there is no other place in america where you will tap into a richer infusion of pioneering professors in their fields, fully-funded research and civil service opportunities both at home and overseas, and a fabled athletics program enveloping a worldwide fan base than at duke university. from developing single-sound multispeakers to researching glioblastoma-curing applications with renowned faculty in electrical engineering and cancer medicine, duke students are contributing to the world's next breakthroughs in communications and medicine by day, before donning the blue and white body paint to senselessly cheer for one of the most iconic and winningest athletics program in all of sports history, by night. for these reasons and many more, it's no wonder why any aspiring eighteen-year-old difference maker wouldn't want to spend four years of his or her life on this incredible campus.
Do you have any tips for prospective students?
1) you are coming to duke to both inspire others, as well as be inspired.
if you remember this simple fact, you will never struggle to entertain a classmate's creative idea for a project proposal, to find the inspiration to study harder for a test after your best friend aced the previous one, or to find the courage to start your own public initiative on campus. you are here only because the admissions office saw promise in you to change the campus in a positive light, and beyond. that being said, you are now surrounded by thousands of other colleagues who demonstrate similar promise. listen to their stories, hear their unique perspectives, and you might just come away from your conversation with greater perspective than before, which equates to even greater promise.
2) you'll never know if you've mastered the material until you are tested upon it.
whether it's a lecture class of 200+ or a seminar with a mere twelve of your peers, you are now competing against some of the best students in the world for grades. which means the only stratifying barrier to success that now divides the ranks of your classmates is good, old work ethic--how much time you are willing to put in. and if you do not put in the time to adequately study for midterms, quizzes, and tests at duke, then you are going to have a miserable experience at duke. the reverse is also true. if you can average 2.5 hours of studying (excluding homework assignments) per every hour you are in class, you will not only be ready to garner excellent grades by the time the assessment comes around, but you will retain a critical knowledge base with which to apply what you've learned to other disciplines, and make connections. it is these types of skills that employers are really looking for after graduation, so adopting this critical perspective on all of your courses will sharpen your competitive edge significantly when you go to apply for jobs.
Do you find there’s enough academic rigor at your school?
although six-and-a-half hours of homework a night from 3+ ap classes a semester may seem challenging now, duke is far more academically challenging in a very multilayered way. this is because you have other factors at duke in the equation of being successful with respect to:
1) interdisciplinary emphasis
2) level of competition
3) your personal work ethic
4) nature of instructors
1) duke is known for designing a curriculum that challenges students to draw upon multiple disciplines to form critical connections and generate new ideas. this means that you will be able to experience more academic success if you can apply the fda breakthrough status drug you are learning about in one class to a trend in biotechnology stocks that you are analyzing in another. while not always imperative to excelling academically, this ability to "connect courses" can afford a competitive edge to certain students, which adds a new dimension of rigor.
2) another dimension of rigor can be found in the caliber of competition you will face in both your large lecture and small discussion classes. you are now competing against students who have won straight-a's, state debate and mock trial championships, and have even founded and co-founded businesses and organizations all throughout their high school careers. since everyone wants the a equally, but there is often a scarcity of a's to hand out, you often must work even harder at duke to achieve the same result that you did in high school.
3) fortunately, even the greatest minds cannot succeed without values of hard work and sheer discipline, and this is your secret weapon. no amount of innate intelligence is a suitable substitute for the one who is willing to put in the extra time and repetitions to ingrain difficult academic concepts, and there are myriad empirical studies to back this claim in the context of public schools, parenting children, and other ares. this idea holds true at duke as well, in that you can improve by tw...
