What is it like to be a graduate student in economics at Duke University?

Duke University is called the Harvard University of the South, so what is it like to go to school here?

Mom Jiang Jie who went abroad to party

Duke, a Harvard University located in the southern United States, is currently ranked on the US News national university list Eighth (top five at one point, but occasionally in the top ten). Due to its unique location (most of the top universities in the United States are in the North), Duke has a lot of talent (especially students!) from the South, both academically and physically.

Duke University has 15,000 students, half male and half female, with approximately 6,500 undergraduate students. The size of the school is like this: more alumni, more professors, more academic courses, more lovers, more people with bad hearts, so the size can be said to be appropriate :).

Someone once asked me which one is better, Duke or Swarthmore. Yes, in fact, the admission conditions of the two schools are similar, but the styles and types of the schools are so different that there is no way to compare them. If we use two words to distinguish Swarthmore and Duke, the former is "elite" and the latter is "competitiveness." The core of the elite is the aristocratic "Qi", small and beautiful, leaving no one behind. The competitiveness is pioneering and represents unlimited possibilities, because there are many cool kids from the south of the United States gathered here, who can fight in minutes.

If you are a competitive student, like the southern weather, like the open and diverse atmosphere of the Big U, and like basketball, then you may like it very much.

As a top-ranking national university, Duke University has majors in biology, medicine, nursing, engineering, law, English, business, history, physics, mathematics, statistics, public policy, and diagnosis. Various fields such as psychology, political science, and sociology have particularly outstanding academic standards. Duke Mathematics Magazine is one of the top five mathematics journals in the world. Considering the number and frequency of articles published in top academic journals, it may be more difficult to publish an article than the science weekly NATURE and SCIENCE that Chinese people admire. .

In addition to Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke’s professional schools, such as the School of Law, School of Religion, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, PRATT School of Engineering, FUQUA Business School, SANFORD School of Policy, NICHOLAS School of the Environment, Academic The standards are also among the best in the country. Although among these graduate schools, only the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering admit undergraduates, the remaining vocational colleges still provide a large number of academic resources and reserves for undergraduates: Duke Medical School (Duke Medical School) is listed in the National News Medical School (US News graduate school of medicine) ranks eighth

Duke University Hospital ranks 12th in the country

·School of Nursing ranks sixth among nursing schools in the country

·The School of Public Policy ranks 16th, with Environmental Policy and Management ranking second in the United States.

·Fuqua Business School ranks 13th overall, 4th in the EMBA program, 5th in marketing, and 6th in nonprofit operations

Duke University There are many famous alumni, including former U.S. President Richard Nixon, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Soong Ching Ling’s father Song Jiashu (Duke’s first international student), and Apple CEO Cook (pictured below; he is a typical academic from an ordinary southern family). ), Bill Gates’ wife Melinda (who is said to have double majors in computer science and economics), various business celebrities and CEOs (including CEOs of Pepsi, GE and other companies), many active and retired NBA players in the sports world, the United States Krzyzewski, the coach of the national basketball team, also includes multiple Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, literature, and medicine, Turing Award winners, and even multiple Pulitzer Prizes. There have been 11 Nobel Prize winners associated with Duke University in history, many of whom are current professors. All in all, a star-studded cast.

The location is in the Durham area of ??North Carolina, a 20-minute drive from Raleigh-Durham Airport. With an enviable 35 square kilometers of land including the famous Duke Forest. Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill form one of the largest scientific and technological research centers in the United States: the "North Carolina Research Triangle" Research Triangle Park. Many biological and technology companies have also established bases here, providing students with unique conveniences in finding internships and jobs. Lenovo's headquarters is not far from Duke. There are also IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Fidelity and other companies nearby, so there are plenty of job opportunities. At the same time, this is also a region in the United States with a high proportion of PhD students. North Carolina has a southern climate, four distinct seasons, and low living standards and prices. There are no direct flights from my country and you need to transfer to Raleigh-Durham.

Teacher Mark

“Duke is not a good place, just a good source.

