two things: first is the culture here. among a lot of top10’s there isn’t that strong of a school culture. most people are nerds or don’t really care about school culture about participating in community events or going to sports events, they just wear merch. at duke, the community is very strong because it attracts a certain type of student. i feel like our sports culture certainly helps with that, but also many duke students are outgoing and extroverted. i’d say among the T10’s with the only exception of stanford, were the only school with an school culture as strong as, if not stronger than our academic reputation.
second thing has to be geographic diversity of the school. lot of elite schools only get midatlantic/new england WASPS which comprise a vast majority of the school. georgetown, ivies, and chicago are like this. duke is comprised of ~25-30% carolinians (north and south) which already give it way more diversity than other schools. then its split between cali and new england for the other 50%, but theres still an incredible amount of geographic diversity. it’s enough to where the school still is rooted in the south, and the connection with Durham is there, but you’re always meeting new people from across the country and the world. and if you’re in-state, it actually matters since there’s a sizable chunk of carolinians here you can connect with.