IvyGate Field Trip: You Say “Harvard of the South” Like It’s a Good Thing
Say you’re a world-class institution whose public image has been badly damaged in the past year. It’s time to restore your reputation as a haven of knowledge and scholarship, a destination for respected lecturers the world over. Who would be on your guest list?
Um.
For reasons that remain deeply baffling, Duke University has invited us to talk to a group of students about blogging and new media. More ridiculous, they’re flying us down and putting us up here. Frankly, it’s the best argument we’ve ever heard against huge university endowments; we’ll be handing out tuition refunds on frathouse porches when we head south on Feb. 24.
Just to make it loud and clear that our coverage can be bought and sold (Stanford! Universidad de Cancun! You listening?), we asked two Duke guys to explain what makes their school tick, and why IvyGate readers should care.
“Excuse me? Could you please get your God-damned hands off Duke’s God-damned fully equipped 2007 Escalade?”
Ah, Duke: Often called the last exit on the New Jersey Turnpike, but with racial politics reminiscent of the first stop on the Underground Railroad, Duke is a study in country-fried contradiction. Like their spray-on tans, students walk around with an Ivy inferiority complex you can almost touch — matched only by a funner-than-thou conviction that dare not be questioned. Steel your Ivy egos, kids: most Duke students actually did apply here as a first choice, and aren’t using the school as an Ivy fallback.
Much of that is due to the fact that among the elite schools, Duke truly has one of the best social scenes. And by that I mean one of the most dangerous. This is not a laid-back place. In recent years, thanks to a heavy-handed crackdown on frats, the scene has shifted from kegs on the quad to dorm-hallway bottle shots to closed-door coke parties to tacky New South off-campus bars to sleazy off-campus houses to inevitable five-alarm national media crises.
There’s no equivalent to Skull and Bones at Duke; our one secret society is, like, 40 years old. There’s no Hasty Pudding, passing its grads along to Julliard ever year. Duke — because of its youth and location — is a place for people who aren’t tapped into the ultra-premiere pipelines of the elite, but want to be. Hence the overwhelming hordes of “outer-outer borough” types from Long Island, Pennsylvania and Jersey crowding out the once-dominant Southern bloc. Hence the Escalades and tricked-out Beamers. Hence the all-consuming basketball worship and its implications of wealth redistribution. Also: birthplace of postmodernism. That’s probably not even true but fuck it, nothing’s more Duke than claiming to be the absolute first, best, biggest, whatever, even in the face of reasonable arguments to the contrary.
Duke is a place still unleavened by the WASPy pretensions of “subtlety” and “taste.” Think of us as your wealthy country cousin who remains unaware that her antidepressants are not dinner-table conversation. We’re Penn with a mastopexy; Dartmouth rolling on Sprewells; and Princeton rubbing your purple tracksuit and wondering aloud: “Is that velour?”
The national media has already pointed out, ad nauseum, how Duke can be tacky and classy at the same time. And that was before the lacrosse scandal. More on that later. For now, raise some SoCo to the enormous gothic phallus us Dukies live under for four hot years.
36 Comments | 
Digg This | 
Share on Facebook | 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Read more: Duke, field trip
Search
Email
About
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
February 15th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
“most Duke students actually did apply here as a first choice, and aren’t using the school as an Ivy fallback.”
So, are we talking 51% here? I’m not saying that you’re lying/made this up, I’m just saying that I don’t believe you. The only relevant statistic would be one that gave us the percentage of students that were accepted by an Ivy, and chose to attend Duke instead. I’ll take a stab and say that this would be less than ‘most.’
February 15th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Everyone I know who applied to Duke also applied to a better Ivy. Everyone I know who actually attends Duke only does so because they were rejected from the Ivies. Duke is the most overrated school in the nation, in athletics and academics alike.
Oh also, Cornell was closed yesterday due to snow for the first time in like 8 years. That’s not news?
February 15th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Duke supposedly pioneered the “development admit.” The book, The Price of Admission, devotes a chapter to Duke and that subject.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Does Duke have a Founding Myth?!?!? I heard it had a GREAT one.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Duke must be desperate!!
Anyway…Dartmouth was closed yesterday also. We’ve got 2′ mazes everywhere. I’m going outside to build a phallus-like sculpture.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
To answer your question, BRC, no, it’s not. Sorry!
February 15th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Columbia just had another walkout! They seem to think skipping class makes their case look that much stronger. Holy crap, I’m so glad I didn’t go there.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
“most Duke students actually did apply here as a first choice, and aren’t using the school as an Ivy fallback.”
isn’t duke’s yield lower than any other ivy?
or perhaps the kid is refering to the fact that the majority of the student body applied ED so it was their first choice school. But, if they applied ED, they couldn’t apply to any ivy.
