Current Duke Student Taking Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>@BeachMom21 - Well, it really depends. All of us get stressed out to some degree, but some of us are less stressed than others. I, for example, was very stressed last week because my first college essay was due in a course where very few people ever get As. But once I sent that in, my stress level went down significantly. Other people, like my roommate, for example, have been stressing out way more because she had two midterms in difficult classes (multivariable calculus and econ) to prepare for. Others, like the orgo kids, were pretty much freaking out over their midterms. So I feel like it comes and goes and waves - overall, I’m not terribly stretched thin, it’s just at certain points (e.g. essay, tests) that stress me for short periods of time. But then again, I’m not in any math courses, nor am I in Pratt. I honestly didn’t have any expectations about stress level coming in, but so far it hasn’t been too bad. </p>

<p>@taxisRus - Basically, DukeEngage is a program where students come up with proposals for service based programs either at home or abroad, and Duke funds the trip. This can be anything from redirecting a river in Africa to running a children’s program in Durham. It also doesn’t necessarily have to be “community service” per se; it can also be about applying knowledge learned in the classroom to the outside world. Also, not all DukeEngage participants are necessarily “building” something. Some choose to do research abroad, some study cultural issues, some focus on societal differences in different countries, etc. I heard a story of one guy who wanted to study the impact/unifying aspects of soccer around the world, so while he was abroad, he got tickets to the World Cup. There’s a ton of freedom in DukeEngage to do whatever you can come up with (within reason). Hope that helps!</p>

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<p>thanks again for your answer!</p>

43

<p>I’m currently doing my common app, it says that Duke wants teachers of “academic subjects”. I want to get my Business teacher however he doesn’t teach a core subject, do you think they’re really strict on this or would a Business teacher be alright?</p>

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<p>@Insightful - You should be fine with that. I would make sure to get your other rec from a core subject teacher, though. If you want to double check you can always email your admissions officer, but I really don’t think it’ll be an issue.</p>

45

<p>Hi Splashdown94, I wonder if Duke is a school that you can find many different kinds of students? Also, about Duke’s impression as a very “sportsy” school, does it mean that everyone go to Blue Devil’s games or everyone plays some sport at Duke?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance! =)</p>

46

<p>Hi Splashdown,
Thank you so much for doing this btw, this thread has been incredibly helpful! I was wondering what the pre-med course is like at duke. Is it really rigorous, and how many hours a week would be spent in lectures/labs/tutorials?
Also, do a lot of duke students work part-time or something?
Thank you so much! :D</p>

47

<p>@aaron024 - Oh yeah, you can find many different people here. It’s a really diverse school; walk on the quad sometime and you’ll see people of nearly every ethnicity. There’s a very large international population as well - within just one month, I’ve met people from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, England, China, Singapore, Bulgaria, Switzerland, New Zealand… There’s a really broad range of people with a really broad range of interests, which I think all the ECs at Duke demonstrates very well. If you can think of something you want to do (like play Quidditch, perhaps), there’s a club for it. And if there’s not a club for it, you can make one. Like, for example, I know there’s a group of kids who get together and watch Survivor every week - they just posted on the Facebook page and now they’ve kind of formed their own group. </p>

<p>As for the “sportsy” image of Duke, I would say that sports are definitely a big thing here. That’s actually one of the reasons that I chose Duke over, say, Dartmouth. Not only do you get a top education, but you also get the fun of going to a D-1 school that is a national sports power, unlike any other school in the top 10 (except maybe Stanford). The school spirit is fantastic and makes a great college experience. That doesn’t mean that everyone goes to games, though. A lot of people don’t. It really depends on what you’re into; there are usually games going on a couple nights a week with various sports, like volleyball, field hockey, soccer, etc. Some people are hard core soccer fans and go to every game, while others have never been to one. I think it’s a bit different during basketball season, but still, not everyone goes. Also, a lot of people do play sports here - but most of them are on club teams or IM teams. Some people just play pickup games on the quad. It creates a really fun atmosphere of people just playing something because they love to do it, and it doesn’t have to be super competitive or anything. But at the same time, there are a lot of people here who were never on a sports team and have no desire to be. You’ll find a mix of everything.</p>

