Duke University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Undeclared: Interested in Computer Science & Statistics
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Chinese Straight Female
Summary
I’m part of the Chronicle, which is the school editorial. I also did a pre-orientation for the arts called Project Arts.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Chinese
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: Charter school in Boston, Massachusetts with a graduating class of 450 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Undeclared: Interested in Computer Science & Statistics
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I’m part of the Chronicle, which is the school editorial. I also did a pre-orientation for the arts called Project Arts.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
My pre-orientation program. At this point I have a good amount of other friends, but the vast majority of my friend group is from that pre-orientation group. It’s cool because I have a very good foot in the arts community, even though I don’t study the arts. I know what the theater group and all the acapella groups are like because I have so many close friends that are very involved in those programs.
Academic Experience
Is there anything that you feel Duke has done especially well or especially poorly?
Freshman are required to do one writing seminar and a 101 class. There are two terms, and I don’t like how we’re forced to do that.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I think it’s very collaborative. I’ve never felt super pressured, but that also might be because of who I hang out with. In general, I don’t have trouble finding people that want to work together.
What has been your favorite class in your major?
I’ve only taken one class, 201. It was very enjoyable because the teacher was cool.
What has been your least favorite class in your major?
I didn’t like Economics 201, and I actually dropped out of it. I also didn’t like Chemistry 101, but that’s just me personally.
How accessible have the professors in your department been?
Very accessible. They always have office hours, and you can talk to them a lot. Even my Computer Science teacher who teaches a class of 350 people. There’s also a system where every class has a bunch of teaching assistants. The bigger the class, the more assistants there are, which helps too.
Reasons to Attend
1) It has a really supportive environment. In Computer Science, we’re required to work together on a lot of assignments. We have non-graded quizzes in class, but you have to work with people around you and turn it in, so they know who you’ve worked with. We do 1-3 every class.
2) You’ll have good connections career-wise.
3) It’s a pretty fun school and people are friendly.
Reasons Not to Attend
None
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: I live in East House with one roommate. We couldn’t choose our roommates, and all the freshman live on East campus. Everyone else lives on West campus.
How was transitioning from Boston to Durham, NC?
That was interesting because I spent a lot of my time in the actual city. Since Duke’s campus is so big, it’s kind of like its own mini-city in a way. You have to take a ten-minute bus ride to get from East to West campus, and there’s a bunch of stuff in between like the art building. There’s a lot of stuff to do, so I can stay busy if I want. Even though I’m not technically in the city, it still has the liveliness of a city. It’s not that bad.
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
A Mexican restaurant called Gonza Tacos.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
I go to a lot of concerts and restaurants nearby.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
Homeless people aren’t supposed to wander around the campus, and there are usually security guards walking around to prevent them from going on the East campus. A couple of times at night I was walking back from the library, and there’s been a few. That was fine because they haven’t been belligerent, but off-campus some of my friends have almost gotten in fights with them. There are robberies now and then, and there have been a couple of sexual assault cases. We get Duke alerts anytime something happens, but there’s been maybe three robberies and two sexual assault cases so far. My mom told me there’s an off-campus apartment complex where a lot of international students live, where there’s recently been a lot of robberies at gunpoint. [View The Chronicle’s article on DukeALERTS and campus crime.]
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
There’s a club called Shooters where a lot of people go on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There’s also a sports bar called Divine’s where people go on Thursdays. I go to Shooters on Saturdays and have only been once on a Wednesday. I’ve gone to Divine’s on Thursday a few times. If you have a Duke ID, they’ll let you in.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
Frats throw a lot of parties. Their functions are pretty much only for [parties before the bar], which I found weird when I went to college. On Friday nights people actually stay for the whole party.
Can you describe a typical night going out freshman year when you were less socially established?
When I was less socially established, my friends and I would go to the frat parties before going to Shooters. On Friday night people don’t really go to Shooters, so they stick to frat parties. There’s also something called The Barn, which is a 40-minute drive away. You have to get on a special bus to go there, and there is a party. That’s usually on Saturdays. Once we had a more established friend group, we stopped going to frat parties and just partied with our friend group before going to Shooters.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at your school? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I wish Shooters happened on Friday too, but it’s okay. I’m pretty happy.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
Through orientation, but then some of my other friends have been integrated into the arts group who didn’t do the pre-orientation. It’s usually friends from class that I’ve met. One of the students who got integrated had class with a ton of Project Art students, so we just started getting lunch and hanging out together.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I’d say pretty well. This might be because I generally hang out with more artsy people, but even just following people on Instagram it looks like most friend groups are pretty diverse race wise. [Duke’s student body is 44% White, 21% Asian-American and 10% Black.]
How would you describe the overall social scene at Duke?
Duke does rush in the second semester, and lot of my upperclassman friends think rush will destroy my freshman friend group. Apparently, people say rush often messes those up a little bit. I don’t think it’ll be that bad for mine because everyone already does a lot of different extracurricular things, so we’re all doing different stuff anyway. If we end up joining different frats or SLGs, it won’t be a big deal.
How do you like the size of your school? How has the size of your school influenced your social experience? [There are about 7,000 undergraduate students at Duke.]
The size is pretty good, I like having a pretty big class.
How would you describe the student body?
From what I’ve noticed, a lot of my friends were class presidents and Valedictorians. I found this interesting because I wouldn’t have guessed that was the case for a lot of those friends. The student body seems like a pretty well-balanced group of people, which is one of Duke’s good characteristics. People are academically focused, but they have other interests like sports or theater.
Careers
Financial Aid
Have you used financial aid? If so, accommodating was the office to your needs?
I have a small sibling scholarship because my brother is also at Duke. It’s not too much help for me, but some of my friends came to Duke over other schools because Duke gave them more financial aid. They seem decently generous.