<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I've heard that Duke has huge class difference / relations problems and that all of the rich pretentious types tend to congregate together and from exclusionary cliques. Is this true, or is it just a misconception?</p>
<p>I'm seriously considering applying here, but, in the same respect, I don't want to attend a school with an elitist student body.</p>
<p>This group is really small on campus.
Duke is a huge school with approximately 6,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>All the private universities will have elitist student bodies.
It's very easy to avoid though.. very easy- especially at a large university like Duke. </p>
<p>There are a good number of rich people here who are very easy to get along with but for those who only want to associate with other rich people- this is at least my rationale- why the hell would I want to be friends with them in the first place?</p>
<p>I tried to be friends with everyone on campus my freshman year. I realized early on this was impossible. However, I would say that I have a great group of friends nevertheless.</p>
<p>Yeh, this really isn't an issue. If you want to find the kids that are there on Daddy's money and want you to know it I suppose you can but I've never really encountered one. Most people at Duke are fairly well grounded. (even the ones that aren't on financial aide, I mean like 40% of Duke students pay the whole thing and I think the vast majority don't try and show off the fact that they have money)</p>
<p>I'd say that you really aren't going to go to <em>any</em> school and not have some elitist students. So I wouldn't eliminate Duke from consideration because of this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. Now I'm beginning to see that these stereotypes are more misconceptions than anything. I guess I'm a bit naieve, I should have known that virtually any university in the national top 20 would attract a myriad of backgrounds and personalities, including the rich.</p>
<p>Alright, Duke is looking more attractive to me every day... the only qualm I have is the name Duke itself - it just seems to naturally evoke images of luxury and high class.. to me at least.</p>
<p>And again, Thanks for the prompt replies!</p>
<p>yeah duke is actually surprisingly more diverse than people think- especially economically. yes there are plenty of rich elitists but its definitely not a common thing in ppl even if they are rich</p>