Hi everyone, I've been a silent observer of your forum for awhile. Just wanted to reply to a couple of questions RE Duke, as I was also at their admitted students day (as well as Bren's).
MCRM and akl_cat, I didn't get the impression that doing a double concentration was common, and maybe not even feasible. I was also interested in both EE and EEP (although I wrote down EE on my application). It sounds like EE is a very quantitative concentration, probably more so than the Energy & Climate track at Bren (I can't speak to Yale or UMich, as I didn't apply there). I noticed that at Duke, a very common question for admitted students was "What's your concentration?" as though everyone would have already decided, and it seemed harder (but definitely possible) than at Bren to change later. I think the reason is at Bren, everyone takes the same classes for most of the first 2 quarters, so everyone gets the same broad environmental base. Then you start taking the classes in your area (and other electives). Whereas at Duke, you dive right into your focus area immediately, and there are only 2 classes plus Masters Project that are required for all students. The EE concentration has been growing rapidly and is one of the newest, but is also one of the largest - about 40 students among current first-years. Quite a few students changed to EE over the course of the year, and they finally had to cut it off because they can't meet demand. But they are adding 1 or more faculty members, hopefully in time for the fall.
I can see pros and cons to both approaches. Bren's method likely builds more class cohesiveness and stresses the interdisciplinary and interconnected nature of environmental problems, but may not quite allow you to get the depth in a particular field that Duke does.
MCRM, Duke has a certificate in Sustainable Systems that you may be interested in combining with the EE concentration. Might be a better fit (and easier to manage) than double-concentrating with EEP.
