<p>Does the student body discuss philosophical, political or scientific issues often or at all? Or does it seem as if people care more about what's on the next test rather than what is going on in the real world. I would prefer an answer from students who are currently enrolled at Duke.</p>
<p>Obviously when you're at a school with as talented and bright a student body as Duke you are going to have many intelligent and broadening conversations with kids from all different backgrounds, beliefs, and interests. I have discussed issues involved in politics, gender, sexual orientation, materialism, religion, race, nationality, history, and any combination of them all (and more things I'm probably forgetting) with people whose unique perspectives have taught me so much about my own beliefs and challenged where I stand on a lot of things. However, conversations mostly revolve around issues people actually identify with or have a unique perspective on. When I visited friends at Brown and Yale people were having very abstract, cerebral, pseudo-intellectual conversations that seemed to be more about stroking their own egos than learning something. In a couple cases, their conversations didn't even make sense and actually seemed quite foolish--one revolved around the difference between the words "omniscient" and "ubiquitous" (???), another which inaccurately attempted to explain a mechanical/physical phenomenon in terms of chemical bonds (completely incorrect). I would hardly classify those forced conversations as "intellectual." At Duke, although you won't find many people attempting those kinds of useless, elitist, quasi-intellectually masturbatory conversations, you will find a lot of kids who have amazing and interesting backgrounds and a whole lot of intelligence who are willing to talk about things that actually matter...</p>
<p>"useless, elitist, quasi-intellectually masturbatory conversations"...hahahahahahahahaha that was awesome!</p>
<p>actually i have a friend at duke who says it's not a very intellectual environment. maybe different for you, but it seems like all schools, even the top ones like harvard aren't very intellectual. They might be book smart but my friend says the majority of people is rather stupid and uninterested in actual intellectual matters.</p>
<p>Did you even read incollege's post?</p>
<p>Anyway, maybe your friend just doesn't have the intellecutual capacity to spark conversation. People expect to get to college and just have intellectual conversations flowing all around them. Each person is in control of what type of conversations they get into. But as incollege said, the environment here is perhaps more focused on practical matters than "useless, elitist, quasi-intellectually masturbatory conversations."</p>
<p>I asked whether or not Duke had an intellectually stimulating environment where people discuss issues pertaining to the real world rather than whatever will show up on the next test. I am well aware that students from different schools are biased toward their own institutions and will defend their schools with the utmost passion(as evidenced by your obvious disdain of the "useless, elitist, quasi-intellectually masturbatory conversations" of all other top colleges). I hope that I can received a less skewed explanation rather than generalizations.</p>
<p>I'm telling a side of the story, you tell yours, ay caramba. I did read incollege's post, so i guess that means I shouldn't post with what I have heard as well?</p>
<p>You don't need to be insulting my friend either. It's not all about meaningful conversations at duke so stop pretending that's how it is for everyone. No doubt it takes place, but my friend who is incredibly smart and talented says that people don't really care about such matters, though they may be book smart and studious. That's how it was for him, and I'm posting how he sees the intellectual environment at duke. I hope you can take that without insulting me or my friend.</p>
<p>The reason why I asked if you read incollege's post is because she didn't state that Duke has the intellectual atmosphere that other schools do, so you're aruging against something that wasn't stated. Sorry if I misinterpreted your post.
And you're the one who slighted me first. How did you think I would react when you said "the majority of people is rather stupid"??? As a Duke student, yeah, I'm offended by that.</p>
<p>:( could u guys please stop arguing.</p>
<p>didn't mean to offend you, that's just what he told me from his experience. obviously he hasn't met and tried to talk to every single people. on the contrary, probably only a small portion. I guess that was a mis-statement on my part, no offense intended, I shouldn't have said the majority is stupid in the intellectual sense.</p>
<p>It's all good :) I noticed you are applying to Duke, so it's not like you'd want to bash us all that much anyways.
But on the subject, I truly believe that the vast majority of students here are CAPABLE of intellectual conversation in the same way as students at any other school, it's just not a thing that's tapped into by most students on a regular basis.</p>
<p>I have to agree with ay caramba. Frankly, it seems that a lot of Duke kids are hesitant for some reason to just go off and discuss philosophy or something, they'd rather chat basketball or talk about homework. I don't know what you mean about real world non-class issues Is it something like:
"Say, how do you think they should paint that Garage Jack?"
"Well, the cross-stroke is always good..."
People are more willing to talk politics and other current event type stuff but I can't say that they're really inclined to. It's not much really different from high school (outside of government class, actually). Someone makes a random comment and it can spark things, but it's not like I go up to my friends eager to discuss the Schiavo case or anything. As for incollege88's post, I really don't think it's cause we mean to be humble about our intelligence or anything (God, I hate those Harvard: Duke of the North shirts) or that people at other schools are really pompous. I think it's mainly because intellectualism is thought of as strange and nobody really wants to look weird. This commentary is obviously attached with the disclaimer: this is my experience only.</p>
<p>Thank you, Amused.</p>
<p>Intellectual diversity at Duke and at top-tier colleges is a very complicated question. First of all, in general, most people at top colleges except for maybe U. Chicago, are not primarily interested in intellectual ideas. They are more interested in developing a career and gaining useful skills. With that in mind, it is true that most people at Duke are not very interested in discussing matters of philosophical/intellectual importance. However, there is a significant minority of people that are intellectual and they are pretty easy to find. Intellectual discussion occurs through research, faculty interaction, clubs, and most of all through random conversations throughout the day. There are times when it just springs up over random issues such as religion, politics, philosophy, theoretical physics, economics etc... Programs such as FOCUS greatly facilitate intellectualism on campus and people in FOCUS are much more likely to be interested in being intellectual. Furthermore, the faculty members are really easy to access considering their caliber. I have had lunch with several faculty members already.</p>