<p>My 'Class of 2009' is starting to think about classes to take this Fall .. is thinking pre-med but not sure if a science major .. as of now top possible majors are bio and econ .. as well as wanting to get a cert in journalism ... wants his first semester to be as painless an entry into Duke as possible (translation .. avoid "killer'/weed out courses) ... for aps (score in parentheses) has calc ab (5), calc bc (5), chem (4), and taking bio and physics ... any thoughts on what to take .. especially interested in what math and science courses current Duke students might recommend as a good entry for a pre-med ????</p>
<p>Hey!</p>
<p>I'm a rising Duke sophomore, and though I'm not pre-med (my roommate is), I am planning on getting that journalism certificate. One of my friends is (most likely 'was') doing an Econ major pre-med, but I'll get to that later.</p>
<p>1) If you're not FOCUS, take either your writing 20 or your freshman seminar in the fall. You need to get both done during the year, and since they're small, mandatory classes, they fill up. My tip: AVOID Timothy Hodgdon for a Writing 20 professor.</p>
<p>2) Econ... Try and take Econ 1. It's freshman Econ. (Any other semester, it'd be Econ 51). Lori Leachman usually teaches, and most people generally enjoy her. </p>
<p>3) Pre-med... most pre-meds take Chem 21 their first semester. I know people who aced it, and people who struggled through it. It's an overwhelmingly freshman course, but it's necessary for pre-med. I don't know the AP placement situation for it, but I'd say a 4 will give your kid a great foundation for the class. </p>
<p>4) Math... I think with that BC score you'd place into Math 103. My boyfriend and best friend took it during their first semester. He did amazingly in it, and she struggled through it. A problem with 103 is that different professors teach it, yet every 103 student takes the same exam. This was great for my boyfriend who had a top notch professor, but bad news for my best friend who had a shotty prof who barely spoke any English. On top of that, the exam & final grades are normalized, meaning there are as many final semester As as there are As on the exam, and in 103, there aren't many final exam As. This is what got my boyf at the end, but it's ok. I'd avoid Math 32 if you can place out of it. There's a lab, and it's supposedly one of the most failed courses at Duke. They're trying to make Math 32 hard for you, but not 103. </p>
<p>All of those classes are very big and easy for any freshman to get into. </p>
<p>Any other schedule questions I'd be happy to answer :)</p>
<p>bluestar7 ... thanks for your post. When you are registering for classes, do you know which professor teaches the section you are registering for? Is there any kind of student-run professor feedback network at Duke so that you can avoid the bad teachers? I've heard of it at other schools.</p>
<p>In a class like Math 103, you will know which professor is teaching which section. In a class that's a big lecture taught by a professor (say Econ 1, Poli Sci 93, or Chem 21) that's broken down into a discussion section-- you register for the class through discussion section, but you don't know which TA will lead the section.</p>
<p>On the actual course registration website (ACES-- if y'all have your NetIDs, I believe you can access it... if you don't have the website handy, but have a Net ID, head to MyDuke.com and there's a link there) they show actual professor rankings, but there's no official student-run professor feedback network. I would advise you to check out ratemyprofessors.com, though. Not all the professors are there, but enough are, and had I visited the site last semester, I wouldn't have taken a course I did. Actually though, in the recent Duke Student Gov't elections there was a platform to create such a network. Currently, things go by word of mouth, and Greek organizations generally create books of class evaluations for the members. If you have any questions, I may know, or I may know someone who does (or I do have such a book, so I can check... it's summer and I'm not up to too much just yet)</p>
<p>Can you tell me why should we avoid the writing professor you mentioned?
does he grade unfairly? of is he an incompetent teacher?</p>
<p>It's both, actually.</p>
<p>Prof. Hodgdon is perhaps one of the most blatantly unfair professors that I have met at Duke. Sometimes, it almost appeared that he was being unfair on a racial basis, but not too much of a big deal to warrant any sort of racist accusations. As for grading unfairly-- Tim Hodgdon plays favorites and is extremely obvious about it, but he also does so in ways that do not make sense. In each section he picks one student to LOVE and this person can do no wrong.... this student is chosen in the beginning of the semester. He grades very personally, which shouldn't be allowed by the administration.... In any writing 20 class, you're going to need meetings with the professors to guide through the various stages of writing, and with most other professors, these are fun occasions and very helpful. Tim finds what is wrong with your paper and attacks YOU for it and makes personal attacks.... say you messed up a paragraph on a first draft, he has gone as far as to say you need a psychiatric evaluation. (True story).</p>
<p>As for his incompetence-- Tim has a great mind for HISTORY. My class with him was in the focus (Peace Love Dope and Granola: How Should We Remember the Hippies?) and 1) it was the class that singlehandedly made me choose Modern America and it was a letdown. How cool does that class sound? Well--Tim has lived on a commune, has all this random yet pertinent knowledge on the subject, yet somehow, knows very little about writing, and as a result, his teachings are impaired by his haphazard drawings, and writing center professionals have told us that what he is doing is wrong. To get an 'A' in his class, you need to cater to him, and the students most willing to do that were science majors... his teaching went against every rule of writing most Duke professors have shared with me. It was just a wreck. I walked away from his class with an A-, so it's not like I bombed the class and resent him for it... I did well enough, but it was just terrible.</p>
<p>what seminars do you recommend taking for someone in the social sciences, as it seems most seminars worth taking in these areas are reserved for FOCUS students...</p>
<p>I'm gonna resurrect this post to ask another question... could any current students rank the FOCUS programs in terms of difficulty? I'm in Arts in Contemporary Society and I'm trying to decide what elective to take. Right now, I want to take Spanish (63 or 76, depending on my AP score), Math 103 (depending on if I got a 4 or 5 on BC), and Chem 21L. Since I'm planning on a bio major, chem would make sense, but if I'm going to be knee-deep in work from my FOCUS, adding on another class where I will find myself overloaded would not be the best idea. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Although my focus wasn't difficult, generally speaking, there's going to be a few pre-meds in every focus, meaning, there'll be a handful of kids taking chem 21 in addition to any focus work. it's very managable-- especially when say... a fourth of your focus is doing it (great study buddie sessions!) and it'll be very different types of work. chem will be more taking tests and handing in lab reports, but not as much reading/writing/analytical work... and sometimes I think it's great to have that mix. spanish 76 has a bit of busy work, but again, any language is managable with focus. one of my best friends did spanish 76 with focus and everything was fine for her. math103, to me, seems to be the hardest option paired with focus, simply because that is a difficult class. my best friend was in pratt first semester (she didn't do focus, but took frosh pratt courses, chem 21 and math103, says that 103 was by far the hardest course)</p>
<p>Bluestar which FOCUS program did you do? I'm doing Visions of Freedom, and I'm probably taking Econ 1D-Economics Principles as my elective.</p>
<p>I was in Modern America.</p>
<p>I now know who not to take - any recomendations for who to take for writing 20?</p>
<p>Michele Strano.
I unfortunately didn't have her, but my two closest friends did, and I met her through them. She's this youngish, cool teacher who did PR and is on TheFacebook and will stop to have crazy conversations with you or play football on the quad. But, on the academic side, she had them write AMAZING papers, very interesting-- very research oriented (perk-- she made them use their Ipods to record interviews, and I think with your class you only get an ipod if a class requires it) but very chill (people wrote about drinking games). Very reasonable grader. These kids RAVED about her on a daily basis, she taught a lot, etc. They had a panel discussion abt their papers when I went to, and everything seemed so cool, organized, 'collegiate', and I really want to find a class to take with her.</p>
<p>I think Prof. Harris is the head of the writing 20 program and he's GREAT.</p>