Duke Nicholas School Admitted Students Day

[wooldogg]

I was unable to make it to the Nicholas School open house. Can anyone who went comment on it? What did you learn that you weren't able to get from the website? How was Durham? I'd appreciate hearing any observations

[stilesg57]

They canceled the bonfire over a mild drizzle of rain. Epic failure if you ask me.

[pajarero]

They canceled the bonfire over a mild drizzle of rain. Epic failure if you ask me.

Hmm...that doesn't reflect well on an environmental school if they can't handle a little adverse weather and build a fire.

But I second Wooldogg: any comments of people who attended the Nicholas School visit day would be really interesting for me as well. I will mention that I received an email today from Lauren Stulgis, the Program Coordinator for the Coastal Environmental Management MEM program, directed toward accepted CEM people who couldn't visit. Some of the useful information included was:

• Accepted CEM students can take a course or two during the Summer Session II at the Marine Lab this summer (July 12 - August 13) for no additional cost and count it toward their degree requirements: "Our second summer term (www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/programs/courses/summer20102) features a core lecture class called Conservation Biology and Policy, co-taught by Drs. Mike Orbach (CEM Director) and Larry Crowder, and several complementary electives to choose from including Marine Mammals, Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles, and Marine Ecology. All of these classes meet core CEM requirements and this is a fabulous opportunity to get a "head start" on meeting requirements and to get to know Marine Lab faculty (CEM advisors are based at the Marine Lab)."
• PDF of all past CEM students' masters project titles
• PDF of all past CEM students' first employment positions ("employment record")

The last two were things I had been specifically asking for to get a better idea of what I could study, and where I could end up, and undoubtedly helps inform my desire to go to Duke. It also looks like 2 people every year get a Knauss fellowship and a couple others get other NOAA fellowships (something I was interested in). The summer session is kind of a bonus, I guess, if you have nothing to do in July and have a burning desire to take classes.

And though I was thinking MEM/MPP originally, I am now seeing the lone MEM as a very viable option, especially since my interests are mostly in science, it would be much cheaper, and only require 1 master's project. Decision time is right around the corner...

[kiley]

Hey guys - I just saw this post, but I was at the admitted students day (weekend). It was a pretty good time.... a lot of information, but it was mostly useful. There were also some opportunities for socialization where I talked to current students. Everyone I talked to was really friendly and helpful.

Some brief highlights:

-I didn't see a lot of Durham and spent most of my time on campus. The campus is beautiful, bigger than I expected for the size of the school, and the buildings all seem nice and updated (for the most part). The LSRC, where the nicholas school is housed, is not quite as impressive as some of the other buildings, but it's nice. They were supposed to get a new building but I guess that plan was scrapped for now because of the economy. The school of public policy is gorgeous. (Also -this might be irrelevant to you guys, but the gym is really impressive.)

- the career services panel was great. If you haven't heard a lot about their career services and how helpful they are, the networking that goes on, etc, I would look into it a little more. It sounds they can really help you out if you take advantage of what they have to offer.

- the main problem that people seemed to have with the program was the big size of last year's class...they weren't quite expecting so many people to enroll so there was maybe one or two classes that were unusually big, and a slightly harder time getting classes, etc. I did hear that they are aware of the problems created by this and took some steps to correct it this year.

- I heard over and over again that you can get what you want out of the program if you are assertive about what you want. In terms of courses of study, projects, internships, etc. It sounds like there is a lot of flexibility in what you do, even down to what courses fit which requirements, etc. It's really easy to change your concentration.

- the Nick school students have a lot of social events. People seemed to know each other fairly well, were comfortable with each other, and hung out outside of class. Some said there was some degree of cliques forming between different concentrations, but not in a bad way, just due to spending a lot of time together.

- The crowd of admitted students there was a bit younger than I had expected, most that I talked to had been out of college for 1-3 years or were going straight from undergrad (although there were a few people there that were older than this).

pajarero - I'm going to be a CEM as well so I can tell you a little more about that if you want.

If you have more specific questions about the weekend, let me know!

[stilesg57]

- the career services panel was great. If you haven't heard a lot about their career services and how helpful they are, the networking that goes on, etc, I would look into it a little more. It sounds they can really help you out if you take advantage of what they have to offer.

- the main problem that people seemed to have with the program was the big size of last year's class...they weren't quite expecting so many people to enroll so there was maybe one or two classes that were unusually big, and a slightly harder time getting classes, etc. I did hear that they are aware of the problems created by this and took some steps to correct it this year.

I'm convinced that career services across Duke are just off the charts. Every career center I've dealt with has blown me away. Sanford's is awesome, Fuqua's is insane, Nick's is great, even the undergrads have a career services setup I would never have imagined for professional schools, let alone undergrads.

Hahaha, last year's too-big-of-a-class debacle at Nick is known campus-wide Every now and then the statistical models don't hold up. My undergrad has a dorm hall that is housed in the town's old hospital, which was purchased and converted to student housing after admissions suddenly had 30% more students than they were expecting back in the late '70s. Model fail

Edited April 7, 2010 by stilesg57