<p>I have several questios about the general atmosphere of this school.</p>
<ul>
<li>Does this school have a community feeling? Or is it very spread out, w/o a central campus (i.e. NYU, which has buildings all around, and there is no real sense of COMMUNITY among the college students)?</li>
<li>Do they have a lot of school spirit? Rah rah football, bball, etc.?</li>
<li>Are there many Asian people? When I say Asian, I mean Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc., not Indian.</li>
<li>Are the students more collaborative or highly competitive with each other?</li>
<li>What kind of political preferences do they have - is the student body liberal leaning, conservative leaning, or moderate leaning?</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks so much for your help.</p>
<p>Hmm...well I've only been here a few weeks but I think I can answer a few of those.</p>
<p>I DEFINITELY think there's a community feeling. There's east, central, and west, with all frosh on east, which on first thought seems like a bad thing but so far it's great. It's must nicer to walk around campus knowing that everyone is in the same boat you are.</p>
<p>School spirit...OF COURSE! I mean, obviously with basketball school spirit is huge, and I can't wait for the season to start. With football it pretty much seems like the biggest thing is tailgating, and they actually changed tailgate rules so it "stops" with kickoff...aka the party moves somewhere else. I personally love our football team...they may not be the best but they have a lot of heart:)</p>
<p>There are a lot of Asians, but is that bad?</p>
<p>The other two I really haven't gotten a taste of yet...and I'm sure the other Duke vets here can probably answer all your questions much better than I can.</p>
<p>As to whether students are collaborative or highly competitive, I would say that for the most part, they are collaborative. People desperately want to succeed, but not at the expense of others. Competition ... is a hard thing to put your finger on; yes people want to be at the top, but I haven't had any experiences where someone's ambition has directly affected me. Yes, getting certain jobs or beating the curve in certain classes can be difficult since everyone tries pretty hard at things, but there's not really any direct sabotage or anything (which does happen at some schools <em>cough</em>cornell<em>cough</em>).</p>
<p>I would say Duke has a good representation of both liberals and conservatives. During the presidential elections last year, the liberals were definitely more vocal, but there is a conservative presence here as well. The professors are decidedly left-leaning though. Duke isn't as conservative as many people believe; being in a "red" state doesn't really affect politics on campus.</p>