Stereotypes/myths about Duke's student body

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Hi all! I was just wondering how valid these stereotypes about Duke/its students actually are:</p>

<p>1) Duke is dominated by jocks.</p>

<p>2) It's hard to make friends/have a social life if you're not that into athletics/partying/drinking but are rather the kinda nerdy, reserved, intellectual type.</p>

<p>3) You must participate in greek life to become accepted socially</p>

2

<p>I don’t go there, but I think that none of them are true.</p>

3

<p>I haven’t heard those stereotypes. The biggest stereotypes about Duke are:</p>

<p>-Duke is dominated by people from New Jersey
-Duke is dominated by students of Asian/Indian origin</p>

<p>Not sure how true these are.</p>

4

<p>First three are false.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I agree these are more of the recent stereotypes. Here are the facts: the #1 state represented in the Duke student body is North Carolina. The rest of the top 5 are typically Florida, New York/New Jersey, California, and Texas. That’s a pretty wide spectrum of states. You’ve got the South (NC), West (CA), New England (NY/NJ), Southwest (TX; although TX is pretty unique on its own), and FL which is also “south,” but I wouldn’t call it very southern except for the panhandle area.</p>

<p>[Duke</a> Mails Admissions Decisions to More than 19,000 Applicants for the Class Of 2010](<a href=“http://news.duke.edu/2006/03/admissions.html]Duke”>http://news.duke.edu/2006/03/admissions.html)
[Duke</a> Accepts 602 Early Decision Applicants](<a href=“http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2009/12/early_decision.html]Duke”>http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2009/12/early_decision.html)</p>

<p>Duke is 22% Asian. Certainly above the US Census levels, but not unheard of at elite institutions. It definitely has increased in the past 10 years. Obviously, that’s just above a fifth of the student body, though, so clearly it’s not “dominated” by Asian students.</p>

<p>[Quick</a> Facts about Duke](<a href=“http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html]Quick”>http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html)</p>

5

<p>This inevitably comes up every year. I’d love to answer this if it hasn’t already been done…five billion times. </p>

<p>There’s actually a very recent topic that touched on the first stereotype a bit:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/900641-duke-intellectual.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/900641-duke-intellectual.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’m too lazy to find more. </p>

<p>As for </p>

<ul>
<li><p>Duke dominated by New Jersey people…nope, I’ve met a lot of Cali and NY people though besides people from NC</p></li>
<li><p>Duke dominated by Asian/Indian…they are a significant portion of the student body, particularly in Pratt, but I don’t think it’s on the scale of say…Berkeley where white people is actually a minority (or close to being one).</p></li>
</ul>

6

<p>New Jersey ≠ New England.</p>

7

<p>false
false
false
false
false</p>

<p>That was easy! :)</p>