Describe the dorm life at your college.
at duke, you will learn within the first couple of weeks who are the late-night drinkers and partiers and who are the dryer, early-to-bedders in your dorm, and your overall dorm life experience will ultimately revolve around where you fall along this spectrum. but the diversity of students duke attracts ensures there is no shortage of acceptance of wherever you choose to identify.
these are kids who will love to engage in open dialogues with you about everything from the benefits of social media to the consequences of fracking, and this characteristic of the student body never shines more brightly than back in the common room after a school day or all throughout the weekend. your dorm-mates will become your family almost immediately upon arrival, and much like family almost universally accepts you for whatever you choose to believe in, your hall-mates will seldom think negatively of you for whatever you choose to get involved with on campus.
finally, upon your arrival as a first year, you will be welcomed on to the freshmen east campus--which is a six-minute bus ride apart from the main one--and together you and your dorm-mates will bond over your freshman experiences together at a common gym, library, dining hall, auditorium, nearby grocery chain, and events space, away from the hustle-bustle of duke university's west campus. most everyone at duke will rave on and on about this system of allowing the freshman to reflect on one another's successes and failures in their own peaceful "slice" of duke in order to maximize the confidence and the courage with which they will attack their future years at duke upon graduating to the main campus.
Describe the food and dining at your college.
duke dining ranks nothing less than 5th in the nation by the daily meal publication, and it's no wonder this is the case upon sampling the plethora of stimulating food options on campus. from marketplace's american-style buffet to the a la carte vendors of au bon pain bakery, the loop pizza grill, and dozens of food trucks that rotate around campus, there's a diversity of choices for everyone -- even for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, kosher, halal, and any number of other dietary lifestyles that you can find on duke's campus. a particularly exciting time for duke dining will be this fall 2016, when approximately 10-13 additional vendors will be rejoining duke's newly renovated west union in three floors and a vendetta devoted to cafeterias, project rooms, and discussion and study spaces for groups ranging from two to a hundred participants. i could not begin to imagine how different the duke experience would be without the culinary gems that further illuminate its national reputation, but don't just take my word for it, you must come on down here and try the food for yourself!
What’s there to do for fun at your college?
a cornerstone of the duke experience that separates it from several of its peer institutions is the knowledge that if you are a student in attendance, you will have nothing but fun when you are not working your hardest. aside from the enthralling experience promised at any of duke's 26 varsity division i sports competitions--all free of charge to students, who need only show their student ids to gain admission--students are the beneficiaries of such organizations as duke university union (duu), pitchforks, and duke university improv, which bring speakers and top artists, nationally renowned a cappella singing, and positively hilarious college humor to touch the hearts and minds of students who otherwise have their heads buried in the library out of sheer love of learning and a desire to excel in school. while devils after dark provides laser tag, movie nights, trips to the local mall, and any number of other college staples to appeal to just about all students on campus, students also have the option to rush for any of the dozens of fraternity and sorority chapters and duke selective living groups (slgs) on campus and derive most of their friday and saturday night fun from the brotherhood, sisterhood, and other bonds of companionship these groups afford duke students. whatever your taste in having a good time, there's an awfully good chance that duke has got the entertainment to hit your sweet spot, and keep you coming back every week for even more fun than you had the last time.
Share any unusual traditions or locations on campus
"bricks to stone" ceremony -- one of the most monumental events of the school year for all first years -- occurs towards the beginning of finals week second semester when all of the freshmen are recognized for completing their first year among the georgian brick architecture of their east campus home and are now graduating to go live among the gothic stone architecture of a new, west campus home, where they will make the majority of their contributions to the duke campus climate, and beyond, and forge the majority of their memories as sophomores, juniors, and eventually, graduating seniors.
puppies in perkins -- quite the beloved occasion every finals week on duke's campus... local canine therapy organizations directly tied to duke university volunteers bring in a pack of therapy dogs to provide comfort and relieve stress for highly anxious duke students on the verge of entering finals week!
duke vs. unc / cameron crazies -- not just a campus-renowned tradition, but a world-renowned tradition, one that draws not just 1,000+ duke students bathed in blue and white body paint from head to toe six hours in advance of the greatest rivalry game in college basketball, but also a televised audience of millions around the country and around the globe who wish they could be there to watch!
duke lemur center -- after madagascar, duke university is home to the world's second largest lemur sanctuary, affording students, faculty, and visitors from around the globe the opportunity to walk among these fabled prosimian primates, without fences or borders to prevent contact, and the experience is simply breathtaking... it is as if you finally get to meet all of your favorite characters from dreamworks' madagascar!
