Looking for info about Wake Forest and Duke social climates

[Anonymous]

OP again. Interesting thread! A few have asked why the geographic restriction. We are a small and close knit family, DS is not very independent yet, and I think he feels more secure knowing he would be a car ride away if he wanted to come home for a weekend. So it will take a very special school to get him on a plane, at least at first.

I have always thought Chicago could be up his alley, but I have heard bad things about the neighborhood (like students getting mugged) .

[Anonymous]

Duke is not really a place for the intellectually curious, or the curious of any stripe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on a study semester abroad with about 20 kids from Duke. I wasnt very impressed with them. They were not very intellectual and did not seem interested in their classes or studies at all. Duke claims they work hard play hard, but I only saw the play hard aspect of that. I didn't even study all that much, maybe three hours a day, but they would totally tease me when they saw me studying and comment on how hard I worked.

It is the work hard, play hard mentality that has taken over all the good colleges. Every college guide book you read boasts about the work hard, play hard aspect as if it is a badge of honor for the students. "I have a 4.0 in finance, but I can get black out drunk every weekend, and my parents are footing the bill. Yeah this is the right fit for me!" Work hard, play hard = nails on the chalkboard.

My home school was Wesleyan, where I felt most people were into their classes and studied a lot. I thought Wes students were much harder working and more intellectual despite the fact duke has a more prestigious rep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on a study semester abroad with about 20 kids from Duke. I wasnt very impressed with them. They were not very intellectual and did not seem interested in their classes or studies at all. Duke claims they work hard play hard, but I only saw the play hard aspect of that. I didn't even study all that much, maybe three hours a day, but they would totally tease me when they saw me studying and comment on how hard I worked.

It is the work hard, play hard mentality that has taken over all the good colleges. Every college guide book you read boasts about the work hard, play hard aspect as if it is a badge of honor for the students. "I have a 4.0 in finance, but I can get black out drunk every weekend, and my parents are footing the bill. Yeah this is the right fit for me!" Work hard, play hard = nails on the chalkboard.

My home school was Wesleyan, where I felt most people were into their classes and studied a lot. I thought Wes students were much harder working and more intellectual despite the fact duke has a more prestigious rep.

I went to Wesleyan, married to a duke grad, could not agree more.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure most of you passing judgment on Wake and Duke have never set foot on either campus. How can you say an entire school is not a place for the curious of any stripe when there are thousands of students there doing all sorts of amazing things?

I went to Wake and my husband went to Duke, and we've talked a lot about our respective college experiences. My husband could have been described similarly to your kid-incredibly intelligent, but shy and reserved (in his case he was pretty socially awkward), definitely not into frat life. He actually had an amazing experience at Duke socially. He moved around a lot as a kid, and being at Duke was the longest amount of time he spent in one place. He was not part of Greek life, but made a pretty amazing group of lifelong friends. 10 years later we are still close with many of these people. He wouldn't deny the role that Greek life plays on campus, but since he had his own group I don't think it really bothered him. He also appreciated his academic experience, and I think it actually challenged him for perhaps the first time. Overall I think going to Duke helped him become a little more well rounded and comfortable in social settings. He considers it to be one of the best choices he ever made.

My experience at Wake was tougher. They gave me a big scholarship so I went there. My academic experience was fantastic and set me up for Ivy League grad school down the road and a career that I love. Small classes, good professors who actually seemed to enjoy teaching, and amazing study abroad are just a few of the good things I'd say about the academic experience. Socially, it took me some time to find my niche, and even then I never had a really consistent group of friends--more like individual friends I had from disparate activities. A bit of this was my own fault. Freshman year I started dating someone at a different school (not husband) and I don't think I put enough effort into reaching out and making friends. One thing I will say about Greek life at Wake is that people approach it in different ways. I think it's easier for women. Many of my friends and roommates were in sororities and saw it as another activity that they enjoyed, but it didn't consume their lives (there were of course exceptions). For men I think it's probably tougher in terms of the divide between "frat guys" and independents. I'm not sure I'd encourage someone fitting your son's description to go there, but think about visiting campus and seeing how it feels to him.

We were reflecting recently on what we feel we got out of going to private college and whether it was worth the cost. We agreed that we really liked being surrounded by smart, driven people from a variety of backgrounds, and we feel that both Wake and Duke offered that to us in a way our high schools and experiences at home never did. We both also wanted to avoid going to the same huge state schools as half our high school classmates. Sure maybe UChicago has more people discussing Foucault in coffee shops, but frankly they can keep them because an entire student body of those types sounds insufferable.

I think Duke would be a better fit for your son than Wake, and you should definitely check it out. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Definitely look into Case Western. It's in a fantastic area (check it out before dismissing it because of, well, Pittsburgh). They offered my son a $30,000/year merit offer, and the facilities and opportunities were amazing. The only reason he didn't attend is because he chose a full ride to Maryland (can't beat free), but it was a close second.

Your son sounds like mine. Have you considered Maryland? College Park is full of brilliant, geeky, interesting people, and the Greek life doesn't dominate college. You might be surprised how much he thrives in a large college environment where there are so many types of people and groups. Also, he can come home when he likes (my daughter still chooses to come home from College Park every weekend).

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Interesting thread! A few have asked why the geographic restriction. We are a small and close knit family, DS is not very independent yet, and I think he feels more secure knowing he would be a car ride away if he wanted to come home for a weekend. So it will take a very special school to get him on a plane, at least at first.

