Lots of Diversity

Introduction
East Campus is the freshman campus, only freshman live there and it’s a dry campus. It’s really beautiful, lots of grass, lots of open space, and lots of symmetry. East campus there is bricks. West campus has a much more Gothic feel. We have our own quarry – a special stone for all the buildings at Duke and it’s absolutely gorgeous. However, if you happen to be in an un-air conditioned dorm when you first get here in August, it is the South, it is North Carolina, and if you’re not on the first floor, you’re probably going to bake.

Campus Life and Social Life
I think one of the best things about Duke is the students. Of course you have your kids who wear the seersucker pants and tucked in shirts all the time, button down, Ralph Lauren, Prada, type people – but you also have the other end of the spectrum. You have a lot of different kinds of people, a big variety. A lot of international kids, which I really think is important as a student to be exposed to different types of people – from all over the globe and basically get to know what it’s like for immigrants to this country, to get to see their perspective and perhaps go visit them over the summer or after you graduate – visit other countries. In terms of kids from the United States they’re kids from, a lot of kids from the West Coast, a lot of kids from the North East, who come down to Duke. I’m from North Carolina. There aren’t as many southerners as one might think but – a pretty good mix – over all. Academics
The Greek scene does kind of dominate here – there are a lot of fraternities and a lot of sororities. I think about 50% of guys are Greek – I’m not sure what the percentage is for girls but basically, you have your stereotypical fraternities. Basically the Greek scene dominates at Duke – the fraternities don’t have on campus houses but what they do have is sections of the dorms on campus and what usually happens every weekend there’s a theme party which can range from anything from just like a hip hop party to a luau, where there will be sand everywhere and people build ships and castles and crazy stuff like that. So, it can be pretty entertaining on the weekends. Fraternities have off campus houses, which often throw parties, but you know, there are a lot of independents as well. And I myself am now, an independent. I used to be in a fraternity – I dissociated myself from the fraternity for my senior year and as an independent. There’s lots of stuff to do. Durham just had the full frame documentary film festival, which is the premier film festival in the country. There’s a lot of good music in Chapel Hill, a great scene there. I decided to drop out of my fraternity because I kind of got a little bit tired of the Greek scene. It’s kind of repetitive and I was looking for something new and a lot of my friends who were in the fraternity graduated – the guys who I joined the fraternity to be brothers with graduated so I no longer felt a big connection.

Student Body
Duke is a basketball school – there’s no doubt about it and especially with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill about 15 miles away – there’s a huge rivalry. I’m from North Carolina so I understand the immense size of this rivalry but, not everybody is into basketball, not everybody goes to the games. The games are free for students – you just have to be willing to camp out for several weeks in the snow, come back around New Years to camp out for weeks to get in to the games for the bigger teams like UNC Chapel Hill, perhaps Maryland, Wake Forrest, depending on the year. I really like the games. It’s a great atmosphere. Kuchepskyville – it’s one of the few time you really see Duke students let loose and sort of have a good time and be themselves.