<p>hi, i'm going to be a senior this year and duke is one of the schools on my application list. I visited this year and though the campus was very nice, i am a little worried about the student body. i have heard that most of the students were the rich, preppy type, and i don't think i would fit in too well with this crowd. has anyone on here that isn't like that gone to duke and had a good experience?</p>
<p>(btw, i am not dissing those type of people, i just wouldn't fit in with them and i'm trying to get another person's opinon)</p>
<p>Don’t always believe the stereotypes. You’ll be able to find people similar to you (no matter what your personality and interests are). The student body is incredibly diverse. Clearly, most of the student body can’t be rich, white, preppy types when the student body is only 51% white, more than 40% of students are on financial aid with the average grant being nearly $27,000, and students come from a wide range of different backgrounds and geographical locations. Is there a segment that is rich and preppy? Yes. You’ll see a certain segment of the students with boat shoes, sun dresses, popped pastel polos, etc. But that’s the case at pretty much any elite institution. It’s not any different at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Vanderbilt, etc. I’d say the percentages are similar as well. Although Duke is known for having a fairly strong Greek presence (about 1/3 of guys and nearly 1/2 of girls). So, perhaps if you’re terribly afraid of being around anybody who is affiliated with a sorority or fraternity, Duke isn’t the place for you. But, if you can handle that, then you’ll be fine. And I’d even say most of Duke’s sororities (and fraternities) are not very sorority-like based on what you’d envision (no housing, for example). Students who in high school would never even consider joining the Greek system, end up doing so at Duke…I didn’t join a fraternity, but have many friends who did. I’m also nowhere near rich. And I have some very rich and some quite poor friends - it’s really a broad range and something that doesn’t even come up most of the time. So, yeah, your concern is something that I’ve heard in the past about Duke; and it’s honestly nothing to be concerned about.</p>
<p>There are all types at Duke. Costing nearly 50k a yr and being a USNews Top 10 means there is gonna be a fair amount of wealthy kids attending, but even the so called “rich, preppy” kids I have met are nice and not stuck-up at all. Plus, the campus is so diverse that nearly anyone open to meetin new people can make friends easily. Compared with the other Top 10 schools I think its widely held that Duke is one of the more social of the lot.</p>
<p>i believe that in terms of atmosphere, out of the top 10, stanford, duke, and penn share the greatest number of similarities. which is why they were my top three choices haha :)</p>
<p>i thought duke was actually ‘chill’ and the student body had remarkable character/activism; i think that reflected in how at a lot of schools i saw students moderately well-dressed for class and some in suits/formal attire but at duke everyone seemed to be very casual and laid-back. but if you’re planning on applying this year, duke has a horrendous student body and you’ll be miserable and you shouldn’t even consider it at all. ;)</p>
<p>What is wrong with the “preppy/rich” type? I am not even going to duke and I am tired of people associating duke with this sterotype…every school has the “preppy/rich type”, and just because they seem to be “preppy/rich” doesn’t mean they are going to fit that sterotype, I am sure that most of the kids you assume fit the “preppy/rich” sterotype are not going to be ******bags…</p>
<p>^ I agree. Almost ANY university (and CERTAINLY any in the top 20 or so) will have its fair share of wealthy preps. More important, IMO, is the attitude OF those kids. Wealthy Harvard kids or wealthy Yalies are generally considered pretentious snobs, but Duke (as you’ll see when you actually visit), has a very, very low percentage of snobby kids, even if they are “rich.”</p>
<p>i didn’t mean to insult any of you. i had heard the stereotypes and i wanted to hear from students if it was true or not. just chill out, because i wasn’t trying to say anything bad about those people.</p>
<p>I don’t know, if you have to ask then it might be a bit insulting. Some people just work that way. Like if you ask a rick person whether their rolex is genuine, they’d be offended too…</p>
<p>No I hate when people associate Duke with white and preppy I mean honestly, why do they think only Duke has a lot of white kids? Lets go to California. I’m pretty sure that Berkley has a good percentage of the students that are Caucasian like Duke. I bet you the similar from all the Ivies pretty much. I mean it’s not like Duke is all Caucasians, nor is it even close. About 60-65% of Duke acceptances are white, others are minorities. I mean I hated when people think that. Duke is one of the last place in the world that would be an all white college. There are minorities people that go: Oh if you go to Duke, you’ll be in a sea of Caucasian people, heck no. I hate it when people do that and I’m Asian.
(Disclaimer: I’m insulting against what you say (the OP), it’s just that Duke gets a bad rap because of the location it is in (the South (self explanatory pretty much, think back to civil war and slavery), and in a city, Durham, that has about 50% African American --The African Americans who decided to try to get national attention by lashing out on Duke when the Lacross scandal broke but only learn that it hurt them more in the end)). I love Duke for what it is: great academics, great school spirit.</p>
<p>ok, settle down. this had nothing to do with race at all. I’M WHITE! and the fact of the matter is, duke has a reputation of having a white and preppy population. the reason i made the thread was to see if that was true, so don’t get all upset, this was meant to dispell the myth if it wasn’t true (and it seems that it isn’t)</p>
<p>I have a friend who goes to Duke.
He says that the people he hangs out with like to party really hard, they get drunk five nights a week and all major in really easy subjects… he’s in one of the frats… my friend switched from Math to PoliSci after pledging… I guess there are a lot of nerds and/or poor people too. I don’t know about that side of Duke.</p>
<p>I agree with hookem, I wear them to school because we have uniforms but they are like moccasins but the bottom of the shoe has cushioning compared to moccasins (which don’t really). Their comfortable and cheap if you find them in the right places.</p>
<p>^ And you can wear them without socks and still look fashionable I wear them with shorts a lot as an alternative to flip-flops.</p>
<p>…and no prospective student should pay any attention to what 174 says…check out his post history. Whether he means what he says or not, he’s a tool, plain and simple. The tone he uses when spewing words like “nerds and/or poor people” makes me sick. Plebes like him are the quasi-unevolved life forms who never developed social awareness.</p>
I wear them with shorts a lot as an alternative to flip-flops.</p>