<p>To any current Duke students:</p>
<p>How would you rate the quality of your experience at Duke? What are the best parts about it? What parts would you change? What schools did you also consider other than Duke? Do you ever look back and regret the choice?</p>
<p>I think I’d rather attack these questions than answer them. What do you really want to know? Are you going to like Duke? I don’t know, maybe. Some people love it and some people hate it. Which will you be? Why do some students not like it? Why do some students like it? The problem with these questions is that you could get honest responses from every single current Duke student and still not know whether or not Duke is for you. I’m sure you would find some people’s “best parts” to be other people’s “worst” and so on. A college experience is a life experience and life is simply unpredictable.</p>
<p>Also, it’s a fallacy that people like “college” because of the “college”. People like college because of the people. I’m sure you’ll find at almost any place that the happiest students on campus are the ones who are most happy with their friends. Once you realize that being happy in your relationships is in your hands and is your responsibility, you begin to realize that liking college is much more dependent upon yourself than any other outside force. Duke is not fundamentally something for you to like or dislike, but something to be a part of or not. If you’re a part of it, then it’s up to you to make the most out of it, and it’s essentially just as easy or difficult for a person to make a good experience out of one place as it is another (especially when we’re talking merely within the realm of universities).</p>
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As a freshman, it actually started off pretty slow…first semester = 6/10.
Second semester, I finally really got immersed into some of the many extracurriculars available here. Second semester = 9/10.
The main thing is to make yourself busy. There’s a balance that you have to find between being overly stressed and being bored. I’m sure everyone who comes here was incredibly busy their senior years, with however many clubs to run and twice as many AP classes to take, so a college can sometimes create the illusion that it has little to offer when you go from running 5 clubs to being in none. Just find stuff you like and don’t wait to join. Immerse yourself. Don’t overwhelm yourself, but remember that it’s easy to back out.</p>
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I’ve really enjoyed the presence of international students. Listening to their stories opens your mind. I love the basketball spirit. I didn’t expect to follow basketball at all coming to Duke, but when your whole dorm is crowded around the common room TV cheering the team on, it’s hard to resist joining them. It brings people who have little else in common together. The research opportunities here are great, too.</p>
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Just some minor things. The Marketplace is horrendously inefficient (and usually just as bland). There’s less interaction between the Undergraduate and the Medical School as I had thought there’d be. I wish political/social advocacy here were a little more vocal, though. You definitely feel their presence, but it seems as though the student body in general is relatively apathetic about political or humanitarian issues. I’m sure people are knowledgeable and would be able to strike up a thrilling conversation about social issues, but it just rarely happens.</p>
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Brown: This was a tough one. I ended up choosing Duke because its finaid package was significantly better, but that’s always a bad reason to go by. For a couple weeks into first semester, I’d keep thinking “I should’ve gone to Brown.” But I soon realized that the things that annoyed me here (think collegeacb.com…) were manifestations of the college immaturity inside all of us. All problems that I had with Duke had nothing to do with Duke itself. When I evaluated Duke for itself, I started loving it.</p>
<p>Northwestern: Never really considered NW that much. It seemed a bit too similar to Duke in the (non-journalism) fields that I was interested in. Duke seemed just a (very) little more prestigious and slightly more of a target school for business (ibanking/consulting).</p>
<p>UNC (in-state): There’s always that value question, but my family concluded that our finaid package made Duke just worth it. I have a few friends there whom I’ve visited a few times. UNC’s frat system annoys me even (way, way) more than Duke’s. I do like that their student body seems really friendly, though, and their cafeterias are infinitely better than what we have to endure at the Marketplace. Still, for certain fields (like business), UNC and Duke can be worlds apart academically. In others (grad school maybe?), the difference might mean much less.</p>
<p>UChicago: Good academics, but I never really considered UChicago, especially after receiving a finaid package that was as depressing as their social atmosphere allegedly is.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, if I had to make the Brown vs. Duke decision again, and this time with equal finaid packages, I’d still choose Duke.</p>
<p>I’ll answer these questions to help others out as well…</p>
