Two campuses separated by a freeway is somehow horrible at JMU but OK at Duke.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of drab and definitely not the part of Duke they show off in their promotional materials.

Idk, it’s pretty to me. You can think of West as fake Princeton and East as fake UVA. I love the academic buildings on East actually and the library.

My East campus dorm room was actually the biggest and nicest one I had.

Well, Princeton is fake Oxford and UVA is fake brick Palladio and Pantheon.

We just visited Duke last week. There are several quads but the one in front of the chapel is ok. Was expecting better. The cafeteria off the quad is quite nice with different cuisines. The Sarah Duke gardens close to Duke is very nice with cherry blossoms in full bloom and is free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of drab and definitely not the part of Duke they show off in their promotional materials.

Idk, it’s pretty to me. You can think of West as fake Princeton and East as fake UVA. I love the academic buildings on East actually and the library.

My East campus dorm room was actually the biggest and nicest one I had.

It looks like a weird mix of UVA, W&M and UMD

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of drab and definitely not the part of Duke they show off in their promotional materials.

Idk, it’s pretty to me. You can think of West as fake Princeton and East as fake UVA. I love the academic buildings on East actually and the library.

My East campus dorm room was actually the biggest and nicest one I had.

Anonymous wrote:My dd turned down Duke due to the split campus setup. There’s also a lot of drinking that goes on in the freshman dorms.

Lol. There's a lot of drinking in the freshman dorms at every school.

Anonymous wrote:My dd turned down Duke due to the split campus setup. There’s also a lot of drinking that goes on in the freshman dorms.

OMg!? You mean college kids drink? Pass the smelling salts!

It’s kind of drab and definitely not the part of Duke they show off in their promotional materials.

It is awesome to have a whole campus for just freshmen. My son loves it. Lots of activities and some freshmen classes are on east campus too. They have their own library, dining hall, gym , tennis courts, music building ……all just for freshmen…
The new Quadx residential system is very nice.

My dd turned down Duke due to the split campus setup. There’s also a lot of drinking that goes on in the freshman dorms.

I lived on East Campus my freshman year before they made it an all-freshman quad. It was fine. Buses take you regularly back and forth to West. I had an activity I had to be on West Campus for every day, no problem at all.

Side note, I would have loved if East had been all freshman when I was there. It’s a great concept IMO.

It’s not a quad, it’s a whole separate campus. It’s not inconvenient, it’s nice. There are a lot of clubs, activities and academic spaces on the East campus so even once you live elsewhere, you end up coming back.

Personally, I wouldn’t let it be a factor in choosing a college. But if you want something really compact, Duke isn’t it. Even the West (main) campus is pretty spread out, especially if you’re in the sciences.

Curious about real experiences living in the Duke freshman quad? Is it very inconvenient for clubs / activities? How is the actual quality of the dorms and dining hall?