Questions about Duke, please HELP!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Hi, I'm trying to decide between WashU in St Louis and Duke(got off the waitlist) and I have to this kinda soon (by like Monday). I know some about Duke, but I have a few questions I could really use answers to. Any help would be greatly greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.</p>

<p>-What is the surrounding city like? Is it "that" bad? Do you ever go off campus for things?
-How significant is greek life? Do the social events usually revolve around frats/sororities?<br>
-In general, what are the students like? Are they competitive?<br>
-How are the teachers? Are you able to establish close relationships with them? How big are most of the classes?
-Coming from the North Shore of Chicago, is the southern culture going to be extremely different or shocking?
-Could you maybe describe the whole sports/school spirit scene on campus.</p>

<p>Thanks again, I'm stuck right in the middle right now. Half of me is leaning towards Duke and the other half towards WashU. Please help!</p>

2

<p>when did u get off the waitlist</p>

3

<p>about a week ago....</p>

4

<p>well... since no one else has answered ill try to help you out a little bit.</p>

<p>Just so you know, I'm an incoming freshman... but I live like 5 minutes from Duke so I can talk about some of it.</p>

<p>-Durham has some bad spots... it has some really cool spots too. Brightleaf square is nice... 9th Street is awesome... Durham Bulls games are great... Northgate isnt the worst mall... and they are putting a nice new movie theater there soon.
-Greek Life is pretty central to the party scene... there are other things to do though
-I mean I think you get some competition when you get so many high achievers together... but I also think that Duke draws a more laidback crowd... southern hospitality!
-Well I'm signed up for Focus so I already know three of my classes and for my first semester they will have 18,17, and 12 students. There are a few really big intro courses... but a lot of smaller classes too.
-Well my Brother is living in Chicago now and he hasn't had a problem adjusting from here to there (except for the winters). I mean... Duke gets students from throughout the country and world... so it isnt a "Southern" student body. Also, the Triangle as a whole is a rather progressive part of the south.
-Well Duke Basketball is crazy... the fact that people will camp out in tents for over a month in January just for tickets to the big games makes this pretty self evident. Whenever I go to campus you see Duke shirts and Duke hats and the such everywhere. All the students love Duke and the top athletics programs give everyone something good to rally around.</p>

<p>Personally... I would chose Duke over WashU in a heart beat. WashU is a great school... but for me personally it wouldn't even be a contest.</p>

<p>Still, both are great so you can't really make a wrong choice. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Although now I'm a bit biased as a Duke student, I applied to (and visited) both Duke and WashU last year. Choosing Duke was a no-contest choice.</p>

<p>In answer to your questions:</p>

<p>-What is the surrounding city like? Is it "that" bad? Do you ever go off campus for things?</p>

<p>Durham is not exactly the perfect college town, but it does offer restaurants, a few clubs, and Durham Bulls games (baseball). In answer to your question, by no means is it really "that bad" - Duke students in many ways are just a bit jealous (myself included) of nearby Chapel Hill which is an amazing college town. Free buses run to Chapel Hill every 30 mins so it's very accessible. There is also a great mall nearby called Southpoint (and when I say great, I mean it's a very upscale nice mall - I live right next to the Mall of America so I have some high standards) Back to Durham, Whole Foods, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, a gelato place, some very classy restaurants (George's, Vin Rouge), a great Indian restaurant as well as a Mongolian Grill are located on nearby 9th street. Brightleaf square has Greek food, a burger place, an expensive Brazilian steakhouse - you get the picture. Shooters is the only club nearby that Duke students regularly go to - others like Cloud 9 and Sirens are occasionally frequented (oftentimes you have to be 21). </p>

<p>So yes, Duke students do leave campus to do stuff. </p>

<p>PS Have you been to St. Louis? One of the major disappointments for me about WashU was that St. Louis was such a boring city. </p>

<p>-How significant is greek life? Do the social events usually revolve around frats/sororities? </p>

<p>Yes and no. Major public parties such as Pikes of the Caribbean (2 story pirate ship built in a quad) and Iced Out (a entire club rented out for Duke students) among the regular themed section parties are planned by the frats. Sororities usually plan their big formals in the spring - these are invite-only.</p>