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When I ask Duke students what they think of this statement, I almost always get a yes from them. To be fair, there have been a lot of complaints. Duke, and even many U.S. The social scene in college is primitive. Fraternities are hierarchical, high-barrier, competitive interest groups. Simple groups of freshmen friends can be broken down with careful thought and persistence by all parties if you're not a very outgoing person. People who don't like you sweating and waving awkwardly at people, then this is not the place for you, your social life is closed

I once saw a Duke monologue. The performance, which drew a lot of cries from the audience, showed that Duke's social culture is shaped by gender-based violence, depression and racism. ” guy who admits he would rather lie in bed and relive the Star Wars trilogy. He hates the alcohol-filled parties organized by the university’s student union. He doesn’t know where the other students who don’t like parties are.

< p>Heat wave, Old Duke and other open campus activities are considered "extrovert activities", and activities for "introvert" students are rare. Poetry? Composing lyrics and music? There are many comedy performances in my college. The activities experienced in the era are gone.

In addition to the need for a space to organize these activities, there is also a need for a system that provides such opportunities for introverted students to find their own interest groups. Maybe the university does not have them. Responsibility encourages introverts to make friends, but the way introverts behave makes me wonder if these groups naturally seek out each other. If anything, it's natural for them to exclude themselves from the group.

Some student organizations at Duke University are trying to find new directions and ways to organize activities. Almost every semester, organizations launch new social methods to meet people with different personalities, such as drinking tea and making friends, sharing knowledge about mathematics or mathematics. Computer enthusiasm, etc. From the perspective of a few people I know personally, that doesn't seem to be enough

Perhaps when their social lives are no longer limited to fraternities, sports teams, and drinking parties. , when their social life is no longer about hierarchy, when their hobbies are no longer about competition, they will see the ideal Duke University appear in the college handbook

Jiang Ta

I am currently studying at Duke CS Master.

Duke is not one of the typical schools that Chinese people like to apply to. For example, Columbia, New York, Stanford, UCI are all schools that most people will apply to. Duke is a school that Chinese people apply to. The proportion of them is much smaller than that of them. Before I came out, I was particularly worried that there would be too many Chinese people and I would be lazy in the circle of Chinese people. But when I came out, I found that there were actually many situations where I was playing with foreigners, so my English was still good. It has improved a lot and is generally in line with expectations (ECE may have more Chinese people, but other departments are also okay)

The campus is large and beautiful, like the Sarah Garden mentioned above. Many alumni also take wedding photos there, which is very beautiful in spring. The school is divided into three campuses: east, middle and west. Graduates generally take classes in the west campus. There may be some humanities departments in the east campus. The entire middle campus is Sarah garden. If you need to take a school bus from the East Campus to the West Campus.

The school has various events that you are welcome to participate in. If you want to integrate, it would be good to attend more of these events and play with Americans. As for academic courses, it depends on the department. There are huge differences between departments. Everyone's department is relatively good. Generally speaking, they can just do their homework and projects. They are not so stressed that they have to stay up late to catch up. However, the friends in the ECON department are under a lot of pressure and have to stay in the library on Friday nights. The kind where you stay up all night reviewing before an exam.

It feels like a big national park near Durham = =. I often describe it to my friends as there are as many trees here as there are people in Beijing, and there are as many people here as there are trees in Beijing. The air is very good. It feels like a vacation place in my country, like a forest oxygen bar all day long. In general, the quality of life would be much worse without a car. There is only one Chinese supermarket, one supermarket, and one outlet in Durham. It takes about 20 minutes or more to drive from Duke to these three places. As for ordinary supermarkets, depending on where you live, it will generally be difficult to get there without a car. Generally speaking, everything is built next to the highway, and you have to cross the highway wherever you go.

By the way, there are only three or four Chinese restaurants. Mostly Sichuan cuisine. The standard is relatively average. The number of Korean and Japanese dishes is about the same. Generally speaking, there are not too many Asian dishes, and the other cuisines are better. Legend has it that this is the most tasty town in the southern part.

