<p>Hi, I just found out about my admission to duke like most people yesterday but I have not and will not be able to visit. I was wondering if you guys could help me figure out the pros and cons of duke! Thanks</p>
<p>Pros:
- Amazing campus (“Gothic Wonderland”)
- Incredible academics/World-class faculty
- Location in the Research Triangle
- Location and weather are amazing!
- Basketball and school spirit</p>
<p>Cons:
- Pricy
Uhh… can’t think of any more!</p>
<p>Haha thanks!! I got a wonderful financial aid so that’s not a problem…the only thing is that my other school also has most of the pros ( except for weather)</p>
<p>What’s your other school? A lot of top 10/15 colleges are really similar other than the community feel aspect where people just think they fit.</p>
<p>University of Chicago…yeah that’s kinda wht I want to know.what the atmosphere of duke is like since I won’t be able to visit.</p>
<p>Alright I visited both this summer. Both are obviously great schools academically, depending on the major there can be some difference, but you’ll get a great education. Anyway, on to campus culture. Both have gothic architecture, but Dukes campus is a little bigger. As a freshman, you’ll be in one part of the campus for dorms to bond with other freshmen, while at UC it’s all mixed building wise with frosh, soph, jr, and sr together. Personally, I felt that safety wise duke was better than UC as Duke is set back from Durham while UC was in (a not so safe/great part) of Chicago. Culturally, Duke seemed laid back to me, I mean it was the summer, but there were a lot of people playing frisbee on the grassy spaces and quads. People are big Duke basketball fans which really creates unity. A lot of kids I know weren’t basketball fans before, but have been watching games and cheering the team on since they got in. Some people been camp out a month or two before the UNC game for tickets. Personally, I liked Duke a lot more, but it definitely can vary.</p>
<p>Okay thanks!!! Yeah I feel like duke will be more fun but I do love having the city of Chicago right there…is going to be a tough choice for me…but hey I just realize we could be classmates next year!! Do u know if duke has a fb page??</p>
<p>Yup</p>
<p>[Log</a> In | Facebook](<a href=“http://www.facebook.com/groups/208176059260653/]Log”>The Official Duke University Class of 2016 | Facebook)</p>
<p>Chicago is probably a better city but the other cool thing about Duke is that clubs are catered to college students and are 18+. Obviously legal drinking is still 21+, but there are some clubs nearby that are 18+. Also, UNC is right down the road, which has its benefits despite the athletic hatred between the two schools.</p>
<p>That is true…but idk aww I hare making decisions although I know I’m lucky to be able to make this decision</p>
<p>Both are fantastic schools–Duke has a more pre-professional feel whereas Chicago is more “cerebral” (although that has been less the case recently). The biggest difference is obviously location–Chicago is an incredible city which is very much part of the campus culture and experience; Durham is not, and the Gothic Wonderland campus provides more of a “bubble” experience.</p>
<p>I think you would be surprised though by the small role Chicago plays in the lives of college students at UC. Most go to Chicago maybe once a month tops and Hyde Park where the U of C is located is probably a worse neighborhood than the area surrounding Duke in Durham.</p>
<p>Yeah, living in Chicago, I personally think Duke provides a better college experience. Hyde Park is not in that great of an area and while it’s convenient to be able to hop on a train for 20 minutes to go downtown, how often can you really visit the Art Institute or go to plays? They’re pretty darn expensive for a college student. So, while Durham doesn’t have an Alinea to eat at, you’re not going to a $500/person restaurant while in college anyways. </p>
<p>There are plenty of things to see and do around Duke, including a surprisingly large number of nice restaurants, shopping, etc. so while it’s no Chicago, there’s more than enough for a college student’s budget and as stated above, you can actually get into a bar/club in Durham unlike in Chicago where everything is 21+. RDU is also so much easier to deal with than O’Hare…haha. </p>
<p>Would be nice if UChicago could switch locations with DePaul. Winters also can be brutal - although this winter in Chicago has been awesome. But from a traditional college experience, I think Duke does a much better job (personal opinion), while they’re basically academic equals. And Duke has sports which unites the student body a bit more in my mind. In any event, I would say Duke is a bit more of a social atmosphere and a community feel, while Chicago is perhaps more independent thinking and has more students interested in pursuing PhDs as opposed to professional schools. But those generalizations are perhaps overblown and I think you’d be happy at either. </p>
<p>Sports/weather/social scene at Duke are better that UChicago in my mind, while the city of Chicago sounds nice in theory, but as a college student in practice doesn’t really add all that much except make the campus more compact (although Chicago’s campus is very pretty) and just makes things more expensive/can’t get into bars since everything is 21+. But obviously, reasonable minds can disagree. I think Duke provides a great overall experience and is perhaps more balanced than Chicago. Good luck with your decision! Can’t go wrong!</p>
<p>I feel like the main difference is that Duke is much more of a unified, social group–in other words, a place for joiners–while Chicago is a little more idiosyncratic, a place for students who don’t like to feel pressure to conform to a group. Neither student body is “better,” but they have very different feels.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help! I find myself changing my mind every 5 seconds…like you guys said Chicago is the place of the mind and duke is more social… I’m just not sure of which route I want to take… but I’m sure I’ll eventually figure it out!</p>
<p>I live in Durham, and one of my parents has worked at Duke for a long time, so I’ve been around Duke all my life. I’m only a junior in high school, so I can’t say much about academics there and what not, but apparently the aid is very good financially. I’m going to be honest with you though, away from campus, Durham is a pretty lame and bad college town. We’re the “ghetto” one out of the triangle of Raleigh and Chapel Hill, but you’re probably already aware of that.</p>
<p>The weather here is very moody around fall and spring, but usually very HOT during the summer, and generally cold during winter (except this winter) but around now its very nice out, I think its 77 right now. We don’t get much snow here though, and when we do it usually in the form of Ice, which can make walking around campus a drag.</p>
