#askadukecrazie

When I attended Duke, I felt that there was a significant presence of Hispanics on campus, even though it didn’t reflect that much in most of my general ed classes. However, you can definitely find a strong supportive group through Mi Gente, the Latino student group on campus. They have been striving to make the campus a more open and welcoming environment for incoming Hispanic students from all backgrounds. They hold many events to make students feel at home, and to bring awareness to a lot of issues that impact the Latino community nationally and internationally. Most of the Hispanics I met did speak Spanish, though some did not, it does happen that you get that kind of mix. 

In case you haven’t been keeping up with what’s been going on at Duke, right now the environment for some Hispanics/Latinxs is rather tense. For the last few years, Mi Gente, the Latinx Student Group, has been funding the annual Latinx Student Recruitment Weekend (LSRW) with little to no additional funding from the university. As a result of years of meetings and demands from the student group to administration only to be met with empty promises, LSRW will not be funded by Mi Gente this year. I am not sure what the updates are as of today regarding LSRW, but that is what I do know. Many people support Mi Gente’s boycott of LSRW, myself included, however there are others that do not think this is the right course of action. I support it because I served on council for two years and know the struggle that we had with having administration listen to us. That, however, can be for a much longer and private conversation if you want it.

As far as meals go, that depends on your financial aid package. You do pay for a meal plan for your first year (or your financial aid covers it, depending on your situation) and that meal plan covers five Monday-Friday breakfast swipes at Marketplace, the Freshman Campus dining hall and seven dinner swipes. If you don’t use the breakfast swipe that day, you can use it that same day to pay for part of lunch. Your dinner swipes work differently, in that if you don’t use your dinner swipe that day, they carry over to the weekend and you can use it as a brunch swipe for Saturday or Sunday. Aside from this, the meal plan also covers food points, which is the currency used to pay for meals. Depending on the meal plan you get determines how many food points you get for the semester. If you do run out of food points before the Fall semester, you can add food points and pay for them through the Duke Bursar. If you have leftover food points from Fall semester, they roll over to Spring semester.

This system is relatively similar once you become a sophomore and the last two years, however the food swipes don’t carry over. Instead, you get more food points as that is how you pay for meals and food. The good thing about food points, from freshman year to senior year, is you can use them at any eatery on campus as well as delivery services from approved vendors available on Duke’s Dining website.

This is about as detailed as I can get when it comes to something generic. If you have more specific questions about your own situation, feel free to come off anon and I can give you more information.

The first time I ever heard about Duke was during the last stretch of my junior year, so I really didn't get much of a chance to visit before applying to Duke. I just read a bunch of information on their website and asked around about Duke. I didn't visit Duke until after I got in, during Blue Devil Days. As a junior, my best suggestion is to go during your Spring Break. Ours is from March 9 (Saturday) to March 17 (Sunday) of 2013. If you can fit before or after that week, you'll get a good sense of what Duke is about. Honestly, just go when you do have time to go, either during the fall or spring. Early spring semester can be a little chilly, so I'd recommend bringing some warm clothing. *Note: if you are planning on visiting during anytime while school is in session, ask me and I can tell you how the weather is like. Sometimes accuweather.com and other sites can be misleading.* When you do come, make some time to go to the Duke Gardens. They're always worth the visit, even for a little while.

Hope to see you soon!

I'm sorry it's taken this long to respond. It's been hectic around the house and now I'm going back and forth between my house and the house where I'm dogsitting. I can't fully answer this particular question - I am not very sure how high the acceptance rate is. I do know that there are quite a few from Pratt who get in to Trinity, but I would assume Trinity has a higher acceptance rate for those who would rather make the switch into Pratt from within Duke. It is difficult to get in to Pratt - in some cases, your regional admissions officer may contact you by email or phone to advise you to change your application for Trinity. This happened in my case, where my application seemed stronger and more likely to help get in to Duke through Trinity.

My best advice for you would be to play to your strengths and apply to the school - Trinity or Pratt - where you would feel most comfortable.

I do hope this helps. Again, I'm sorry my response is so late.

Good luck on your search!

For extracurricular activities, I think you shouldn't focus primarily on the exact activities you should participate in. Rather, focus on some aspect that you want to explore and build on that. I like dance and I am not that great of a leader, so I joined Dance Troupe at my school and I eventually became a Grade Level Captain. I had more responsibilities and I learned leadership skills. That's just one example.

Really, I would just focus on finding an activity (or activities) that interests you and you want to try out. But here's the catch: let it be an activity you know you'll be committed to. Don't try out activities if you're not going to stick to them. It may seem cool that you participated in many activities, but will you be able to say something you liked from participating in them? That's really the important thing.

And no, you don't have to be from a super super nice school. I went to a private school, but in my school's history only one other student had enrolled at Duke; she's currently a junior and she was the Dance Troupe Head Captain when I entered Dance Troupe. Other girls have been accepted to Duke, but they didn't enroll. I admit, I was somewhat of a strong student academically but I feel that I could have been better. So yes, I tried some Ivy Leagues (didn't work out, obviously) but I don't regret it. You don't have to be Ivy League bound, and I don't think you should worry about that. For some students, it may be helpful that they are a legacy - their parents went to the school, their grandparents went, uncles, aunts, so on and so forth. Me, I'm first in my family to graduate from high school, as in didn't drop out and go back to school (that's a different story), and the second cousin to go to college straight out of high school (a first cousin of mine is in her junior year at UPenn).

In reality, you just have to be dedicated to your studies and your activities. Schools like Duke can't ask for more than that. If you show that you are dedicated and hard-working, odds may be in your favor. I'm just speaking from a non-administrative standpoint.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask me any questions you have.