<p>A number of posters (some Duke students) have mentioned they don't think Duke is intellectual enough, or at all? Duke students, is this the case? </p>
<p>To rephrase the question: If the kid across the hall and I are taking the same Philosophy course, would he be more likely to debate Aristotle v. Sophocles with me late into the night, or call me a tool (or worse) for being so into the class?</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that classes ended yesterday and exams begin on Monday. Those who might be among those likely to discuss Aristotle and Sophocles might be otherwise occupied just now, so factor that information into the responses your post receives.</p>
<p>thanks mafool</p>
<p>This is what Senator Noodles posted when I asked the same question on a different thread: </p>
<p>"jct30, if by “intellectualism” you mean people going around reciting pi to the 50th digit, no you won’t find any of that. if by intellectual you mean people who talk about their classes, find the concepts interesting, want to have philosophical conversations, you will find those people. but no, there isn’t very much of the nerdy/geeky intellectualism. </p>
<p>as far as your philosophy course goes, i think the average kid (in my experience, maybe i’ve been limited, but this is what nearly everyone i’ve met would do for sure) would have a pretty long conversation with you provided s/he had the time…</p>
<p>EDIT: that’s another thing i realize i love about duke - i’m a BME major and i’ve NEVER met anyone who’s called me a geek/nerd/anything. never. people are like “omg, how do you handle those classes?” or “wow, i’d die with having to take 3 labs a semester,” but people REALLY understand that everyone is unique and has his/her own interests and really respects that."</p>
<p>^^^yes. our son is in engineering, as well, so, while he valued his sociology and history courses and might otherwise enjoy a long conversation about various philosophers, after tackling problem sets and labs, he may be more in the mood to debate the latest developments on Lost or some other not-so-intellectual subject! But that’s not because he doesn’t value the nerdy, just that his brain needs a break.</p>
<p>Intellectuals exist at Duke but they are far from the majority.
I’m sure that everyone at Duke is capable of being intellectual but a lot of people just aren’t interested.</p>
<p>mondo - how do you define intellectual?</p>
<p>Intellectual-Willing to talk about ideas, willing to debate issues, willing to talk about course material, understanding intellectual-ish humor. Those would be things I use. I dunno though.
These people do exist though at Duke. I actually joined an ‘intellectual fraternity’.</p>
<p>does anyone else feel the way mondo does?</p>
<p>overall, i’ve found my experience here to be more than satisfying intellectually. i know plenty of people here who are intellectual (i.e., excited about ideas), but not in the douchey kind of way you might find at other schools (harvard comes to mind). if you value engaging in philosophical conversations then you’ll find other people who do as well (as long as you are not obnoxious/pretentious about it). people here are all really intelligent, but intelligence is not necessarily tantamount to intellectualism. duke definitely has its fair share of really competent/intelligent but not necessarily intellectual pre-professionals (bound for consulting firms, b-school, and i-banks, for the most part) but there are many, many people who do not fit that mold.</p>
<p>this question is kind of like asking if there is self-segregation here. sure there is, as is the case in every other college campus i’ve been to. but does that mean that you can’t make friends with people of different races perfectly easily if you value having relationships with people of different backgrounds? absolutely not; this happens all the time here. you are in control of your experience, and duke provides enough diversity in every way shape and form that you should be able to be satisfied with whatever desires you may have as long as you come at it with the right attitude.</p>
<p>I may have been spoiled in high school.</p>
<p>I have a great group of friends from there who I was always having fun with and always having intellectual conversations with, most of them are either going to Ivies or state school. It took me a while to find people like that here. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong.</p>
<p>There are plenty of intellectual-types (or even semi-intellectual types) at Duke. I may have been over-exaggerating when I said that ‘anti-intellectuals’ make up the majority. One of my problems first semester was that I tried too hard to make friends with a group of people who I just didn’t fit in with (tried hard to be best of buddies with them mostly because of proximity). They are the loud, party-hardy group, a lot of them are more like drinking buddies than actual buddies and they were (and still are) eager to point out how I am different from them. I have a few really good friends on my hall and my dorm but besides that, most of my friends live on the other side of campus or in different dorms.</p>
<p>For me it was the complete opposite than with Mondo. In high school (pretty average suburban public) no one would ever discuss anything academically related. Ever. And people would be like, “Why are you using such big words? We’re not in school right now.” Um, that’s just the way I talk, sorry. </p>
<p>Anyway, at Duke no one says stupid stuff like that and there will definitely be random philosophical discussions at dinner or somewhere. But it’s not an in-your-face, let’s try to debate the meaning of life all day long type of intellectualism, like at some other schools I can think of. I think it’s a good mix, personally.</p>
<p>And as with everything, you can always find your niche.</p>
<p>There are more extremely intellectual people and more practical/go-getter/no-BS people, and less generic people in between.</p>
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<p>Very well said.</p>
<p>Drunk philosophical debates are the best thing ever. But you didn’t just hear that from me.;)</p>
<p>^Agreed!!!</p>
<p>hahah im not even at duke yet but ill say amen to that</p>
<p>Definitely discussed the ubiquity of Existentialism in literature and film when I was drunk with some Math PhD guy at Duke haha</p>
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<p>One time my friends and I were watching a movie, and another friend walked into the room extremely intoxicated and asked us. “Guys…what’s the first thing that ever happened?” Good times.</p>