Visited - Did I just get a bad impression? - Page 2

SBR · 10-21-2009, 01:48 PM

Tiger62025: maybe that's just bigger regional cultural differences. Maybe in Cali, people do that, but I personally would consider interrupting a tour to be extremely rude.

IMHO, people came all the way to Duke to find out more about the school. They took the tour because they wanted to see the campus and hear more about it from someone who is knowledgeable. Interrupting the tour to talk to the tour guide who is a friend would distract the tour guide, hold up the tour, and be disrepectful to the perspective students in my view. Same also applies to professors. Additionally, there are far more students than professors, the chances of a tour guide running into a professor that he/she knows well enough to converse with on such a big campus is miniscule.

But if it's friendly interactions, I can say that it happens all the time. I stop and talk to friends I see every day and if you walk around, you'll see that happening too. As for talking with professors, some of the ones that I know well say hi to me or wave whenever I see them, even if I haven't taken a class with them in years or if we are across the quad from each other. I can't tell you how many times i just walk by their offices, see their light on or their door open and drop in to talk. And this saturday my advisor is taking me and a few other advisees to lunch. So I can say that you won't lack faculty-student interactions either.

Just because you don't see it on a tour doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Duke isn't a static museum exhibit.

merryecho · 10-21-2009, 03:13 PM

OP- boy, you really know how to write a post that pushes people's buttons! i am sure this is not the only campus you have visited, so you are comparing the atmosphere to other schools, not expecting students to be walking around carrying beers at 1:00.

Maybe your impression is the reason that Duke's introductory lecture, and admissions pamphlets ,this year emphasize that they are not looking for kids with perfect scores, but smart kids who may have some 'bumps' in their record. When we visited, the adcom who gave the welcoming lecture said they had had several classes of 4.5gpa/2600sat kids, and the professors complained that they were boring. He encouraged less than perfect but interesting kids to apply. At the time I thought it was just another gimmick to lower their admission rate, but reading your post, maybe he was being honest.

merryecho · 10-21-2009, 03:21 PM

"have a conversation with some of those "Asian computer nerds" and I think you'll be more than a little surprised at how multi-dimensional they are behind the thick glasses and WoW-obsessed exterior... Just like how multi-dimensional [I hope] you are under the blond hair and football-playing jock of an exterior."

Senator Noodles- what a thoughtful, positive response! D is applying ED at Duke, I hope you are representative of the kids she might be spending 4 years with.

Cuse0507 · 10-21-2009, 04:51 PM

Not trying to stir the pot here, but it sounds like the OP would be a lot happier at UNC. Lots of white jocks and hot girls. The jock: nerd ratio is probably about 4:1, and the hot girl:jock ratio is probably about 2:1.

Carry on.

SBR · 10-21-2009, 05:36 PM

Like I said before...state schools...

laxtaxi · 10-21-2009, 08:11 PM

Interesting takes on OP's question. My first thought on reading his post was the opposite - if I was on that tour, I'd be wondering why I would want to go to a school with a 6'5" blond haired condescending, racist jock.

No offense, OP, you may be a great guy and nothing like what you convey in your post. All we have to go on is what you said. I suggest you go read Tom Wolfe's "Charlotte Simmons" and pick a stereotype from it, you might find one that makes you feel more welcomed.

Cuse0507 · 10-21-2009, 08:44 PM

No offense, and you call the OP racist? I'd certainly take offense to that. What if a black student was touring Duke and was worried that he was the only black guy there? Would he be racist as well?

Gotta love the double standards.

SBR · 10-21-2009, 10:05 PM

Not that I agree that the OP is a racist, maybe just a bit narrow-minded. But, I don't think the black guy will be looking around at the other people and thinking that he's so much better than them though...

Maizeeagle86 · 10-21-2009, 11:15 PM

First of all, call me racist, condescending, or whatever, I really don't care what people on the interent think of me; I'm just looking for no BS information about what it's really like.

I don't recall ever saying that I am "better than them" SBR. I just said I'm worried I'll be out of place.

I do like to learn (some subjects) but my life doesn't revolve around it, and I want a place where the kids are....

smart, but not too smart
social, but not too social (if you know what I mean)
diverse, but not too diverse
open-minded, but not too open-minded
etc.

Just a bunch of down to earth, fun-loving, interesting kids. Maybe an "above average" school like Baylor, TCU, or Illinois (the others I am looking at) would be better.

Faline2 · 10-22-2009, 01:35 AM

Oy. while I give you credit for "being honest" about where you are at this point in your life...it is pretty canceled out by your inability to extrapolate from what everyone knows about Duke by doing just a little digging around (try reading the college newspapers like the Chronicle if you want a taste of sports madness, Duke Engage reports and editorial debates--hit youtube and type in Duke and watch K-Ville videos and Cameron Crazie videos) vs what it is like to walk around with parents and strangers who may or may not be admitted to Duke on a tour. It is sort of like judging Paris France by the people you met on a tour bus.

