<p>So I just got my Duke e-mail account, and I saw this in my inbox:</p>
<p>"Dear students,</p>
<p>Late last night a graduate student was robbed at gunpoint on the 1000 block of 9th Street. The student was not injured. Duke and Durham Police are conducting the investigation. Please check the Duke Police website at Duke</a> University Police for updates as any new information becomes available..."</p>
<p>Looking at the Duke Police site, there seem to be a decent amount of incidents, especially around the East Campus. From mid-November to mid-December 2010, there were 10 car break-ins on campus. I'm planning on bringing my car, and I'm kind of worried about this. Can some current Duke students comment on this?</p>
<p>My friend’s sister goes their and her friends car got keyed, and her other friend’s car got broken into. Duke is very safe, but Duke (if you visited) is prob the nicest thing in Durham, to put it bluntly she said the areas around “where ghetto”, but really its just not a good idea to stray away from campus at home. As far as bringing your car I advies security. Hopefully I am headed their (or Emory if off the waitlist since my parents think it isnt safe), but dont worry youll be fine if your not alone. And dont go out at night, but dont worry they will warn you when you go there.</p>
<p>It’s basically statistics, if you have 1/3 of the undergrads and probably all of the grad students and the faculty and staff all parking their cars in confine lots on campus, there will be X number of break ins for every Y number of cars. It sounds like a lot because it’s centralized and all affiliated with one entity - Duke. </p>
<p>But really, Duke campus is generally very safe, especially the residential areas because so many students live on campus. If you need to go to other areas (labs, academic buildings), you can usually park very close (steps from the door) after dark or on weekends. As for off campus, it’s a semi-urban environment, don’t do stupid things like walking around alone at night in poorly lit, out of the way areas, drive as much as you can, etc. </p>
<p>Regarding cars, stuff happens, like I said above. A postdoc I worked with had his catalytic converter stolen in broad daylight. But, that stuff can happen to anybody wherever you are, and there’s really nothing you can do about that. And most importantly, it’s not common. What is preventable is doing things like not leaving GPS units, iPods, laptops, etc in plain view, not driving flashy cars like lambos/bmers/mercedes/maserati, etc. Basically common sense. </p>
<p>Overall, Duke has never given me an unsafe vibe in my four years there whether on or off campus.</p>
<p>Probably one of the safest elite undergraduate schools is Williams (in the middle of the Berkshires). Duke, Yale, Hopkins etc. have relatively safe campuses in not the safest cities, and care and vigilance are necessary if wandering into the environs.</p>
<p>Don’t be stupid and you’ll be fine. Aka don’t walk alone at night through uncrowded urban areas, don’t park your car in area that it is clearly incongruous with, etc.</p>
<p>Durham rocks. It is not ghetto unless by ghetto you mean black and not wealthy. Then yeah it’s pretty ghetto, but it’s not some gang haven where drugs and welfare checks are 95% of the income. Durham is a nice place once you get to know it, you just have to give it a chance (most Dukies don’t).
It’s a lower middle class city filled with upper class amenities (DPAC, Carolina Theater, Brightleaf, 9th) because of Duke & the Triangle.</p>
<p>I’ve never once been afraid at Duke and I’m out all the time</p>