<p>why does everyone want to go here</p>
<p>Why wouldnt everybody want to go here? Its got a complete package:</p>
<p>-Great Academics
-Good Weather
-Beautiful Campus
-Amazing Athletics
-Diverse Student Body hailing from all parts of the country and world.</p>
<p>In the case of my cousin who is going to be a freshman there next fall...its better than Cornell, Brown, or JHU (though Brown and Duke were close for him...an english major)</p>
<p>I might also direct attention to the "featured discussion" at the top of the board, just under the Class of 2009 and 2010 boards. The one called "Why Duke?" It has a lot of opinions regarding why Duke stands out.</p>
<p>Other fun facts:</p>
<p>On a WSJ feeder rankings, Duke is in the top 10 for schools that feed into top professional programs (which is just law, med, and business school) and there bball team hasn't not been in the sweet sixteen for a while...selective student body (1380-1550 for median SATs, same as Dartmouth and Columbia) while also fielding D1 athletic teams (lacrosse still counts I think haha) meaning a good combination of athletics and academics are available for students...</p>
<p>I think they lost in the sweet sixteen every year as of late though for mens bball</p>
<p>well i mean they won the national championship in 2001... cut em a little slack....</p>
<p>and they also won 6 of the last 7 ACC tourneys.</p>
<p>It's a young school filled with people with a lot of drive and energy. This means the bureaucracy is easy to change if you want to change it, there's a lot of funding and student skill and energy to help you make projects happen, and people aren't particularly set in their ways. I remember reading some article, I think it was about Yale or Princeton (funny how those two blur together), where it took students years to get soap in the bathrooms because it just hadn't been done before. At Duke, we wanted staplers and hole punches next to all of the free unlimited printing stations for students - but instead of taking years to get the administration to do it, a couple of guys on the engineering student government went and bought staplers and hole punches and had it done within a week.</p>
<p>Another example, a bit over 10 years ago a few students at Duke decided to form an emergency medical services response team on campus. Now, Duke EMS responds to over 700 calls to 911 every year, maintain year-round coverage, and utilize students exclusively as EMTs and Paramedics. We hold two EMT-Basic classes each year, and on occasion an EMT-Intermediate class. We have our own base on Central Campus, uniforms, are connected to Duke Police's dispatcher, and have won awards as a student EMS agency.</p>
<p>The university puts a lot of resources into letting students take what they want to do and letting students do it. If you have a dream and the drive to make it happen, the university will support you all the way - and a lot of students do a lot of dreaming. Duke EMS was a student idea, built by students, staffed by students, and funded by the university. Those grandiose visions you have of, say, publishing a journal of public policy as an undergrad? A small group of students did it last year, on their own, and the university supported them all the way. The power to realize ideas is put into the students' hands, and it creates results.</p>
<p>Also, the people are extremely friendly. For example: At other universities, fraternity parties tend to be restricted to brothers, friends of the fraternity, and girls - otherwise you're not welcome. At Duke, I can't think of a single section party I wasn't allowed into, and at the ones where it was quiet enough to talk, greeted warmly and treated well by complete strangers on campus. Perhaps not the most poignant example possible, but its a serious contrast to many other universities. Also, If you're on campus, stop a student that doesn't look too busy and just ask them what they think about Duke, or ask them for directions, or ask them for help finding somewhere cool on campus to go. Almost every student will be hugely helpful and go out of their way to help you out. I don't know why, but they will - try it, trust me.</p>
<p>To be honest, the academic program isn't anything super special - you'll get out what you put in, just the same as any top 25, top 50 school. It's a great research university, but just like with any university, you shouldn't be choosing your undergraduate uni based on what labs sound like they're doing research you're interested in. You gotta choose based on people and culture, and I think Duke has both in spades. Rowdy athletes and asinine drunks are included in the package (yes... lacrosse), but you're going to have them at every university. It just so happens that Duke has their athletes in the news now and the hundreds of other universities where this goes on have escaped the spotlight...</p>
<p>To appreciate Duke for what it really is, stay a couple of days if at all possible. The people make Duke special, not the numbers, so getting to know the people will let you know what is so special about Duke.</p>
<p>Awww.</p>
<p>Seriously, if you do visit Duke, come find Joe (the above poster) and talk to him. He's one of my closest friends at school and such an awesome kid. Basically an example of one of those "typical Duke students" that make the school special (not that there is a "typical" student, just that "typical" = interesting). Where else will you find someone studying Engineering, Poli Sci, and ARABIC while devoting like ALL of his time to EMS, attempting to take six classes a semester, being part of the student govt, doing theater stuff, being a brother in a frat, doing PWILD stuff, AND still finding time to party a lot and be in a serious relationship (cough with my roommate cough). And I'm sure there's important stuff I left out that Joe will tell me I forgot. Yeah. Welcome to Duke.</p>
<p>I'm a mediocre harmonica player, too!</p>
<p>In case no other action is taken despite a report, the term "Plantation" as erroneously applied to Duke is highly offensive to the students, staff, and employees at Duke and is only used by people who choose to remain ignorant of or blindly hateful towards the sweat and tears of the men and women of conscience who worked to fully integrate the University and to work towards a true partnership between Duke and Durham. I simply cannot stand by while others, apropos of nothing, choose to come out of their Ivy Tower to cast aspersions towards a place about which they clearly know less than nothing.</p>
<p>Duke is like the ivy of the south.</p>
<p>In fact, I'd say it's better than most of the ivies and just as good as Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, except its location turns people off.</p>
<p>I love the place.</p>