Duke is intensely high spirited. There are Amazon quality Division One super talent athlete scholars all over the place and it takes intense dedication and team spirit to perform at their levels. You could be busy seven days a week just showing up to root for classmates on many sports teams. Duke also has great Performance Arts ...world class performers are there often

My son just graduated from Duke and bleeds blue. He was also a tour guide for special events and passed exams on Duke info to qualify. That said-- to be fair to someone still in high school, it rained on his tour date four years back... and was gloomy plus he didn't think he would be chosen to be admitted to Duke so he didn't attach to Duke at all. He expected to be wait listed and wisely focused on good match schools where he knew he would be wanted for sure. After the shock of being admitted although 15th in his class with no hook (and the two valedictorians we knew were rejected),,,,he did what everyone does in April..visited where he was accepted to see if he could figure out if the place was a fit or not. He was cool towards Duke until he went to Blue Devil Days and sat in three classrooms.

On his overnight, the guy who kept him was socially strange and informed him that his frat "made him get a prefrosh" as a prank. His host promptly dumped him and he was left on campus without so much as a room key or a person to speak to him the entire night. He attended campus performance events solo, met other much more engaging friendlier Dukies out and about and managed on his own and realized he was in the right place by solo observations. He attended three classes in April on Blue Devil Days. He chatted up other admitted students, some of whom he never saw again because they went elsewhere.

It takes a lot of effort to find you fit. A tour is just the first step.

You are too hasty to draw conclusions at Duke or any other school without visits that get past the first levels.

Your expectations from touring Duke are unrealistic. Come back and attend classes. Spend time alone wandering around. Dine in unlikely places. Run, work out on campus. Eavesdrop a little. If you are admitted, it is a big decision where you hang your hat for four years.

He is still tight with a score of guy and girl friends from his freshman hall and his freshman FOCUS program. Duke is a very social school despite the intensity in academics.

Many many students at Duke are in the super smart category. Duke has an excellent first year program on East Campus that really brings the class together. Many of the super smart people also have super social IQs and very full social lives. My son thrived on knowing them and called them "his tutors." They were anything but boring and often extremely generous with their time and talents. I don't want to identify them but they have been doing amazing things already that required intense study, travel and service, summers of research and complete dedication in labs and in classrooms.

Diverse but not too diverse. OK, Duke may not be a place for you if this is your goal. Duke is intensely national and international in its character and reach. Duke is excellent exposure to a shifting planet and to what the world of work really looks like now. Duke Engage has amazing reach. My son went abroad twice and mastered a new language in great foreign study options. Even so, he was provincial compared to many of his biligual classmates who came to Duke from much further away, risking more and traveling further.

open minded but not too open minded.
Duke may not be a school where you will be happy if you are serious about wanting to control the level of "open mindedness" among your peers. Duke students have vastly varied backgrounds so they bring very different perspectives to campus.

Moxess · 10-22-2009, 05:47 AM

^I like that idea of spending a lot of time there, but a lot of us live really far away and can't exactly do that.

atl_living · 10-22-2009, 09:00 AM

To be honest with you I don't think that Duke is the place for you.

If you are uncomfortable with a diverse student body then I really don't think you'll like it. Sure you can find white, tall, blond guys to hang out with but you'll be missing out on a huge part of Duke life.

And for the person saying that there is a double standard that is absurd. First off, the OP didn't say that he was surrounded by 20 Asians, or 20 Hispanics, or 20 black students, all he said was that he was the minority. So he could have been in a tour group with Asian (Indian, Chinese, Japanese), Hispanic, African, and black students and he would have been the minority. If you are uncomfortable being around a diverse population then you probably will not enjoy Duke, or many other top 10-20 universities.

Also, if you are judging people strictly by the way they look (carrying books, look "nerdy") then again you are missing out on the Duke experience. When I attended Duke I met some quirky looking people and some of them loved the library and others loved to party. It was awesome to see my friends with 3.9-4.0 GPA's let loose and have fun on the weekends, and for those that liked to stay in no one seemed to think twice about it. You are judging people strictly based on how they look, you know how bad that sounds right?

SBR · 10-22-2009, 12:58 PM

OP: of course you didn't come right out and say you are better than everyone else. But you do know that the term "nerd" carries an inherent negative connotation right?

Maizeeagle86 · 10-22-2009, 02:10 PM

Ok, I'll start over.

Things I like about Duke (on paper)
Well-rounded
Southern Charm and Hospitality
People of Character and Integrity
Public Policy school
CAMERON CRAZIES
Wild and Crazy Fun
Great Education
RESOURCES AVAILABLE
Small Classes
The fact it is ranked as a "jock" school
Diverse, but welcoming and everyone gets along

Things I saw (key word: saw) that I didn't like so much
Completely school focused (nobody playing frisbee on the quad or things like that)
Self-Segregated
Durham sucks
It was a "nerd" (not meant to be demeaning, just the easiest way to describe it) school
Not focused on undergraduates
Not a "southern school" whatsoever

All I'm saying is that is what I witnessed while on campus. Being that I'm from Kansas, I can't really go back and spend two weeks there to see if I like it, I HAVE to go by first impressions.

I promise I'm not a jerk or anything like that, I'm just being honest at what I saw.

admitone · 10-22-2009, 02:29 PM

I think you will definitely find you type at Duke. The scene is pretty jocky. I think its hard to assess just walking around campus one day. But you should maybe check out Vandy and Wake too.