Eruditio et Religio

Go Blue Devils!  Tuesday saw a visit to Duke University, a fine example of gothic architecture.  In fact a very familiar kind of gothic architecture.  James Buchanan Duke was told by the Princeton Administration that he could not simply buy their university, so he went and built his own in Durham, North Carolina.  That is not something you learn on the tour; that is something you learn from an alumnus.  An alumnus like my dad.  And he is proud of it.  Which is slightly adorable.

Anyway, I really liked Duke.  We started off with a very informative info session, which was followed by a very passionate walking tour. Our guide was a freshman, so he was maybe not the best informed; but boy could you tell he was excited to be at Duke.  Personally, I don’t feel like I missed out on much because my dad was liberal with his asides to me regarding his college experience. 

But I do have to get something out of the way before I extol the virtues of Duke’s academics and athletics. Well, two somethings.

1.  They have the original lemur from Zaboomafoo.  For those of you who also grew up watching that show, you understand why that’s awesome.
2.  THEY HAVE A HOLODECK.

With regard to the second point, it’s technically an immersive virtual environment not a holographic environment; but I don’t care. Duke has a holodeck.  That makes the trekkie in me very, very happy.

With regard to less nerd-tastic aspects of the campus, I’m going to throw down a statistic and be done with how excellent the academics are.  99% of applicants to law school from Duke get in.  There is no pre-law program. I know, you’re thinking to yourselves “What is this madness?!”  Duke is just that cool.  Athletically, just Google Coach K, I’ll wait.  Note, you probably don’t have to, because if you haven’t heard of Duke Basketball you’ve been living under a rock for the past 10+ years.   When my dad went to school here, Duke was the best school no one had ever heard of.  But he was class of ’76. Things have changed since then.  Now everyone knows Duke is awesome.  A few of my friends hadn’t heard of Wake and Davidson; they had all heard of Duke.