<p>Well, jkterrapin, I honestly don’t know what else I can possibly say about pretentiousness, because I fear that the more I try to explain Duke, the more I keep regressing into ridiculous generalizations that are exactly what my professors tell me to avoid. So I guess the best thing for you to do would be yes, visit the campus, but most of all, talk to a wide array of students. Don’t just talk to one, don’t just talk to the ones you know, but just walk into a bunch of different events or classrooms and talk to students. That way, you can judge for yourself how the average student is.</p>