<p>i was wondering whether it is possible to have have some personal view from those of you who had FOCUS in first year:</p>
<p>-what specific program did you do?
-whats so good about it? (bonding opportunities? etc)
-whats bad about it?
-amount of workload? (a lot of writing/reading? etc)
-should one do FOCUS if there is no program of particular interest, just for the sake of joining / discovering what one really likes?</p>
<p>opinions from those who did not do FOCUS but would like to share is also appreciated.</p>
<p>You might want to post this on the forum for Duke as I doubt current students are looking at the Duke 2011 forum.</p>
<p>(being away from duke in the days before end of semester and starting summer internships... make me a duke rising senior looking at duke '11)</p>
<p>i did modern america, and i doubt it exists anymore.
i thought the best part of focus was the bonding opportunities. i have great friends still from focus, but even better, i'm connected to more people. (while a lot of people from my focus are not the people i'll call up to go out with on a regular basis, running into them at a bar is always a good time). i feel that the bonding was fostered first and foremost from living together and having everyone around for studying help, from a few characters in the focus, and from the most bats**t insane professor (no longer at duke) one can ever imagine. our ridiculous trip to oxford, nc didn't hurt either.
what's bad -- honestly, our classes weren't THAT great. our professors hadn't taught college undergraduates (esp. in their first semester) in a while and were more accustomed to grad students. our writing 20 prof was just beyond insane, and i felt there were only 2 particularly great courses in the cluster, and i was only in 1.
we were in the notorious easy slacker focus. there was reading and writing, but it was a fairly easy semester.
honestly, if there's not a particular focus you're interested in, then don't do it. you can, in my opinion at least, better find what you like by taking random classes that seem interesting to you. i discovered my majors and my focus in college not from focus (not even close) but from taking random classes. and honestly, for major freshman classes (chem 21, basic maths, econ 1, etc) half your dorm will be in them anyway, so there's still always the possibility of dorm bonding over work.</p>