<p>Even in the NW I get the whole LAX thing, but more than that I get "the south" and "tobacco." It's getting a bit annoying, but I could care less. People seem to love it or hate it. And everyone I know who went there or actually knows about the school only has great things to say.</p>
<p>I don't get the LAX jokes...I just get a lot of people who are...jealous? When I tell them where I'm going, they're like "you know it doesn't matter where you go for undergrad...why would you go to Duke?". It's kind of upsetting because I wish people would be happy for me, but they just shoot me down and make me feel like crap for not going to the state school...maybe they think I feel like I'm better than them, which I don't...I don't know.</p>
<p>I live about an hour north of NYC and when i wore my t-shirt to school recently, a monitor told me that i had a lot of nerve doing that. i get so many lacrosse jokes every day, and on friday one kid asked me whether i preferred black or white strippers... it's becoming very frustrating.</p>
<p>God, no wonder our country is so full of scared ass people... I can't believe people are so easily swept up by media hysteria... its really very embarrassing.</p>
<p>Oh my god, atrabilious... that's really really horrible. My condolences for being surrounded by such meanspirited people.</p>
<p>It's really been annoying. Just today I got so many comments about how I was going to grow up to be an old lady chewing on tobacco while rocking back and forth in a rocking chair! I can't believe people make comments like this. And then I get all the strippers and lacrosse stuff too. Have you guys gotten blank stares or unsure smiles when you tell people that you're going to Duke?</p>
<p>I know that in my school, Duke has lost its reputation among many of the faculty and administrators alike, although they would never admit to it... you can just tell when your talking to them. it's pathetic. Personally, I'm a little curious as to what actually did take place, but no matter the outcome, it would not alter my decision to come. this could have happened anywhere, at anytime.</p>
<p>yeah, most of the time it's awkward silences. whatever, i can't wait to be there.</p>
<p>Ha ha...I know. I'm soooo excited! It's just a little sad that you get responses like that.</p>
<p>Well people want to see the mighty fall, and sorry for them, Duke's not going to. It's still regarded as one of the best institutions for higher learning in the entire world, and always will be.</p>
<p>Some interesting quotes in the USA Today article about what I just said:</p>
<p>"The school has long paired the top-level play of its men's basketball program with a squeaky-clean athletic reputation. Many love the Blue Devils for it. Many others hate them. Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel of the American Council on Education, says Duke haters are gleefully using this case to denigrate its ivory towers.</p>
<p>Steinbach also thinks Duke's elite academic standing works against it. Duke offered admission to 3,778 of its 19,358 applicants this year and expects to enroll 1,665 students. "That's a lot of aunts and uncles and grandparents who are unhappy their relatives didn't get in," he says.</p>
<p>How did people get to hate Duke? Too much success under (men's basketball coach Mike) Krzyzewski? I don't know. But there is a real animus pervading the media scene"</p>
<p>And:</p>
<p>J. Douglas Toma, an associate professor at the University of Georgia's Institute of Higher Education and author of Football U.: Spectator Sports in the Life of the American University, thinks many people "enjoy seeing a place like that get knocked down a peg or two."</p>
<p>When that happens to the high and mighty, "We get some thrill out of it," says Peter French, a philosophy professor at Arizona State and author of Ethics and College Sports. "It makes us feel better about ourselves. It's a kind of revenge."</p>
<p>This is entirely frustrating, isn't it?</p>
<p>it's awful...who knew going to Duke would be such a challenge...and we're not even there yet!</p>
<p>it reminds me of people bagging on harvard because it makes them feel better.</p>
<p>I admit it, I give Harvard crap because they rejected me.</p>
<p>It's annoying but it doesn't really bother me, afterall I'm going to Duke to get away from people like that...
Plus I chose Duke because it was the best school for me, not because of some outside perception of prestige or not.</p>
<p>Fizz379: "to get away from people like that"</p>
<p>it's so true.</p>
<p>For me, it's definitly awkward because I am black. So everyone is like, "you're not still going to Duke are u?" I tell everyone to calm down, from my four-day visit to Duke, I found no racism from anyone. Not saying that it's not there, but I have yet to experience it.
"Watch out for the Lacrosse Players" How annoying is that statement? Sooooooooo unoriginal.
To make a joke.... when we drew pics of what college we were attending to hang around our school, mine had lax sticks all over it.</p>
<p>And this gives us something to work towards in making our school a better place. I'm sorry to say it, but if this hadn't happened, how long would these feelings have stayed simmering amongst the people. Let this incident be a cataylst for change........</p>