<p>A lot of people who I ask about Duke don't like it for some undefinable reason, but I've yet to find a real downside to the school. So my question is...what do you dislike about Duke?</p>
<p>Maybe Durham? or the percieved party/non-intellectual (which is BS) setting of the campus? I don't know. Some people baffle me.</p>
<p>i think that since a lot of people know duke basketball or athletics in general, they somehow immediately dismiss the idea that the student body could be intellectual at the same time. i personally think that's one BEAUTY of duke, though.</p>
<p>nothing :P</p>
<p>Outside the classroom, superficiality is encouraged and reinforced by most of the students.
There are 'intellectual niches' at Duke and it certainly is more 'intellectual' than the average high school BUT the mainstream culture at Duke supports forgetting about intellectualism for the most part. I think it depends by how badly you want to be part of the mainstream culture.
If it doesn't matter to you, you will find friends elsewhere and forget of the 'problems of the social scene'.
Take it from someone who actually goes here!
Duke is a great school and I love it in many ways but I'd highly recommend not going here with rose-colored glasses that this school is going to be perfect.
Certainly don't go in with the gray-colored glasses I had either...</p>
<p>There isn't much middle ground here.
My intellectual friends at Duke snicker at the idea that I want to go to Shooters (none of them do-some went once and hated it while others never went at all) while my less intellectual friends never seem to get tired of going to the ol' nightclub.
Also, from asking questions, on average, my intellectual friends have done way better on the SATs than those who are less intellectual..</p>
<p>Three words: The bus system.</p>
<p>It’s such a hassle to get to main campus if you live on East (freshman) or Central (junior). Sophomore year is all good except if you live in Edens.</p>
<p>Everything else is excellent.</p>
<p>The parking situation on West campus could be much better.</p>
<p>Transportation like HiWei says is definitely an issue - the bus system is a hassle.</p>
<p>The food situation on West campus could be better. The hours were not geared for student needs although there has been a change in hours recently.</p>
<p>Overall the campus seems run for the convenience of administration employees instead of the students.</p>
<p>Crime reports - does anyone actually look at the crime reports issued by the Duke Police. Every week there are thefts of wallets, laptops, etc.</p>
<p>There are easy fixes for laptop theft in the library - many other schools have tables with a place to lock your laptop. Students check out the locks with their student ID on entering the library. Many other universities require non students to register upon entry. </p>
<p>And there are ways to prevent the theft of wallets and other items at gym facilities. Perhaps students could check out locks at the front desk with ID instead of having to bring their own locks.</p>
<p>And yes, other universities have the same issue with laptop and wallet theft that Duke has. It’s just that there are ways to prevent this theft. Duke could be a leader in so many areas of Student Life.</p>
<p>
Do we go to the same school? The vast majority of the school falls under this middle ground that you refer to. These are kids that study hard for their classes and socialize during their nights off. Even during most social events, you can clearly identify the intellectual bent of the students. Trust me, I have talked to people who were truly dumb as a rock and I haven’t met a single kid like that here.</p>
<p>I feel like you hang out with a group of kids who are actively anti-social and somehow expected this school to be some mass geek intellectual haven; therefore, they resent anyone who doesn’t follow this description and they use stereotypes that characterize maybe 1% of the student body to describe nearly every other student they know.</p>
<p>Cons of Duke? It could have been a few members of the lacrosse team for all the administration cared.</p>
<p>Nuff said.</p>
<p>4:51 AM
rjkofnovi<br>
“Cons of Duke? It could have been a few members of the lacrosse team for all the administration cared.”</p>
<p>Wow…every chance you get, huh? No offense, but if I felt like it, I could target aspects of Michigan too. Too bad I have enough of a life not to sit in front of a website bashing another college all day :).</p>
<p>
No, I agree with him. A third of our student body consists of the Greek social climbers, and a third of our student body consists of super serious students, international/minority students who self-segregate, or other students you’d never see socially. There is a middle ground, but finding your particular niche within that middle ground isn’t always easy. I know a lot of people (including myself) who sometimes or oftentimes feel suffocated by everyone’s fakeness.</p>
<p>1/3 social greek climbers whatever?
no way
there are probably 2 sororities and 3 fraternities that could even be considered as such, and a large majority of the members arent even like that. That’s an overstatement.
To be “suffocated by fakeness,” I don’t know just don’t let it get to you. Maybe people dress a certain way but guarantee if you just hang out with them you’ll see they aren’t fake at all and are pretty cool, but that may just be how they happened to dress in their (private) high school.
there is the 1/3 or so self segregated students or serious studiers / private students that you don’t see… but outside of that there are a ton of people of all personality types that you can get along with. I guess it’s easy to get into a smaller dorm in which you dont run into the people you tend to hang out with, but coming from a bigger one I would say its not too hard at all if you are somewhat proactive.
I absolutely love the Duke social scene, at first seeing the shooters/section party type everything I thought I would hate it, but have come to embrace it (not shooters so much, rather the people), and am currently pledging a fraternity and wouldn’t trade duke for the world</p>
<p>"There are easy fixes for laptop theft in the library - many other schools have tables with a place to lock your laptop. Students check out the locks with their student ID on entering the library. Many other universities require non students to register upon entry.</p>
<p>And there are ways to prevent the theft of wallets and other items at gym facilities. Perhaps students could check out locks at the front desk with ID instead of having to bring their own locks."</p>
<p>What a shame, what a shame- is there no honor system at Duke?</p>
<p>“What a shame, what a shame- is there no honor system at Duke?”</p>
<p>There is, the Community Standard, but I think most people (wrongly) believe it only applies to academic dishonesty. </p>
<p>Anyway, yeah laptops are stolen, but if you’re going to leave your computer unattended for hours when there’s no one around, then you’re basically asking for trouble. I’ve often been in areas of the library where there aren’t that many people around, asked someone to keep an eye on my stuff while I run out for coffee, come back, and everything’s fine. But I’d never leave my stuff if literally no one was around, nor would I leave my stuff for hours at a time. Use common sense and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>As far as the food situation goes, it kind of sucks on East, but West is actually really good compared to most colleges. I agree that after about midnight, you’re low on choices, but you can still order Domino’s or something. That’s actually something I like about Duke - how you can order in food using food points and not real money.</p>
<p>Transportation is annoying, I agree. They need to especially fix the bus system connecting Central to the rest of Duke.</p>
<p>As far as the social scene goes…I’ve lately found it kind of annoying because once you get sick of parties, you realize there’s not much else to do on campus. Yeah, you can get a movie from Lilly or hope for some sort of show in Page, but in general your weekend options are Shooters/George’s/something else, frat party (usually for freshmen), or some sort of party thrown by friends, and after a couple of years this gets annoying.</p>