Duke University Top Questions

For some reason I've never really understood, Duke students are stereotyped to be toolish jerks. According to this stereotype, they are rich, Northeastern kids who party all the time and have little regard for the people around them. Growing up a UNC fan in North Carolina, I am well aware of this sentiment. However, for the most part, it is utterly false. Although there are toolish jerks at Duke (just as there are at any school), Duke is an incredibly diverse campus with people from all walks of life. Not everyone is rich and there is not stigma against those who don't have as much money as others - in fact, it's almost impossible to tell who has money and who doesn't. However, there is one notable area in which Duke students do conform to their stereotype; within some (but not all) fraternities in the Greek scene, men tend to homogenize into one kind of person - and that person is often a tool. Yet this is only a portion of the Greek scene, and a vast minority of the Duke student body. As a whole, I'd say the correct stereotype about Duke is students who are passionate. Students get whole-heartedly involved in all aspects of their school, from social to academic to athletic to extracurricular. They are passionate about their studies, their fellow students, and their school.

A Duke student confronts the perception that all Duke students are rich, spoiled, and future CEOs.

A Duke student tackles the "overachiever" stereotype associated with the student body.

A Duke students talks about the perceived arrogance in the student body.

A Duke student talks about the "nerd" stereotypes associated with the school.

Duke student Marissa talks about some of the stereotypes associated with the Duke student body.

Yes, for the most part. Our girls are not hot on the average, but that does not mean that the playing field is not less fun or intriguing. There are some diamonds in the rough. No, we really aren't all nerds (except for the grad school kids). And while many Dukies are WASP-ie, there are just as many modest and only kinda' rich kids.

Duke: Yeas, the administration here sucks and you can get away with what the school thinks won't attract attention, but they get Stalinist on anything that the media might be interested in. Students: Certainly a lot of money, but I'm sure there are poor people here.

I feel that this stereotype is a far stretch of the truth. Albeit, there is a large number of students who may be considered better than "well-off;" however, the idea that the number of students who aren't rich and stuck up is negligable when compared to those who are is none other than a derivative of ignorace. I for one come from one of the poorest cities in the nation (Camden, NJ), and by no means do I feel like I do not fit in. Duke has done a better job in the past years with bringing students from all walks of life and backgrounds to campus, which, I feel, refutes the claim the most of us are stuck up rich kids.

The stereotypes about "effortless perfection" seem to be true. Duke students work very hard in all facets of their lives yet they appear to be very happy, attractive, well put together, etc. I don't know about the rest. But people at duke work very hard at everything, not just academics, but the social scene is very competitive, you have to constantly be aggressive and determined when going to a bar or frat party or any type of social gathering.

Not at all, Duke is an excellent place to meet really cool people. I have way more friends at Duke than I ever had in high school.

There are definitely some people who fit the stereotype, but not the majority.

Yes, much more so than I would have thought going into school. My dad insisted that at any school you could find any kind of person, and this is true. However, the above stereotype does exist. Compared to a school like NYU, where almost everyone is somehow "outside of the box", about 10 kids at Duke are.

Not really

Effortless perfection is something that you might think people have, but you really have to get to know the students and you will see that they are a really down to earth bunch. Yet, EVERYONE is extremely intelligent.

I would say that the stereotypes for the greek life are true to an extent because there are people in every stundent group that fit their stereotype, but overwhelmingly, the people are very normal and most do not fit the mold. At Duke in general I think that the stereotype of rich kids is true, but not to the extent that I was expecting. It is easy to find people that are like you, especially if you are open-minded. The stereotype that Duke is not very racially diverse is pretty true, unless you are in a student organization as I am, for there are many different types of people. Oh and the stereotype about independents being boring is not true at all. Some of the people that I know that go out the most are independents.

Not really. It's true that Duke students are smart. They study hard, but they also party hard. Duke has a high percentage of Asian students, but not most of the students are Asian. And Duke students do not rape people.

About 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, much more than I expected, fullfilled the rich, white stereotype. I do think our students are just as smart as Harvard or Yale kids, but a bit more socially skilled and fun.

absolutely...

Though there are a small number of students there who do fit this description, there are many more students who are at Duke as a result of hard work in high school and who represent a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.