<p>A pro is obviously sports, specifically basketball, the games are great, and there needs to be more people to uphold the Cameron crazy tradition as its dying out with fewer people every year who care. I believe tickets to most every sporting event are free, which is not true for a lot of schools for students. </p>
<p>Personally I think the food options are decent the cafeteria food is alright, and there is a McDonalds and panda express on campus, as well as a few other places, with Wendys, Chic Fil A, cookout, waffle house etc just a few minutes drive away. </p>
<p>In general, I think the dorms are less than stellar for what you pay (in wannamaker dorms, anyway) but i think thats true for about every school. In each dorm theres plenty of social spots for friends, etc.</p>
<p>When Duke says they “Believe in Diversity”, they MEAN it. It really feels like youre on a united nations campus sometimes, you’ll see people from all over the place. That could be a big pro or con depending on how you feel about it. Academics are no doubt tough and extremely competitive, but students are known to party, especially before sports events and just in general. </p>
<p>Anyway, since you can’t visit, I would take a good hour or two and just Google earth the campus, the surrounding area (street view is awesome) and look at some pictures and videos of Duke, because there isn’t much hiding behind them. The price is steep, but the starting salary for a Duke grad is in the $120K+ range, so it supposedly works out in the end.</p>
<p>from where you get the idea of “the starting salary for a Duke grad is in the $120K+ range”?</p>
<p>I read it somewhere in a paper a little while ago, couldn’t quote it because I don’t know where it would be. It was either 120 or 80</p>
<p>Thanks for the nice overview Etuck. I am pretty sure $110,000 is the mid-career median salary, with the median starting salary for Duke graduates around $60,000.</p>
<p>Hey there. I am in the same situation choosing b/w Duke and UChicago (and VTech, but that’s not important for now!) As a prospective Blue devil, here’s my take. I’ve visited the campus on the tour and also went to the BSAI (Black student alliance invitational) weekend. Plus I’ve been googling and looking at college *******, which helps A LOT! You can even buy review books off amazon for a couple bucks if you’re that confused.</p>
<p>So here’s Duke the way I see it: I applied to Duke not knowing much about it, but that it was a great university with a lot of name recognition. Visiting the first time, my junior year, I really liked the nature aspect of the campus. You don’t feel like you are in a city at all, but also are not in the middle of nowhere. This was a personal pro for me, but it depends on what you want. The tour guides were cool, laid back and excited which definitely made me feel at ease. I visited during the summer so there weren’t many students around, but visiting this March, there were always a lot of people around, even at 2 am just walking around. Like actual normal people! I saw a guy just eating a hot dog walking past the chapel at 2 am.</p>
<p>The information session was cool too and Duke really seemed like a place for people who were creative and looking to do more beyond the classroom. The lady talked about financial aid and said students don’t have to leave with more than 5000 dollars in debt. (Don’t know how true that is). Ultimately though, Duke had everything on my list, competitive academics, focus on students, awesome research, attention from professors and attention to the community. I’m pretty one hundred percent sure the study abroad options are some of the best and so is DukeEngage.</p>
<p>However, I also visited in March and got to see a bit more. Granted, it was a BSAI weekend so this may be only helpful from the eyes of an African-american student or other minority, but I don’t know. </p>
<p>The first day was good. I sat in a Spanish class and didn’t really understand it, but the buildings were beautiful and real nice, which is something I really liked. You think aesthetic doesn’t matter, but when you go to a school where the buildings just look like random blocks, it definitely makes a difference.</p>
<p>One thing I did see and hear about that wasn’t on the tour was the night life. People like partying a lot here. I did go to a few of the parties being pretty social myself, but felt really isolated not wanting to throw myself out there (I’m a girl) onto some guy. However, the guys are really good looking! I mean goood looking. And the girls were pretty too, but not as consistent as the guys. Some of the freshmen guys I met though were kinda tools and sorta preppy, which I heard isn’t uncommon there.</p>
<p>Another thing that kinda turned me off was the bit of segregation. Not just in racial groups, which I did see (granted it was a weekend for black students, so who knows?). When asking current students, they said if you want to segregate yourself you can, but you aren’t forced to. And I felt a bit of a line between the more social people and the more laid back people. I don’t know how this is everywhere, so maybe it was normal, but it was like for the people who were looking for a good time, but didn’t necessarily want to drink and hook-up, the night life was limited. My host was a senior though who had papers due. So again, I don’t know! But the people who partied, partied hard! Girls get real dressed up for the parties, which consists mostly of dancing (if that’s what you want to call it) and drinking. </p>
<p>One more thing! (sorry I’m writing so much) The greek life was prevalent. I saw a lot of the black frats/sororities and they think they are hot stuff. I thought it quite comical seeing as most fraternities had like 6 people and same with sororities. I also heard that most white girls will pledge a sorority. I think 42% of girls are in a sorority if my stats are right.</p>
<p>I would tell you some of the stuff I know about UChicago, but I’ve already written so much and this IS the Duke forum, so I hope I helped.</p>
<p>Conclusion: Duke is a great school, awesome academics, attention from professors and aesthetic, but some divides in the social scene and some guys who think they’re so cool just cause they’re in college and wear polos.</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>Another positive is student organizations. One thing I’m looking at compared to UChicago is a lot of people are involved in a lot of things! While I was there I saw an a Capella group perform and it was awesome. Okay, so a lot of colleges have a lot of a capella groups, but still!</p>