Duke is Changing (for the better)

Introduction
I think part of Duke is really growing and changing a lot for the better which is great – a lot more students that are interested in the arts are coming here for the first time. It’s weird, it’s like whoever you talk to has a totally different perspective, so some people really are completely infatuated with Greek life, that’s there entire – not their entire, but that’s a huge part of their life and now, I was in a sorority for freshman, sophomore and junior year, and I deactivated this year, so it was kind of a big deal for me – freshman and sophomore year especially. Now, I don’t even think about it. It just sort of depends on who you end up being friends with and then what you choose to do on a daily basis. There really is everything here. I’m never bored.. I’m never in need of other types of people, because I feel like there really is a huge mix.

Campus Life and Social Life
I think Basketball really does bring people together in a way that is kind of unique to Duke – even that other schools that have so much School spirit around football or something – Kuchepskyville really does create a little community every winter which is pretty interesting and I’m not a huge sports fan but I definitely watch more games than I ever thought I would at another school. And it’s fun. Advertisement
Academics
Curriculum 2000 is the set of requirements that we have to fulfill here and it started in 2000, obviously. It’s a new program so it’s going through changes every year as they reevaluate and keep moving forward asking students, asking faculty how it works – originally it started out it was a relatively strict liberal arts overview of what classes you were going to take that would guarantee you would graduate from Duke with something in every kind of major area that Duke offers and that’s a lot of areas and that’s a lot of area, so there’s a lot of requirements. But it is relatively flexible. It’s sort of hard to explain. It’s all in this Matrix system which is this system we have called ASYS, so you can go online and tell what classes you‘ve taken fit up with what requirements you have to fulfill. And it includes 3 semesters of language at least 1 math – that was kind of killer for me – like a freshman writing, a freshman seminar and then like two other writing classes, another research class and then various science and liberal arts, arts and literature, it sort of includes everything, but some classes are cross listed in this matrix, recently it’s undergone some changes to have a little less requirements but there still, I’d say there’ still a pretty broad base curriculum, which I’d say is good.

Student Body
I think almost every social group that I hang out with or have been aware of drinks. A lot of people drink here, a lot of people drink a lot here. I also know people that have been in AA and they still intermix with everyone else. I have friends who don’t drink much at all and I have friends who dink a lot. I think the scene is varied enough here that people are pretty accepting of whatever you choose to do. I do feel like it’s a personal choice and some nights I go out and I don’t drink and some nights I stay in and cook diner with friends and have a bottle of wine and it’s really fun. Sometimes you go to a frat party and have beer from a keg or take shots or whatever. There is a fair amount of drugs here but it’s not pervasive at all. It’s really feel like college in general and college in general is what you make it and I think that – maybe it’s just my group of friends, I don’t feel any sort of pressure here what so ever . Maybe people do freshman year but that’s a pretty insecure time in general. And you would feel pressure to like do anything.

In Closing...
I don’t think that a lot of older universities have as many opportunities. Duke is really trying to create a name for itself and create this place where students have this freedom do what they want and that’s been an unbelievable experience here.