The one thing about Duke that freshmen would change if they could

<p>Duke is really great, but it is not perfect. What are you all hearing that could be better? Transportation? the construction? the dorms?</p>

<p>After one month of monitoring social media, the overwhelming sentiment from both class of '18 students and parents is that the mandatory food plan for freshmen is really bad. It is expensive, complicated, inconvenient, and only provides 12 meals a week + some 'points' that will buy maybe 3 lunches. Here is one quote on the subject:</p>

<p>"Yes, it's bad. There is no redeeming quality aside from the fact that your swipes gain you access to Wallace, the boss omelet maker. Tupperware is your friend. Walk out during breakfast or dinner with about six plates of food and take that nom-age to go. Saves money and can make for awesome late-nighting"</p>

<p>What else have you seen or heard that others might want to know before choosing Duke?</p>

<p>I’m a freshman at Duke, and if I could change anything I think I’d agree with the above poster. The freshman meal plan is horrendous. </p>

<p>Another thing, the administration is trying to crack down on greek life. They’ve cracked down on on-campus section parties and tailgate. They want to make duke less of a party school, but obviously people are still going to party. So instead, parties are being pushed off campus, making them much more exclusive. As a freshman, you need to know upperclassmen/ know people who know upperclassmen, to get the invites to parties on the weekends. In the past (like at other schools), there were clear greek section parties that were open, but this is no longer the case. </p>

<p>As a mother of a sophomore let me tell you something about the meal plan - my sophomore was much happier with the freshman plan (although eating at the Marketplace got boring after a while) than he is with the current once. He has points now and says that meals are just very point expensive. But we all lived through it :)</p>