<p>@maths185 - I really don’t know much about the pre-Med track - sorry! I’m pre-Law which is about as far away from pre-Med as you can get. I have some friends who are pre-Med, and I would say that based on my impressions of them, it is fairly rigorous. I think any pre-Med program is probably that way, though. My friends in Orgo had to pull nighters during the first week of school, and before the Orgo midterm they were virtually no where to be found. I’m not sure how many hours a week you would spend in class for pre-Med, but it probably depends on what you’re taking. I know the Chem course has a three hour lab once (or twice?) a week (I think - don’t quote me on that). And then there’s also recitation, but I’m not sure how long/how many times a week that is. Sorry I can’t be more help!</p>

<p>Yes, a lot of students do work part-time, especially if they’re on work study. There’s this website called DukeList where professors/employers on campus will post job or research opportunities that you can respond to. Most students have a really flexible work schedule because employers know that school comes first. Most people tend to work around six hours a week from what I’ve gathered.</p>

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<p>Hi Splashdown! I have a question about travel that I thought I’d ask here on the thread instead of a PM. I feel like I had previously asked you about when you were planning on going home, and you definitely answered, but I can’t find the response. We are from NJ and I am getting a little nervous about the trip… I checked the train schedule and it’s a huge time commitment with a large delay in DC. Flights to Philly seem short and sweet. What would be the best way for a student to get to the Raleigh-Durham airport? Did you say you are flying home at Thanksgiving? When I was in college, oh so many years ago, there was a “ride board” where kids with cars posted so that they could share rides and the cost of gas (which was about $.89 gallon back then!!). Is there something like that at Duke? Maybe even electronic, as opposed to just pieces of paper stuck to a bulletin board? And what is the car deal at Duke? I totally forgot to ask anyone that while we were there… Since students are required to live on campus for 3 years, do not many have cars? Parking seemed tight… Thanks so much!!</p>

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<p>Oh, and is there a parents visiting day or family visiting day, like sometime in October?</p>

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<p>@my3gr8boyz - I’m using a combination of both driving and flying to get home. I’m flying home at Thanksgiving, because that’s such a short amount of time, but I’m getting picked up and driven back over Christmas because we have a much longer break - one day for travel on either end doesn’t make a huge difference. To get to RDU from Duke, I would recommend a cab company like Charlene’s Safe Rides. I believe it’s like $20-30 one way through Charlene’s, so if you can carpool with other students it’s a pretty good deal. Duke is also giving free rides to RDU for Fall Break for students, but I’m not sure how often they do that. For flying down to Duke, I would actually recommend Baltimore Airport because the flights are much cheaper than through Philly if you book in advance. I’m about an hour and a half away from both Philly and Baltimore, so it works out really well for me to use Baltimore. When we booked my tickets for Thanksgiving it was $160 roundtrip. As for carpooling, nowadays students will post in the Facebook group for their class where they need to go, and generally someone is going to the same area that they can carpool with. It’s basically the same thing as a paper message board, except you’re guaranteed to get a much larger number of students looking at it. As for cars, they are useful on campus but not necessary. There’s a Whole Foods grocery store and Dollar General right next to East to get food from, so that basically covers your dietary needs (in addition to the meal plan). If you want to go some place off campus, all Duke students get to use Triangle Area Transit buses for free. This includes the bus system in Chapel Hill, as well as the Durham Bull City Connector. So if you want to go somewhere, you can probably get there on a bus. If you can’t get somewhere on a bus, the University rents out WeCars to students. They cost $8 per hour, so if you carpool it can be a very, very cheap way to travel and much faster than the buses. I’m not sure how many students have cars, but I know there are several parking lots on West for student use in the Edens/Wilson Gym area. There are also some pretty small parking lots on East. Also, you can probably find someone who has a car if you look. I lucked out and got roommate with a car that she shares with a sibling, but I know a few other people with cars on campus. I figure that we’ll probably take the car about once a month to go shopping at Target and other places. So you definitely don’t need one, but it is nice to have. And yes, there is a parents/family visiting day in October. This year it’s October 26-28.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much, Splashdown94, for your great and detailed answer!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the very thorough answer! I checked Baltimore flights, and found they are definitely cheaper. We are still 3 hours from Baltimore, but its a relatively easy drive and we have friends near there, so it’s a good option! Never would have thought of that! </p>

<p>I have another question… what are your feelings on the 500 word essay limit on the Common App? I found a list of almost 50 schools and their opinions on going over by a little, but Duke wasn’t on the list. Being an English person, was it easier for you to write a great, yet concise essay, or harder? Do you know how many words yours was? I keep hearing as long as it is less than 2 pages, double spaced (12 point times new roman) then it will be fine, that the essence of the limit was to keep applicants from writing pages and pages of essay that actually ended up being not very well written.</p>

