<p>What is Duke like really?</p>
<p>If you asked a more specific question, we might be able to give you a better answer.</p>
<p>Do you know that colloquial phrase 'put your dukes up' ?</p>
<p>Well duke has nothing to with it.</p>
<p>Well, i meant to leave it open ended, but I guess I was toeing the line that separates pretension from real inquiry. I just want a sense of what duke is like as a place to live and go to school. what are its defining institutional characteristics and what is the student body like. Is it more or less like the rolling stone crucifixion piece in the wake of the lax incident? How much truth is there to that characterization?</p>
<p>Duke is really a different experience to a lot of people. I love it so much here. The school spirit is amazing, now that we're deep into basketball season the exhilaration and camaraderie from student fans for both the men's and women's teams are beyond description, the facilities for sciences and research are new and state of the art, the majority of professors that I have had are down to earth and friendly and extremely intelligent. Overall it's just a great place.</p>
<p>From my personal experience, the Rolling Stones article doesn't have a grain of truth. Others might beg to differ, but while reading it I had to keep on reminding myself that this is about my college and not some other school. I've never heard of the "Duke 500," and since the article broke the only time people seem to use in around campus is to poke fun at the article. The Delta Sigs (supposedly the coolest party frat around according to the article) are now thinking of becoming an off-campus frat because they can't get many to join their fraternity.</p>
<p>Like I said, it's a very different experience for many people on campus. If there's something more specific that you'd like me to talk about please ask. Overall, it's an amazing institution.</p>
<p>There is truth to the Rolling Stone article, but it really only applies to the subculture it covered. You can definitely go through Duke without being exposed to that in any way, shape, or form.</p>
<p>Most people who go to Duke absolutely love it. I don't. If you would like an honest answer about how things can go wrong at Duke, PM me. I don't want to drag down this thread. :)</p>
<p>No, please share, its good to have different viewpoints.</p>
<p>how much truth is there to these descriptions of Duke: cold, cliquey, preppy, elitist, sports-obsessed, anti-intellectual, and whitebred?</p>
<p>comment on any or all...</p>
<p>I've noticed that people are inclined to label an entire student body at not just Duke but many colleges on what in reality is a very small percentage of the population. There are definitely people here that fit some of your descriptions, but overall I've found Duke students, at least the ones I regularly associate with, to be very nice and down to earth. I admit to being sports-obsessed, and I think that that spirit has a positive effect on the community as a whole, but it is not something you have to be. The people here are really really smart, and I've had many conversations with students here that on the surface wouldn't seem to be as sharp and up to date as I would have thought, but in reality are extremely intellectual. The whitebred thing (I'm assuming this means that our campus lacks diversity, might be wrong) really upsets me. Especially after the lacrosse situation, the media feels incline to label us as such. I feel that this campus is very diverse, and I, like I think many people here, have very good friends from many religions and races. Obviously, I am biased in my opinions, and different Duke students might see it differently, but overall I feel that when you're actually here, these labels are drastically exaggerated.</p>
<p>I agree to some extent with a few of the labels. Many students are sports-obsessed especially with basketball, but obviously this doesn't apply to everyone. Also Duke isn't the most intellectual (outside of classes) and is somewhat preppy. The faculty seems to be the highlight of the academic/intellectual experience rather than other students.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think Duke is relatively diverse and while some students may choose to associate mostly with their own races, this is not true of most.</p>
<p>
[quote]
cold
[/quote]
Not really. It's fairly cold right now and we've had a little bit of snow, but it's normally pretty warm.
[quote]
cliquey
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Yes. On the other hand, I'm always eager to get back to the coziness of Duke after my class at Chapel Hill is over. Duke has a "homey" feel to it, at least to me.
[quote]
preppy
[/quote]
The majority, but there are exceptions. I'm not preppy by any stretch of the imagination, and it doesn't bother me.
[quote]
elitist
[/quote]
A bit, but certainly no more so than students of other top schools.
[quote]
sports-obsessed
[/quote]
Only during basketball season. I think Duke handles this very well. The bonfire is expertly handled by a large number of administrators and students who control what goes on. UNC, on the other hand, has no official celebration and thus has very little control over student celebrations. Similarly, a common complain at UNC is that ticket distribution needs to be revamped. Duke's ticket policies are clear and reasonable.
[quote]
anti-intellectual
[/quote]
It depends. I'm a Classics major but have taken courses in all the sciences and many of the humanities. In my experience, students in the liberal arts majors (English, history, classics, philosophy, etc.) tend to be more "intellectual" than their econ or science peers.
[quote]
whitebred
[/quote]
ditto duke25. There's a reason Duke is ranked #1 by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education for integrating African-Americans.</p>
<p>
In my experience, students in the liberal arts majors (English, history, classics, philosophy, etc.) tend to be more "intellectual" than their econ or science peers.
In my experience, non-scientists often equate "intellectual" with "discussions about that which is not useful."</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>i agree, why are scientists suddenly the target of so many stereotypes?</p>
<p>ammarsfound, I'm a bio and EOS minor. I have nothing against science majors; it's just that many of them are very pre-professional and orient their college experience accordingly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
non-scientists often equate "intellectual" with "discussions about that which is not useful."
[/quote]
I agree...I mean, everyone would MUCH rather talk about that fun MATLAB assignment, right??? :)</p>
<p>Actually - some of my students are trying to figure out how to hack into that "glowing" statue on the walkway...</p>
<p>Please do. It's asking for it.</p>
<p>Get a voice box in it and have some fun with art</p>
<p>It had a much better place in Nasher, the statue. It's just asking for some frat-tastic vandalizing.</p>
<p>One of my classes is spent in the Nasher with the new Greek art collection. Coming out of the BC to have that THING glowing (multiple colors, no less) at me makes for a pretty horrible comparison.</p>
<p>Any way we could get it to play music?</p>
<p>guys, check this out. timely and topical.</p>
<p>What school does the author of that attend?</p>