<p>I grew up in the SF Bay Area, so that’s my bias.</p>
<p>1.) Duke is not very Southern compared to its surroundings. Most students move at a very fast pace; Southern accents are very few; Southern food is very rare; etc.</p>
<p>2.) Duke is very Southern compared to San Francisco. </p>
<p>3.) As for diversity, I’ll say this. My time in Durham had much more multiracial interaction than I ever got in the Bay Area. Vastly more. Add to that the socioeconomic diversity that California is so badly lacking, the political diversity which is anathema to Californians, and religious diversity (religion? you mean people still believe in God?), and actually Duke was a vastly richer experience for me than Berkeley (the city, not the school) was.</p>
<p>Duke students are, as a whole, very secular – but there are vibrant, growing religious groups from all spectra.
Duke students are generally very wealthy – but many aren’t, and the divide is less severe than one might expect.
Duke students are, as a whole, very liberal – but being conservative doens’t make you a novelty.</p>
<p>Compared to California, coming to Duke meant I got to see all these things which I’d heard of but never before seen. Vastly richer and more diverse than anything I ever experienced back home.</p>