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<p>I’d like to point out that the vast majority of Duke students (or indeed the student population at any college) do not write online reviews of their experiences. Just like reviews for any product or service online, the reviewer population tends to be an extremely self-selected pool consisting of those whose views skew dramatically to the positive or negative end of the spectrum. I doubt you’d receive a balanced picture of what Duke is like through online reviews. </p>
<p>As for doing lots of “research” the only real credible sources of information that are not propaganda or outdated that you list are the visits and talking with current students of which by nature you as a parent and as a visitor can only get a vague snapshot of what Duke is like. When it comes down to it, your perspectives and experiences will be extremely limited. My parents also did the whole college tour thing, read the brochures, looked at websites, talked to Duke people, etc. Hell I’m extremely close to my parents and talked with them several times a week for the 4 years I was in college and told them a lot of what’s going on in my life as a college student and at the end of 4 years even they didn’t have that great a sense of what Duke is like to be able to accurately describe it to their friends or their kids. But apparently you feel that you do…</p>