there is no other place in america where you will tap into a richer infusion of pioneering professors in their fields, fully-funded research and civil service opportunities both at home and overseas, and a fabled athletics program enveloping a worldwide fan base than at duke university. from developing single-sound multispeakers to researching glioblastoma-curing applications with renowned faculty in electrical engineering and cancer medicine, duke students are contributing to the world's next breakthroughs in communications and medicine by day, before donning the blue and white body paint to senselessly cheer for one of the most iconic and winningest athletics program in all of sports history, by night. for these reasons and many more, it's no wonder why any aspiring eighteen-year-old difference maker wouldn't want to spend four years of his or her life on this incredible campus.
1) you are coming to duke to both inspire others, as well as be inspired. if you remember this simple fact, you will never struggle to entertain a classmate's creative idea for a project proposal, to find the inspiration to study harder for a test after your best friend aced the previous one, or to find the courage to start your own public initiative on campus. you are here only because the admissions office saw promise in you to change the campus in a positive light, and beyond. that being said, you are now surrounded by thousands of other colleagues who demonstrate similar promise. listen to their stories, hear their unique perspectives, and you might just come away from your conversation with greater perspective than before, which equates to even greater promise. 2) you'll never know if you've mastered the material until you are tested upon it. whether it's a lecture class of 200+ or a seminar with a mere twelve of your peers, you are now competing against some of the best students in the world for grades. which means the only stratifying barrier to success that now divides the ranks of your classmates is good, old work ethic--how much time you are willing to put in. and if you do not put in the time to adequately study for midterms, quizzes, and tests at duke, then you are going to have a miserable experience at duke. the reverse is also true. if you can average 2.5 hours of studying (excluding homework assignments) per every hour you are in class, you will not only be ready to garner excellent grades by the time the assessment comes around, but you will retain a critical knowledge base with which to apply what you've learned to other disciplines, and make connections. it is these types of skills that employers are really looking for after graduation, so adopting this critical perspective on all of your courses will sharpen your competitive edge significantly when you go to apply for jobs.
although six-and-a-half hours of homework a night from 3+ ap classes a semester may seem challenging now, duke is far more academically challenging in a very multilayered way. this is because you have other factors at duke in the equation of being successful with respect to: 1) interdisciplinary emphasis 2) level of competition 3) your personal work ethic 4) nature of instructors 1) duke is known for designing a curriculum that challenges students to draw upon multiple disciplines to form critical connections and generate new ideas. this means that you will be able to experience more academic success if you can apply the fda breakthrough status drug you are learning about in one class to a trend in biotechnology stocks that you are analyzing in another. while not always imperative to excelling academically, this ability to "connect courses" can afford a competitive edge to certain students, which adds a new dimension of rigor. 2) another dimension of rigor can be found in the caliber of competition you will face in both your large lecture and small discussion classes. you are now competing against students who have won straight-a's, state debate and mock trial championships, and have even founded and co-founded businesses and organizations all throughout their high school careers. since everyone wants the a equally, but there is often a scarcity of a's to hand out, you often must work even harder at duke to achieve the same result that you did in high school. 3) fortunately, even the greatest minds cannot succeed without values of hard work and sheer discipline, and this is your secret weapon. no amount of innate intelligence is a suitable substitute for the one who is willing to put in the extra time and repetitions to ingrain difficult academic concepts, and there are myriad empirical studies to back this claim in the context of public schools, parenting children, and other ares. this idea holds true at duke as well, in that you can improve by tw...
