<p>Congrats to everyone admitted! If any of you have any questions about Duke and why you should spend your next four years here or any question on social life athletics academics food or anything just ask away and I'll answer!</p>
<p>How’s the social life? Is Duke super fun?</p>
<p>The social life is pretty good. If you have any specific questions I’ll go in detail about those, but if not I’ll just give a brief summary.</p>
<p>So first semester freshman year is a good time to feel things out, there are a ton of open parties on campus and off campus. Duke has fraternities/sororities and social living groups (SLGs). You don’t rush these until after winter break, so freshman year you have a chance to feel out the different groups, get to know other freshman, and have fun. Wednesday and Saturday are common nights to go to Shooters - a kinda sketchy night club ($5 cover) thats about a five minute walk from East Campus. Pretty much people pregame and go to parties and then make their way over to Shooters at 11ish. Friday and Saturday are the two biggest nights to go out though to parties, and first semester people will tell you about them and usually you or one of your friends know whats going on. </p>
<p>Selective Living Groups are mostly co-ed (minus one) and don’t have pledging. Kind of like a sorority or fraternity but centered around interests and the dues are a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>Most people don’t rush and are independents, its still possible to have a social life, but I’d say being part of a SLG/Greek/Sports group helps, but club sports party together and so do many clubs.
If you aren’t into parties the school runs events on Thurs/Fri/Sat night that seem pretty interesting.</p>
<p>How do you feel about the West Campus/East Campus division? I like the idea of freshman having their own place on campus to really encourage class bonding, but I’ve heard that the trek from East Campus to where most of the classes are located can be annoying. What’s your opinion?</p>
<p>My freshman year both semesters I had half of my classes on East and half of them on West, so it worked out pretty nicely. A lot of the first year writing and seminar and math and some language classes are on East, so its a nice balance. During the school day the busses run every 5 minutes, and the ride takes about 3-4 minutes if you get an Express, maybe 5-6 if you don’t, maybe an extra minute if its really busy. But late at night the busses run less frequent, so that is kind of a hassle, but its still like every 30 minutes I think (might be quicker to get a Central as they go to east too). Theres an App called TransLoc where you can track the busses though, so you know when they are at the stop and where they are at all times, which can make it convenient so you aren’t waiting outside for the bus to arrive.</p>
<p>I like the fact that all of my classmates are within a five minute walk, the bus can be a little bit of a hassle, but East has it’s own Library, Gym, jogging trail, and Cafeteria along with a store and a post office. There are also some really cool restaurants on 9th Street (right off east), Shooters, and then the NorthGate Mall and movies are a mile away from East (kinda sketchy but nice). Then there is Brightleaf Square which has a ton of cool restaurants too. I like East’s location better, but West is where a majority of classes are (except Freshman year you probably will have a few on East) and I just like the gothic architecture. </p>
<p>In short, the busses suck at times, but having everyone within a five minute walk and East’s location isn’t bad. I won’t lie, I like West better (multiple restaurants, Gothic architecture, etc) but East isn’t too bad.</p>
<p>I have a couple questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How’s the on-campus food? Does it get boring quickly? And are there any great places to eat off-campus?</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve always heard Durham is a really sketchy place. It is as bad as people claim it to be? Especially close to the campus?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’d say Marketplace isn’t bad, its just repetitive. They really have a good variety, but its the same food over and over again in the same place and that gets a bit boring. Around East there are a ton of places that you’ll explore in Brightleaf and 9th Street, and then theres a Chipotle, Noodles, Fridays, Zaxbys, Chickfila, and some other places within a short drive. West has a great variety though.</p>
<p>(If you don’t know MP is on East where the freshmen get 12 swipes a week to get breakfast/dinner/brunch). </p>
<p>I expected Durham to be super sketchy but the part around Duke isn’t that bad. Use common sense and you’ll be fine. It really isn’t that bad, I mean its in a city (albeit small), but overall its not too dangerous and pretty safe to walk around in at a reasonable hour with people. I wouldn’t go walking around by myself at 3 AM, but I don’t know many places where I would do that.</p>
<p>How do you spend your average Monday, your average Thursday, and your average Saturday?</p>
<p>Hi, thank you for taking your time to answer our questions!
