<p>My D is a h.s. Jr and may be interested in Duke. All the other schools she's interested in are in the New England or Chicago area. We're a pretty 'typical' liberal, suburban family from the Northeast and I think she would feel out of place in a very Southern college. I'd love anyone's thoughts. Thanks</p>
<p>Though the town surrounding Duke is quite "southern", the actual camus is not. Since there's such a huge mix of people (only 12% are from North Carolina... check out this site for a profile of the 2009 class: <a href="http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2009profile.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2009profile.asp</a> ) your daughter won't have any trouble fitting in. </p>
<p>If you still have doubts, take a visit and see for yourself!</p>
<p>The entire Research Triangle area isn't Southern. It's mostly researchers and students from out-of-state. </p>
<p>Furthermore, Duke is not really conservative, although it's often represented that way. There's a good mix of conservatives, liberals, and moderates.</p>
<p>Emory, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc. are NOT Southern schools. They are Northern schools in the South. Schools like Furman, Rhodes, Sewanee, Davidson, etc. are much more Southern in culture. However, I do think your fears are slightly misplaced. I've lived in the South my whole life, and I don't think you can find friendlier, more down-to-earth people (except in the Midwest, perhaps). :)</p>
<p>I agree that Duke is a lot more geographically diverse than one might think. It's in the South, but it's a national school, with a very large % of students from the NE. Still, as a Duke alum born in Texas (which any Texan will tell you is not the South), I was introduced to at least one great life-changing aspect of Southern culture: Sweet Tea! I never experienced - nor understood - this wonderful elixir until college. I'm a convert.</p>
<p>I agree, the top southern schools have kids from all over the country.</p>
<p>Duke can be geographically considered to be in the south BUT demographically it's national....</p>
<p>^^^ I agree, just take a look at the student parking lots, cars have license plates from states all around the country.</p>
<p>It seriously feels like almost everyone you meet here is either from NC (duh), New York, Jersey, California, or Texas. I'm from Long Island, and all of my other schools were typical ivy-league/northeast/liberal/etc. schools (I applied early to Brown...that should say something in itself). I adore Duke; I think it's perfect, amazing, incomparable, etc. and I try to convince any high schooler I talk to to visit here & apply.</p>
<p>Plus, another hugely awesome benefit of the South...Southern gentlemen. I am from New York. I am not used to them. Most of them will give up their seat on the bus for a girl, some will bring you flowers & medicine when they hear you're sick, stuff like that. It's pretty awesome, I gotta say.</p>
<p>Duke is a wonderful school but I think you will find it more conservative than most of the top uni's it competes with.
I'm a tar heel (NC native, not a UNC grad) who finally moved above the Mason-Dixon line after college. NC is fantastic and bandcampgirl describes a real phenomenon. There is still a heightened emphasis on mannerliness, as exemplified by the "southern gentleman". Unfortunately, that can sometimes go along with a more conservative outlook. I have a lot of family in NC and their politics go from super liberal Prius drivers to super conservative pick up pilots. We have great family reunions!
Seriously, though, if political environment is important to you, be sure to visit before you buy.
UNC is generally considered to be more liberal than Duke.</p>
<p>Gadgets: sweet tea and pulled pork bbq are two of the things I miss most up here!</p>
<p>Whaaaat...Duke is really not conservative at all. Definitely more liberal. I haven't been to UNC so I don't know what politics are like there, but I am VERY liberal and I've never felt uncomfortable...however, I do have conservative friends who say that they feel there is a strong liberal bias on this campus.</p>
<p>bandcampgirl can i kno ur stats?
im plannin on applying duke ed next year...</p>
<p>I'm afraid I have to throw the flag on "Too Southern" - what does that mean? To my ear as a resident of South Dakota, Illinois, Tennessee, or North Carolina depending on time of year, I have to say it sounds like you're running with an unfortunate view of the South, something that would hopefully be changed by actually going to / visiting school in the South...</p>
<p>I visited Duke and found the school to be great. It's not "Southern" in any negative sense, but I do feel that the areas around Duke are a little iffy.</p>
<p>i have to agree w/ tchaikovsky, the only way to know is to check it out, of course i've never visited duke, so i h ave nothing to say about it, but i do have some reason in saying this: my dad works in the pharma industry, and so we move a lot...i've lived in kansas, missouri, indiana, new jersey, and now california. so i've seen most of the spectrum. and personally all of the stereotypes you hear of exist, but they're all to a very much lessened degree, and after time, i feel like you just blend in</p>
<p>I found the admissions map to be deeply disturnign. As a Texan, it seems to me that we deserve our own region and certainly shouldn't be listed in the southeast.</p>
<p>Of course, now that I live in NYC, I believe New York should have its own region as well.</p>
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bandcampgirl can i kno ur stats?
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<p>Uhh...well it's kinda hard because my school didn't calculate GPA. I got a 1510 on the old SAT (would have been 2260 on the new one, I guess, if I count my SAT II writing score), mostly a mix of A's and A-'s with 1 or 2 B+'s thrown in, and I took the most advanced courseload possible with APs whenever I could. Hope that helps?</p>
<p>I'm with you there - I've never considered Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri to be 'Southern'! (Nor Florida, these days...)</p>
<p>You guys are amazing. Thanks so much for all the feedback. Guess we're adding Duke to the list! -Thanks</p>
<p>Duke isn't too southern at all. Of course there's a lot of North Carolinians and a fair percentage of other southern student-- but it's not a hardcore deep south school at all. It's very geographically diverse. I come from a NYC liberal family and other than Duke, I only applied to ivy leagues and small New England liberal arts colleges. Even the surrounding area doesn't feel too southern, because the triangle is a liberal pocket of NC-- and most of its residents are transplants from up north anyway.</p>