Now that you’ve experienced college and gotten through most of your challenges by the time-old strategy of “winging it,” it’s time to learn some things about Duke that few know but all should.
Duke freshmen meal plan:
Yes, it's bad. There is no redeeming quality aside from the fact that your swipes gain you access to Wallace, the boss omelet maker. But here is how this system works.
You have 12 meal swipes a week. You can only use two per day, one for breakfast and one for dinner. For lunch, you use food points in the Marketplace to pay for the meal, but if you missed breakfast that morning, then you have four food points to spend for lunch within the allotted lunch hours. If you use two per day for every weekday, you will only have two meal swipes for the weekend. If you miss a couple meals during the week, you will have more swipes for the weekend. There are four weekend meal opportunities, a brunch and dinner each day.
Go to brunch. Waffle sundaes are the best hangover food known to man. Utilize the whipped cream near the waffle maker for a delicious strawberries and cream meal. Make your own coffee beverages with half a cup of the hot chocolate and half a cup of coffee.
Tupperware is your friend. Walk out during breakfast or dinner with about six plates of food and take that nom-age to go. Saves money and can make for awesome late-nighting.
Use your food points for Marketplace lunch; it’s the best food they serve, ever.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT worry about refilling your meal plan. You will inevitably do it. Everyone does, multiple times. I assure you.
Invest in bin candy. If you don’t believe in calories, they don’t have to exist.
And as much as the food might be of questionable color and consistency, go to the Marketplace as much as possible. It’s a great environment and if you sit there long enough, you will run into everyone you know. Duke got one thing right with their whole community-making goals.
Remember, you’re paying for your swipes (four for breakfast and 12 for dinner), so use them. If you really hate the Marketplace, use meal equivalency points at Trinity! Stock up on water, soda, granola bars or coffee. But use what you have.
Fun, fun, fun, fun looking forward to the weekend…:
There are things to do in life aside from drinking and fraternizing.
The Coffeehouse is a super trendy place on campus that opens in evening and closes as late as 2 a.m. It serves delicious coffee and snacks from trail mix to hookah. They play interesting music and when Econ 51 problem sets get too boring, you can stare at the awesome wall paintings. Sometimes the Coffeehouse brings live bands that make use of the intimate environment to meet people in the crowd. Also, bottomless mugs of coffee, need I say more?
Northgate mall is literally a ten minute walk from East Campus and offers everything from delicious food and ice cream, to movies, to all the shops you could need. Something to do in the day when you’re really not feeling homework.
Southpoint: longer trek but worth the haul.
Hiking if your outdoorsy is great in North Carolina and not a far drive from Duke.
There are delicious farmer’s markets in Durham that are absolutely worth going to.
DPAC is an entertainment center with fantastic shows if you like music and theater.
Cat’s Cradle has awesome artists coming to perform this fall such as Adele and the Weepies.
Durham has one of the coolest food scenes around with a variety of restaurants to appease any appetite, taste preference and college budget. Treat yourself sometimes. Also, late night hunger can be satiated by Jimmy John’s speedy delivery and if you’re up for walking, Cosmic Cantina off of ninth street with cheap delicious and huge Mexican meals.
Events:
Stay up to date with what’s going on around campus because, being such a premier institution, Duke brings a lot of incredible people to speak or host events such as Robert Gates, Bob Woodward and John Legend. Yeah, we’re kind of a big deal.
And stay safe. Not everybody at Duke is your friend and you are responsible for your own well-being.
And make friends. People here are the illest.
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