<p>Hello, this is a friend of RaspberrySmoothie's. I wanted to write and give you the other perspective of Duke especially after I saw incollege88's post.</p>
<p>I spent my freshman year at Duke and absolutely hated it. I could start with a million different points but first I'll address drinking. While the East Campus is supposed to be dry, I saw rampant alcohol abuse among the people I lived with. While most college kids do a fair amount of drinking, at Duke, I felt completely pressured to drink after games, on weekends, in fact, all the time. I found this not only annoying, but detrimental to my class work, as I'd have to deal with drunken roommates doing stupid stuff at all hours of the night.</p>
<p>Also, Duke is not intellectual at all. The students there are smart, but accomplished only in the sense of either polishing their resumes for medical school (the small aggregate of crazy, intense pre-med types), or business/law school so they can eventually join Daddy's company and retire at the age of 40 without having learned any common sense or had any real education at all. Incollege is wrong about having intelligent conversations on campus. The longest conversation I witnessed was one night at Bakus (a great restaurant- one of Duke's only redeeming features) between two girls who were arguing about whose Louis Vuitton bag was cuter. I am not joking: this is the type of conversation that I heard all throughout campus- in the dorm, at the dining hall, even in the bathroom. When I visited Brown, Yale, even Penn (which I do not consider all that intellectual) the students seemed really interested at the topics at hand, whether it was world politics, philosophy, or science. </p>
<p>You will find the same in Duke classrooms. Peek into a classroom and you'll find students scribbling into their notebooks, not because they care about the material, but because they must get good grades. I've heard many, including Duke professors, complain that nobody really ever voices their own opinion in class or argues with the professor or even speaks up. They prefer learning material like sponges, just soaking up knowledge never to be used again except as a mark on the transcript. When I tried discussing class material with people outside of class, all I got were blank stares and clasmates saying, "What? But I thought that wasn't on the test." It was one of the most disheartening and disappointing discoveries I made about Duke, but certainly not the last.</p>
<p>What bothers me is that despite Duke's on-paper "diversity," there is no interaction betwen races, or social groups- for that matter- at all. While you will find your fair share of high-society snobs at any prestigious college, at the Ivy Leagues (and some other schools) I visited, they seemed perfectly qualified, and did not stand out at all. It seems to me that Duke, not quite secure in its position as a superior college yet, depends heavily on development cases and rich, obnoxious East Coast snobs. You have the jocks, Southern belles, boarding school preps, annoying Long Island/New Jeresy jappy crowd who dominate the frat scene- and then everyone else. Self-segregation? Please- that's a euphemism. I found it incredibly ironic when Philip Kurian's anti-Semitic article had negative backlash- particularly because his accusers are very the same people who I have personally known to be racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic, in the worst sense of each. It was perfect- especially since they considered themselves so "open-minded," with their token black or gay friends. It makes me sick even thinking about it.</p>
<p>Speaking of homophobia, Duke is very, very unreceptive to homosexuals. I had friends who were GLBT groups on campus and complained of this often. Although most Duke students didn't mind their existence, godforbid they should actually try to get something done, like bring gay speakers to campus or organize similar events. The majority of the Duke population is perfectly content in their apathy- just as long as the basketball team's winning and they're in the right fraternity.</p>
<p>There is a pervasive feeling of "sports or die" on this campus. As you all know, the basketball team is pretty good- which for some reason, compels everyone to prioritize it over everything else. Note incollege's quote: "(thought I have met people who have never watched a game--heretics!)" and this will describe the average Duke student's attitude toward anyone who isn't fervently in love with Duke sports teams. I know incollege was joking, but most students are dead serious about the sports teams, and the athletes here are idolized. While I have nothing against sports, and even played varsity basketball in high school, I draw the line at going to a basketball game instead of studying for tests, participating in extracurricular activities of my own, and traveling. One former friend told me he'd rather stay instead of spending a term abroad in Spain because, "Man, how could I stop going to the games?" That, to me, borders on obsessive (a common attitude toward sports at Duke) and results in sadly, lack of funding for other resources such as the drama and art departments.</p>
<p>Well, Ben, you might say. At least you have Durham, right? Wrong. Durham has been called the "armpit" of the Research Triangle area, and for good reason. Maybe I tolerate cold weather better than warm weather, but I found the weather consistently hot, sticky, and humid- and the town a terrible place. There are clusters of nice areas, but they are mostly surrounded by dump. If you don't believe me, visit the "Heart of Durham:" the Durham hotel and note its broken windows. If you ever want to leave campus, don't count on Durham as a refuge.</p>
<p>I grew up in a perfectly normal suburb. I like sports, I like learning, and I wasn't even a loser in high school. I am, in most respects, a normal college guy. But a place like Duke, I found hundreds of kids just like me: insecure in such a narrow-minded campus, but all too scared to say anything. While I am not saying there are students perfectly suited to Duke, in retrospect, I think it's amazing how oppressive the environment is to people who don't fit in a certain way. After one horrible freshman year, I transferred to Brown and am thrilled to have made the right decision. I cannot find the heart to recommend Duke as a good undergraduate experience to anyone who wants it to be intellectually fulfilling, diverse, and fun. Take this post with a grain of salt but remember to not make your college decision based on a few catalogs, or a few perky guides.</p>
<p>-Ben</p>