r/duke

Hello, I‘ll keep this quick. I‘ll be studying ECE in the fall and had a few questions:

1. I understand AP Credits don’t count towards graduation, but they can open up extra elective spaces by advancing you. How does this process work regarding submitting your AP scores and selecting the classes. Also is there an AP cap?

2. This sort of plays into the last question. How does class selection work? Since enrolling they haven‘t been sending much information and I feel left in the dark.

3. Considering that I will have a 14-inch laptop, what backpacks do you all recommend? I’m looking to have one for all of college which is compact.

4. FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS ONLY: What is the ideal first year class selection? Also, I get credit for all my AP’s, but is there a class I should consider taking again even if I got the credit?

5. FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS ONLY: Lastly, I will most likely be buying the ROG Zephryus G14 (14-inch screen) because I like the fact that it can be upgraded easily, has good cooling, and is lightweight. What specs are good: graphics card (either 5080, 5070ti, 5070, or 5060ti or 5060), chip (Intel or AMD), RAM (is 32GB enough?), storage (1 or 2TB). I’ve always been a budget desktop computer guy because my usage was always simple (Fusion360, Minecraft, or Internet Browsing), so I’m a little out of my element here. I understand a more capable computer consumes more battery so ideally the simpler the better. At the end of the day this laptop allows me to upgrade the battery later on if I run into trouble though.

(Incoming freshman) Hey everyone, just wanted to come on here and let out a little bit. I'm so scared about the competition at Duke. I'm one of those people that I think just "barely" got in. Like, or my math classes I'm worried that there's going to be an insanely cracked dude who just breaks the curve every test. And I get it, don't go to a top school if you can't handle the pressure, but it isn't that I'm worried/afraid of competing, its more of I'm afraid that I won't be able to enjoy the college experience because of the competition. I usually love competition, but it seems like the stakes are just so much higher now. Did anyone else have this kinda nervousness as an incoming freshman, and if so, how did you mitigate it? Thank you.

I just finished my first year at Duke, and one of my biggest regrets was letting my ego cloud my judgment when choosing classes.

I remember sitting in CHEM101 during my first semester and realizing I was completely in over my head (I hadn’t taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school). But during drop/add, I refused to switch out because all my friends were in the class, and I felt like they would think I was stupid if I did (not true at all btw). I ended up failing the first midterm and eventually had to withdraw, so now I have a W on my transcript that could’ve been completely avoided if I had just taken CHEM99 instead.

The same thing happened second semester with MATH111. Math has never been my strongest subject, but I convinced myself I had to take the “harder” class like everyone else. I spent almost every weekend studying just to keep up, when I could’ve taken MATH105 and 106 instead, both of which are P/F, and probably had a much healthier and more enjoyable experience.

All of this is to say: you’re already at Duke. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. It’s far more important to take classes that are actually at your level so you can genuinely learn, grow, and enjoy the material instead of constantly stressing yourself out trying to keep up.

Wishing you all the best!

Hi, I had a question about a specific part of the housing application. The question asked if I “would be a good roommate to a student who identifies as LGBTQ+”. I think the question is worded very poorly because while I’d obviously be a good roommate to them, my preference is still to have a straight cisgender roommate of the same gender. Would saying no to this question get me in trouble?

Any other incoming freshman not seeing the Blue Book listed as complete on the First Year Checklist despite having went through it in its entirety?

“Forever Duke” continues to mock us. Delaying a broken promise is still a broken promise. I will not be donating to Duke while this decision stands and I feel obligated to tell prospective students that the university does not value its commitments.

Please join me in writing and calling them to let them know this is STILL not ok:

Email: help@daa.duke.edu

Associate Dean, Development & Alumni Relations: Kevin McCarthy at: kevin.p.mccarthy@duke.edu

Senior Director of Development & Major Gifts, Ann Thurston at: ann.thurston@duke.edu

Director, Advancement Services & Donor Relations, Pam Jones at: pam.a.jones@duke.edu

Christy Thompson, Director, Alumni Engagement & Annual Giving at: christy.thompson@duke.edu

Katelyn O'Grade Hnilo, Assistant Director, Alumni Engagement & Annual Giving at: katelyn.ogrady@duke.edu

Julia Vail, Assistant Director, Communications & Donor Relations: julia.vail@duke.edu

Phone: 919 684 5114

hi, im starting medical residency at duke. i wondering if duke has a dropbox account. coming from an institution where that is all we use. i see box but i would rather use something i am familiar with...

