<p>Since freshmen live on east campus, how difficult is it to get to class and the gym ? if you are planning on playing a sport, is it hard to get over to the athletics stuff? i heard that there is shuttle, but people on the team say that they have to call for it every day for morning practice, since it's so early in the morning. thoughts anyone?</p>
<p>It's not difficult to get to west. There is also a gym on east where you can work if you don't feel like going to west, and it's usually open to midnight. The buses start running full schedule a little after seven, and at that time you can catch a bus every 1-3 minutes or so. The ride is about 6-8 minutes. If you need to be there super early, you can walk/run, It's only about a mile and a half (You're an athlete, after all :))</p>
<p>if you need to get to west from east before the buses start running, you need to call safe rides which is a van service that the university runs when buses are not in service (roughly between 2am and 7am)</p>
<p>The bus trip is not a big deal. Every freshman does it, and Duke makes sure that it works! Most of our son's classes freshman year were on west campus. He tented on west campus. :)</p>
<p>He used the gym on east most of the time and had no complaints.</p>
<p>And even I, clueless parent that I am, found the bus to be very convenient. No worries!</p>
<p>And East is not solely a residential campus -- there are still offices, classrooms, and entire departments located on East. (My adviser's office is in the back corner of East, I always have 1 or 2 classes a semester there, and I like studying there whether at Lilly or at Trinity Cafe. I'm a senior and live off campus, but half my on campus time is spent there). </p>
<p>The bus is really quick and easy.</p>
<p>If you are the type of person who likes to roll out of bed and get to class in 10 minutes then it is a big deal. </p>
<p>If you have classes on West campus during the Marketplace lunch hours you essentially "lose" part of what you paid for the required freshman meal plan. This is especially true if you don't get up early enough to eat breakfast.</p>
<p>If you have meetings on the West campus at night and can't make it back to the Marketplace for dinner you again "lose" what you paid for the freshman meal plan.</p>
<p>Personally, I don't think the East campus works although I understand the reasoning. I'd much rather see graduate student facilities on East campus and the freshman integrated into the main campus. </p>
<p>The buses are often full, run late and when they are pulled off the routes for airport duty it's difficult to get back to East Campus from West. </p>
<p>And when you are standing in the pouring rain waiting for the bus you get absolutely soaked!</p>
<p>And Saferides tells you they will get there when they get there.</p>
<p>the buses are fine, it can get you wherever...with running, it's possible to get from East campus to some obscure building past science drive (like the LSRC bldg.) in just under 15 minutes, and you can get to west fast as well...the buses come by like every 3-4 minutes, so there's almost never a wait</p>
<p>
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If you have classes on West campus during the Marketplace lunch hours you essentially "lose" part of what you paid for the required freshman meal plan. This is especially true if you don't get up early enough to eat breakfast.
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Duke implemented a new system last year that allows freshmen who miss breakfast to get lunch at the Marketplace. It's not always easy to make it back to East for lunch, but hey, it's better than the old system. Besides, the early morning bus ride to West gives people time to eat the take-out breakfast from the MP. :D</p>
<p>I'm studying abroad at a university with a student village that's two miles from campus, and buses only run every 20-30 minutes (and they charge!). Believe me, Duke's transportation system is MUCH better. :eek:</p>
<p>It's not difficult to get to classes on time as long as you're good at planning...</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, suck at planning and have been late to almost every class since school started. Always by the same amount of time, too. But it's something most people can manage, to be honest...most of my classes just happen to be on Science Drive, which is as far as you can get on West Campus from the bus stop, basically. Teachers are understandable, too, and it's not really a fault of the transportation system, I just suck at planning how much time I have left.</p>
<p>The only time it's a major issue is on weekends and those late nights during the week where you have something to do on West. Then it REALLY sucks.</p>
<p>
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most of my classes just happen to be on Science Drive, which is as far as you can get on West Campus from the bus stop, basically.
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C3 bus = good</p>
<p>On the early morning practice thing; I am not going to lie to you, it sucks. I am in NROTC and we have PT at various locations around campus at times that are before the buses start running and I didn't have a car freshman year. Biking doesn't take that long but you need a bike for that. (apparently though Duke is now renting out bikes for free? I read that somewhere but am currently abroad so I haven't gotten to check it out) </p>
<p>The other option in the early morning is saferides. To get a ride from saferides you have to call them and then go wait by the buss circle till the van comes to get you. The response time isn't great and so I know that if PT started at 0630 I had to call them by 0530 if I wanted to be sure that I wasn't "late". (read 15 minutes early at least, thats NROTC for yah) Anyway they sometimes don't take quite so long to pick you up but it isn't exactly fast. The other problem with saferides is that for at least my freshman year saferides stopped running a full hour before the busses started. (not sure if that has changed or not) (I had a friend visiting from the Naval academy have to hitchhike back to the rest of the Academy MIDN because there was no transport service for the hour that he needed to muster)</p>
<p>What I think you will find though is that most sports teams look out for their freshman and will either tell you how to get saferides, have the freshman carpool or maybe an upperclassman will come pick you up on East. I know driving yourself is also a pretty fast way to get over to West in the early morning but you have to move your car before the business day starts. (which I think sucks because I have early morning PT followed by early morning Engineering classes and yet I must drive my car back to east to shower instead of showering on West because Duke won't let me have a parking permit for both campuses)</p>
<p>Anyway, transportation from East campus can sometimes be a headache but it really isn't all that bad. (I mean, I'm going to be living on East for my third year in a row when I get back to Duke next semester; it is inconvenient but doable)</p>