at duke, you will learn within the first couple of weeks who are the late-night drinkers and partiers and who are the dryer, early-to-bedders in your dorm, and your overall dorm life experience will ultimately revolve around where you fall along this spectrum. but the diversity of students duke attracts ensures there is no shortage of acceptance of wherever you choose to identify. these are kids who will love to engage in open dialogues with you about everything from the benefits of social media to the consequences of fracking, and this characteristic of the student body never shines more brightly than back in the common room after a school day or all throughout the weekend. your dorm-mates will become your family almost immediately upon arrival, and much like family almost universally accepts you for whatever you choose to believe in, your hall-mates will seldom think negatively of you for whatever you choose to get involved with on campus. finally, upon your arrival as a first year, you will be welcomed on to the freshmen east campus--which is a six-minute bus ride apart from the main one--and together you and your dorm-mates will bond over your freshman experiences together at a common gym, library, dining hall, auditorium, nearby grocery chain, and events space, away from the hustle-bustle of duke university's west campus. most everyone at duke will rave on and on about this system of allowing the freshman to reflect on one another's successes and failures in their own peaceful "slice" of duke in order to maximize the confidence and the courage with which they will attack their future years at duke upon graduating to the main campus.
duke dining ranks nothing less than 5th in the nation by the daily meal publication, and it's no wonder this is the case upon sampling the plethora of stimulating food options on campus. from marketplace's american-style buffet to the a la carte vendors of au bon pain bakery, the loop pizza grill, and dozens of food trucks that rotate around campus, there's a diversity of choices for everyone -- even for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, kosher, halal, and any number of other dietary lifestyles that you can find on duke's campus. a particularly exciting time for duke dining will be this fall 2016, when approximately 10-13 additional vendors will be rejoining duke's newly renovated west union in three floors and a vendetta devoted to cafeterias, project rooms, and discussion and study spaces for groups ranging from two to a hundred participants. i could not begin to imagine how different the duke experience would be without the culinary gems that further illuminate its national reputation, but don't just take my word for it, you must come on down here and try the food for yourself!
a cornerstone of the duke experience that separates it from several of its peer institutions is the knowledge that if you are a student in attendance, you will have nothing but fun when you are not working your hardest. aside from the enthralling experience promised at any of duke's 26 varsity division i sports competitions--all free of charge to students, who need only show their student ids to gain admission--students are the beneficiaries of such organizations as duke university union (duu), pitchforks, and duke university improv, which bring speakers and top artists, nationally renowned a cappella singing, and positively hilarious college humor to touch the hearts and minds of students who otherwise have their heads buried in the library out of sheer love of learning and a desire to excel in school. while devils after dark provides laser tag, movie nights, trips to the local mall, and any number of other college staples to appeal to just about all students on campus, students also have the option to rush for any of the dozens of fraternity and sorority chapters and duke selective living groups (slgs) on campus and derive most of their friday and saturday night fun from the brotherhood, sisterhood, and other bonds of companionship these groups afford duke students. whatever your taste in having a good time, there's an awfully good chance that duke has got the entertainment to hit your sweet spot, and keep you coming back every week for even more fun than you had the last time.
"bricks to stone" ceremony -- one of the most monumental events of the school year for all first years -- occurs towards the beginning of finals week second semester when all of the freshmen are recognized for completing their first year among the georgian brick architecture of their east campus home and are now graduating to go live among the gothic stone architecture of a new, west campus home, where they will make the majority of their contributions to the duke campus climate, and beyond, and forge the majority of their memories as sophomores, juniors, and eventually, graduating seniors. puppies in perkins -- quite the beloved occasion every finals week on duke's campus... local canine therapy organizations directly tied to duke university volunteers bring in a pack of therapy dogs to provide comfort and relieve stress for highly anxious duke students on the verge of entering finals week! duke vs. unc / cameron crazies -- not just a campus-renowned tradition, but a world-renowned tradition, one that draws not just 1,000+ duke students bathed in blue and white body paint from head to toe six hours in advance of the greatest rivalry game in college basketball, but also a televised audience of millions around the country and around the globe who wish they could be there to watch! duke lemur center -- after madagascar, duke university is home to the world's second largest lemur sanctuary, affording students, faculty, and visitors from around the globe the opportunity to walk among these fabled prosimian primates, without fences or borders to prevent contact, and the experience is simply breathtaking... it is as if you finally get to meet all of your favorite characters from dreamworks' madagascar!