Calling All Duke Fall 2010 Applicants! (MERGED)

Hello all. Current FY at Fuqua here. Praetorian sent a bunch of us who were active on this board last year a message asking us to share our experiences, having survived the first semester of B-school. To be honest, I haven't looked at this board much in the last 8 or so months, but I know where y'all are right now - so here's a warts-and-all perspective on Duke.

THE STUDENTS
With some notable exceptions, I have honestly been very impressed with the folks I go to school with. A lot of very sharp, interesting people. The "Team Fuqua" spirit is pressed on you Chinese-Reeducation-Camp style from Day One, and everyone gets along remarkably well. I think this is because virtually everyone is from out of town and bonds quickly with everyone else, which is nice, but also gives the school a somewhat summer-campy, insular feel (we have little or no interaction with the rest of the university, save for basketball games, which kick ass). I feel that I can go to any of my classmates and get a totally candid view on the industry in which they worked, and there is absolutely no sense of cutthroat-style competition whatsoever. I value that.

ACADEMICS
Huh? Oh, yeah, school... so Fuqua works on an SP/HP/P/LP/Fail system. You have to really work hard not to pass a class here - professors have to get written permission from a Dean and have contacted you *early* in the term to hand out an LP, and while I've heard rumors about it happening, I've never seen any evidence. In many classes (ex. core courses), there's a curve that ensures that no more than 15-20% of students will get an SP.

Let me be straight with you - the stuff you study at B-school ain't rocket science. You'll learn stuff about marketing, strategy, accounting and finance, for example, at a level that just is not that demanding. No one here is splitting the atom. There ARE projects that come along that demand a lot of time and attention, and every now and then there will be an assignment that requires you to think through things, but by and large, one thing you definitely do not need to worry about is the coursework being too intellectually challenging. Yes, there are some finance classes that are reputed to be really hard because of the math involved, but even that's just numbers and calculator stuff, not necessarily conceptually demanding.

Some random thoughts of mine about Fuqua that I think I would've liked to know:

* One reason Fuqua is ranked so highly is because of its research strengths. Professors here put out a ton of it, and are only required to teach something like one term a year, if that. I'm not so sure this is a net positive for students, though. By and large, I have been consistently impressed with the teaching I've received here (a particular finance professor notwithstanding) - but once you're done for the term, you will never see him/her again. They disappear into their research caves. If you're really into the topic, you might be able to get in on some research work with your favorite prof - but that's only a maybe. As such, the content of certain courses can vary term-to-term as different professors cycle in and out, and quality can vary. I think the emphasis on teaching rather than research is one area where Fuqua lacks.

* Fuqua devotes a lot of resources into fostering class bonding. I think this is a good thing, but occasionally I find it a little suffocating - which might just be a personal preference for keeping a little distance between my "real life" and my life at school.

* The facilities here are ridiculously nice. There's a ton of stuff to do, and forget the crap you may have heard about Durham - this is a great place to live. One hell of a lot cheaper than the city you're from, too.

* The B-school experience is exhausting, and I find that it's imperative that you set limits for yourself. Be willing to say "No" to meeting requests that impinge on your limits. Be willing to decline a team meeting on your Saturday afternoon, or be prepared to walk out of a meeting that's going on Hour 4 without any productive end. Be ready for confrontation as necessary with teammates who aren't pulling their fair share, and do so EARLY ON - problems like that do not go away.

* Think very carefully about what you want to do, and what you need to get out of this experience. There are some folks here (like at every school) who have no idea what they want to do with their career - and that leads them to shuttle between every info session, every career panel, every networking event, trying to give face time to everyone to keep all options open until the very last second. BAD IDEA, people. If you wanna do consulting, go for it. Finance, brand management, whatever - just don't try to be everything to everyone.

* The hothouse, clubby atmosphere of B-school leads people to compare themselves and their accomplishments not objectively, but comparatively to other B-school students. That is ridiculous. You will find that at no matter what school you attend, there are dozens of clubs, and many will have dozens (literally) of positions with titles like "Director," "Vice President for X," "Chairman," etc. This is done to plump resumes, and everyone knows it - including recruiters, many of whom did the same thing. 98% of club positions are nothing but thankless gruntwork, and lots of it, under the Orwellian guise of "leadership experience." (The irony is that there is little or no leadership involved in most of it.) If you're cool with that, go for it. If not, go get yourself an internship or something at a local firm and learn something from the real world.

This touches on career stuff too. Too often, people assume they have three options after school: Consulting, Finance, and "General Management" (including branding, marketing, etc.). "Non-Profit" is sort of in there too, but I find that very few people ever seriously consider that (hey, we're all in the hole here). The tendency towards herd mentality is tremendous - when EVERYONE is dropping resumes for Johnson & Johnson, or Citigroup, or American Express, and freaking out in December about not having an internship lined up already, anxiety and contagious stress takes over and people start seriously considering terrible jobs (ex. finance) that they never would have before.

* The women. The ladies at Fuqua really are as hot as you've heard.

* One last thing - realize that the views, perspectives and info you read on this website are in NO WAY representative of the real thing. Not even close. So if you're thinking that everyone here sounds like a total d-bag... don't worry. Real life will be different. Mostly, anyway.