The rent here is relatively cheap. If you rent in a shared apartment, the price can be as low as 300-400. Ordinarily, 600-700 is not bad. The comparison to greater New York is quite satisfactory. The price is generally not high. Before that, some friends applied to intern at Net App, and they donated $18 in North Carolina and $34 in California. This is a standard.

Duke University has the third largest library collection in the United States! This is probably why Duke University is a particularly excellent university. The school's buildings include older Gothic buildings, more modern buildings, and creatively renovated buildings such as West Campus Union.

Two Ghosts

It has been more than three weeks since I came to Duke. Thinking about the places I traveled far away before my undergraduate studies were Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it is definitely my first experience in English speaking country. I have a lot of experience. I am studying for a PhD in chem. I have to say that I am very satisfied with this project. The reasons are that it has the right time, place, people and all aspects. There are definitely rewards for various challenges, but you can do the hard work. It’s nothing if you plan to be tired.

I am an undergraduate student, I am Bo, the leader of the troupe, the lead singer, etiquette, and team leader. I also travel and swim from time to time, and gather together for meetings. Really, I think I must have been depressed about the college entrance examination in Hubei Province for too long. Jiang Bo, frankly speaking, in my college career I just studied to cope with exams. I don’t know why I studied chemistry. I feel better about school chemistry and homework. My grades are still good because of exam-oriented education. But I feel better about chemistry work. My understanding was still very rough and weak. Later, I planned to go abroad like a fog, and luckily I came to Duke.

The first impression is that it is so beautiful here and there is no need to modify it. I have been to Taiwan for island hopping before. In comparison, most of the beauty here is quiet. I feel that there is no filth in the world. I never tire of looking at the sky. Next chapter Being able to stand in the sun for a long time, and always watching squirrels there even when not in Pratt class, Perkins fulfills your fantasy of a perfect library.

The weather is often sunny, and there are often rainbows and rain. Haha, I have been here for three weeks and met twice. It was a beautiful stay.

As for food, everyone ate hamburgers, burritos, and pizza for a long time. It was pretty good at the beginning, but after eating for a long time, I would rather bring my own lunch box to eat. Panda’s food does not include orange chicken and Beijing beef. I think they are all acceptable, and I have to understand that they have made improvements for American tastes. Fortunately, I opened the West Union in the new school cafeteria when I came to school, and spent a lot of money to decorate it to be super luxurious. The slogan is to be the No. 1 cafeteria in the United States, but I I think it is impossible to surpass UCLA and Cornell. After all, the things are ordinary and very safe, or they are made by themselves. The working people are very honorable! However, Japanese ramen salad and some dessert snacks may be delicious. You can eat various types of rice side dishes, but you must pay attention to distinguish the taste. After all, not only Chinese people eat rice.

I really don’t think shopping is as inconvenient as I said before. Ducun is a village, so a car is very necessary. When you first come here, all the seniors here agree to take you there at a fixed time every week. Buy, buy, buy, you can also use various member discounts, supermarkets, Costco, Walmart, target Kroger, you can buy almost everything you use in our country. As for shopping *ll, now I only go to South Point, to be honest, that place It would take two days to go shopping. There are all the brands you can think of, as well as a large food court and many restaurants. The shopping experience is also good. After all, there are few people and the place is large.

Back to why I like this project, first of all, I feel that the professors and staff here are very nice and respect the students’ ideas and interests. I really had no interest in the subject of chemistry before, but after coming here Unexpectedly, I began to like the scientific research atmosphere here. There is no sense of oppression and interest drives you to start your own scientific research. This is what is advocated here. From now on, I fell in love with Duke. Various people helped me with all kinds of procedures. My poor oral skills were not a problem at all. As long as you talked about it, you were not afraid that the problem would not be solved. Later, after I settled down, I also found dance organizations and singing groups here. In the past, I always felt that these were side jobs, which would delay study and scientific research. At least this is the mainstream value orientation in our country now, but the overall feeling here is that , ensuring time for study and scientific research, you can do whatever you want in your free time, Prof will not push you, and the time is all at your own disposal.