Exploring the Mind FOCUS - Is it worth it?

<p>Hey, i am going to be in pratt and possibly doing pre-med and/or french along the way. i feel like i would be overloading, but i have also heard good things about this focus group. can someone please tell me their experiences?? :)</p>

<p>Definitely worth it. The faculty is top-notch and all the students in this focus are super-motivated and excited to learn (even if many of them didn’t end up neuroscience majors). </p>

<p>Puzzles is highly recommended- Flanagan is brilliant.</p>

<p>That’s great to hear! Do you think it would be difficult for me to stay on track for graduation and still have a social life?</p>

<p>Yeah, I wish I could be in Exploring the Mind. I had it as my first choice but instead got Power of Ideas (second choice). Anyone know how that is btw?</p>

<p>squircle0- umm… what? LOL, that’s not something you can find an answer for on the internet. You know yourself better than anyone else. Just take it easy first semester, meet lots of people and don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone. </p>

<p>Arzachel: Woah. I just checked the course offering, and it’s changed a lot since my days as a freshman (it was philosophy-leaning back in 2008, but now it seems more geared towards medicine). A word of advice: DO NOT TAKE Hull’s class. Trust me. Feel free to pm for more details.</p>

<p>Ketty- what I meant was do you think it’s manageable with a bme major who will probably go premed and/or minor in French?</p>

<p>Darn, lol. I already put his class as one of my choices since there were only three to choose from. I’m not planning on doing anything with medicine so I opted out of the Revolutions in Medicine class. Who knows what they’ll end up giving me though.</p>

<p>I’m dying to get in, so I’d be thrilled if you passed it up :P</p>

<p>You should know that it’s a time consuming program. The readings tend to be really complicated and (maybe just my experience) the course turned out to be a huge headache.</p>

<p>Are you referring to exploring the mind, power of ideas, or to the focus program in general when you say that?</p>

<p>yeah same. i got into exploring the mind and im having doubts about the work load as im also a pre med. is exploring the mind supposed to be really tough? im taking the mind and language and exploring human memory now…and i don’t know anything about tetel or rubin really.</p>

<p>Focus classes are about average (in relation to other Duke classes) in terms of work load and difficulty. A big difference, though, is that the topics that you’ll be studying will be much more focused and specific than in the other classes you’ll be taking freshman year (bio, chem, math, etc). If you’re not REALLY interested in the topics, don’t do it. If you are, then you’ll love it.</p>

<p>I mean Exploring the Mind. I found the classes to be somewhat bland and I left the program not feeling like I’d learned enough to merit the time I’d put in.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to scare you off, but you should know what you’re getting into in terms of workload; I wish someone had told me about it beforehand.</p>