<p>Hi guys! So, recently there's been a lot of talk about the athlete culture at various institutions, Duke being one of them, highlighted by Karen Owen's "senior thesis" going viral. I was just wondering if any of you guys could clarify something for me - Duke is one of my top choice schools, but at the same time, it worries me that apparently athletes are treated so much better than normal students. So I guess my question is: ARE athletes considered superior to everyone else at the school?</p>
<p>basketball players are treated like campus celebrities, as you might expect, but other than that, I haven’t noticed anything like that. If you want proof that athletes are NOT given special treatment, look no further than the lacrosse case. just because they’re worshipped by jersey chasers (which happens at any school, minus the powerpoint evidence), it doesn’t mean they’re considered superior by anyone else.</p>
<p>Would you say that people really only care about athletes on the big teams (basketball, lax, and baseball - I guess football too) and not so much the swimmers/track/other less popular Olympic sports.</p>
<p>Duke athletes – all teams, both genders – are true student intercollegiate competitors and essentially are treated like every other undergraduate; there are no special “jock classes,” or athletic dorms, or scholastic shortcuts, and so forth. Obviously, the Men’s Basketball Team has a unique stature; however, the same fundamental principles also apply to them. Whether on a “big” or “other” team, student-athletes really do not differ from other Trinity or Pratt undergraduates, any more than would a student who distinguishes himself in some other activity (the Chronicle, artistic prowess, campus leadership and politics, exceptional academic excellence, etc.).</p>
<p>@Top Tier
There are athletic dorms. Blackwell, Bell Tower, and Randolph are primarily composed of athletes (in Blackwell’s case for instance, the football team, women’s basketball team, part of the men’s and women’s soccer team, the women’s lacrosse team).
While I completely understand, sympathize, and agree with the idea that athletes are busy and require extra attention, they do get a degree of leniency. It’s nothing that doesnt happen at any other college in the world. It happens everywhere, and it isn’t very prevalent at Duke</p>
<p>I disagree: (a) there are NO exclusively athletic dorms, as there are at many/most other universities and (b) there are NO separate or reduced academic standards for student-athletes (such as majors that re essentially closed, for varsity-athletes-only, with reduced scholastic standards). If, by “leniency” you mean additional facilities and/or resources (such as the K Center for Academic and Athletic Excellence or exam scheduling that recognizes travel for away games), than there are some advantages that are enjoyed only by student-athletes. However, based on 35+ years of in-depth, intimate Duke experiences and leadership positions, I have never seen a degree conferred upon an athlete who failed to meet precisely the same criteria as any other Trinity or Pratt undergraduate matriculant.</p>