53

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>How is the political and social activist climate at Duke, especially since it’s election season?</p>

<p>For example, a Duke friend is involved in the Asian Student Association (ASA), and she says that it’s advocating Asian American rights and helping the voice of the Asian American community to be heard, while hosting regular social gatherings and meet-ups.</p>

<p>Compared to other Asian college associations I’m aware of, it seems to be one of the more proactive and “serious” ones out there. But is this an exception or the norm?</p>

<p>Thank you! :)</p>

54

<p>@my3gr8boyz - Ahaha, my Common App was nowhere near the 500 word limit. I ramble far too much in my writing, as you can probably tell :wink: I don’t have my essay on my college laptop, but I’m pretty sure it was somewhere around 1,000 words. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard or read somewhere that admissions officers prefer it if you keep your essays as short and concise as possible - they have a lot of material to read in a very short time. However, if you feel you need to go over the word limit, they’re not going to through out your application. I think the only time it is acceptable as an applicant to go over the word limit is if you write a thoroughly engaging and interesting essay that they WANT to keep reading. So I don’t think that there’s an actual hard-lined limit on the whole word count thing.</p>

<p>@thisismymingzi - I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to answer this question, but I’ll try. There are definitely a lot of groups on campus that are politically/socially active. For example, there are people everywhere trying to get you to register to vote at your “current address” (i.e. North Carolina). And when I say everywhere, I mean they are literally EVERYWHERE. I cannot count the number of times I have been asked to register to vote. Also, there are a lot of programs sponsored by political groups or programs that relate to politics, especially since it’s election time. Lilly Library is hosting a series of talks on the presidential debates, the Republican and Democratic clubs hosted convention watching parties/tweet sessions… I can’t really speak about ASA because I am not Asian, nor am I in ASA, but from what I’ve heard from friends about it, I’d say that your friend is probably the exception. Like I said, I don’t know much about it, but I do know that ASA sponsored “kegger skating” last weekend, so… But there are definitely a lot of politically and socially active groups on campus that are specifically designed for such a purpose, like the Alexander Hamilton Society, American Grand Strategy, etc.</p>

55

<p>Thought you guys might enjoy this. Here’s what we do at Duke when we should be studying for our midterms…</p>

<p>[Duke</a> University Gangnam Style Flash Mob - YouTube](<a href=“Duke University Gangnam Style Flash Mob - YouTube”>Duke University Gangnam Style Flash Mob - YouTube)</p>

56

<p>how are the dorms and the food?
any special things to do research on for the interviews that everyone doesn’t talk about like FOCUS or ENGAGE?</p>

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<p>My son is considering doing ED to Duke but he is unsure about two things

  1. The campus in all the pics available on the net looks too imposing and stark… Too gothic.
  2. Durham and its surroundings seem like a dull place to be in.
    can you please give me your views regarding this.
    He is an international applicant and visiting the campus is not possible.
    Thanks.</p>
58

<p>@ChillyPenguin - I’m assuming you’re speaking specifically about the freshman experience, so I’ll talk about that. All of the dorms are very distinct and unique from each other. I think, in general, that everyone tends to love the dorm they’re in, and there’s definitely a lot of dorm pride that goes around. It’s hard to make one blanket statement about the dorms because they’re all soooo different. Each one has its own pros and cons. I really love my dorm; I definitely lucked out because I got a big room and a central location on the main quad that’s close to everything. If you can be more specific in your question I might be able to give more insight. Was there a particular aspect of the dorms you were interested in, or even a particular dorm? All I can really say is that I like my dorm a lot, we have a nice community, and I’m really glad that I live where I do.</p>

