Distribution Requirements at Duke

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>How big of a deal are they? They seem like a lot:
**
* Five Areas of Knowledge:
o Arts, Literatures, and Performance (ALP)
o Civilizations (CZ)
o Natural Sciences (NS)
o Social Sciences (SS)
o Quantitative Studies (QS)*</p>

<p>*Note: Students who have matriculated before May 2004 must complete the two-course QID Mode of Inquiry requirement (including one M-coded course) rather than the QS Area of Knowledge requirement.</p>

<pre><code>* Six Modes of Inquiry, including:
o Cross-Cultural Inquiry (CCI)
o Ethical Inquiry (EI)
o Science, Technology, and Society (STS)
o Foreign Language (FL)
o Research (R)
o Writing (W)
</code></pre>

<p>**</p>

<p>Are they really a lot of credits that you have to take? Sayyy you're a science major... what's already covered by the major? I'm just weighing the benefits of Duke + distribution reqs v UVA and an open curric cuz of their honors program, and their relative impacts on the premed track and ultimately getting into a top medical school. (OOS at both... y'all are free to bring up any other school specific impacts on my prep for medschool)</p>

2

<p>Well, those may sound like a lot of requirements but once you actually do the scheduling, they shouldn't be too bad. I know that many trinity courses are crosslisted between different departments and such. So in theory, with wise course selection, you can knock out a lot of the requirements with not a lot of courses. </p>

<p>Also, for pratt, the requirements are different:</p>

<p>1) 5 humanities/social science credits
2) Must span 3 subject areas (analogous to areas of knowledge)
3) 2 credits must come from the same department with 1 being 100-level
4) Only 2 AP credits can be applied in this area (versus unlimited for all other areas in Pratt)</p>

<p>In case you can't tell, I'm an engineer, hence the vague knowledge of trinity requirements.</p>

3

<p>So courses qualify towards both an area of knowledge AND a mode of inquiry, right... but can the also be like... two modes of inquiry or two areas of knowledge in one?</p>

<p>Or is that what you meant by crosslisted?</p>

4

<p>So essentially if you're double majoring you can get 1 class to count towards both majors and as a graduation req?</p>

5

<p>Yup, for example, there's a course called arts management and policy issues 166S, but it's also crosslisted under German 166S, so you could say that the course satisfies foreign language and civilization (note, idk specifically, just making that up).</p>

6

<p>I really got to finish this paper right now, but I just wanted to add a quick comment. The Trinity curriculum is not as daunting as it looks the first time you see it. As a science major, I'll complain here and there about it, but overall I didn't have much problem with all of the requirements. This was actually more intricate a few years ago, and they redid it to suit science/math people better.</p>

<p>For the most part, each class only has one Area of Knowledge, but many times it will contain 2 or more Modes of Inquiry.</p>

<p>If you would like to waste some time checking out classes that Duke offers go here: <a href="http://www.siss.duke.edu/schedule/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.siss.duke.edu/schedule/&lt;/a>
If you scroll over info for a particular class it will give you the designations. Also for all you students who are pretty sure about Duke, have fun trying to put together a hypothetical schedule for next year.</p>

7

<p>Haha have fun? And thaaaaaaaanks to y'all.</p>

<p>I need to visit these two schools and figure it all out <em>augh</em></p>

8

<p>You need to take ten courses, two in each of five Areas of Knowledge.</p>

<p>They cannot double count. If a course is double-listed, you must choose one or the other. This choice is reversible if you later decide you need it more in the other AK.</p>

<p>You need twelve "credits" worth of courses, two in each of six Modes of Inquiry. The exception is foreign languages, which we'll get to. If a course is listed with more than one MI, you receive credit in all of them. (They often are.)</p>

<p>You also have major/minor/premedical requirements. Any courses taken to fulfill these requirements will also go towards your distribution requirements.</p>

<p>For example, premedical students take a year of math (2 QS), one semester of Writing 20 (varies), one semester of English (1 ALP), a year of biology, physics, and chemistry (tons of NS, but you only need 2). That takes care of five of your ten AK "credits".</p>

<p>Here's how I filled the remaining credits:
2 CZ: History of Warfare and Philosophy: Prepositional Logic
1 ALP: Medicine and Photography
2 SS: Economics major, so lots here.</p>

<p>CCI: Political Science: Intro to the American Gov't, and International Macroeconomics
EI: Public Policy (Policy Choice in Value Conflict), Chemistry Research (26S).
STS: Maybe Genetics (Bio 118) and Chemistry Research (26S).*
R: Chem26S, and maybe Int'l Macroeconomics. Possibly Health Care Analysis?
FL: Chinese 1, 2, 63.
W: Animal Physiology (Bio 151), Creative Writing (English 100).</p>

<p>*I'm not 100% sure I have this, to be honest. But Duke let me graduate, so I guess I must have.</p>

<p>You can see that there are some situations where I picked up credits without even realizing it and therefore can't remember where I got them from.</p>