<p>With that being said, I found this past year as a freshman that my social life largely revolved around my dorm. Your dorm is where you will really form your strongest friendships. Thus, usually my friends and I would plan our evening which may include going to a frat party, club, movie, restaurant, or whatever. </p>

<p>-In general, what are the students like? Are they competitive? </p>

<p>Students at Duke are amazing. Everyone is so excited and passionate about life and the things they love. It's actually kind of funny because you will find out things about each person as the year progresses and it will never cease to amaze you who your peers are and what they have accomplished.</p>

<p>Are Duke students competitive in the sense of cutthroatness? Absolutely not. I've never encountered a cut-throat person at Duke. Generally everyone wants everyone else to succeed at whatever they attempt. Duke students, however, are very competitive in the sense of Duke-UNC games among other things.</p>

<p>-How are the teachers? Are you able to establish close relationships with them? How big are most of the classes?</p>

<p>The teachers at Duke are generally amazing. Obviously, some are better than others, but in general, they are very accomplished in their fields.</p>

<p>Introductory classes (Econ, Chem, BAA, Bio) are generally large-lecture classes but usually after the intro classes, class size becomes significantly smaller. Even in the large lecture classes, you can still get to know your profs - it may take a bit more effort on your part however. Profs at Duke are very good about holding office hours so you can always see them then. Your prof may invite students out to lunch (my econ prof did this and I went and had lunch with her - it was great - the class size was about 300 or so). Last, you of course can always e-mail them and set up a meeting.</p>

<p>-Coming from the North Shore of Chicago, is the southern culture going to be extremely different or shocking?</p>

<p>No, I'm from the Twin Cities in MN and one of my best friends is from Chicago. Another is from DC. You won't have trouble adjusting.</p>

<p>-Could you maybe describe the whole sports/school spirit scene on campus.
for me. </p>

<p>Well, umm...we're kind of insane. We have been known to have decent basketball team that we like to support by camping outside Cameron Stadium for 2 months. We hold one of the world's greatest parties in K-Ville when we face off against UNC. The entire campus unites around Duke basketball. If you don't like basketball or don't know about it, you will be fixed by November.</p>

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<p>Hope all this helps - let us know what you decide even if it isn't Duke.</p>

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<p>Ugh. Why would anyone be jealous of Chapel Hill? I've lived in Durham all my life and every time I go to Franklin Street or anywhere else, I've a) been disgusted, b) felt unsafe, and c) left to go find something better to do/find somewhere that serves something other than alcohol. There's a homeless shelter right behind the street, so most of its inhabitants harass people on Franklin Street. Constantly. Morning 'til night. Most of the shops now just sell UNC paraphenalia, are pizza joints, or bars. If you venture on the street BEHIND it, have bodyguards. Chapel Hill doesn't have much besides Schoolkids Records. The end. </p>

<p>Sort of off topic, but I had to address it.</p>

<p>Duke is awesome. Either place you go, you'll have fun, I'm sure, but Duke will be warmer and thus more enjoyable. The (second) end.</p>

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<p>I'm an alum and current faculty member, so that's my bias in my answers. Also, I used to live in Memphis and was torqued when WashU tried to steal St. Jude's Hospital, so read all this with a pound of salt :)</p>

<p>-What is the surrounding city like? Is it "that" bad? Do you ever go off campus for things?
Durham has many, many different sides. It is, as are many towns that were once focused on agriculture, a town that has some spots that are having a rough go. But - there are a lot of people that love this place (I am one) and a lot that love this place and have money (I'm not there yet). Two former Duke basketball players, for instance, have put up some pretty serious capital to get downtown where it needs to be, one block at a time.</p>

<p>-How significant is greek life? Do the social events usually revolve around frats/sororities?
From [url=<a href="http://greek.studentaffairs.duke.edu/faqs/faq_entries/percentage.html%5DOFSL%5B/url"&gt;http://greek.studentaffairs.duke.edu/faqs/faq_entries/percentage.html]OFSL[/url&lt;/a&gt;], "More than 40 percent of Duke women and nearly 30 percent of Duke men participate in one of the 38 recognized chapters here at Duke. In total, around 37 percent of Duke students are Greek affiliated." Given that fraternities and sororities represent most of the largest organized groups of people, many of the largest social events are hosted by them. However, you can certainly live, and socialize, without joining or even without attending those events. A lot depends on what you want your social life to look like.</p>

