<p>As a prospective applicant, I feel its time to get behind the glamor of brochures and the stuffs from the admission committees and know the "real" stuff from current students. What do you despise the most about being at Duke? -_-</p>
<p>Despise is a strong word - you might want to repost using the word dislike. To ask current students what they regard with contempt or scorn about their chosen university is pretty harsh.</p>
<p>Well, it seems as if Duke students love being at this place. :D</p>
<p>They’ll probably say the food.</p>
<p>Maybe how ghetto Durham is.</p>
<p>I can honestly say I “despise” nothing. I do dislike the relatively colder weather (I’m from CA lol)… But I’d also say that’s not even that big of a deal.</p>
<p>Elbeen - have you ever lived there? How would you know?</p>
<p>Lol. You don’t have to live in Durham to know that its <em>pretty</em> run down in some parts. Definitely not a highlight of the Duke experience, although since most of the time is spent on campus, and you could just go to Chapel Hill, it doesn’t matter much.</p>
<p>Agreed, I don’t like Durham very much.</p>
<p>The Gang of 88 faculty members who responded to the lacrosse “rape” hoax by taking out a full-page ad in the Duke Chronicle denouncing the falsely accused students, thanking the mob of demonstrators (the potbangers) who had (among other atrocities) paraded under banners reading “Castrate!!” and “Confess,” and, rather than calling for restraint, exhorted the mob to “turn up the volume.” Those never-to-be-forgotten names again:</p>
<ol>
<li>Abe, Stan (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies)</li>
<li>Albers, Benjamin (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Allison, Anne (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Aravamudan, Srinivas (English)</li>
<li>Baker, Houston A. (English and African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Baker, Lee (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Beaule, Christine D. (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Beckwith, Sarah (English)</li>
<li>Berliner, Paul (Music)
<ol>
<li>Blackmore, Connie (African &; African American Studies)</li>
<li>Boa, Jessica (Religion & University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Boatwright, Mary T. (Classical Studies)</li>
<li>Boero, Silvia (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (Sociology)</li>
<li>Brim, Matthew (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Chafe, William (History)</li>
<li>Ching, Leo (Asian &; African Languages)</li>
<li>Coles, Rom (Political Science)</li>
<li>Cooke, Miriam (Asian & African Languages)</li>
<li>Crichlow, Michaeline (African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Curtis, Kim (Political Science)</li>
<li>Damasceno, Leslie (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Davidson, Cathy (English)</li>
<li>Deutsch, Sarah (History)</li>
<li>Dorfman, Ariel (Literature & Latin American Stds.)</li>
<li>Edwards, Laura (History)</li>
<li>Farred, Grant (Literature)</li>
<li>Fellin, Luciana (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Fulkerson, Mary McClintock (Divinity School)</li>
<li>Gabara, Esther (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Gavins, Raymond (History)</li>
<li>Greer, Meg (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Glymph, Thavolia (History)</li>
<li>Hardt, Michael (Literature)</li>
<li>Harris, Joseph (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Holloway, Karla (English)</li>
<li>Holsey, Bayo (African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Hovsepian, Mary (Sociology)</li>
<li>James, Sherman (Public Policy)</li>
<li>Kaplan, Alice (Literature)</li>
<li>Khalsa, Keval Kaur (Dance Program)</li>
<li>Khanna, Ranjana (English)</li>
<li>King, Ashley (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Koonz, Claudia (History)</li>
<li>Lasch, Peter (Art, Art History)</li>
<li>Lee, Dan A. (Math)</li>
<li>Leighten, Pat (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies)</li>
<li>Lentricchia, Frank (Literature)</li>
<li>Light, Caroline (Inst. for Crit. U.S. Stds.)</li>
<li>Litle, Marcy (Comparative Area Studies)</li>
<li>Litzinger, Ralph (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Longino, Michele (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Lubiano, Wahneema (African & African American Studies and Literature)</li>
<li>Maffitt, Kenneth(History)</li>
<li>Mahn, Jason (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Makhulu, Anne-Maria (African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Mason, Lisa (Surgical Unit-2100)</li>
<li>McClain, Paula (Political Science)</li>
<li>Meintjes, Louise (Music)</li>
<li>Mignolo, Walter (Literature and Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Moreiras, Alberto (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Neal, Mark Anthony (African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Nelson, Diane (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Olcott, Jolie (History)</li>
<li>Parades, Liliana (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Payne, Charles (African & African American Studies and History)</li>
<li>Pierce-Baker, Charlotte (Women’s Studies)</li>
<li>Peebles-Wilkins, Wilma (visiting scholar from Boston Univ.)</li>
<li>Plesser, Ronen (Physics)</li>
<li>Radway, Jan (Literature)</li>
<li>Rankin, Tom (Center for Documentary Studies)</li>
<li>Rego, Marcia (University Writing Program)</li>
<li>Reisinger, Deborah S. (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Rosenberg, Alex (Philosophy)</li>
<li>Rudy, Kathy (Women’s Studies)</li>
<li>Schachter, Marc (English)</li>
<li>Shannon, Laurie (English)</li>
<li>Sigal, Pete (History)</li>
<li>Silverblatt, Irene (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Somerset, Fiona (English)</li>
<li>Stein, Rebecca (Cultural Anthropology)</li>
<li>Thorne, Susan (History)</li>
<li>Viego, Antonio (Literature)</li>
<li>Vilaros, Teresa (Romance Studies)</li>
<li>Wald, Priscilla (English)</li>
<li>Wallace, Maurice (English and African & African American Studies)</li>
<li>Wong, David (Philosophy)</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>David, thank you for posting that. We should never let people forget the witch trial mentality that was promoted by these people. Truly shameful.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else… Durham is a pretty rough city. Don’t go off campus at night.</p>
<p>Ok is Durham safer than
- Baltimore (JHU)
- Chicago (UChi)
- New Haven (Yale)
??</p>
<p>^Your point? That doesn’t make Durham any better of a city.</p>
<p>Lol whoa there @twomoose! I’ve never lived there which is why I said “MAYBE how ghetto Durham is”…as in it’s a possibility. Based on online reviews I’ve read that’s the most common answer to the OP’s question. I was merely trying to give him/her an answer, not insult the people of Durham.</p>
<p>lol, if i could change on thing about duke is the city around it. but then again, because of durham’s current condition, duke student’s are so tightly knit and duke has basically become a campus town due to durham.</p>
<p>Eh, Durham’s really not as bad as it’s made out to be. There are some really great restaurants if you know where to look, DPAC had some awesome shows last year, there are plenty of clubs/bars right near campus (yeah, they’re not the nicest or classiest, but students still have fun), and there’s even some pretty good shopping. As for it being “ghetto”, the areas directly around campus aren’t really unsafe or rundown at all.</p>
<p>The biggest downside with Durham is that it’s such a sprawling city. I think that’s why it is constantly considered a bad “college town”. Without a car, it is really difficult to take advantage of everything Durham has to offer - unlike Chapel Hill where you can literally walk from campus onto Franklin Street…but as somebody above said, Chapel Hill is only a (free) 20-minute bus ride away.</p>
<p>Things I hate about Duke
- Netfriends (the IT contractors for the medical center)
- Parking office and enforcement, all aspects
- Lack of ice rink
- Blackboard interface</p>
<p>Unlike others who commented, I don’t find Durham to be that bad. It is easy to lose perspective if you live on or near the campus which is surrounded by a crappy area. Most of Durham is fine. Crime isn’t any worse than New Haven or Baltimore or some of the other areas mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>I’ve had two of those professors on that list -_-</p>
<p>Amazing professors nevertheless</p>
<p>^
Good to hear</p>