<p>My son went to facebook immediately, but roommate does not seem to be on there…</p>
<p>On the bright side, AP scores came in today! Two kids, 9 APs, 8 5’s and one 4! He’ll be happy about the 4 in Enviro because he TOTALLY BS’ed his way through the test… :D</p>
<p>Do the boys need to carry any kind of formal clothing like a suit?</p>
<p>Parents, this is probably redundant, considering you’re on here and so obviously care, but I would take a second to make sure your young adults know when they are registering/what bookbagging is/what is required for their first semester/year. The number of facebook posts in the group that contain some variation of ‘What is bookbagging and how do I do it?’ and ‘How many classes do I take my first semester?’ or ‘What is required in my first year? Seminar? What’s a seminar?’ really, really surprised/scared me. So there is that. (And the number of questions that could be answered with a quick google search… Ay…)</p>
<p>rmldad: in 05 when my son went to Duke, FB was “newish”. He saw that his roommate had no FB page --which for some reason he viewed as a negative despite FB being not so universal back then. He also had to “wait” to hear from roommate. He sent him an email, and I think called him as well. He turned out to be a great guy, considerate, smart, soon to be leader of outdoors programs at Duke and completely into being outside, not a person who would socialize online, lots of foreign study ahead of him. The second semester of freshman year is a time that they scramble to think about their lives on West campus, and will apply to learning community residential options or to greek options, and keep in mind that a ton of Dukies are gone part of their upperclass years. </p>
<p>Duke’s freshman only campus has a surprising amount of espirit de corps and student loyalty to their assigned buildings/houses overall. If you are doing FOCUS you won’t have a roommate in your program but you will have all your FOCUS students in your freshman house which is homey.</p>
<p>Hey purple!</p>
<p>Yep… I had to mention to son today to “check for deadlines”. I know he has to register on the 11th, but I’m sure he has no idea… Makes me wonder how he’ll get on at college… he has his classes book bagged (I think) and knows he has to take Writing first semester…</p>
<p>Yup. Because he’s registering on the 11th, which is last registration window, he’s going to need to reasses after each window and see if the classes he wants are still open.</p>
<p>@amdmom My S brought a suit with him and has worn it. There is a dress-up event at Nasher museum during orientation week and I believe he had another occasion to wear it as well. Since my S pledged a fraternity second semester he had to dress up often. A sports coat would be more than sufficient. Duke kids on the whole dress nicely all the time - no more baggy pants and hoodies for the boys! It was basically a new wardrobe after HS for us.</p>
<p>@NJ mom Thank you so much for your reply.</p>
<p>DD registered today! She logged on prior to noon, and was ready with her first choice verified schedule. (She had 3 more unverified ready in case.) At exactly noon she clicked on the registration button for the verified schedule. It took about 2-3 minutes to complete, but she got her first choices. We did notice that her seminar class was full by 12:03 according to her new schedule. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>DS also was lucky and also had the first registration slot. He tried to register for five classes, but as it says, they will only let you take up to 4.5. Just FYI, if you try to do that, the system automatically drops the last class on your list so if that wasn’t an optional class you will have to go back and delete your optional class and add the class you really wanted/needed. That might be important if you are trying to nab the last opening in a class and don’t want to waste time. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if exceptions can be made in order to take five classes first semester? Is there a procedure to get that approved? DukeDoc? Thanks.</p>
<p>The last credit can be added at o-week once you meet with your dean.</p>
<p>what do people think about this registration process? S was a “day two” registrant, was unable to get any seminar he really wanted, some of the topics are pretty lame IMHO. I suppose there is no simple way to ration courses but the nasty “race” at noon, login problems, site crashes, and disappointments smack of a much larger, resource constrained school than I expected.</p>
<p>I am deeply saddened by this process – my d has the last day - tomorrow - already there is nothing left from her top choices… She and I are very disappointed.</p>
<p>Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but what is a “seminar” class? I didn’t get involved with DS choosing his schedule, but I never heard about a seminar class. Is it something that is required? I know he followed the suggested schedule for Pratt first year students. Maybe seminar classes are for Trinity? Thanks for enlightening me!</p>
<p>Each freshman has to take both a seminar class and a writing class. Duke randomly assigns half the freshman to take a writing class the first semester. This is noted on their ACES page. If there is no notation, then they should register for a seminar class the first semester and take a writing class second semester.</p>
<p>My daughter had 2 of her desired classes fill yesterday so she reworked her schedule last night then another filled before her registration went through today. Now she has 3 classes on Friday, and 5 on Wednesday from 8:30-5:45. She’s relieved that she at least has four classes but not really happy with her seminar and only “meh” about her “elective”.
I feel for the students registering tomorrow! I’m not a huge fan of registering before they’ve had a chance to talk to their advisors. For the pre-health kids it’s hard to know if they are in the right classes.</p>
<p>Could someone please confirm asap – you only register for at most 4.5 worth of course credits when your window opens – is that correct?</p>
<p>Also, if your child wants to register for something with a placement exam, is it recommended to register for a “place-holder” course to make up the 4 course credits?</p>
<p>Good luck to those whose kids register today. S’13 registers today and who knows what on his list he’ll end up getting. His top classes only seem to have a few spots left.</p>
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<p>It is less about resource constraints and more about resource allocation. Not that it makes the later registrants feel any better this time, but Duke’s policy on registration times is to divide each class into three groups based on the last two digits of the student ID number and rotate which group gets Day One, Day Two, or Day Three within its class every semester. The kids who got Day One this week will go last next semester. That’s about as fair as they can make it. </p>
<p>And I’d echo the person who suggested emailing the professor for a class that you really, really want to take. Now, granted, this wasn’t at Duke, but I had some success back in my day at a small-ish state school approaching professors on the first day of class with the following offer: “Professor X, I know your class is ‘full,’ but I think I can contribute enough to it to justify you keeping one extra student. Please let me attend for the first week, and if I don’t do enough to make it worth your while, you can tell me no. Otherwise, I’d like for you to approve a 'force add.”" It always worked.</p>
<p>ETA: I think amdmom has the order of rotation right in her post below. Sorry about that.</p>