Duke Business

TopTier
Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:56:26 +0000

@Jwest22‌: If I understand the real intent of your question, and I believe I do, my OPINION is it would not make ANY meaningful difference to Duke or to our undergraduate “life.” Although this will NOT happen, it would simply be another major (perhaps a few), taught on the Fuqua campus, by Fuqua professors, and so forth.

HOWEVER, the students would still be Duke undergraduates, probably (?) still enrolled in Trinity (consider Sanford undergraduates as a paradigm), they’d be selected by Undergraduate Admissions, their living arrangements would remain entire unchanged, as would their social lives, and everything else. In sum, four Delts (Class of '30) live together on West, one majors in Mechanical Engineering (Pratt), one in Public Policy (Sanford), one in History (Trinity), and one in accounting (Fuqua). Not trying to be flippant and certainly with no disrespect intended: so what . . . “business as usual.”

Furthermore, it wouldn’t alter Duke governance (Pratt, Sanford, Nicholas, Nursing, etc. all have programs ranging from Bachelor’s to doctorates) and – more important – it would not change the fundamental liberal arts focus for Duke undergraduates, because everyone would still be required to fulfill substantial “arts and letters” “distribution requirements.” In addition, I suspect quite a few upperclass undergraduates would decide to take a few course at Fuqua . . . again, so what.

In terms of “stacking up,” after some years in operation, I suggest we’d be rather similar to Wharton: students, professors, recruiters, cases, courses, and so forth would all be near-identical and would all be drawn from the same demographics (very much like Penn and Duke are currently). Some may suggest that Philadelphia’s more urban nature would be a substantial difference, but increasingly the nation’s (and the world’s) economy are digitized. Could a Fuqua undergrad intern with Goldman from Few Quad (especially in 20+ years)? Why not?

Finally, Duke does not want this, Fuqua certainly does not, thus the foregoing is ONLY a hypothetical “what it” discussion. Wharton has been a major, distinct part of Penn for a LONG time; an enlarged Fuqua (that taught undergraduates) would evolve from an entirely different “university root,” one that would “bleed Duke Blue.”