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<p>Durham is definitely ghetto. The areas near campus are nice if you don’t walk through them alone, or after dark. Seriously, though-most NC natives will tell you that Durham is one of the crappiest cities in the state. The gang scene there is pretty bad: I saw one estimate (a few years ago) that put Durham’s gang population in the thousands.</p>
<p>That said, Duke has tons and tons of security, so students do end up being pretty safe there. Just know that Durham is no Charlottesville. It sounds like you want to go to UVa more anyways, so Durham shouldn’t really be too much of an issue.</p>