<p>I'm flying out to Duke tomorrow (Sunday, April 5) to attend Blue Devil Days on Monday. I'll be arriving at about 4PM and don't really have any plans for the rest of the night. Any suggestions for sights, restaurants or events that I should check into tomorrow night? Also, is there anything in particular I should do apart from the conventional schedule on Monday? </p>
<p>I've never been to Duke before so any sort of recommendations are definitely welcome.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Will you be on your own for the trip? Do you have a car? Or does your hotel have a shuttle?</p>
<p>I will be with my mom on the trip. I'm staying at a hotel with a shuttle to campus.</p>
<p>I suggest that you head to campus and wander around for a while without benefit of "programming."</p>
<p>Brightleaf Square is an area with a nice assortment of restaurants. The shuttle driver will know where that is. Others will, no doubt, have other suggestions, and the Duke admissions web site has another list of restaurants.</p>
<p>As I recall, there so many choices to make throughout the day of programmed activities that sticking with the activity options will serve you well. S and I took the Sarah B Duke Garden tour (I was surprised he wanted to) and that broke up the day nicely. It's a wonderful place. I can't remember what goes on on East Campus during BDD. Make sure you go there, as it is where freshmen live.</p>
<p>Are you accepted into Trinity or Pratt?</p>
<p>Trinity, although I believe they're having an "emphasized" Pratt day on Monday, or something like that. I hope that doesn't mean everyone is going to be there for Pratt...</p>
<p>Probably not. They may have some extra options for the Pratt folks.
Have fun, and let us know what you think!</p>
<p>Go to Elmo's on Ninth street for lunch--Rachel Ray recommended it on her show--worth it. You can walk there from East campus.</p>
<p>We'll be there, too, on Monday, and my son was admitted to Trinity. So there'll be at least two of you non-engineering types.</p>
<p>nceph- hope you enjoy your visit, too.</p>
<p>The weather does not promise to be spectacular, but at least nothing nasty is predicted.</p>
<p>Thanks. At the moment I think the forecast for Monday doesn't include rain, but it is supposed to be rather chilly. As long as it's dry, I won't complain. If the weather's too nice, it will give Duke an unfair advantage over the northern school my son will also be visiting.</p>
<p>But, you see, that's part of their strategy! Duke is usually GORGEOUS in April!</p>
<p>Go to the Nasher, one of my favorite places on the Duke campus.</p>
<p>We'll also be attending BDD later in the month....please report back if you found and interesting way to spend your free time!</p>
<p>9th Street; Brightleaf Square</p>
<p>Duke Gardens will be beautiful right now, if you have time to walk through them! Rachel Ray has also recommended George's Garage (on 9th St., almost right across from Elmo's!)</p>
<p>Hmm...I think I am talking at the Pratt thing Monday - the 14th, right? Woo. I think the 7th is more general. Not entirely sure. I hope I'm not "on" tomorrow...</p>
<p>I'm curious to know what others' impressions were of Blue Devil Days. One thing that disappointed me was that when my son registered for BDD, he was told overnight hosting was unavailable. I gathered from overhearing some students yesterday that it was available to some students. I think my son would really have benefited from staying over night with a student in a dorm. It's fairly hard to get a full impression of a school from wandering around on your own and sitting in on some sales pitches and panel discussions. While I suppose the unavailability may have been due to lack of hosts, that surprises me too, because schools that have one big admitted student event offer hosting to all students who want it.</p>
<p>nceph,</p>
<p>My recollection of BDD was that there were not as many hosts as there were students who wanted to stay, so it was first come, first served. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this is because the students are not hospitable, let me hasten to add that hosting a student is a significant time commitment and at any given time a Duke student may be swamped with academic or other commitments. Our son, for instance, would have been happy to host, but, as it happened, he had tests on 3 consecutive days this week and has spent most of his time in the library. </p>
<p>Aside from this issue, how did it go for those of you who attended? Did the rain let up for you?</p>
<p>I'm not jumping to any conclusions. I was just surprised that it was so limited. In the several admitted student events my daughter attended two years ago (not at Duke), everyone was placed with a host, and these were very well attended events at similarly sized schools. She's since returned the favor and hosted students at her school's admitted student days, which involves two nights, and at other times during the year. She's very busy, too, and the hosted students are told to expect that their hosts might need to study, rehearse, etc. That was considered a plus in that it gave the visiting students a realistic view of college life. </p>
<p>Aside from that, I'd say it went okay. It wasn't raining at all, but it was damp and chilly. I thought the schedule was a bit unorganized, as there were back-to-back events on opposite campuses with no time allowed for transit from one to the other, and then there were other spans of time with nothing scheduled that didn't seem to coincide well with class times. My son was able to sit in on one class, however, and seemed to like that, but he otherwise didn't seem to think BDD added a whole lot to what he already knew about Duke. My main disappointment was just that there was little opportunity to interact with current students.</p>
<p>One thing of interest was that during a parent panel discussion, one mom said she didn't find the school to be academically "sharp elbowed," but she did find it to be "socially sharp elbowed." Also, a couple of the parents there said they didn't think their kids got much advising, which was in sharp contrast to the dean of students (I think that was her title?) who touted all of the great advising Duke offered. Yes, I realize that what's offered may be very different from what a student actually avails himself of, but I was interested to hear such a strong contrast expressed.</p>
<p>I'm interested to hear what others thought.</p>
<p>That's an interesting comment: "socially sharp elbowed." Was she referring to sorority rush or was the comment more general?</p>