<p>I heard this stuff all the time in my state. there is a private and a public and both are very good but offer different things. if you get to honor of choosing between two amazing schools, you can't go wrong. let the kid decide and as i have stated at other times on cc, just because your school..meaning duke, unc uva, any school, has a negative it does not mean it is not great. we all just want to get insider info!</p>
<p>About the minorities comment...Duke is ranked #5 for little race/class interaction. I know rankings aren't everything, but I still think it says something. Here at Chapel Hill there is much more intermixing. I'm white, my best girl friends are Indian and black, one of my best guy friends is half black, I have friends that are Asian...etc. In my extremely biased opinion, Duke has a surface diversity while here we have a true diversity.</p>
<p>But again, I'm quite biased.</p>
<p>bluedog: I think UNC is actually gender-blind with their applications/admissions, so that would account for the lop-sided gender split. Any school that has a perfect 50/50 split, is (I suspect) not gender-blind in their admissions.</p>
<p>Also, just thought I'd add that the state of NC represents the largest student population at Duke as well (though, admittedly not 82%), followed by NY, Florida, and CA.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Beyond ethnicity, we have significant geographic diversity in this years class as well. As usual, North Carolina is the state with the greatest representation in the class, followed by the same three states as last year -- New York, Florida, and California. The next five states are New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, and Massachusetts.
[/quote]
Class of 2011/Duke
Duke's</a> Class of 2011 Will Be Its Most Selective, Diverse -- And Larger Than Expected</p>
<p>The diversity percentage is really because Duke has something around ~28% Asian American students (in that Class of 2011), which actually makes the African American (~9%) and Hispanic (~6%) populations not all that high-- if my math is correct.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
Duke is more racially diverse. UNC has about 25% minorities, while Duke is 40% minorities.
[/Quote]
Yes, but Duke is also a lot more self-segregating. Princeton Review named Duke as one of the top-20 schools where town-grown relations are strained. And, as heather said, ranked Duke #5 for little race/class interaction. So though it may be more "diverse", that diversity it seems is unfortunately not welcomed by a large amount of people.</p>
<p>I live in Durham, North Carolina- so while many of the people here are saying things based on what they've heard, I'm able to say what it's like growing up in an area that is basically in the middle of both. </p>
<p>Those who argue about it being not fair that it's so much easier for in state kids rather than out of state is sadly mistaken. UNC-CH is considered one of the "new ivies", and I can easily find numerous sources stating this if anyone cares to argue. The stress of getting into UNC is felt in the local high schools, and there were a great many who applied ED that were deferred or rejected. Chapel Hill is considered a very rich town, but UNC does not match this. I visit the school all the time [for games and because my sister goes to college there] and the atmosphere is very down to earth and the diversity is incredible, meanwhile while I visit Duke I've noticed that racial groups tend to stick to themselves.</p>
<p>Duke does have the old money feel because of all the gothic architecture, and because tuition is much higher [although they do have generous financial aid]. However, living in Durham I can tell you that besides visiting Southpoint/Northgate [malls] there is really not much to do. People talk about our crime all the time, however this is greatly exaggerated. I can find you statistics that prove there is more crime in Raleigh than there actually is in Durham. Although it's true that there are more than enough places that you should not roam at night, that can be said of many other towns. Do not let people try to persuade you saying that you will get "shot". People who do not live here should not try and make opinions on something that they have not experienced for themselves</p>
<p>
[quote]
I can find you statistics that prove there is more crime in Raleigh than there actually is in Durham.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hope you can get into this link; this is a 2006 crime comparison between Raleigh/Durham. If it doesn't show up, just plug in the 2 cites, and the chart will appear.</p>
<p>Crime</a> Rate Comparison - Compare US City Crime Rates
c1=Durham&s1=NC&c2=raleigh&s2=NC</p>
<p>This is comparison between Durham/Chapel Hill, also 2006. Again, if it doesn't immediately show up, just plug in the 2 cities, and you can easily see the comparison.</p>
<p>very interesting site janie.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting that janie, I guess that's one of those "investigate before you speak" incidences.</p>
<p>Hi, I'm a Duke freshman right now and saw your post on the Duke forum. Since it has so few responses there, I came here because I thought it'd be interesting to see what UNC students said and I'm replying here since there are so many more responses. lol @ ldmom - if you can't beat them, join them, after all :)</p>
<p>Anyway, I honestly think I <em>might</em> be able to provide some fairly unbiased responses to your situation because I certainly like Duke a lot, but see many, many flaws in it. First of all, Duke was by no means my first choice and I suspect that the main reason I'm here is common to that of many biomedical engineering students. Our BME program is amazing, and I figured since I can get an engineering degree and still study abroad, I can "deal with" the social situation. Perhaps it's because of this that I can see and accept the flaws at Duke. In a nutshell, here are my main problems with it:
1) Very little to no political activism. I LOVE politics. Unfortunately, most of the people here really don't, which disappoints me. I've found some friends who are like me here, so it isn't too much of a deal for me, but overall this campus does not get riled up about ANYTHING. If you want a "chill" college, Duke was made for you. Otherwise, you will be disappointed.
2) Okay, this point is going to be very, very controversial, but here goes. Most people love the freshman housing system (basically, all freshmen live together on East Campus which fosters a sense of community within each graduating class - and it most definitely does do that), but I see some big flaws with it that could affect you. Basically, your social circle your freshman year is the people you live with. If you don't like them/don't get along with them, well...tough luck, basically. This hasn't been a problem in the least for me because I've found people so like me, but for a couple of people it has been a problem, so just a warning.
