<p>My son has been admitted to Duke (Pratt), but we have never visited. We might go to a Blue Devil Day in mid April.</p>
<p>But I get a stereotype image of a Duke student (rich, preppy, frats) and worry my son could be distracted and not committed to engineering or maybe pre-med, and maybe to better send him to a cold up North school.</p>
<p>Should we worry?</p>
<p>He is a very mature , good kid, but this is a small concern ( a lot of this concern is coming from his grandfather).</p>
<p>It really depends on the person. Sure it’s possible. Girls seem a little more apt to change. However, I have yet to see anyone suddenly transform from a quiet kid that spends all his time in the library to a frat star that hooks up with girls every weekend if that’s what you’re asking. So if he’s a good kid, he’s likely to remain a good kid unless he’s been faking it the whole time. </p>
<p>Of course, there is always the option of substance-free housing (Brown dorm freshman year). Everyone pledges to abstain from alcohol to live there.</p>
<p>Mine also was accepted to Pratt & I don’t feel like that at all. I thought the kids were wonderfully curious/intellectual, diverse & polite. So many in biomed are also premed I am sure that they will be committed to academics- at $40k/year who isn’t! You absolutely need to visit before deciding if this is your mind set. A few bball games on TV might give you the wrong idea!</p>