Duke Status-Centric Culture

Mondo
Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:14:56 +0000

aerialblue:

Some of my high school classmates now attend Duke, and I don’t know if it’s the school or just them, but they’re now some of the most socially vain people I know of. They’re more concerned with partying than studying, and it’s almost as if they forgot who they were in high school - students like you actually interested in academics. One girl I know accomplished a lot of things in HS - having done intensive research and the like - but at Duke, she’s kind of more concerned with her parents knowing that she attends the only top school that she got into than she is with actual learning. She does give off that superficial vibe, but I guess it’s never too late in life to become a climber.



She was probably always incredibly socially vain.
She probably only did the research to get into college.
Don’t be so naive about people.
It isn’t the fault of Duke. It’s just who they are.
I learned very quickly, upon attending Duke, that the idea for many of these people is that they need to be perfect academically and socially- despite lacking superior intelligence.

Many things such as Juicy Campus and the Rolling Stone article on Duke have given the school some bad press as being this place for ‘social climbers’. However, I think you’ll find that any school with a strong Greek scene has this culture.