<p>You all can’t stand it that someone, anyone, could experience the Gothic Wonderland as anything less than wonderful! It is hilarious. Duke has many great attributes for an undergraduate experience–a beautiful campus, traditional school spirit, basketball, and solid academics in most areas–that’s why I went there (also, the full ride didn’t hurt; it is difficult to pass up a merit-based full ride–something most other top schools do not offer). Duke, however, is certainly not perfect–Duke has some intrinsic problems with racism, homophobia, and a lack of intellectualism that most people who are honest about the place will acknowledge. Even with those issues aside, no school is perfect for everyone; and despite what you might think, Duke is not the best place for everyone. It is pretentious, condescending, and narrow to describe it as providing the “best overall experience”–don’t you see the craziness of such a statement when you don’t consider for whom? </p>
<p>My decision to go to Duke was probably the second best decision I ever made in my life–the best was my decision to transfer from Duke. The attitude that you all display was a small (but not insignificant) part of why Duke was not for me (that “I drank the Kool-Aid and you better too” attitude)–the bigger issues were related to location, social environment, cultural life, community atmosphere, and intellectual atmosphere. I am grateful I went to Duke mostly because my experience there taught me about myself–what I really valued and wanted for my undergraduate experience–and made me appreciate even more the schools I subsequently attended/attend for both my undergraduate + graduate school years.</p>
<p>Finally, as usual, my comments about Duke Math were taken out of context, and I regret I was not clearer about my characterization of the “stronger” departments. I agree that the undergraduate program at Duke will prepare students to go on to strong graduate programs in mathematics. I was simply describing the strength of the departments as evaluated by NRC in their most recent ranking determinations (considered the most valid authority by academia)–the NRC now ranks the PhD graduate programs in a “range” format–the results for mathematics being:</p>
<p>Berkeley: 2-5
Carnegie Mellon: 12-28
Duke: 48-80</p>
<p>(By the way, Penn State is #1).</p>