<p>For me, the annoying ones were one each of the CCI and CZ credits. Not too shabby.</p>

<p>The FL requirement is a little different, if they haven't changed it. You need to take either three semesters or you need to take up through a 100-level class, usually the fifth semester. So if you're starting at a high level, it might be one or two classes. At most it might be three.</p>

9

<p>Oh gosh... that's a lot... I'm tempted to take an open curriculum at UVA over this just for the freedom it would lend me in taking bio/sci courses and doing a second major...</p>

<p>Duke students! Want to convince me otherwise?</p>

10

<p>Yes. :)</p>

<p>The distribution requirements here are not nearly as bad as they look. Some courses can have three or four modes of inquiry, and all of these count (e.g., religion courses tend to fulfill several modes of inquiry at once). Many (most?) courses have multiple areas of knowledge, but only one counts toward your distribution requirements. These update every semester for your benefit, though -- that is, the area of knowledge that a course counts for will change retroactively to help you out based on which distribution credits you need. You certainly don't have to take (6 modes of inquiry x 2 courses each) + (5 areas of knowledge x 2 courses each) = 22 different courses to fulfill the requirements.</p>

<p>That will all make sense to you once you get here (it's really quite clear once you're at Duke, though it's hard to explain to the uninitiated). The effect of the curriculum is this: if you're naturally inquisitive and want a true liberal education, you'll fulfill the distribution requirements almost automatically. I tend to think that the curriculum is designed less to be a hindrance to naturally curious students and more to prod more cautious or single-minded to try subjects with which they might be less comfortable. The modes of inquiry requirements demand that you do some independent study or research coursework, take a few seminar classes, and take a couple of (relatively) writing-intensive courses in your time at Duke, and I think you'd be missing out if you didn't plan to do these already.</p>

<p>Also, I'd point out that there are many ways to fulfill the distribution requirements. English majors can take AIDS and Emerging Diseases or Genetics, Genomics, and Society, for instance, for their natural sciences requirement, and these courses are specifically geared toward non-majors. Physics majors can take courses in jazz, Shakespeare, or dance for their arts, literature, and performance requirements. I like to think that most people at Duke have diverse enough interests that taking courses like these is a privilege rather than a chore. :)</p>

<p>About foreign language: the requirement is essentially that you achieve proficiency in a foreign language. If you have a four or five on a language AP (depending on which one) you need to take one hundred-level course; otherwise, you can start a new language and take three classes. This is the only requirement that you're unlikely to fulfill automatically, but it's not all that difficult. I've heard most languages at Duke are excellent, though I'm not taking my first language course until next fall.</p>

<p>Second majors at Duke (or minors or certificates, the latter of which are interdisciplinary) are very possible, and lots of people do double-major. I'd venture to say a majority stumble upon a minor as well just by pursuing interests outside their majors.</p>

11

<p>Hypothetically, let's say you're a premed double majoring in economics and biology with a minor in chemistry. Also let's assume you have AP Credit for BC Calc but nothing else.</p>

<p>Premeds need math, chem, English, bio, physics. That's 12 courses for you right there.</p>

<p>Those take care of 5/10 AK requirements and 9/17 of the biology major. You need eight more biology courses. Over the course of these eight you're guaranteed to get your STS's and R's taken care of, and I'm willing to bet you have your W's taken care of as well.</p>

<p>You take your three classes to get your FL credits done. So far we're looking at 23 courses.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, along the way, you've taken care of Calc III and Stats. Those are 2/12 courses for the economics major. You need ten more classes in Economics. You will certainly take care of your SS credits. Economics is a broad enough major that you could take care of a CCI (Int'l Macro), an ALP (The Art Market), and probably a couple others as well. Let's say that you only get the one CCI from your ten classes, which I think is a low estimate.</p>

<p>We're up to 33 classes. You still need a CCI, an ALP, two CZ's, and two EI's. That's three courses for the AK's and trust me, you can fit the MI's into those courses. So that's 36 classes. And this is assuming you're startlingly uncreative about the courses you took for your majors.</p>

<p>Oh, and since you took biochem as a bio major, you have your chem minor as well.</p>

<p>36 means you overload every other semester, a very manageable courseload. It's what I did, for example. If you have AP Credit in Bio, a foreign language, or chem, that all speeds you up. (AP Credit in Physics is not useful for premeds and should not be used.)</p>

<p>The major drawback is that you can't afford to take courses that provide you with no distribution requirements and don't fall into either a biology or chemistry major. But, truth be told, between two majors and your requirements you do get a pretty broad swath of Duke already.</p>

12

<p>My first semester of freshman year I had the last registration window so I didn't end up with my first choice classes. However, I was able to fill a ton of requirements. For instance my Spanish 114S seminar fulfilled seminar, language, arts and lit, and some other stuff requirements. It's really daunting at all. It seems like very few people are really worried about filling the requirements because they just got done. Certain majors or cases may make it a bit tougher, but definately manageable.</p>