<p>-In general, what are the students like? Are they competitive?
My take on it is that yes, Duke students are competitive, but generally not with each other. I know that sounds weird, but I feel more like people are willing to help each other out a lot so that everyone can do well rather than trying to screw their neighbor. Which is a lot of the reason I work here - I can give my students some pretty cool challenges, and expect them to do awesome work on them without resorting to a "zero sum game" of making other people in the class look bad.</p>

<p>-How are the teachers? Are you able to establish close relationships with them? How big are most of the classes?
I'll recuse myself from the first part of this question... Someone above mentioned the answer to the latter part, which is that intro classes <em>can</em> be big depending on the degree (my intro to computational methods class has sections that can be as large as 100+, though recitations and labs are smaller) but higher level classes tend to be smaller (4-20ish).</p>

<p>-Coming from the North Shore of Chicago, is the southern culture going to be extremely different or shocking?
My grandparents lived in Morton Grove, I was born in Mundelein (well, <em>born</em> in Evanston but lived the first part of life in Mundelein). Not shocking. Except there's not a great place to get pizza here (though The Loop, which is on campus and named for - The Loop - tries).</p>

<p>-Could you maybe describe the whole sports/school spirit scene on campus.
We have a lot of really excellent athletes - not all of whom get on national television. Clearly, there is massive, vocal, dedicated support for our men's basketball team. But I think many of our students appreciate that we have many other teams that do really, really well (for example, the NCAA Champion Women's Golf Team). On the other hand, if sports isn't your bag, you won't be alone. </p>

<p>Hope that helps! And, more seriously, I don't <em>really</em> hold the St. Jude thing against Wash. U :-D</p>

<p>Dr. G</p>

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<p>hey JD, i had to make the exact same choice this year and decided to turn down a scholarship at Wash U. to go to duke. I'm also from the burbs of Chi-town.</p>

<p>Well, first of all, I see you're from northbrook, so don't you want to see john scheyer play for another four years? I don't know about you, but i couldn't see myself at a school without some big sports teams. yes, wash u does have a lot of history, like hosting the olympics in what 1904 or 1908, and hosting the world's fair, but i found duke to be the perfect blend of athletics and academics. Many Duke students were clad in Blue Devil apparal when I visited. A lot of WAsh U students also wore shirts pertaining to the university but they were more geared toward academics, i.e. the shirt stating "Emory was my safety school"
which apparently started this past year in an attempt to ignite a rivalry between the two schools.</p>

<p>I also had an issue about applying to any "southern" schools, because I just don't like the south. (Wash u and Duke were the southernmost schools I applied too). Although Duke is in NC, I didn't feel like i was in the south. Sure, some people did greet us as ya'll, they served sweet tea everywhere (it's really addicting), and they say soda instead of pop, but the geographical diversity of the students was very comforting. </p>

<p>I like the Duke campus better than Wash. U's. I even found Duke's freshmen east campus more convenient than the South 40 (that's what it's called right?) Although Wash U is in St. Louis, St. Louis just does not compare to Chicago. Plus, there's so much to do on the Duke Campus and so many other colleges surrounding it.</p>

<p>While at Wash U and Duke, I found both groups of students to be laid-back, but it seemed like the premed students at Wash U were too driven while the rest of the student was so laid back that they sorta seemed boring. When I visited some classes at WUSTL, some students were surprised I was even considering wash u over duke and claimed they would choose Duke in a hearbeat, but then contradicted themselves by saying that they love Wash U. </p>

<p>Another thing which annoys many WUSTL students is the lack of name recognition. I hated being asked "Why are you going all the way to WAshington" or "I thought u didn't like public universities" and having to explain that I was visiting WAshington University in St. Louis. and really now, it's much easier to say Duke than WUSTL, lol.</p>

<p>well, for me, the positives of Duke far outweighed those of WUSTL. Whatever decision you make though, you should be very pleased considering you were admitted to two very outstanding schools. Let me know where you decide to go.</p>

