedunia

Duke University MEM Review

7.5
Verified Review (Out of 10)
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Academic
10.0
Accommodation
8.0
Faculty
10.0
Infrastructure
10.0
Placement
7.0
Karan Shethia
Duke University, Engineering Management
Reviewed on Mar 5, 2025(Enrolled 2023)

Colleges Where I Was Accepted

Reason for choosing my college

  • The curriculum, the program duration and the alumni network. The location of the campus is pretty great and has a decent amount of companies in the vicinity (research triangle park)
  • The extracurricular activities organised by Duke, like hackathons and case competitions, help build your profile and expand your domain knowledge.

Colleges Where I Was Rejected

Reason for Rejection

  • I did not work very hard on the applications for Dartmouth and Cornell and submitted them on the very last day of the deadline. No idea about why I did not hear back from UWash; probably my profile was not well aligned as it was not a MEM program
  • Lesson to be learned: Research your program well before including things in your SOP.

Required Exams for Admission

TOEFL (114)
GRE (311)

Required Documents For Admission

SOP

CV

LOR

Tips to enhance your application

  • Do your research before applying to these colleges; know why you want to get into this program, what you want to do post graduation and how you can contribute to the program as a student.
  • Connect with alumni and include information that is not readily available on the internet to stand out.

Admission Experience

  • Reason for selecting USA: I have a few connections in the United States and my program is popular here as compared to other countries.
  • Academic Reputation: #6 in US News.
  • Few Courses offered: Marketing, Finance, Product Management, Competitive Strategy, Design Thinking and Innovation, Managing product Design, etc
  • Location: Durham
  • NC Overall experience: quite positive, beautiful campus, great student clubs and events.

Class Schedule

10

  • Classes in a week: Depends on your coursework but usually 3-4;  Class timings vary wildly from 8:30 in the morning to 9 in the night.
  • Average strength: 100+ Indians: MEM has a lot of Indians
  • Time commitment: Varies for everyone but took me 3-4 hours every week (includes self-study and assignments and meetings)

Faculty

10

  • The faculty-to-student ratio is great. Best faculties in my experience: Kathie Amato, Tony Driscoll. Allegra Jordan
  • Faculties do help a little bit with getting full-time jobs. They do help students by giving them teaching assistant roles as a part-time job and also help students stop their unemployment clock by allowing students to volunteer in their companies.

Campus Life

10

  • Duke has 2 main campuses in the United States and China.
  • Facilities: Two major recreation centres (Wilson and Brodie) that have gyms, saunas, swimming pools, squash courts, pickleball and tennis courts, table tennis rooms, basketball courts, badminton courts, etc
  • Fests: All festivals from different communities are celebrated.
  • Popular event: Duke basketball campout

Part Time Jobs

  • Average pay rate is around 16$/hr -184/hr It is not very difficult to get part-time jobs. Most of the Indians work in Duke Stores, Wilson Recreation Centre, Duke Libraries, etc.
  • There are a lot of students working in the Teaching Assistant roles under different faculties as well. The usual process to apply is through networking and a job board called JobX.
  • TA Roles: usually every faculty hires 2-3 TAs so a lot of students get these roles.
  • On campus jobs: Others include working at the recreation centers, duke university stores, duke university theatres, libraries, etc
  • Max number of hours allowed to work: 19.9 hours normally and around 40 hours in the breaks.

Placement

7

  • Not sure of the numbers but currently the market is pretty rough so only 50-60% of them find decent jobs 6 months after graduation.
  • Salaries go from as low as 60,000 USD to as high as 200,000 USD. Typically, students land jobs through job boards, networking and some through career fairs. Note: No official numbers quoted here, just based on my hunch.

Accommodation

Off Campus
8

  • Join online WhatsApp communities to find accommodations. Some popular accommodations amongst Indian students: Chapel Towers, Belmont, Lofts, Erwin Terrace, Campus Walk
  • Usually someone circulates a google sheet to fill out your preferences for a room mate. Ideally, get an individual room but if you want to save up some money, you can also share a room.