Atmosphere surrounding Duke? Questions for a current Duke student!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<li>Are there the regular American restauraunts? Red Robin, Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, etc?</li>
<li>Are there a lot of shopping opportunities, and would they happen to be relatively non expensive?</li>
<li>Any waterparks/amusement parks/museums/symphonic concerts?</li>
<li>I've heard Durnham is based on the tobacco industry, does this affect the town? </li>
<li>Is it a city with skyscrapers or more of an rural city I guess? Maybe like suburbia? </li>
<li>Is it relatively safe? There aren't slums or anything or gangs are there? </li>
<li>I know there are two seasons, but are these super hot summers and freezing cold winters? Or are these relatively close in between? </li>
<li>Are the Duke buildings modern as in the dorms? Like design wise, on the inside? I know the outside is gothic. </li>
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<p>Sorry for these questions, but it's really helping me decide for where to go for college!</p>

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<p>1) yes, there’s a TGI Friday’s on erwin road right by west campus. There’s a chili’s, red lobster, and outback steakhouse on 15-501 a bit south of west campus. </p>

<p>2) Shopping yes, there are 2 walmarts within 20 minute drive, 1 best buy, a target within 10 minute drive, a sam’s club, a costco, 2 Kroger’s, and a food lion. There’s northgate mall a few blocks from east campus, Southpoint mall is 20 minute minutes away. </p>

<p>3) Museums yes, there’s a marbles kid’s museum in Raleigh with a great IMAX theater that shows the latest releases. The Durham performing arts center has plays, concerts, shows all the time. On campus, there are many theater groups, dance groups, Duke symphony, etc that put on performances every year in addition to performances by invited guests. Every year, student groups put on big shows like Awaaz and Chinese New Year which involve many groups. On the concert side, Duke recently had Kid Cudi perform, Jay Sean will perform along with Flogging Molly at this year’s LDOC. In the years past, we’ve had T.I., Rolling Stones, Jason Mraz, Third Eye Blind and Common perform at Duke. On the museum side, Duke hosts Nasher museum of art which often has great traveling exhibits in addition to its permanent collection. Duke also has a great lemur center available for touring. </p>

<p>4) The tobacco industry was what built durham, but that was a long time ago (like a century ago). Now, besides historical buildings and the Duke family’s legacy, there’s not really much in Durham that still has active connections to the industry. </p>

<p>5) It has some skyscrapers, here’s a good picture of Durham skyline:</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/09/0918_bargains/image/5-durham_skyline.jpg[/url]”>http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/09/0918_bargains/image/5-durham_skyline.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The dome in the foreground is the baldwin auditorium, the centerpiece of east campus (the freshmen campus)</p>

<p>The downtown area is only a few blocks, the rest isn’t exactly suburbia, but definitely residential. </p>

<p>6) No slums or gangs, but it’s a city. Don’t be stupid and take precautions and you’ll be OK.</p>

<p>7) Super hot summers? 80s-90s. Freezing winters? It snowed a few times this year so it gets cold, but it’s not minnesota. You’ll be fine with a scarf, a pair of gloves, and a warm winter jacket (North Face, Columbia, etc). </p>

<p>8) It depends, East Campus is pretty old, especially on the main quad. The newest buildings (Randolph, Blackwell, BellTower) are pretty nice inside. Now matter how old though, all buildings are up to date technology wise with wireless N and most buildings have networked laser printers easily accessible to students. </p>

<p>On west, most buildings are actually pretty new on the inside. Kilgo quad was renovated in the early 2000s. Keohane quad is recently built (they are actually building a new wing for Keohane set to open in 2011 I think). Edens is a few decades old but still comparatively new and two of them (3A and 3B) are newer than the rest. Few quad was completely renovated last year. Wanamaker is also relatively new. The only old quads are Crowell (the clocktower quad) and craven. Without AC, I think those quads might be the least comfortable on west. </p>

<p>Central is just old apartments. They have plans (delayed due to economy) to build a completely new central campus, but that’ll take 50-75 years. I’m not a big fan of central other than the fact that it’s the only apartment style living on campus.</p>

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<p>[East</a> Campus Dorms](<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/rlhs/programs-services/east-campus-description]East”>Duke Student Affairs)</p>

<p>At the bottom of that page, you can click on links of each of the East Campus dorms. They have descriptions of the amenities, etc, and then most have pictures at the bottom so you can get a basic feel for how “modern” they are.</p>

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<p>One of the great things about going to a good university is that you’ll learn to stop thinking that places like this count as decent restaurants. Otherwise, what SBR said.</p>

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<p>Not a Duke student, but I work in Durham and know the area and the campus well, so I’ll be happy to help you out.</p>

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<p>There are some nearby (TGI Fridays, Mediterranean Grill, Noodles and Co, and a few other restauraunts very close to campus). If you can get a ride or take a bus to Southpoint, though, there are some excellent restaurants there and plenty of good stores to shop in as well. </p>

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<p>Your best bet for shopping would be, once again, Southpoint. Huge shopping center there with tons of stores. And as far as pricing goes, that really depends on where you are from and what you are used to. If you are from Europe, for example, things will be pretty cheap here with the exchange rate and all. </p>

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<p>Not so much anymore…</p>

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<p>Durham has a few tall buildings, but not too many. The area around Duke’s campus isn’t really too suburban. Mostly lower-middle class to middle-class housing, with some rough spots located nearby. </p>

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<p>There are slums and Durham does indeed have a problem with gang violence. Just don’t go wandering around by yourself after dark and you should be fine. Duke has a saferide program that can pick you up if you feel like you are at risk. </p>

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<p>The summers are pretty hot, and the winters are relatively mild. By far spring is the best season in NC-it is absolutely beautiful once the dogwoods start blooming. Autumn isn’t bad either. </p>

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<p>Haven’t been inside the dorms, but they look really, really cool from the outside. Perhaps a Dukie can better fill you in on what they are like inside.</p>