Duke Academic atmosphere?

monydad
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 17:44:46 +0000

"Of course, I’m biased "
Yes you are. The greek system at Cornell is quite evident for those in it, and for freshmen being recruited. After that, the 2/3 of the student body who are not part of that system generally has little or nothing to do with it. Social life for upperclassmen typically revolves around the private (no RAs) rental housing where students live together, many in collegetown just off campus. House parties and small groups going out together.

I never had such decision, back in the day, because I would never apply to Duke. I don’t share the political or religious views of the majority of southerners. When I looked into it, at that time, there were reportedly only 5,000 co-religionists of mine in the entire state of North Carolina. My sister-in-law is actually from NC, and she does not recommend it for “my people”, based on her observations growing up there. Plus I was interested in physics and engineering, and those programs were much stronger at Cornell. IIRC, at the time, Duke didn’t even offer one of the major branches of engineering, chemical engineering, at all. What if I wound up getting interested in that? It felt to me like one of those schools where most engineering students don’t really want to become engineers.

But that was me, a long time ago.

People into spectator sports at Cornell wind up adopting hockey, and are generally satisfied with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ2lOEYJM0A

YMMV.