| Duke University, endowed in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke, was actually first established as Union Institute (1838), and later, as Trinity College (1859). It is a national research university consisting of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, School of Law, Divinity School, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Fuqua School of Business. The school is spread among the East Campus, where freshmans live, and West Campus, where upperclassment live. The Duke Chapel is a sight to behold, with its flying buttresses, stained glass, and an enourmous organ. The student body numbers about 12,000, with undergraduates constituting about 6,200 of that figure. With the Duke Forest, the campus covers about 9500 acres. The nearby Research Triangle Park, together with the university faculties of the proximal universities, makes the area the hightest densities of Ph.D.'s in the world. It's also interesting to note that Duke's first international student was Yao-Ju Soong (1880), whose later wealth and influence led his daughters to marry some of the most influencial men in China: finance minister H. H. Kung, President Sun Yat-sen, and Chiang Kai-Shek who later led the nationalist army. |