Interested in taking greek history, clst283, next fall but wanted to see the workload first and possibly get a head start on the readings over the summer

even with the passkey it's genuinely so frustrating. I'm an incoming first-year so sorry if this should be obvious

The title! Do you think it’s worth it and like can anyone explain what exactly it helps with?

title.

I took analysis my senior year but took calc 3 my sophomore year so might not get calc 3 credit. same for lin alg 😭💔 are they usually lenient w replacing the major requirements w/ grad courses?

UNC is a massive, multi-million dollar psychological coping mechanism where thirty thousand state-school students collectively roleplay as Ivy League elites while living out a generic public school nightmare.

The entire campus is a copy-paste cloning facility fueled by unearned generational wealth.

The social hierarchy is completely dictated by guys named Fletcher or Harrison who wear pristine white Hokas, smell like burnt watermelon vape juice, and possess an aggressive level of confidence that can only be purchased by a dad who owns a mid-sized commercial roofing firm in Charlotte.

Every female student appears to have been mass-produced by a corporate algorithm that feeds exclusively on iced oat milk lattes, a crippling dependency on Celsius, and a daddy’s Amex that funds a $400-a-week Pilates habit just so she can blend seamlessly into a sea of identical oversized sorority t-shirts on Franklin Street. They all scream about "individuality" while looking like a walking Lululemon catalog.

Academically, the student body suffers from a collective, terminal case of Stockholm syndrome. They weaponize the phrase "Public Ivy" as a personality trait, completely blind to how embarrassing it is to brag about having the least-dented Honda Civic in the Walmart parking lot. You are riding a state-funded public transit vehicle, sweetie, calm down. These kids will willingly let their mental health get absolutely blended by artificial grade deflation—sobbing under the fluorescent lights of Davis Library like they're curing cancer—all while completely blocking out the fact that their prestigious institution literally pioneered fake "paper classes" because their basketball players couldn't pass a middle-school reading comprehension test.

The day-to-day campus experience is just a humiliating exercise in logistical incompetence. You spend your afternoon fighting for your life in a feral, Lord-of-the-Flies line at Top Lenoir just to choke down some gray, rubbery, hospital-grade chicken breast that instantly dissolves your digestive tract. Then, you spend the other half of your day getting aggressively rejected from the Kenan-Flagler business school or the computer science major because the university greedily over-enrolled yet another freshman class to juice their tuition revenue. You are literally paying thousands of dollars a year to get edge-lorded by an academic department that doesn't even have enough seats for you.

But the funniest part of the delusion is watching where these "future leaders of human civilization" actually end up after graduation. They spend four years acting like they are the main characters of the universe, only to immediately scatter into the exact same predictable post-grad bleakness:

For the guys: Every single one of them packs up, moves into a gentrified box of an apartment in Charlotte's South End, puts on a Patagonia vest, and spends the next forty years doing mind-numbing, entry-level Excel data entry for Bank of America. They will base their entire adult identity on a club soccer league and drinking IPAs, while quietly crying into their beer because their boss went to Duke.

For the girls: They instantly pivot into landing a generic "Marketing Coordinator" or "Recruiter" job at a mid-tier tech firm where their primary responsibility is sending emails that say “Hope this helps!” and organizing the office snack drawer. By age 26, their entire personality shifts to planning a highly aesthetic, beige-toned wedding in Charleston, completely funded by the same Amex they used at the Chapel Hill Sephora.

You treat Duke like your bitter rival, when the only time you actually competed with Duke was when you opened your admissions rejection letter. You are a safety school with a pretty quad and a severe identity crisis. Sit down.

Someone please tell me how much Duke neurosurgeons make ?

Hi y'all, me and my partner will be moving at the end of June and are looking to sell/offload our possessions (furniture, exercise equipment, etc.). What is the best way to do it, is there a subreddit/whatsapp group/discord server for incoming students where we could post? Thank you!

am i cooked