I have always thought Chicago could be up his alley, but I have heard bad things about the neighborhood (like students getting mugged) .

You may be transmitting your anxiety to your DS. You've heard students have been mugged at University of Chicago so you crossed it off your list? If HE is interested, HE should visit and decide for himself. He may be more independent than you give him credit for. At the very least, you should be pulling back so he can develop that independence which means leaving the college search to him as much as possible. The more responsibility he has, the more secure he will feel about going to college.

[Anonymous]

This thread is a good reminder that you can sometimes get good informed opinions on her and often wildly uninformed opinions based on very limited experiences. Duke is a wonderful college filled with a wide variety of students. It may not be for everyone but the students there are very bright and not all bound to some distorted Greek image. The University of Chicago is one of the top schools in the country, though known mostly for its graduate programs. As an undergrad institution, definitely not for everyone, it is a pretty intense place but it is a lovely campus in a perfectly decent location. There are marginal areas nearby but that is true for a lot of urban campuses and while I don't doubt that someone was mugged near the campus, I don't think all of the students were. Case Western is a very good school but it is in Cleveland not Pittsburgh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely look into Case Western. It's in a fantastic area (check it out before dismissing it because of, well, Pittsburgh). They offered my son a $30,000/year merit offer, and the facilities and opportunities were amazing. The only reason he didn't attend is because he chose a full ride to Maryland (can't beat free), but it was a close second.

Your son sounds like mine. Have you considered Maryland? College Park is full of brilliant, geeky, interesting people, and the Greek life doesn't dominate college. You might be surprised how much he thrives in a large college environment where there are so many types of people and groups. Also, he can come home when he likes (my daughter still chooses to come home from College Park every weekend).

Good luck!

Case Western is in Cleveland. Are you thinking of Carnegie Mellon? That's in Pittsburgh. At any rate, why would anyone dismiss a school because it is in Pittsburgh, consistently rated one of the most "livable" cities in the US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely look into Case Western. It's in a fantastic area (check it out before dismissing it because of, well, Pittsburgh). They offered my son a $30,000/year merit offer, and the facilities and opportunities were amazing. The only reason he didn't attend is because he chose a full ride to Maryland (can't beat free), but it was a close second.

Your son sounds like mine. Have you considered Maryland? College Park is full of brilliant, geeky, interesting people, and the Greek life doesn't dominate college. You might be surprised how much he thrives in a large college environment where there are so many types of people and groups. Also, he can come home when he likes (my daughter still chooses to come home from College Park every weekend).

Good luck!

Case Western is in Cleveland. Are you thinking of Carnegie Mellon? That's in Pittsburgh. At any rate, why would anyone dismiss a school because it is in Pittsburgh, consistently rated one of the most "livable" cities in the US?

The Oakland area of Pittsburgh with Carnegie Mellon and Pitt is a really neat area - much more of a student quarter than any part of DC or Hyde Park.

[Anonymous]

Oops...PP here...yes, I meant Cleveland!

[Anonymous]

PP whose friend transferred from Duke to Chicago. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had the experience of Duke grads being not particularly intellectual, just because it validates my gut feelings about those who I have met...

IMO, it is possible that Duke would be a great place for him. As with any large, well ranked university, there are always going to be a range of people who attend. I just think the social vibe at a lot of the good Southern schools (Duke, Vandy, Tulane) as well as some of the super preppy ivies (Dartmouth, for example) are just a turn off for a certain kind of kid. If you think Chicago might be up his alley, maybe you want to look at places like Wesleyan, Amherst, Northwestern, John's Hopkins (hey, that one is pretty close to home), Oberlin, and Kenyon. I also wouldn't worry too much about the neighborhood surrounding Chicago. It borders some very rough areas, but Hyde Park itself is largely very nice. I have a good friend who grew up there (her dad's a professor at Chicago), and there are parts of the neighborhood that were perfectly safe for us to walk around as a group of teen girls at night. I'm sure some undergrads have gotten mugged, but there is crime in all urban campuses. The issue is that the rough ghetto areas are not very far at all from the nice residential areas that are largely professionals, mostly affiliated with the university.

[Anonymous]

I would vote for Davidson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I went on a study semester abroad with about 20 kids from Duke. I wasnt very impressed with them. They were not very intellectual and did not seem interested in their classes or studies at all. Duke claims they work hard play hard, but I only saw the play hard aspect of that. I didn't even study all that much, maybe three hours a day, but they would totally tease me when they saw me studying and comment on how hard I worked.


It is the work hard, play hard mentality that has taken over all the good colleges. Every college guide book you read boasts about the work hard, play hard aspect as if it is a badge of honor for the students. "I have a 4.0 in finance, but I can get black out drunk every weekend, and my parents are footing the bill. Yeah this is the right fit for me!" Work hard, play hard = nails on the chalkboard.


My home school was Wesleyan, where I felt most people were into their classes and studied a lot. I thought Wes students were much harder working and more intellectual despite the fact duke has a more prestigious rep.

Well Wesleyan does not have a top basketball team.

[Anonymous]

St. Johns in Annapolis. We hire interns from all the top schools, the best in terms analytical skill and other job related skill (yes we give them work and pay them) are the ones from st johns.