Hi @bucketDad . Haven’t switched CC to my new email, so haven’t gotten notification of your response. Don’t really understand why you’re spending all this effort to discredit me on an anonymous chat board. This has been my personal experience with the school, and why I’ve disliked it. I’m assuming your son/daughter is going to Duke, and you’re justifying his/her choice in your head by calling me gutless - well, that’s another story. As someone who’s just left Duke recently, I liked and disliked certain things. The basketball, the thrill of telling a friend that I went there - that was great. However, the monotony, the lack of anything to do outside of campus, the social hierarchy and the hyperliberals (who blockaded and cancelled class in the Allen Building for a week with a tent community in order to have the school fire the “racist” administration and raise the wage for all workers to $15 an hour), how I worked my a** off for a 3.6 in a STEM major while my friends in history/political science got 4.0s doing 5 hours of work a week…the list goes on and on. A huge problem is that there are no credit hours - a history class is equal to organic chemistry in the minds of the administration.
@InigoMontoya , trust me, I met with the gamut of school officials, from academic advising, to my pre-med dean, to my college dean, to my college advisor, to the career center, plus each of the specific sub sections of those departments in my areas of interest - to absolutely no avail. Within a week of going to Emory, I had an interview with a venture capital firm, several interviews with finance companies in Singapore, and an opportunity for a coding bootcamp in California. I don’t need my hand held, but I do need some assistance where assistance is due.
@Jwest22 , honestly one of the most ignorant comments I’ve read here. Yes, let’s ignore my sentiments as the ramblings of a deranged lunatic who didn’t enjoy his first school attended because I was “overwhelmed” and a “mistake by adcoms” … pathetic. I got in for a reason, as did everyone else, and I was very happy to take my talents elsewhere. I think the error you’re making is to discount without taking into account the validity of my personal experience - then again, that’s entirely up to you.
The STEM major thing is pretty common at a lot of schools. I have friends majoring in the sciences at Fordham U and SUNY Binghamton and they both say that feel that they have much much more work than their classmates in the humanities.
@markiv1996 In another post, you stated “You will be miserable at Duke if you’re not white”. In your response above you failed to address this. Please elaborate.
Despite some broad brushstrokes, I would not discount anyone’s personal experience. It applies both ways though. It is wrong to assume that everyone will have the same experience. So glad you found a better fit for yourself. The bigger take away from your post isn’t about Duke as much as finding the college that’s the best personal fit.
@markiv1996 Based on your comments in post #20, you were done a disservice. However, that is very different from what you said in your first post
[/quote]
3) Your dean and advisors will not be much help. Your classes will be very hard and the deans do not help you pick a major or find a job.
[/quote]
Given the generalizations you listed in post #1, it’s understandable that some people might read this as sour grapes. I’m glad are happier at your new school. I will say this does not match what I hear from kids I know at Duke, but everyone’s experience is different.
And as was mentioned above, working incredibly hard for a respectable GPA vs. humanities majors who don’t work nearly as hard for higher grades - that’s pretty common and not at all isolated to Duke.
@bucketDad this is a generalization that I have noticed, and it’s not just a racial thing. Duke is incredibly Greek/SLG oriented - practically every well-rounded student is in one or the other. Because of the D1 athletics, many (but not all) of the athletes are not as academically qualified as the students who got in on merit, are pushed into easier majors, and tend to rest in the better fraternities. Let me give you a couple stats - of the top 6 or so pledge classes my freshman year in the top 6 fraternities, around 95% of the classes were white. A couple fraternities in particular - KA SNu ADPhi ATO - take one-three “token” minorities each year or so, and only if that one person is quite wealthy. The same is true for a school like Stanford (balanced athletics/academics) as well - and I’m speaking from the standpoint that I have many friends at that school as well. I must amend my comment - you will not be miserable as a minority, but you will certainly have less fun than the D1 athletes and the white humanities majors that go to those top/mid-tier houses. I find that many of my friends there that were minorities tended to go in the SLG route, which can vary on the house, and they have had a pretty good time. You’ll also find that many of the students there went to prestigious prep schools in New York, New Jersey, or know other students based on geographic connections - they will know how to act as soon as they get to the school, when most others are just starting to figure their way around. And don’t even let me get started on the secret societies. A lot of money and white power runs around at a school like Duke, which a normal student has no way of accessing unless they have an “in”.