<p>Duke</a> Videos - theU - Duke: "The Crowd"</p>
<p>Is it true? I was looking at these videos, not just for Duke but for many other schools as well. Duke was one of the few that had people mentioning "self segregation" and stuff like that. That's a huge negative for me...</p>
<p>You will probably find that at many/most places, whether it is acknowledged or not. Sorry, but it is true. I think that the mention of self-segregation is more an indication of awareness than of a unusual situation.That does not mean that everyone at Duke practices self-segregation. My son’s closest friends, if categorized, would look more like the UN than anything else, if they and he were into categorizing.</p>
<p>But doesn’t that happen at ever school? I mean they seriously exaggerated the “peppiness” and the “rich” of the school. Seriously they make Duke look like the most expensive school. WRONG. It does have a good FA and makes it affordable (the average package covers about half of the cost of attendance). I mean nearly half of the who thing was talking about oh it cost so much, oh there are rich kids, oh m3s. Honestly, I don’t think any of the producers actually looked deeper into Duke. This is what fuel stereotypes. I can easily say that the number of students with middle class families greatly out number the number of students with really rich families. Sure there are people that do hang out in groups together a lot but that occurs at every university. I mean even in high schools. Asians tend to hang out with Asians. It makes people comfortable at a place with a big population of students.</p>
<p>Here’s my take on the situation:</p>
<p>There’s a large deal of separation (both physically and figuratively) between Trinity kids and Pratt kids. They don’t have any of the same classes, and therefore spend all day on different parts of campus.
Pratt happens to have a large concentration of Asian kids.</p>
<p>In my mind, it’s more of self-segregation between humanities kids and math/sci nerds than Whites, Asians, etc.</p>
<p>That student referenced in the parental post, above, is in Pratt. Most of his closest friends are not. All Pratt students take a certain number of classes in Trinity, BTW. You choose your own friends, and Duke is large enough that you can. I hope I have been helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks for helping to clear up those stereotypes. I really like Duke but the video above had me question my love. Any information on debunking those myths help me in my decision to apply, since I know I cannot visit.</p>
<p>^ Why can’t you visit? If it’s a question of finances, I know of several people in my class (incoming freshmen, w00t!) who got plane tickets paid in full by Duke so they could visit.</p>
<p>My D’s facebook quiz says most of her friends are Asian. She is an African American at Duke. We visited on parents weekend, and she did not introduce us to more than one African American friend. Of course, the same was true before she left, so what ever.</p>
<p>wow how can I get a paid visit???</p>
<p>I would imagine by contacting admissions and begging for money</p>
<p>i don’t think any school will fly out prospective students just to visit. they only fly out admitted students to help them make their final decision.</p>
<p>self-segregation at duke is not more than at any other top school. don’t worry 
the friends i have made don’t share similar socioeconomic backgrounds or even remotely similar shades of skin tone lol. duke’s positives far outweigh the small self-segregation there may be.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the positive comments, I really wanted to keep Duke on my list.</p>
<p>Also, if any of you could offer what you believe to be fair comparisons to other schools I might be applying to (in the same tier), I would love to hear.
example: Duke is just as self-segregating as Columbia / Penn / whatever you want.
If not, thanks again anyway.</p>
<p>Every top ranked school is self-segregated (espicially with an “elite” student body, compared to the average college ofc)</p>
<p>I do not have real in-depth knowledge of the situations at the other schools, but imo Duke self-segregation is probably more than “above average.”</p>
<p>it’s going to be what you make of the situation. Of course there’s self-segregation. People start forming opinions on others from the second they see/meet them. It’s truly your prerogative to hang out only with a certain group of people.</p>
<p>columbia, due to the sheer fact that it is in NYC, has a lot of diversity, which i personally liked. but i didn’t feel like it was significant enough to pull me away from duke, if that says anything?</p>
<p>also, one of my really good friends goes to penn. when i go to visit her, her group of friends and mine feel the same. most “elite” schools are rich white people - you can’t avoid it. but duke is not categorically more “cliquey” than its peers.</p>
<p>Self-segregation is unavoidable really, everywhere you go you’ll see self-segregation. And it doesn’t have to be at college, high school has it too. It’s just human nature, people judge others.</p>
<p>It’s pretty common. I had African-American friends who pretty much hung out exclusively w/ other African-Americans. Within the African-American community, you have even further division between the Greeks and non-greeks. Within the Greek community, you have The First Fam/Coleman/BluePhi. Let’s not forget the drama and segregation with “The Black Bench.”</p>
<p>Most African-Americans have a “Us vs. Them” mentality. The white Greeks can have parties, where students get alcohol poisoning, destroy things, and do drugs, and the police don’t bat an eye at them. However, if the African-Americans throw a party (like at the Devil’s Den, the Great Hall, or a house party on Central), you will have every cop from Duke and the city of Durham patrolling. </p>
<p>I thought the Asian community was very self-segregated, primarily because whenever they were around each other, they always spoke their native language. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it would make an outsider a little leery in approaching them or trying to fit in.</p>
<p>In general, most people are cool and nice when you try to talk to them 1 on 1 and they’re outside of their clique. However, if they are in their circle, it’s pretty much impossible to “fit in”. At the end of the day, people want to let their hair down, vent, and be around people who share common experiences and can relate - all of which, inevitably, leads to “self-segregation”…</p>
<p>“Within the Greek community, you have The First Fam/Coleman/BluePhi. Let’s not forget the drama and segregation with “The Black Bench.””</p>
<p>I’d love to hear more! PM me if you don’t mind. My D just finished her freshman year and didn’t share anything like that. DEFINITELY not hanging around exclusively with other African Americans.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if Duke Alum did, as his name suggests, graduate 6 years ago. I don’t doubt that his recollections reflect his experiences, but they do seem to be at odds with our son’s experience. And Duke is large enough that the world he describes could co-exist with the one my son inhabits.</p>
<p>Hmm… well to compare to another school, in Yale reviews I read, students talk about how little self-segregation there is, and how groups contain students of every color and background, blah blahh.</p>