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duke university

have the opportunity to go to duke university for a postgrad, just wondering if anyone has any info on the place?

hi
i'm in uppper 6th applying to american colleges for this autumn, so i dont personally know very much abt Duke, but i've used www.princetonreview.com loads - for info about loads of universities from the unis themselves and students etc. hope it helps :smile:

Reply 2

yt660

Duke is a very good institution, people call it the "Harvard of the South"...

Reply 3

Tarts_n_Vicars

13

A friend of mine went there, GREAT school (and he had a lot of fun...they work hard and party hard) - quite well to do aswell.....

Reply 4

Evil Muffin

1

silkweed

Brilliant school, highly selective. I have a friend going there for a psychology major (she was a 2200+ SAT, good SAT IIs, hard courseload, Asian, brilliant ECs, type applicant to give you a gauge of the type of student caliber).

And it's NC - lovely state!

Traitor, you spelt 'calibre' the American way! :eek:

Reply 5

aiman

12

I'm applying to Duke for undergraduate this year. I also know some people doing postgraduate there in Computer Engineering. Duke is a very prominent university, certainly one of the best in the united states. It excels in engineering, economics, neurobiology and political science.
The studies are quite difficult. One of my postgrad friends tells me that one of his subjects has an average of 89%, so if you score a 89% on an exam, you get a C :eek:

I hope that helps.

Reply 6

devil09

7

Well, what do you want to know about Duke? I can probably answer some or most of your questions, but I need some topics to discuss. :smile:

aiman, I'm willing to bet your friend is concentrating in engineering or a hard science, because Duke has quite a bit of grade inflation. I took organic chemistry last semester, and the average grade was a B, which is much higher than elsewhere. We're not as bad as Harvard, but we certainly have a lot more grade inflation than Chicago/Hopkins/Swarthmore/etc. You do have to work hard, though.

Reply 7

Tajel

1

Which subject do you intend to study?

Reply 8

youngone

OP

in the english dept, but i don't know if i'm really cut out for academic life or not :frown:

Reply 9

devil09

7

We have a great English department! Unfortunately, most of the department is on leave this year. :rolleyes:

The program is strong in a lot of areas, and you can work with faculty in a wide variety of areas (Medieval Studies, Literature, German, Anthropology, etc.). The graduate program is very small, and it has a good placement rate, although English will never be a booming field.

Reply 10

Mike23

1

youngone

have the opportunity to go to duke university for a postgrad, just wondering if anyone has any info on the place?

one of the best in USA part of the "Ivy League" that means it ranks in the top 8 universities in the country

Reply 11

*River

15

^No it doesn't. The Ivy League was originally a sports' league, and not even a very good one.

Reply 12

aiman

12

rahim

one of the best in USA part of the "Ivy League" that means it ranks in the top 8 universities in the country

Duke University, although prominent, is not part of the Ivy League.

Reply 13

Tamiya

aiman

The studies are quite difficult. One of my postgrad friends tells me that one of his subjects has an average of 89%, so if you score a 89% on an exam, you get a C :eek:

I hope that helps.

Actually, that is far more likely to imply that the studies are easy, because those who got A and B scored above 89% and probably a fair number with full marks, even. Very high absolute marks are extremely rare in universities with genuinely hard exams and tough examiners and the average marks would be far below 89% and in certain cases, less than 50%.

Reply 14

Knogle

16

Duke has quite a reputation here in Singapore, probably regarded just below the Ivies, alongside universities like NYU and Chicago.

Reply 15

devil09

7

Actually, that is far more likely to imply that the studies are easy, because those who got A and B scored above 89% and probably a fair number with full marks, even. Very high absolute marks are extremely rare in universities with genuinely hard exams and tough examiners and the average marks would be far below 89% and in certain cases, less than 50%.

That's certainly true in the case aiman mentioned, but I don't want anyone thinking courses at Duke are easy! :rolleyes:

The average grade on the last organic chem exam we took was 60/150 (standard deviation of 20). :eek:

Averages in science courses are usually much lower, which is why they're curved.

Duke > NYU

Reply 16

Tamiya

Knogle

Duke has quite a reputation here in Singapore, probably regarded just below the Ivies, alongside universities like NYU and Chicago.

No offence to Duke students, or anyone in particular, but "reputation" needn't have anything to do with exams and grading standards, or reality for that matter. It's just a subjective impression formed by the masses. Superior marketing and public relations certainly help.

Reply 17

Knogle

16

Tamiya

No offence to Duke students, or anyone in particular, but "reputation" needn't have anything to do with exams and grading standards, or reality for that matter. It's just a subjective impression formed by the masses. Superior marketing and public relations certainly help.