<p>Since I do not turn my back to discussions, I will respond. </p>
<p>First, it is quite cavalier to immediately question the "qualifications" f a poster who happens to have an opinion about the school. In this regard, let me get personal. So, thoughtprocess, I should refrain to post an opinion unless I am student or alumni -or have visited a school. Well, well, does that stop you from peppering the board with opinions about schools? Have you visited every school for which you had an opinion? I do not think so!</p>
<p>Sokkermom, It is not hard to find interesting tidbits in your post. Do you consider anyone who happens to have a different opinion to be ... opiniated. Does the fact of attending another school voids every comment or makes the opinions unsubstantiated? And no, it is the number of posts that make a source credible, but the overall nature of the posts may shed some lights. </p>
<p>Now, back to the post that seemed to infuriate a few of yours. I stand by everything I said, starting with the ambivalence between political thoughts and actions, and this is based on personal experience. Contrary to your beliefs, I am very familiar with the school. Without getting in unneeded details, let me simply say that I know many alumni, recruiters, current students, and school officials from Duke. While I understand that you take umbrage on a personal level at my comments regarding the socio-economic distribution of the school, can you truly deny that my comments are entirely off-the-wall? </p>
<p>From my vantage point, Duke and its students really, really want to advance diversity and multiculturalism. Yet, they know so little about it that the performance leaves much to be desired, despite its massive and oft-overbearing liberal minded faculty and student body. </p>
<p>In a different post from thoughprocess, I read that the proportion of white versus non-white is 50-50. That is not the way to calculate it. Duke is as diverse as Wellesley is when it comes to URM numbers. So, how many hispanics, blacks, and native indians attend Duke? Here is the answer: it is less than 20%. </p>
<p>Further, do you REALLY think that Duke has been particularly successful at INTEGRATING into the dominant groups as opposed to merely recognizing and featuring the racial minority subgroups ? In this regard, you could ask yourself where most of the black students reside on campus. Or has that changed in the last 24 months? </p>
<p>Finally, when it comes to the nickname, maybe you ought to find out where it came from. Since my opinion is unsubstantiated, I won't give you the hint to check with the "colored" employees and faculty. </p>
<p>None of this discussion makes Duke a lesser institution. Duke is a wonderful school. but a lot of its stature and position at the pinnacle of education comes from its past. While Duke is no longer the school it was decades ago, the degree by which it has changed is subject to different opinions. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel better to discredit the messenger rather than discussing the facts, that is fine by me. I have no beef with Duke. I posted in this thread because I disagreed with one comment regarding the comparison with the other schools. You'd be very, very hard pressed to find a single negative comment of mine regarding Duke anywhere on CC, and especially in the Duke forum. I just hope that you'll recognize that biased views do not come solely from outsiders.</p>