3) Rich kids. I'm not rich, not even close, and I'm on a TON of financial aid. Even with that, I have work-study and still don't have much spare cash. None of my friends are crazy rich or anything like that, but if we go off campus to malls or something, I usually can't spend much money and at times that can be awkward...
4) Nowhere to go off campus. There IS crime in Durham. Whatever people might say, Duke students have been victims of armed robbery, rape, and murder so far this year. It doesn't affect me very much but it certainly affects how I, and a lot of my fellow students, view going off-campus. I often wish I lived in a big city or at least a college town. It seems that too often, the only options on weekends are watching movies/playing games in the dorm or frat parties...
5) Social scene. I definitely like to go out and stuff, but I'm not one of the hardcore partiers and thus often feel left out when I'm in the middle of a frat party where everyone's utterly drunk except for myself and a couple friends. Unfortunately, the options are either to stay in or go to these parties...
Overall, I realize I've written up a pretty negative review of Duke so here're some positives/some things that will go against some of the things people have said about Duke on this thread:</p>
<p>1) I haven't experienced this "pretentiousness" that people talk about. Literally everyone I've met is incredibly friendly, incredibly courteous. I'm sure many people are pretentious, but they're polite on the outside. Since there are so, so many genuine, caring people, it really doesn't cause much of a problem.<br>
2) As far as the whole racial interaction thing goes - yes, I've definitely noticed segregation amongst racial groups. However, on closer inspection one sees that most of this occurs because these groups who tend to stick together are mostly international students who simply either 1) knew each other back home (and there are a LOT of them who knew each other back home) or else 2) simply feel more comfortable with people of their own culture. As far as domestic minority students go, they seem to be fairly well-integrated.
3) The thing I love the most about Duke is this - the spontaneous conversations. My friends and I have had so many long, fun conversations about life, about ethical issues, about politics (even if Duke campus doesn't go crazy, we certainly do), about everything. So many times we've decided to "screw homework" and stay up all night talking, thinking. It's really amazing and I NEVER experienced this in high school. I think this sort of leads into point 4...
4) Yeah, there's a TON of work. Often it seems as if your entire life is doing homework...until you begin to realize how true "Take what you want and leave the rest" is. It seems to be Duke's motto, and the number of times I've "left" assignments and readings undone in order to take advantage of a frisbee game on the quad or a random afternoon in the Duke gardens is not possible for me to calculate. And the best thing? The grading scheme is usually such that it doesn't matter. You can still get a good grade.
5) One thing I realized after coming here is how not cutthroat Duke is. There's class rank, but not a soul cares. I have no idea what the GPA of my friends is. I don't even know if it's a 4.0, a 3.0, or even a 2.0. And if I were to go about talking about my GPA, I'd simply get weird looks and have no friends. Bottom line is, no one cares. The general attitude towards work here seems to be that people do the work to understand the material and do well on the exams, but definitely realize what more there is to life and to concentrate on that.</p>
<p>Okay, so as I'm typing the "pros" part of the list, I'm realizing that there is so, so much that I can't possibly put it all in this post, and certainly can't do that and pretend to be "unbiased." Since this post is so long as it is, I'll end here. Sorry for the long post, hope it helped, and definitely ask me if you have any more questions! :)</p>
<p>Oh, and I left basketball out of my post intentionally: from what I can tell, each school loves its team and hates the other's, so there's no point in comparing them. Basically, you guys call Henderson a thug, we call Hansbrough an idiot. Tit for tat, and having either side argue that their team is "so much better" is pretty pointless. It's evident each school loves its team and both schools have amazing programs. That's all that matters. Anyway, jkterrapin, good luck deciding! Also, interesting username - are you from MD by any chance?</p>
<p>It might be noted that the things you seem to like about Duke are certainly not unique to Duke, but can be experienced at many schools, including UNC. Well, except that maybe the "grading scheme" you refer to is somewhat unique. :)</p>
<p>Senator - Thanks for your post; those like yours are certainly welcome anywhere. Btw...you sound like a perfect fit for UNC, except for the BME thing. ;)</p>
<p>ldmom: I was thinking the exact same thing. :)</p>
<p>yes i am...20 min outside of College Park and my entire family has gone there (grandpa was a 2-sport athlete) so i could probably say something to all the UNC fans out there, but i wont b/c maryland will prob not end up making the tournament</p>
<p>To the OP: The only time I can exclusively recommend one school over the other is when a degree exists only at one of the schools - "the BME thing" to which ldmom refers, for example, would be a show-stopper (though UNC is working with NCSU on a BME program, given the tremendous resources of the UNC Hospital System and UNC's strengths in the sciences).</p>
<p>Other than that, few to none of the "stereotypes" assigned to any school apply to such a degree that they fairly categorize the college experience. Far more important to visit yourself and, as others here have suggested, try to stay on campus and hang out with different folks.</p>
<p>BTW - posting here versus my "home" thread 'cause this one seems to have reached critical mass -- I'm nothing if not "efficient." :-D</p>
<p>all i have to say is that Duke and UNC are BASICALLY the same. None but one party-stopping difference exists. The only thing is different is that Duke is abt 5-8x more expensive than UNC.
If you want some cash to spend every weekend or twice a month in the mall, then go to UNC, unless of course you are rich and inherit wealth. (unlike more than 50 % of the Duke students)
Nobody could ever post facts here, everybody's posts are biased due to their sub and un- conscious thoughts. In my case money will be a big factor in deciding where I go.</p>
<p>UNC wins over Duke by 8 points ;)</p>
<p>Heather - for a second I thought you were talking about the women's game... only to realize that for that game, UNC's up by 8 at the half.</p>