Which program did you do and how was it?
Specifically, how are Science and Religion, Genetics and Genomics, and Global Health in terms of area of focus (whether more STEM-related or humanities-related), workload (how much writing/reading per week), and learning experience (was it worth it)?
I highly recommend the FOCUS program! It adds a sense of community your first semester, especially when you consider the lack of common core classes. For those who didn’t participate in FOCUS, unless they’re highly social, it’s difficult to get to know people at the beginning.
The courses all require a lot of reading, but it’s good training for dealing with the general Duke work load. For future reference, most Duke courses are, for the most part, equally difficult, so there’s no way of getting around that.
The names of the courses are pretty self-explanatory. The Genetics and Genomics focus is useful because you learn how to read and interpret scientific literature. I think each program teaches you how to interpret key information in that field.
I did visions of freedom and hated it, almost everyone I’ve met who did focus regrets it EXCEPT for the language one. Only do it if you’re really, really into the topic