Duke Life

<p>I am going to be a senior in high-school this coming year, and I am seriously considering Duke as a top choice of mine.</p>

<p>I love the awe-inspiring campus of Duke, and its location in Durham, NC. I also love the amazing study abroad and research opportunities, the classes offered, and the type of professors at Duke. </p>

<p>My concern is this: would I be able to find my niche if I fall somewhere in between the uber-athletic type and the uber-intellectual type? And do sports often compromise studies and learning or is that just a myth created from the intense hype surrounding basketball and school spirit?</p>

<p>I would appreciate all the feedback possible and any additional information about Duke campus life, especially from Blue Devils themselves!</p>

<p>

That defines about half of Duke. If half of the student body is enough of a “niche” for you, then I think you’ll be fine. =)</p>

<p>

Sports haven’t compromised my grades yet (I’m a rising junior), but I also haven’t tented. I have, however, sat out in line for 24 hours multiple times.</p>

<p>Well, do sports often come before school?
There’s nothing wrong with the school spirit, but I don’t want to feel obligated to bow down to the sports stars if you know what I mean. Haha, am I allowed to show my nerdiness?
Could someone elaborate more on this?
And what about other social activities? How big is the Greek life?</p>

<p>intellectual/academic life > athletic life for many, as it has a slight pre-professional slant. so grades matter to a lot of people.</p>

<p>Duke students take pride in the ability to balance academics and recreation. You are absolutely allowed to show nerdiness (especially if you are in Pratt lol), and at the same time, you can party.</p>

<p>Greek life is pretty big on Campus. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’d ballpark about 1/3 of the Undergrad population is involved in Greek life. Greek life virtually rules the social structure at Duke, but you don’t have to go Greek to get in on the fun.</p>

<p>can anyone talk more about the Greek life/ social structure of Duke?</p>

<p>and this is kinda a random question to throw in there, but does Duke offer merit-based scholarships? As a Duke-lover myself I should know this by now, but I can’t seem to find info on it anywhere!</p>

<p>@ james28: Duke automatically screens applicants for scholarships, but they are EXTREMELY HARD to get. The most prominent is probably the Robertson Scholarship, which is offered to 15 Duke students each year: [Robertson</a> Scholars: Selection](<a href=“http://www.robertsonscholars.org/index.php?type=static&source=11]Robertson”>http://www.robertsonscholars.org/index.php?type=static&source=11) . There is a separate application available for this program/scholarship on the link I sent you.</p>

<p>AB Duke might have little more prestige than Robertson. In the end, they are all good.</p>

<p>back to what james28 said, can anyone elaborate on the greek life/social structure of duke?</p>

<p>At Duke University roughly 40% of the students are involved in Greek Life.</p>

<p>Greek Life is a big part of campus, but if you do not want to be involved with Greek Life it definitely won’t be a problem as 60% of the students are not involved. </p>

<p>Fraternities are housed on campus because of the 3 year requirement to live on campus. They receive a section of a dorm and the members live there together. </p>

<p>Apart from Sororities and Fraternities there are also select living groups which are co-ed groups that also have blocks of rooms available to them in a dorm. </p>

<p>What specific questions do you have about Greek Life?</p>

<p>i didn’t have any specific questions, i just wanted to get a general idean of the social life of duke students. it seems though that the greek system at duke is different from those at other schools because by living on campus the frats and sororities aren’t a separate part of the school.</p>

<p>so how open is the greek life at duke? could I be friends with those who rushed if I didn’t??</p>

<p>You can definitely be friends with students who are in a fraternity or sorority if you are not in one. I had several friends in different fraternities who I was friends with. Fraternities and sororities usually invite everyone to their parties, unless it is a mixer just between a fraternity and sorority. Your friends might not have as much free time as you do and they’ll have events that you won’t go to but overall you don’t really know who is in a fraternity and who isn’t you hang out with everyone.</p>

<p>bump…10char</p>

<p>ok here’s another thing…the Princeton Review guide to the best 368 colleges (with which I’m sure most of you are familiar) gave Duke a “Quality of Life” rating of 75/99 (one of the worst ones I saw!), whereas every single other high ranking liberal arts college or university got in the 90’s…does anyone know why Duke would be ranked so low in this category??</p>

<p>Ummm I think the best answer is for you to go visit Duke. Since you are extremely concerned about it, there is no use for you to try to find out if you like the student’s lifestyle at Duke until you visit. It’s like marrying a girl without ever seeing her face to face, it just doesn’t work like that.
Some people like it, some people won’t. We don’t know which category you are going to fall in. So the honest answer to your question is: go visit Duke, sit in a class and spend a night</p>

<p>well I’ve already visited Duke and stayed there for two weeks for a camp, but even then you don’t get the full Duke experience…I would just like to hear from some duke students about what they think of the campus and social life
I already know that the academics are great, and I absolutely love the campus (at least, what I got to see of it), but as we all know that’s not all when searching for the college</p>

<p>maybe cuz of the lax scandal, i mean it is the south</p>

<p>duke sucks at financial…this is no understatement…
just dont feel guilty walking aroung campus while ur parents work overtime paying ur tuition.<br>
duke helps only a few.</p>

<p>We found that Duke’s FA package was far more generous than those offered by the other “highly selective” institutions on our son’s list.</p>

<p>Earlier quality of life question: I’m guessing here, but it may be because Durham is not a picture perfect college town.</p>