<p>yea, that would be bad b/c then s/he won't really enjoy life. but alas, if someone can invent a cure for cancer ,who cares whether s/he enjoys life or not??</p>
<p>elcommando- to answer your question, there is never a time when I don't have work. Basically you are always thinking of the costs and benefits of doing each reading, assignment, etc, and juggling them. You can never read everything you're assigned when it's hundreds of pages a day and you can't do every problem set when they're not all graded...you basically do what you can and try to maintain some sort of balance in your life. Weekends are never "off" in the full sense of the word but people definitely have fun in additon to doing their work. Work loads are not all the same, however, and you can roughly plan for the amount of work you'll get in your course selection.</p>
<p>mensa-I took the test in one sitting (my first one in fact). I probably could have raised my math score (verbal was perfect) and gotten something better (perhaps even a 1600) but to be honest I didn't really care. I think the fact people can raise their scores "artificially" is not really a problem since it just shows how arbitrary the tests are...and I have to say if you think you are somehow better than other people because you received a 1600 then you would be the exception here, because all the kids I've talked to who I know got 1600s think that it is really sad if people judge their intelligence and merit on that...</p>
<p>Finally, lithiumbromide, there are a lot of issues that need to be taken into account which are a lot more complicated than you might think when dealing with the SAT, especially with regard to race. There are a great deal of cultural differences in narrative forms, and when language at home does not parallel language in the classroom or on a standardized test it can lead to results that reflect more the absence of cultural understanding or good test-making rather than lack of intelligence. However, I really don't want to open the issue of affirmative action.</p>
<p>Again, I think it would be good to close this discussion.</p>
<p>not everyone who gets a high SAT score is one-dimensional -_-</p>
<p>incollege88, what schools did you turn down to go to Duke. It's none of my business, I admit, but I'm just starting to compare for applying next yr and wonder how people make the choice among these great schools which I hope to have the choice.</p>
<p>mensa-I turned down Princeton, UPenn, Columbia, Rice, UVA (Echols), Wesleyan, Cornell, Wash U, and some others to come to Duke. If you need advice about choosing schools, I'd be happy to help.</p>
<p>Basically when it came down to it I just fell in love with the atmosphere, people, and opportunities available to me at Duke. I was turned off by the people and social system of eating clubs at Princeton, wasn't crazy about Penn, liked Columbia but wanted more of a community, really liked Rice but didn't want to be in Texas, thought UVA was awesome (2nd choice, probably), thought Wesleyan was a little too isolated, was depressed just by visiting Cornell (lol), and didn't visit Wash U because I never really wanted to go there (I don't really know why I applied).</p>
<p>There are so many things about Duke that attracted me it would be silly to go into all of them here. But essentially I loved the campus, the balanced philosophy of a lot of the kids here (that's what also attracted me to UVA), the diversity and variety of people here, academic programs, and other aspects, such as the first-year experience. I loved how the kids here are so bright and accomplished yet for the most part are very unpretentious and don't take themselves too seriously. Unlike Princeton, there is no culture of elitism here but rather extremely bright, accomplished, funny kids who know how to have a good time and how to carry on really good conversations.</p>
<p>incollege88, you are awesome! I hope to have a choice like that. I'll definitely take up yr offer when I get down to choosing where to apply. Thanks!</p>