13

<p>Mike you have been insanely useful these past few days.</p>

<p>Is the beginners level spanish for those who have never done spanish in HS before? But I think I'd prolly try mandarin or arabic anyway!</p>

<p>Right. I'm coming in with AP Credit (5s) in English Lang, Lit (prolly), World, USGOV, Stats, Calc BC, Bio, EnvSci, Psych. Will I be able to apply all of those/use them to help me get a head start at Duke? I know they won't count towards my majors or the distribution reqs, but I can take higher level classes, right?</p>

<p>Woah gcards... your 100 level spanish class fulfilled a lot of stuff.</p>

<p>And nah I'm not really afraid of spreading my interests - I already am interested in lots of different things already (not sure what to do a second major in if I do have one; english, public policy or whaaaaaat ahhaa... but y'all are really making it hard to pick against Duke!) :P</p>

14

<p>1.) Beginning languages are, indeed, designed for those who've never taken a language.</p>

<p>2.) The two that are useful to you -- in my hypothesized premed econ/bio double chem minor scenario -- are Calc and Bio. Notice that the scenario already assumed Calc. Bio allows you to skip 25 and go directly to 118. (You'll take 26 eventually, but DON'T do it right away!) I actually really liked Bio 25 and found it very easy. I took it as one of six courses second semester my freshman year (yes, I had to petition for special permission), and that worked out just fine. So you could either take it as a class that I found pretty easy, or you could skip it and save yourself a semester.</p>

<p>The last question on the final exam looked kind of annoying, so I didn't bother doing it. It didn't harm my grade in the course.</p>

<p>The other thing to check into is whether you can find a way into an accelerated General Chemistry track. Chem 21/22 are a little tedious, and Chem 23 covers the same material but less annoyingly. Back when I took it, the professor's policy was that all students were welcome into 23. That would also save you a semester. I'm not sure if it would be possible for you to do last-minute, crazy-schedule self-studying for the Chem AP aiming for a 4. (Although, I showed up an hour and a half late and managed to get a 5 on that AP in the remaining time -- this isn't AP Bio, where you've got an essay to write.)</p>

15

<p>Yeah I read that 26 is kinda crazy.</p>

<p>I got a 710 on the SAT2 chem after a month and a half of crazy cramming and was considering AP Chem this year but decided against it.</p>

<p>I'll try to get into an accelerated General Chemistry track, and I'd definately skip to bio 118.. just to save two semester slots.</p>

<p>So you only get two ap credits?</p>

16

<p>Duke has a sometimes puzzling hybrid policy on AP's.</p>

<p>1.) You need to take 34 classes to graduate from Duke. If you have two recognized AP credits, you may apply them to this, meaning that you only have to take 32 classes to graduate from Duke. If you have more than two, you may apply them if you mean to graduate early. In that case, you can use an extra two AP credits per semester that you graduate early.</p>

<p>2.) AP Credits can sometimes be used to skip over introductory prerequisites within a department. So the Biology major requires Math 31/32, but your AP Credits can be used there. Same with Spanish, Chem, etc. This is not true of all AP's -- for example, I believe the Economics Department will not recognize the Statistics AP.</p>

<p>3.) In no case will they count towards distribution requirements.</p>

17

<p>Weiiiird...</p>

18

<p>Somewhat so, but, like everything surrounding Curriculum 2000, much easier to understand than to explain. Basically, you'll need either 32 or 34 credits to graduate (probably 32 for most), and APs are for placement. :)</p>

<p>Also, Duke's AP policy is quite liberal -- lots of schools don't allow you to place out of as many classes as Duke does (and almost no top schools give credit, so you're not missing out in that regard), and Duke's policy might let you skip a bunch of stuff you wouldn't want to do. It's great!</p>

19

<p>Sounds good!</p>

<p>I don't really mean to sound like a one-track-mind nerd in these posts going "AUUUUUUUGH A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION" even though that's how it might come off. I was just sorta hoping for Brown and an open curric where I can just take whatever suits my fancy.</p>

20

<p>Lemme reiterate the PRATT part in all this:</p>

<p>1) Engineers must have five credits in what I call the Trinity Distribution that SBR described on the previous page. These are five courses total spanning in the social science (SS), art/lit/performance (ALP), civilizations (CZ), and foreign language (FL) areas of knowledge. The qualifiers:
1a) One must be a social science
1b) Two must be from the same department, with at least one at the 100 level
1c) You must cover at least three of the four areas (including SS)</p>

<p>2) All AP credits but statistics count for something, though Trinity will only allow us to count two towards the five in the Trinity Distribution. Also, you must take a Physics class once enrolled. That means if you come in with an AP Bio, an AP Chem, two AP Math, two AP Phy, and two AP liberal arts stuff, you have knocked out eight requirements (and added one - Physics of some kind). You can thus graduate with just 27 more credits. OH yeah you can...</p>

<p>And people say Pratt's curriculum is restrictive. P-shaw.</p>