Congrats to those accepted! As a Duke student, I'll do my best to answer your questions. To other Duke students, please feel free to offer any input as well.
This might be a very stupid question, but I hear a lot of Duke students go out to Shooters a lot. Is it overhyped or is it one of the more fun things to do?
^ Depends on the majors involved. The more overlap the easier it is. Dual degree programs like BME/ECE etc have been streamlined for efficiency and so are easier to arrange. A double major in Art History and BME, on the other hand, would be a bit more difficult in terms of scheduling.
If you are asking for the administrative procedures involved, then it should be pretty easy. Just declare 2 majors on the forms by the end of sophomore year.
One thing of note, if one of your planned majors is engineering, you must be in Pratt. Trinity students are not allowed to declare an engineering major as part of a double major.
Shooters [a dance club/bar, for those wondering] is really popular freshman year because it's right off East Campus. I remember going almost every weekend. It's pretty popular sophomore year, too. As a senior (female) who is 21 and has friends living off campus, I usually go to bars in Durham or hang out with friends. But, Shooters is pretty much all we have in terms of clubs (which is sad), so if you want to dance... There are other bars/clubs (Devines, Club Nine, etc) but they have a very different atmosphere than Shooters. It's hot, kind of gross, loud, and has a "western saloon" theme. Even in the bathrooms.
But, I mean, why wouldn't you want to ride a mechanical bull and dance in a cage suspended 15 ft above the ground?
Pardon me for reviving a dead thread (is it normal for an ED class to be this taciturn?), but I have a supplication for current Duke students: What is your opinion of the TAP program at Duke? Are the advantages worth it? What level of computer should I purchase if I haven't decided a major at Trinity? When should I make the purchase (i.e., whether or not TAP has a specific date when they update the computer inventories) since the new Ivy Bridge processors are scheduled to be released in June?
And I apologize for posting this twice. I was going to only post here, but then I realized that possibly no one reads the class of 2012 subforum...
Thank you so much for starting this thread! I am currently trying to decide between Rice and Duke (for pre-med). What makes Duke special and different from other schools (like Rice)?
What is residential life at Duke like? I know all freshman live on East Campus in residence halls, but what is it like living in houses after that? What is the social atmosphere like, and how important is Greek life at Duke?
Lastly, how is the food?
Sorry for all these questions... I'm trying to find out as much as I can! Thank you in advance
I am not a current Duke student, but an alumnus who has been a member of several senior volunteer leadership broads and executive committees during the last fifteen years. Commencing with the '12-'13 academic year, the university is initiating a new -- and significantly different -- undergraduate residential paradigm, which appears to me to be a major improvement principally due to the certainty of an enduring sophomore, junior and senior ""house" affiliation for all students (if an one wishes to adopt that model). Details for this plan were recently published in the Duke Magazine: Model House by Elissa Lerner - January/February 2012. I respectfully suggest you'll likely benefit by reading this article.
How would you describe the Duke "character" so to say? Also, I'm curious...does it feel like a particularly Southern school? I've heard lots of different opinions on this. Oh, and what's the weather like, kind of season by season? Haha, I have lots of questions :P
Hey, thanks for answering a few questions! I guess my biggest question is about living in the dorms on East Campus, I know there not spectacular, but are they generally okay? And, I wanted to make sure I understood something about housing, incoming freshmen are randomly placed in any of the houses on East campus right?
@ passionate1:
Residential life is pretty standard, and I think around 30-40% of the student body is involved with Greek life.
The food is alright, although like any school, you can get sick of it if you eat it everyday. I think the marketplace does a good job of trying to keep a balance between healthy food that is also nutritious, but also tastes decent. There are specific events, such as Thanksgiving or Mardi Gras, in which the food is prepared to be especially good, and they serve things such as crawfish or lobster.
@Loralie:
The area surrounding Durham seems somewhat Southern, although the campus itself is not really Southern. There are a lot of students coming from New York, New Jersey, Florida, and the largest population is from California, so there is a mix of people from all across the U.S. In this regard, the campus doesn't really feel that Southern, but there may be small traces in various places across campus. Coming from California, I was actually surprised that the weather was quite mild. I think we had only one day where it snowed, but it rains somewhat often during the spring time. During the winter, the coldest it gets is around 40-50 ish, while during the fall semester, the beginning few weeks gets to around 80-90 ish.
@HappinessInLife:
I think what happens is that sometime over summer, you are given a survey to fill out, which asks for general characteristics, such as what time at night do you sleep, when do you wake up, do you have allergies/medical conditions, etc. Based on these particular criteria, they will then assign you to a roommate as well as a dorm to live on. Generally speaking, the best dorm is Belltower, but all of the other dorms are generally okay and very livable. Every dorm has a kitchen and a common room, and I think most dorms have pianos? The rooms in the "backyard" dorms have carpet flooring, while the rooms on the "main quad" have hardwood flooring.
Just got my dorm and room assignment. Is there anyway to see floorplans? if not, how does the numbering of the rooms for the East main area dorms work. Does it start x01in the back and go around? Just trying to figure out what direction my room will be facing.
@Panaiki,
I don't know about floor plans, but if you're at Duke early, why not just visit the dorm? I waited until somebody exited and than sneaked in since I didn't have a duke card yet.
@Sleyah,
The next math for you to take would be Calc 32 (assuming you got a 5), which is the equivalent to Calc 2.
Since move-in is two weeks away, I was hoping a female student could tell me how many dresses to pack (for frat parties, Nasher museum events, etc). lol I'm going shopping this weekend for all of my college things, and I know the social life at Duke is far from dead.