<p>The food as a freshman is very… limited. The meal plan for freshmen is really stupid, but it gets better once you’re an upperclassmen. There’s this place called the Marketplace on East which is a traditional dining hall. During the week, you get five “swipes” to eat breakfast at Marketplace (Monday-Friday). You get seven swipes for dinner for the whole week (Monday-Sunday). This means that you can eat dinner at the Marketplace every weekday, and then you have two swipes to use on the weekend. You can use those swipes either for brunch or dinner, but you only get two (unless you skipped dinner during the week… then it gets more complicated with rollover swipes and everything). So basically, for those meals you’re supposed to eat at the Marketplace. This means that you need to feed yourself lunch during the weekdays and your choice of two meals during both Saturday and Sunday. You do that by using your food points, which you have a very small amount of. Okay, so now that the meal plan’s out of the way, let’s talk about food. Now, the Marketplace isn’t exactly bad… it’s just not exactly good. The food is all right, nothing special, but not horrible either. It’s just that they have the same food EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And it gets really old really fast. The other eateries on campus are really good, though, and you only have to suffer through the Marketplace for one year. After freshman year, you don’t have a traditional meal plan, you just use food points to purchase all your meals from wherever you want. I like a lot of the places on West, though - Au Bon Pain, Armadillo Grill, The Loop, Divinity Refectory, Panda Express…</p>

<p>And as far as the interviews go, they’re a really low key thing. Basically the interviewers are just trying to get another sense of who you are to send to the admissions officers; as my interviewer explained to me, they really don’t have much weight on the admissions process. It just helps admissions to understand you better and it also shows more interest in the school. So no, there’s not really any research you have to do. You’re just supposed to talk about yourself, from what I remember.</p>

<p>@amdmom - I’m not sure what you mean about the campus. Duke is known for having an absolutely beautiful campus; our campus nickname is the “Gothic Wonderland.” If you don’t like gothic architecture, then I’m sorry to say this but you’re looking at the wrong school. I’m not exactly clear on what you mean by it looks too imposing and stark, either. Everyone I’ve met loves the architecture. Our school looks like Hogwarts - how can you not like that? East Campus is Georgian style, though, if that makes you feel better… Most people actually want to get away from East and onto West, but your son seems to be the opposite. To each their own, I guess.</p>

<p>Durham is definitely not a great college town. I mean, there’s stuff to do in the city (mostly eat), and there are stores and things, but it’s not hopping like Chapel Hill. It is nice, though, that we can just get on a bus to go to aforementioned college town, or take the bus around Durham to get wherever we need to go. Actually, I don’t really see Durham as much of a problem. Most of us are always busy on campus - there’s always school work that you could be doing or some other activity happening. There’s not a whole lot of reason to go off-campus. And, come to think of it, the people I know at Chapel Hill don’t spend a ton of time in town - they’re usually too busy as well. So even though Durham’s not the greatest city, it’s certainly not awful - there are things to do - and I don’t really see that as a problem.</p>

59

<p>Thank you so much for the quick answer…
One more thing, can you please tell me about the social life and eating places within Duke, what do students do for entertainment? What kind of fun events take place on campus like concerts, movies, etc… I have heard about the big basketball scene.</p>

60

<p>@amdmom - As I mentioned above, all freshmen eat in the Marketplace on East Campus, which is an all you can eat dining hall. Other places on campus include Trinity Cafe (cold sandwiches/salads/pastries), Alpine Bagels, Au Bon Pain, Armadillo Grill (Mexican), Divinity Refectory, Panda Express, Chick-fil-a, Subway, The Loop, Joe Van Gogh (coffee), McDonald’s, Pitchfork Provisions, the Great Hall (a la carte dining hall), and a few other places that are in more obscure locations, like Grace’s Cafe which is in the Trent building.</p>

<p>The social life at Duke is extremely active. There’s a ton of stuff to do on campus, from parties to school sponsored programs. More specifically, we have performers here from time to time for huge school events like Heat Wave or LDOC. There’s also things like Devils After Dark which sponsors different events every weekend, from watching movies to buses that go to the mall. Movies are shown regularly in Griffith Theater in the Bryan Center, and on certain weekends they’ll have midnight Disney sing-alongs which are actually really fun. Then you have all the club sponsored/Greek sponsored events, which include both going off campus and hosting events on the quad. A lot of times student groups will perform at the events, like the various student a capella or dance groups. There are also a series of guest speakers that come to campus. Jon Huntsman spoke at Duke just recently, Karl Rove and Robert Gibbs will be debating here next week, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is coming in November. And then finally you have sports. While basketball is the by far the most popular sport on campus, there’s generally tons of other sporting events going on every week. Speaking of basketball, one thing the school puts on is “Countdown to Craziness” to start off the men’s basketball season, where there’s just a ton of fun activities and a basketball scrimmage and stuff - and it’s broadcast on ESPN. So there’s definitely a wide range of activities here, and there’s always something you can find to do on campus.</p>