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<p>To be honest, I feel that I’m pretty blessed to be here. Sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Not only are you surrounded by some of the best faculty, but also some of the best peers. And while a lot of Duke’s peer schools boast amazing academics, there’s a couple of things that I feel characterize Duke and make a it one-of-a-kind, amazing place.</p>
<p>1) Collaborative learning environment. I say this again and again, but one of the coolest thing about students here is that although they are ambitious, the large majority are not cut-throat/competitive. Even in my premed classes (notoriously competitive at other schools), students freely handed each other notes if a friend missed a class, students worked on problem sets together, studied together, etc. What’s the point of being surrounded by amazing peers if you can’t learn from them? I love that about Duke.</p>
<p>2) Unique sense of balance. A lot of schools also boast a “work hard, play hard” type of thing. But Duke’s special. You can describe it as “work hard, play hard,” but you really wouldn’t be doing the Duke experience justice. From basketball games, to parties, to the social scene, to the overall environment, there’s a significant feeling of pride and general happiness that I feel is really contagious.</p>
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<p>School spirit, collaborative learning environment, the campus, the amazing faculty, SMALL classes to interact with these faculty, incredible facilities, the research opportunities. A big, BIG thing I love about Duke is also the relatively large international population/overall diversity. I love walking through the quad every day hearing a variety of languages and having friends that have so many different perspectives. Not only do you learn form your peers in an academic sense, but also a personal sense.</p>
<p>Oh, and who can forget Merchants on Points? (I get food delivered to me anywhere on campus [e.g.; the library] with my Duke food money. Yes, we’re spoiled. :D)</p>
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<p>My biggest gripe about Duke is probably dinners at the Marketplace. Honestly, sometimes it’s a hit or miss. Breakfast, lunch, and brunch are incredible though hehe. The other food on campus is pretty good though, …so meh. It compensates. Other than that, the weather gets cold sometimes haha. I’m from the west coast… definitely not used to east coast weather.</p>
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<p>Columbia: This was my hardest decision. I questioned my decision sometimes before freshman year started, but never looked back after stepping foot on Duke’s campus. I love having that characteristic Duke community. With NYC, Columbians told me that it’s a really individualistic school, as the student body leaves campus to go and explore the city. This leads to less of an attachment to Columbia itself. There’s a vibrant, indescribable pride that resonates throughout Duke, and Columbia really lacked that liveliness/sense of community that I was looking for. (Plus, you can always live in NYC later. I strongly feel that college is really not the best time…) Duke’s campus was also 4326427x more gorgeous haha. Idk. I just felt more right at Duke. The students, while intelligent, don’t wear their intelligence on their sleeves. I loved that about the students here. It’s a very laid back, yet intelligent, student body. Weather in Durham also >>>> NYC.</p>
<p>Berkeley: UC system is dying. Extremely large classes. Overwhelming. Sink-or-swim environment. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>Cornell: Didn’t consider it strongly for some reason. It was too cold, too big, and seemed pretty impersonal. Social scene there paled significantly in comparison to Duke (and even Columbia). Medical school is five hours away, so I couldn’t get involved at the university hospital…</p>
<p>That being said, all four schools are amazing institutions. Those were just my personal feelings/opinions.</p>
<p>Hope that helps! :)</p>
<p>
If you think it’s bad NOW, you should have seen it before they renovated it. They completely revamped it after the class of 2009 finished their freshman year, and it’s ten times better than it used to be. I mean, blue crabs at lunch? Classy. 
They’ve also changed it so that you can apply missed breakfast points towards lunch on West, which didn’t use to be the case.</p>
<p>It should be noted that the Marketplace isn’t your only option…the freshman meal plan applies to dinners at the Freeman center as well, and their food is delicious.</p>
<p>To be honest, I think the quality of the experience is the highest in the country. I have a friend at Columbia who is content with freshmen year. I have a friend at Cornell who is miserable. The community here is unbelievable and people really feel a connection with one another.</p>
<p>When I chose Duke, before I came, I was happy but still kind of hurt following the admissions process. Then I talked to a Yale professor about my choice. He actually got into Duke for undergrad but was forced to chose Berkeley due to money reasons. He then later went on to teach at Duke before teaching at Yale. He told me the one regret he had was that he could never attend Duke as an undergrad, and that given the opportunity to attend any college for undergrad he would undoubtedly attend Duke, even over Yale. It made me feel really good about my choice.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how much fun I have had at tailgate, basketball games, and just hanging around. Kids here are geniuses, and on top of that are well balanced. This truly is one of the best schools in the world, and to me I wouldn’t trade it for Harvard.</p>