Course Selection Questions!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>Hello All:</p>

<p>I am currently a high school senior, and was lucky enough to gain admittance into Duke. I will be an Economics major pursuing a concentration in Finance as well, and am trying to plan out a curriculum for my next four years at Duke. I have already outlined a plan to satisfy all my GenEd requirements in addition to my major and concentration requirements.<br>
A little bit more about myself: I have reviewed the financial aid package with both of my parents, and it is quite reasonable. If I truly decide to attend Duke, there wouldn't be major issues with cost. However, it will limit my future opportunities(law school may be out of the question). If I were to attend my state school, IU-Bloomington, I would have more financial flexibility. As far as I can tell, both schools have a wide-variety of finance courses, which is good for career preparation.<br>
As of right now, I am aiming for a career in the financial industry(obviously I am young, and this could change in a couple years). However, I have run into some confusion. Essentially, I have compiled a myriad list of questions regarding the courses at Duke:</p>

<p>1) Which math course should I start with(122, 122L, or 202)? I have received a 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam(junior year), and will be gunning for the same score on the BC exam in a few months. Assuming I do well on the BC exam, which one of the listed math courses would be best for me? In fact, should I perhaps take the lower Math 111L, 105L, or 106L courses? Basically I would like to understand at which point I would be overstepping the limitations of my math knowledge. It would also be nice to know which of the courses are filled with math/engineering majors or pre-meds...the type of students that I find it daunting to compete against?</p>

<p>2) I have also received 5's on both the AP Micro and Macro Exams. I took this during my sophomore year, which may factor into the decision of whether to skip ECON 101 and jump into ECON 201D. Will a solid grasp over the AP Economics material be enough to skip 101? Or would I be missing important basic fundamentals?</p>

<p>3) I am currently taking AP Psychology, and hope to score well enough (4/5) to be eligible to receive credits. Would I still be able to receive the Duke credit for Psych 101, even if I don't take a more advanced psych course? I currently plan not to. </p>

<p>4) Now a more general question. The course descriptions in the online catalog usually include acronyms(EZ, CCI, EI, etc.) to indicate whether the course satisfies an Area of Knowledge/Modes of Inquiry requirement. Some courses list multiple acronyms; Does that mean I can take that course and satisfy multiple credits at once? Or must I choose only one of the acronyms to satisfy? I ask this because I would prefer to be able to kill two birds with one stone.</p>

<p>5) While on the subject of the Area of Knowledge and Modes of Inquiry requirements...I would like to ask an open question: Which ALP, EI, CZ, CCI, or any other types of courses did you all find to be worthwhile? For CZ, EI, CCI, R, and W, my plan currently consists of courses that would satisfy both my major and the GenEd requirements. Would I be overly-limiting my opportunities for a broad education? Which courses may have slipped under my radar, but would be worth my time to take? I would like to extend this question to the seminars as well.</p>

<p>6) I am also currently taking Visual Basic Programming courses at my local community college, and am interested in taking some higher level computer language course, specifically MATLAB. Would anyone know of lower level courses that deal with MATLAB?</p>

<p>7) Is there a GPA requirement a student must reach before having access to the finance concentration? </p>

<p>Hope this doesn't overwhelm anyone! Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and hopefully I will see some of you on campus one day!</p>

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<p>I’ll try to answer your questions</p>

<p>1) If you do receive credit for Calc BC, then I would directly just take math 202 or 212 if you have any thoughts about going further in math. In general, you should use any AP credit you have cause many of the intro classes are designed to weed students out.</p>

<p>2) In this case I would just jump into Econ 201D. Thomas Nechyba, the teacher that will be teaching it this coming fall, is fantastic and you really don’t need to have taken an econ class to do well in his class. Taking 101 will not prepare you for 201 anymore than your AP classes by much.</p>

<p>3) Duke only gives up to two credits for your APs and you never need to take a psych class.</p>

<p>4) You can use up two 3 modes of inquiry and 1 area of knowledge per class. So taking classes with multiple modes of inquiry is to your advantage if you want to knock out the pre-req.</p>

<p>5) I haven’t taken enough classes to really answer this question, but I would try to take classes that don’t count for your major just to give you a more well-rounded experience. With an econ major, there will be plenty of room to take classes in subjects that you find interesting.</p>

<p>6) Engineering 103 is the class that teaches MATLAB, but you could also take CompSci 101 and they will teach python and then java in CS 201.</p>

<p>7) No you just need to fulfill the course requirements to get a finance concentration.</p>

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<p>I appreciate your thorough answers, Shamgod! It has helped me rework my curriculum plan into something more concrete. If I think of any more questions later on, I’ll know who to message! Thanks!</p>