Safety ivy.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
as the typical Ivy Leaguer, of course I harbor an elitist attitude, and I can banter with people about what is wrong with all the Ancient Eight schools. oh, Yale sucks because — and Harvard because —- and we hate Princeton by nature. But, I would rather spend 4 years isolated at Brown, contemplating suicide at Cornell, avoiding shootings and muggings at Penn, or being a douche at Princeton, than spend even 4 days at Duke. I think I would rather go to community college than go to Duke. I would rather get passed around a lacrosse team party like currency than go to Duke. oh, wait…
February 15th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
As a Yalie now at Duke for grad school, I must say–where’d you find this person? It shows more self-awareness than any of the undergrads I’ve met in the past three years here.
And hey, do let me know when you’re in Durham. My calling you idiots in a previous post aside, I’d come to a talk you gave.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I visited a friend at duke for a few days. everyone at duke loves duke. there are plenty of mentally challenged kids, but they have those at columbia too. there were plenty of smart kids too. and WAY fewer stuck up pricks. i like going to school in a big city, but if i didn’t Duke would be high on my list.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I must immediately concede to the superior beings that name themselves by merely school letter and graduating year that I am, after all, trespassing. But I’d like to address the claims and concerns of some of the above.
Duke students like it here because we all picked this place for the same reasons:
Our academics rank in the top-10 (T-5th last year and T-8th this year), which puts us in the middle of the pack with the Ivies. Not that everyone buys into the US News numbers, but if you’re reading this blog and getting angry about our invasion, I’m guessing you do.
Our athletics are consistently ranked in the top-10 of the Directors’ Cup (the rankings of overall athletic programs). Besides the basketball, which is an obvious draw, almost every team competes for a national championship in their respective sports year in and year out.
Our social scene is strong. Say what you want about lacrosse, you know the facts. Greek life is heavily prevalent but not obnoxiously elitist and exclusive. Frats live in dorms next to Engineering nerds, and everyone parties together at Tailgates, in Kville, and at the “New South off-campus bars” that both astonish and instill envy in visiting friends from other schools.
A third of each class is admitted early decision. This means Duke is without a doubt their first choice. The rest of the students choose Duke for a variety of reasons (some being that they didn’t get into Princeton, others being that, even though they were accepted, they would never want to go to Harvard). But the common denominator among all students who choose Duke is that we relish the above combination: an Ivy-league education, Pac/Big-10 athletics, and a faux-SEC social scene (hah!).
Everyone at Duke loves Duke (except for the four percent who choose to transfer every year to join your ranks, but nobody likes them anyway).
February 15th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Y’all are really bombarding us with a plethora of statistics today. “everyone at duke loves duke.” “most Duke students actually did apply here as a first choice, and aren’t using the school as an Ivy fallback.” Are these stats from the same source by any chance? http://www.ivyenvy.com, perhaps?
February 15th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Get over yourself, you suck. I’d only go to Duke if the lacrosse team threw another party…
February 15th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
since my aunt lives in raleigh, my parents would always take me on the duke tour every time we would visit. it would always be in summer when it was bitchingly hot and of course midway through the tour the question about air-conditioning would come up. and then the tour guide would try to convince us it wasn’t so bad without a/c in durham while we boiled in the hundred degree heat.
no thank you duke, i’ll take a school that has air conditioning. and you can keep your sports teams too. i’d take the durham bulls any day.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Duke is so into air conditioning that I have to bring a coat to class during the warmer months.
It’s funny, I’ve disliked Duke since I got here. But reading the comments here makes me think that I would have disliked the schools I turned down even more.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:27 am
“Duke supposedly pioneered the ‘development admit’”
Is that a joke? I think my school had a jump on them of around 300 years.
And the rest of this Duke bashing is lame. Some is worst than elitist because it’s willfully dishonest. Yeah, Duke is loaded with HYP rejects, but we all know it also splits a lot of admits with the rest of the Ivies. It’s an Ivy peer. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t be so tragically insecure.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:31 am
jesus, why are people getting defensive about duke? like I can understand sayin princeton sucks, or harvard sucks, I mean, we’re indoctrinated into that shit during orientation. but chill out, dukes are allowed to like duke without you disdainfully sneering that they must have been rejected from somewhere better.
fucking jerks. sometimes I really hate the ivies.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Dook’s social scene = Franklin Street, Chapel Hill.
Also, in case anyone needs reminding, Dook is in *Durham*, NC. Durham isn’t called North Carolina’s “The City of Medicine” because there aren’t roving gangs of undead crackheads prowling the streets.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Where/when will you be speaking? Can you post the details of this…?
