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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here, daughter was deferred. She’s now going to be applying to [b]several peer schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia[/b], but her heart was with Duke. She’s doing alright though![/quote]

Columbia may be a peer to Duke, but not Harvard and Princeton.  https://www.quora.com/Is-Duke-considered-inferior-by-people-that-went-to-Harvard-or-Columbia[/quote]

I am a Duke grad. I went there on athletic scholarship but was in top third of the class in terms of grades and scores. Was ranked in the top 3 in the nation in athletics so never dealt with admissions uncertainty. My daughters did, although they were far better students than me. They chose Princeton, arguably about as rigorous as an undergrad as one can experience.

I was exceedingly poor, and I think from that perspective there is no other school like Duke - such a contradiction in its entirety. Witness:

Wash Duke started his tobacco business by walking home from being released from a union prison. He used the five dollar coin Lincoln insisted go to prisoners.

The Dukes were slave owners. Yet they donated the land for NC Central University and endowed Johnson C Smith.

They were the ultimate monopolists - producing tobacco no less - a product that has harmed millions. Yet Duke Hospital has saved countless lives.

Wash Duke saved Trinity College - still a part of Duke today - in the 1890’s by insisting that women be admitted on equal footing. Yet black students were not admitted until 1963.

Duke is brash and has a reputation for paying dearly for professors they want. On Campus Drive connecting East and West campuses there a mansions. These were built to attract professors from the Ivy League. The place has the feel of an aggressive upstart. Buck Duke bought half of Park Avenue to be respectable. The Duke Gardens - an unreal oasis is drab Durham - was built when Duke was told he could not put a lake there to mimic Princeton because of mosquitoes.

ESPN ran the I Hate Christian Laettner documentary tonight. Only Duke could have developed one of the best college players ever (giving Duke incredible exposure) while at the same time being one of the most obnoxious and arrogant players ever.  I think both statements are very accurate. And in another irony, he was a lower middle class kid from Buffalo who had little in common with the 1 percenters who make up the student body. Of course Grant Hill from Reston on the same team  one of Duke’s best African American athletes ever was an upper middle class kid with Yale parents.

And one could go on…I say all of this in a neutral way but the school still has much of the impetuous character of the Dukes (I went to school with a great grandson Duke heir and the history of the place lives). I came away not liking parts of the school but also found the journey in reconciling the contradictions a healthy exercise. I for years spent a lot of time working in New York and would drive up there so I could stop at Princeton to see the kids. Not sure I have ever felt so privileged as I felt there, even though I was spending 70 grand a kid each year for it. But Duke challenged me in ways I often didn’t like, and I am not sure that is a bad thing. 
[/quote]

This is a truly great post because it identifies Duke in its totality. It's very easy to look at schools or people in black or white contexts. Sounds like it was a great experience for you. [/quote]

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