Duke

Want a balanced college life, strong academics, sports, community service, research and fun?  Then you have come to the right place.  An ivy league callliber education and student body with a cooperative, not competitive school culture.  Quantitative majors (engineering, math, statistics, economics and pre-med) tend to have heavier workloads but on the whole a Duke students life is relatively laid back relative to it’s peers.  It’s common to find large study groups and review sessions.  There are peer studying programs, a writing center and academic support center.

The culture of the school encourages students to partner in creating their educational experience, creating their academic goals and getting involved both in campus and in the larger world.  To support this involvement there is the Duke Engage program which  funds undergraduate civic engagement all over the world and domestically.  This program supports students for 8 wks and the student must blog about their experience.  Approximately 45% of students study abroad at 120 sites throughout the world including 85 Duke programs.  There is also Duke Away which provides domestic learning opportunities.  Students can go to LA to study film, NYC to study finance and Beaufort NC to study at the marine lab.  Although a well respected University the focus at Duke is on the undergraduate experience.  

15% of Duke students come from the Carolinas and 10% are international making Duke a place with great geographic and cultural diversity. 85% of the students at Duke are enrolled in the college of arts and sciences.  The college has 45 majors as well as offering their students the opportunity to self-design their major. The college maintains distribution requirements.  That leaves 15% of the students in the engineering college.  There students are required to take 5 math and 5 science classes, 1 engineering writing class, additional engineering requirements as well as requirements in their specialization.  All students must take a writing seminar comprised of approximately 20 freshmen.  Each seminar may have a different topical focus but the goal is ensuring college quality writing.