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<p>Yea, I similarly turned down a scholarship to Wash U to go to Duke my senior year of HS. I have met more than a few kids who did the same. To be honest, I think most people at Duke who got into Wash U didn't even really consider it when evaluating their choices or don't even remember applying to it in the first place; I know I, for example, thought much more about going to Columbia or Princeton or even Wesleyan than the partial scholarship I was being offered by a purportedly top-10 school. It may seem silly, but I remember that I was completely turned off of Wash U after talking to more than like 10 upperclassmen who were still completely insecure about the school and caught up in trying to sell me its prestige. Wash U is never going to win that game. What's more is that Wash U doesn't seem to have anything interesting that defines it (except maybe the overwhelmingly Jewish composition of its student body?). Most people know of it because of the fusillade of mail they received coming from some strange school in Missouri. </p>

<p>I'm all for choosing schools that are quirky and fit your interests over choosing schools that are supposedly more prestigious, but with Wash U and Duke I cannot seem to find any compelling reasons why one would choose the former over the latter. Do you have any?</p>

11

<p>Add me to the list of people who chose Duke over WashU in a heartbeat.</p>

<p>I remember really liking WashU when I visited, and the arch is definitely beautiful, but when it came down to it, in my opinion, WashU as an academic institution simply didn't hold a candle to Duke. Turning down Northwestern was actually somewhat tough for me, and most people I know who got into both NW and Duke chose Duke, so it's not even that it's really about prestige. I just felt like WashU was too...I don't know. It's really a combination of what everyone else has said - the name recognition (constantly having to explain that it was NOT the University of Washington, but WashU in St. Louis), as superficial a thing as it is, definitely would have gotten to me. I mean, ultimately, my final choice DID come down to saying..."Duke is the best school I got into, so if I visit and feel like I could be at all happy as a student there, it's where I should go because it will give me the best opportunities." That's it. And when I visited, not only did I think I could find happiness, but I fell head-over-heels in love and never wanted to leave. Even now, as a student, I HATE coming home for breaks - summer is slowly killing me because I just want to be back at Duke. </p>

<p>Everyone else really answered the questions you asked best. All I can say is that it's a shame you can't visit and have the firsthand experience that really sold me on Duke, and take our words for it - Duke is just an amazing place.</p>

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<p>hey everyone, thanks for all your help! right now i'm leaning toward duke, and i have to decide by midnight tonight i think. i'll post the official decision later today.........</p>

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<p>It is official........I'm going to Duke! Can't wait to see you all there and thanks for all your help</p>

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<p>...you are lucky to get a scholarship to WashU, but Duke is better in most ways haha</p>

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<p>Southern culture is NOT gonna be shocking. i moved to the duke area from cali a couple years ago and it's a great place to be. tons of students from other areas, and friends of mine from cali say they don't even feel like they're in the south. do it!!!</p>

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<p>Fantastic!! I've been following this post, and I just want to say I think you made the best decision of your life! You're going to love Duke!</p>

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<p>yeah, i don't really feel the southern culture much in durham. sure it's a slower pace than at home, and there is nc bbq to eat, but durham/chapel hill has a lot of 'transplants' living there-- and a lot of students at duke are from your area. still i felt that i needed to experience something other than my accustomed nyc way of life.</p>

<p>but yeah, congratulations on your decision and you will have the greatest four years!</p>

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<p>Yeah, congrats on the decision. I was in the EXACT same boat a couple months ago, and I actually live in St. Louis so I really have grown up with WashU, almost literally because I work there, go to church there, and hang out with friends there. But like you, I eventually ended up choosing Duke just because 1 long amazing visit there was enough to overcome my 5+ years of attachment to WashU. WashU also gave me one of their half-tuition engineering scholarships but Duke's financial aid grant alone topped it (I guess thats more of a reflection on my family's financial status but still it's impressive). I would have to disagree with the comment that St. Louis is a "boring" city...maybe compared to chicago but this post was about comparing st. Louis to Durham...WashU is in the absolute best part of st. louis whether you initially realize it or not, and I would have been very happy staying another 4 years in my hometown had I chosen WashU. But as things stand, see ya next year.</p>