February 16th, 2007 at 1:03 am
D08 has a point, this is pretty lame. I think part of this unnecessary defensiveness springs from the fact that some of the people posting here got REJECTED from Duke (raises hand, although they never received my entire application, but I’ve moved on). If you honestly think that attending a school that has a 5-10% lower admissions rate than a peer school (between Ivies or Ivy peers, take your pick) makes you a better human being, stop kidding yourself and get a life. It takes a lot for me to defend Duke, but it’s a fantastic school, and everyone I know who attends loves it. I can’t say the same thing for some of the Ivies I’ve visited…
February 16th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Honestly, I wrote the first because I was bored at work and was looking for something to read; it happens. The second was written in response to an incompetent “jeff.” Duke is a cool school and I would have definitely considered the Blue Devils if I had not been accepted early to Dartmouth. BTW, look for Duke to go far in the Big Dance. I’m betting on them. Rage Duke and Wah-Hoo-Wah. Nobody rages anymore, except Josh McRoberts.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Duke is/was the ordinal title for King, deal with it.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
A Columbia alum and a Duke alum who I know described the difference as follows: Duke is for smart kids who liked high school, and Columbia is for smart kids who hated it. Duke’s student culture may be very different from most if not all of the Ivy League schools, but in terms of intellectual chops, you figure the student body is at least on par with the second tier Ivies (and yes, that’s the kind I went to).
February 16th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
“most Duke students actually did apply here as a first choice, and aren’t using the school as an Ivy fallback.”
I rejected Dartmouth for Duke, and more than half of my friends were early decision, or didn’t even apply to Ivies. Sure, there’s a good number of Harvard rejects, just like there are at Penn, Dartmouth, Brown and Cornell. But I think the majority of Duke students chose Duke b/c you can get an Ivy education without the Ivy attitude.
February 16th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
if you think that duke is so great then you shouldn’t have to validate yourself by saying that you got into an ivy. if you don’t hold ivies in high regard, then why did you apply to one? if you think duke’s education is top-rate, why do you have to put down an ivy to say that?
February 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
In hindsight, when I was a high school senior I had no idea of what I actually wanted. I applied early to MIT and (thankfully) got deferred then rejected. I would have been miserable there. Judging people by where they applied, got in, and attended is kind of funny because that’s just pinning that person to their 17 year old persona.
That said, I didn’t like Duke because when I visited it was about 110 degrees. Then again, that sounds pretty sweet now that it’s been cold as balls here in the northeast for a few weeks.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:48 am
p07- good point. it’s hilarious when freshmen here at Yale validate their decision by noting “oh, i rejected harvard.” by about oh second semester people get over themselves at Yale, if not most ivies, and realize oh, wait, i’m happy here because i GO here! so dukies, validate yourself some other way than dissing ivies, please. you have some great sports teams, that’s wonderful. you’re in USNW top ten (uhh, really, we don’t care, but congrats). so leave the ivy league blog and do something worthwhile with your time.
February 17th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Duke is possibly the most overrated college in America. It’s much more akin to Northwestern, Tufts or Emory than any of the top Ivies.
February 17th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
“As a Yalie now at Duke for grad school, I must say–where’d you find this person? It shows more self-awareness than any of the undergrads I’ve met in the past three years here.”
Huh… why is it not surprising to hear a grad student dismissing undergrads carte blanche? Oh, I know, because I’ve heard it before… as a Dukie now in grad school at Yale, we grads have much the same impression of Yale undergrads: “smug, rich, white, pansies.”
February 18th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
“Hence the all-consuming basketball worship and its implications of wealth redistribution.”
Am I the only one who noticed this sentence? I’m going to go out on a limb and say you guys were being presumptuous on this, as the majority of Duke basketball players came from nice cozy prep schools.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
“Corey Maggette’s agent” was exactly right. I spent 18 years growing up about 15 miles from Duke’s campus, and I think the main difference is one of atmosphere. Those who knock the academics or selectivity or other pretentious bullshit at either Duke or any of the Ivies are clearly wrestling with some inadequacy issues; there’s a more or less playing field among these peers. But yeah, the culture is completely different. At Duke there’s a lot of emphasis on drinking and watch ballgames. Since that’s what I grew up around, I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I preferred to conduct my social life in New York City and graduate without ever attending a sporting event. Diff’rent strokes, y’all.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Yeah, pretty much the only reason I go to an Ivy is so I can feel superior to the people who go to colleges ranked lower than mine. So keep on defending Duke because convincing me that it doesn’t suck really makes a difference to me.
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
You all are pathetic. Seriously.
May 6th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
“But I think the majority of Duke students chose Duke b/c you can get an Ivy education without the Ivy attitude.”
But that’s the best part of the Ivy League!
February 11th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
It’s no HYP but Duke’s even with the rest of the Ivies