<p>Hey I'm also a Duke freshman. I'm in a sorority and in political organizations, I also volunteer with the admissions office.</p>
<p>Anyway-- let me try and field as many of these that I know.</p>
<p>Transferring from Pratt to Trinity is VERY easy. People do it all the time. You can only officially switch schools at the end of the year, rather than between two semesters. If you're like my best friend, you'll stop taking Pratt classes after your first semester, and after your second semester you have your advisor sign a form saying that you're switching schools. Very simple. Switching from Trinity to Pratt I've heard is a little harder because Pratt has (from what I've heard) a more rigid curriculum, and you're going to have to do some serious catch up work. </p>
<p>Duke is an excellent feeder schools into the top law schools. Just to throw a stat in: Duke is the 3rd biggest feeder to Yale law (behind Yale and Harvard). It's very well regarded, and there are very close relations between Duke and the top law programs.</p>
<p>I heard that Duke's study abroad program is really, really popular during the junior year. Duke has programs all around the world, and many other programs (like NYUs) will transfer to Duke with no problem.</p>
<p>Joining a sorority is a little on the expensive side. To rush costs you $50. Then your first semester will be around $500. Mine was just under $500, but I know some that are at least $600. The reason why the first (pledge) semester is so expensive is because you have to pay one time international dues and pay for your sorority pin which is always going to be around $200. Also dues cover formals, semi formals, dinners, presents, etc. We'll have weekly dinners partially paid for by the sorority. After the first semester, the dues drop substantially.</p>
<p>I did Focus and it didn't really mess up my schedule at all. Freshman year you need to complete a writing 20 class and a seminar, and because of focus, you fulfill both of those requirements. You get one free class to choose something outside of the focus curriculum, and many times, people use it to fulfill other requirements. people will take a math class, pre-meds have to take chem, other people choose foreign language. also- they register you into your non-focus class, so you never have to deal with choosing classes for first semester and getting shut out of things. some programs are more difficult and more stressful than others.</p>
<p>the sororities aren't all super preppy.</p>
<p>there's both big parties and small groups of friends having fun together. </p>
<p>students can spend as much or as little outside of the tuition as they please. some kids basically never spend money out of pocket. on the weekends (fri & sat night) when the freshman dining hall is closed for dinner, they'll order dinner on food points to have it delivered. usually, people will go out to a fairly cheap place (usually this is most possible if someone has a car, and usually, you'll know someone who has a car) one night and order in on another night. umm... as for groceries, my roommate and i seem to have more in our room at any given moment than most people. you can buy a lot of it on food points, but usually, we just go to super target and buy ourselves some water, drinks, and keep milk & oj and cereal in the room. there's always some snacks, but at least in our experience, you don't need anything more. there's also a whole foods across the street from East, and that's pretty pricey, but we really just buy dairy products from them and when we were sick this winter, we'd get stuff. (oh! and we buy fruit there). as for going out-- i never go to the movies so that's not something to worry about (with most people, i've realized). the people who like to go clubbing all the time go through the most "social money" because they're constantly paying around $5 in covers (and inevitably more in drinks & cab fares).</p>