Duke University

By Elijah Vigo, a 10th grader at Norwalk High School, and Ryan Russell, a 10th grader at P-TECH Norwalk

Today we visited one of the most well-known universities in the country, Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. 

The Blue Devils are well known for Coach K and their dominance in NCAA basketball.

We had the privilege to see and learn about the traditions, history, resources, and accommodations described by our guide, Liza Rebold. Liza is an alumna of Duke and currently lives in Brooklyn, and works in non-profit philanthropy in New York City. While she studied at Duke, she majored in public policy and history. Liza’s dad Matt is a volunteer and advocate for Carver students. He works closely with Mr. Benson Casimir, our Future Readiness Coordinator at Norwalk High School.

Our tour began at the Susan P. Duke Gardens, 55 acres of landscaped gardens and wooded land on the hottest day of the tour. There are walking pathways throughout the gardens, and the views are breathtaking. The gardens are a memorial to Sarah Pearson Angier Duke, wife of Benjamin N. Duke who is a benefactor at Duke University. The garden is one of the best parts of the campus and is famous to the community and visited often by the residents. It’s divided into four different garden events hosted there throughout the year. The garden was voted the best place to visit on the campus by visitors. 

Under the guidance of Liza, we navigated our way to the East campus. The campus is divided into East and West campuses, and the West campus is the home of all freshman students. 

Duke was founded in 1838 and is a private research university that sits on 8,600 acres. We were surprised to learn that the West campus was designed mainly by Julian Abele, an African American architect who graduated at the top of his class at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Most of the buildings at Duke University are based on Gothic architecture and the academic buildings are more French and Italian styles.  One of their most famous buildings is the Duke Memorial Chapel, which is in the center of the West Campus. It was constructed from 1930 to 1935 and had 1,600 seats. It is one of the tallest buildings in Durham County, North Carolina.

At the chapel, we were greeted by Doug Peoples, well-known in Norwalk for basketball and Karate. He recently moved to Durham-Raleigh and stopped by to cheer us on. We appreciated his visit, and he joined us for the remainder of the tour.

Admission to Duke is very competitive, with a 6% acceptance rate. In order to gain admission to Duke, you need a GPA of 3.8 or higher.  The Duke University application fee is $85. The graduation rate is 95.6%.  Duke offers 53 majors and 52 minors.  You can easily get involved in activities outside of academics by participating in one of their 600 student clubs. 

Let’s face it. Duke is known for basketball, and most players that go on to play in the NBA were players at Duke University.  One of the most well-known players to attend Duke University is Kyrie Irving.  He became an NBA all-star in 2016, became the first NBA player in history to score 50 or more points in a team debut, and has been selected to the all-star team seven times in his entire career.  In addition to Kyrie, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, and Seth Curry went to Duke and became the player they are right now because of Coach K.  He coached the Blue Devils team from 1980-2022. The Blue Devils earned five national titles, thirteen final fours, fifteen ACC tournament championships, and thirteen ACC regular season titles.  They named K Village after him, being one of the best coaches for men’s basketball.  IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL HISTORY, Coach K retired in 2022 after winning more games than any other men’s basketball coach.

Duke University is an excellent school with solid academics and impressive sports programs.  If you want to play sports professionally, we strongly recommend considering Duke University.  This school’s tuition is $60,244, but there is access to scholarships and financial aid. 

We thank Liza Rebold for generously giving her time as our special tour guide.