Eshaan Dhaliwal, ’24, attends Duke University in Durham, N.C. He is majoring in chemistry.

Q: Why did you choose to attend Duke University?
A: I chose to attend for two main reasons:

First, Duke has a really strong pre-med program. We have a lot of access to things like research. We also have a hospital nearby on campus, so there are a lot of opportunities to get involved with things that are beneficial to your pre-med journey.
Second, I think Duke has a really good work-life balance. I talked to some people who were here when I was considering applying, and they all told me that they were really comfortable with the balance between academics, fun and other stuff like that.

Q: Which classes are you taking this semester?
A: We have a decent amount of freedom when we get to decide which classes we take in our freshman year. The only requirement was that we had to take one writing course or a seminar, and the school chooses which one you do each semester. I got the writing class.

The other three I’m taking are Introductory Psychology 101; Chem 201, which is organic chemistry; and Physics 163, which is about fundamentals of mechanics and electromagnetism.

Q: Out of those, what are your favorite classes?
A: I have two favorites. Honestly, I would say either physics or psychology. The way those two classes are taught is just really captivating. They’re taught in pretty different formats.

My psychology class is like 200 people, but the lecture is very engaging and my physics class is very small. We have around 10 people there, but I really like Professor Robert G. Brown, and I know him on a bit more personal basis compared to the psychology class, but I really like both.

Q: Are you involved in any clubs or organizations on campus?
A: Yeah, there are two main things I’m involved with right now.

One is that I’m doing research in a lab. We look at this protein called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). GPCR-based pathways can become dysfunctional, causing certain diseases and cancers. To treat these kinds of conditions, GPCRs become the target for many pharmacological treatments and drugs. I’m currently working at the Tsvetanova Lab at the Duke University School of Medicine, specifically looking at GPCRs.
I’m also involved in mock trial. Duke Mock Trial is a completely student-run program.

When I competed at Country Day, the program always had two or three head coaches who made final decisions about the team, like student roles on each team, tournament participation and managing administrative matters. At Duke, though, we have an elected board of members who make these decisions instead of attorney-coaches.
There’s also more of a responsibility for captains and experienced members to help teach new members and provide feedback on how to improve. Being student-run has upsides and downsides. We don’t have to spend money paying coaches and have more freedom with case theories.

But, since we don’t have attorney coaches giving us feedback, we try to get valid feedback from alumni who are either law students or attorneys who sometimes watch our tournaments or scrimmages.

Q: Why did you choose to major in chemistry?
A: I really enjoyed the subject in high school, and I did this competition called the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO). I first learned about the competition in my sophomore year and did a bit of light preparation then, but I didn’t fully start preparing until my junior year.

In both my junior and senior years, I scored high enough on the local exam to qualify for nationals. In my senior year, I placed in the top 150 at nationals and was recognized with honors for my performance. USNCO was one of the most difficult — if not the most difficult — academic things I did in all of high school. The work I did preparing for the competition helped me develop habits that are important in college classes.
I also studied a lot of the content in my chemistry class when I was preparing for nationals, so it’s been useful to already have exposure to most of the concepts.

I think that really helped draw my interest in the subject. So it was pretty natural for me to want to continue learning about it in college, and it aligns pretty well with all the pre-med requisites, so I decided to major in that.

I might major in something else too. Since we have a lot of time between now and senior year, there are a lot of options I have for classes to take. I’m not really decided on that yet.

Q: What’s the food like on campus?
A: The food here is good overall.
The way it works is we’re split up into two campuses. East Campus is where all the freshmen live, and West Campus is where all the sophomores, juniors and seniors who still live on campus stay. We eat breakfast and dinner on the East Campus, but we have lunch on the West Campus. I think the food in both places are pretty good overall, but I’d say the West Campus food is a bit better.

Q: What’s your housing situation like?
A: I have a pretty unique housing situation. The dorm I’m in is the only one on East Campus that has suites.
I’m in a suite with my roommate, and one other person who is in a single. We have this corner room, and we share a bathroom, which is nice, since we don’t have to use communal bathrooms, but the downside to that is that we have to clean our own bathroom.
It’s been fine so far, because we bought cleaning supplies and we have a schedule where every week, a different person cleans it.

Q: How’s the social scene at Duke? Any highlights?
A: I’d say the social scene is quite active overall. There’s always some kind of event or party, or people going out almost every day, and you can be as involved with it as you want to.
I think we have a really diverse community of people here. I’ve met people from California, Arizona, New York and North Carolina, and even international students from China and India.

Q: What’s your favorite part about Duke?
A: I think my favorite thing is just the huge community of great people that I’ve got to meet. Coming from Country Day, it’s a very different vibe. Back home, we had a class size of around 40 people, and the shift to having around 1,600 people in my class is a big change. It’s been really exciting to meet all these great people.

Q: Have you made any freshman mistakes that you’d warn others about?
A: I think there was one big mistake I made. The way we do orientation here is that you fill out this form in the summer, and you select from around 20 different orientation programs in order of greatest to least preference. Some like to go hiking in the woods, some stay on campus and do activities.

I registered really late for those orientations, so I didn’t get the one that I wanted, which was kind of annoying. I wanted Project Waves, where everyone in the orientation goes on a five-day camping trip and goes kayaking on the lake next to the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort.
I didn’t get Project Waves. I was placed in Project Lead, which was another orientation program that focused on exploring leadership and leadership opportunities on campus. I spent my orientation week on campus doing Project Lead activities, which made adjusting much easier since I was able to become well-acquainted with the campus before classes started.

That applies to other things, like for classes where you have to register, you have to be on time when you register, or you aren’t going to get the classes that you want. The big mistake I made was not registering in time for orientation, but I made sure to fix that when I registered for classes, so I got what I wanted.

Q: What advice would you give the Class of 2025?
A: In terms of college applications, the biggest piece of advice I have is to put effort into your college essays.
You can set yourself apart in the essays, and you can do things that show why you should be admitted to that college — things that really separate you from everyone else; things that other people won’t have that you do have.

In terms of college life in general, I would say just be open to meeting new people, trying new things and just do as many new things as you can. I think it really helps you grow as a person and adjust to college life more effectively.

– Sid Shukla