How are the dorms? and what do you know about the Chemistry program at Duke?</p>
<p>We would like to know about dorms and choosing roommates, and distribution req’s.</p>
<p>Is there substance free housing for freshmen students? If you choose this type of housing do people stereotype you a certain way? If this isn’t available for freshmen, are floors of dorms somewhat segregated? </p>
<p>How are roommates assigned?</p>
<p>How interesting are you finding the profs for the dist req’s? </p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>How many people double major at Duke? Or something like one major/double minor? Is it fairly common, or unusual?</p>
<p>Alright. Dorms are randomly assigned freshman year. There’s 13? of them on East Campus and you are randomly put in one based on some lotto or something that the housing office does. You can pick a roommate or fill out a survey that asks basic questions and will randomly assign you one. Or, if you prefer, you can preference Jarvis (Substance free) or Pegram (Music and Performing Arts). Those are the only way you can preference a dorm, if not you will be randomly assigned to another one. For Pegram, there are a lot of artsy kids and they do concerts in their common room and stuff, if you’re into it its pretty cool. Technically all of East Campus is substance free (as its just freshmen) but Jarvis residents sign a contract about it and seem to take it pretty seriously as in they want a substance free life. A lot of other kids do to, but don’t live there. It’s not looked down upon, especially by people who would be your friends, but if you want to explore a lot of different personalities you might consider not being part of it, but certainly it would be nice to have a quiet dorm focused on more important things. If you want pros and cons theres probably an older post, but the newer ones are farther from the bus stop and are newer, closer ones are on main quad on East but are older but typically have bigger rooms.</p>
<p>Double majoring is pretty common, I’d say most people get a major and a minor or a major and a certificate, but it depends on your interests. A lot of people do it and its really reasonable though.
In terms of requirements there are T-reqs and Modes of Inquirery. They are strange in the sense that a lot of courses are listed under a lot of different requirements so its pretty easy to fulfill. I’ll admit that I was scared that I’d have to do that and I wouldn’t be able to or I’d have to take horrible classes but some of the ones to fulfill that I was afraid of most before I ended up liking the best. They are pretty easy to fulfill within your major requirements and a few interesting electives. </p>
<p>On Monday I have practice and three classes, so its a really long day. On Thursday I sleep in til 9, have lunch, go to my two classes, go to practice, and then do work and hangout. Saturday I’m either competing, doing work, going to a football or basketball game, or just chilling with friends.</p>
<p>I honestly know little about Chemistry, I know a lot of kids take it and its definitely challenging, but I’m honestly not the right person to ask, if you have any specific questions please leave them here and I’ll ask my friend who is taking it and wants to major in it.</p>
<p>Any help choosing between Duke and Princeton…?</p>
<p>Is there a prominence of self-segregation at Duke? I hear that people seem to hang with other people of their own race and avoid others and/or have tension with others. The recent Asian frat party racism scandal at Duke only seems to confirm this belief.</p>
<p>^^I’m interested in this a little as well. What were students’ responses to the frat party incident?</p>
<p>How big are non-seminar intro-level courses? Are a lot of courses taught by TAs?</p>
<p>Between Duke and Princeton- What do you want to study and what are your interests? That is the key to deciding, let me know and I can try and help you out.</p>
<p>Self-Segregation- I wouldn’t say students self segregate, there are a lot of diverse circles and I have friends from all over and many different races. Frats are pretty mixed too. Some of this probably comes from the fact that some people may know each other from high school or something and its a very general statement but the town might not be too diverse. Then Asian and African American cultural groups exist, so that leads to students of those races being close together. But I know of many circles at Duke and they all include Whites, Asians, and African Americans. </p>
<p>The frat party was overblown, it was in poor taste but a day long protest at a bus stop wasn’t going to do anything productive. They did meet with the dean (Asians and the frat-who happens to be the most international frat on campus) and they probably had a productive discussion behind close doors. The frat is suspend by the national chapter and other frats are well aware not to do anything like it. I don’t want to say it happens everywhere, but there are tons of stories on sites about racially themed parties, I think its a country-wide thing, not a Duke thing.</p>
<p>Intro classes can vary in size. Classes are usually taught by a professor but TAs usually lead labs or discussions and really help with hands on stuff. Intro to Math classes are capped at 30 people. I know some science ones and advanced calc is a little bigger (75-100ish) but what happens there is you go to lecture and then you have lab/discussion/recitation which meets twice a week combined and that class is capped at roughly 15-20 people.</p>
<p>CS (specifically AI), Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy</p>
<p>how easy is it to switch majors between schools? (Pratt to Trinity) How hard is it to get into the Duke in NY program?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>^^ I have the same question–I was accepted to Pratt but I am now reconsidering how well I’ll do as an engineering major (don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in what engineering offers, I’m just not sure if it’s cut out for me). Do you know how difficult engineering life at Pratt is as compared to that of Trinity? Would it be worth it to try it out or to switch as soon as possible?</p>