Campus Life

The Duke campus offers numerous activities, from professional theater, music and film festivals to exciting intramural and NCAA athletic events. Students may take advantage of many outstanding on-campus facilities, from Wilson Center, the newest recreation facility, to Bryan Center, which houses the Student Union, Gothic Bookstore and student clubs and organizations. The beautiful Sarah P. Duke Gardens and nearby Duke Forest offer lovely outside locations for a picnic or a hike. For more information about campus activities, please see the Duke Calendar.

Living in Durham

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Duke's hometown is Durham, N.C., a city with vibrant research, medical and arts communities. Durham is one of three municipalities, along with Raleigh and Chapel Hill that form the Research Triangle -- a growing metropolitan area of more than a million people.

Durham is the permanent home of the world-renowned American Dance Festival and some of the finest restaurants in the country. It has its own symphony, various galleries and a thriving theater community. The city also hosts the Durham Bulls baseball team, a Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay (Florida) Devil Rays.

The internationally known Research Triangle Park is located nearby, home to multinational corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles, IBM, Nortel and Ericsson. Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Science have large offices here, as do nongovernmental organizations such as Research Triangle Institute and Family Health International.

Favorite Durham destinations for Duke students include Ninth Street for specialty shops, natural foods and nightspots, and Brightleaf Square for shopping, pizza and ethnic food.

North Carolina and Beyond

Twenty-five miles to the southeast, Raleigh, the state capital, offers museums, cultural activities, and the Carolina Hurricanes, a National Hockey League team. Nearby Chapel Hill is a regional rock music center and home of Duke's fiercest athletics rival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Besides high-powered scholarship and high technology, this stretch of the Carolinas offers an average of 220 sunny days a year, mild winters and marvelous scenery. Within a few hours' drive of the Duke campus are beautiful beaches and rugged mountains popular for backpacking, canoeing, whitewater rafting and skiing.

Durham's proximity to Washington (four hours by car), New York (nine hours by car, or 90 minutes by plane), and Atlanta (seven hours by car, an hour by plane) makes it convenient to interview for jobs and internships.