<p>What is the benefit of being in the focus program??? Do you take regular classes on top of the required focus classes? Does it make your class load a lot heavier, etc.? Could anyone explain the process to me?? Thanks.</p>
<p>FOCUS is entirely optional. However, you must right essays at an annoying time post acceptance to Duke just when you feel like chilling out. And everyone does not get in FOCUS plus you must apply to more than one and take what you get. </p>
<p>My son is a recent Duke grad and would name FOCUS as one of his top ten favorite Duke experiences but frankly Duke is so much fun and there are so many opps for research and intense studies that it is really “what you make it” FOCUS or not. There is no advantage to you to doing FOCUS…it is not related to academic talent or status or honors level work. Some people who might be veering more towards math talent and happen to not like to write can complain about FOCUS because it always includes your Writing requirement course which can be burdensome if you hate to write and be critqued. Two of my son’s FOCUS friends were not big on writing and are now in great med schools but most people would say it is more fun to do your writing requirement while intensely studying one subject with fab teachers because it is more fun to write on something that you are highly invested in for teachers who you are close to daily. Field trips are often included in FOCUS experiences.<br>
His FOCUS group was just fabulous and they remain fast friends…some are in med school, law school, engineering school, working…so it is a myth that students in the premed not liberal arts etc tracks can’t have time for FOCUS.<br>
My son also applied to and got into a couple of wonderful liberal arts colleges with very small classes and labs when he was 18, and thought he might like closer contact with faculty. Duke is a medium sized major Research University with the opportunity for intimacy with faculty and some small classes if you are INTENTIONAL about planning your four years. There are ways to turn Duke into a big school with small school classrooms. FOCUS can turn your first days at Duke into “classes that feel like Amherst or Davidson” on a campus that is pretty dazzling and fun and diverse and big. FOCUS often puts exciting faculty members into teaching freshmen. My son was lectured by a former department chair who was highly published and important in his field in an earlier era of history…phenomenal life. This was quite thrilling and sadly, this Prof passed away during his four years but it was a priceless opportunity they look back on with awe. Other members of his FOCUS faculty were conducting fascinating field research in far corners of the world. Science based FOCUS tracks can also lead to opps for undergrad research.
FOCUS is a great program for getting “windows” into majors you may or may not ever pursue. It is also a well thought out residential program…Duke does not have Residential Colleges which are admirable at Yale and Rice for instance. FOCUS students will be assigned to the same freshman dorm but scattered with non FOCUS roommates. Some lectures will conveniently involve meals with Faculty and everyone is right there in the same East Campus building. No matter who you are, you must meet the T-Reqs and FOCUS offers you the chance to knock of a few at a time in a very interesting related manner that can make each class mean more to you.<br>
Life for non FOCUS students can be just as interesting. One thing we noted about Duke freshmen…they are very career oriented and seem to really be self directed–and they can create a freshman semester for themselves that is cool with or without FOCUS. FOCUS by the way can be done first or second semester.
My son is still talking about how much he learned in FOCUS. I think there were fifteen students in his group and they continued to be fast friends all four years despite going off in different directions academically and socially. He went abroad with one FOCUS classmate and while abroad…they traveled to visit two others when juniors.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity - which FOCUS did your son do? Any others that he would recommend highly?</p>
<p>My son’s FOCUS was in social sciences and Russia and is not always offered annually and has not been offered in the last few cycles. I know that the Genome series is always highly sought after and flooded with applicants and so is one on Neurosciences-- but in all honesty four years is a long time and things evolve, so you should only be considering what you love and enjoy. If you don’t get what you want, you can still for instance study up a storm later as an upperclassman in Genomes or Neuroscience sans FOCUS. There is room in any great education to pursue some learning for pleasure no matter how much your major demands of you and freshman year is a good time to indulge in new directions. FOCUS is a pretty tried and true great vehicle…I suppose the daily close access to faculty members as soon as you unload your suitcase at Duke is what makes is special, although there are plenty of small and cozy labs and majors where you can get to know your profs well down the road.</p>
<p>I’m in Visions of Freedom, and it’s the bomb.</p>
<p>How does it work with academics, are the seminars just where you meet once? or is it a semester long weekly seminar? Is it in leau of other classes?
Hookem, whats your class schedule like with Focus?</p>
<p>Focus plus Chem was my son’s entire schedule first semester plus an extra course he took in the arts all four years for tiny amounts of credit but tons of pleasure. He managed to do intramurals plus attend a gazillion sporting events plus his music.</p>
<p>Focus is definitely a mixed bag. It really depends on which one you end up in and whether or not the Focus faculty does a good job. Some people love their Focus, the majority of people are more-or-less ambivalent about it, and some people really regret doing it.
My focus cluster had four courses. Two of them, were, by all accounts, superb classes that truly allowed students to pursue opportunities they probably wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. I wasn’t in these. One of my Focus classes was good, but it wasn’t strictly a Focus class, just basically a standard non-Focus course that was given an “FCS” code on the end of its course number. My last Focus class was simply terrible and a massive waste of time.
It really depends on your Focus. If I had to advise a p-Frosh, I’d generally caution against it unless it’s one of the really well-regarded Focus clusters (Genome Revolution is great, I hear, and Muslim Cultures is going to be offered in the fall next year).
Oh, and the Focus program really likes to play up the residential aspect - i.e. everyone lives together in the same dorm. Its a nice way to play on p-froshs’ insecurities - if you’re in the same classes with people in your dorm, you’ll make so many more friends, right? Kind of, but you’ll end up making friends quickly anyway.
Bottom line: only do Focus if you are truly interested in the material. It’s not worth doing it just for the sake of doing it.</p>
<p>I’m currently in the Exploring the Mind FOCUS and I can’t say my experience has been positive. Although I was initially interested in the material, the classes tended to be extremely focused (pun intended) on several topics, and generally ignored the larger picture(I still don’t have a coherent sense of what neuroscience actually is). Although some people might like the detailed and minute approach, I favor a general and more conceptual understanding. After a while, one of my classes basically became rote memorization of facts. Maybe it was the two classes I selected; however, some of my friends have characterized some their FOCUS classes mainly as “useless” and “a waste of time” (Neuroeconomics is exempt from this generalization; I hear all my friends like it a lot, but sadly, I didn’t pick it). Some people might have better experiences with their FOCUS classes, but I would definitely not recommend the one I’m in to any future students (assuming the same professors teach the courses). A definite plus is the relatively small amount of work that FOCUS classes assigns compared to some of my other classes, and it will allow you to dedicate your time to other things (harder classes or ECs or just sitting around). </p>
<p>However, the social aspect is a definite plus. I am friends with all my FOCUS classmates, who are all extremely bright. Living together in a dorm does bring a sense of camaraderie and makes studying for exams a lot easier. </p>
<p>TLDR: Choose your FOCUS and your FOCUS classes carefully if you’re doing FOCUS.</p>
<p>My D did genome last year and liked it fine. The residential part, and the involvement of one of the instructors was a plus for her. Last year and this year, she has really liked her small, discussion type classes. If I’m not mistaken, the writing class is now separate.</p>
<p>AZN god, whats your schedule like??? Do the classes from FOCUS cover some of your requirements??? I think thats what I’m most concerned about.</p>
<p>A standard courseload at Duke is 4 classes. If you are in Focus you’ll take 4.5 classes: two focus classes, your IDC (interdisciplinary course, .5 credit, pass/fail, almost no work whatsoever), and then two classes of whatever else you sign up for.
Focus does get some requirements out of the way. All freshman have to take at least one seminar course (Focus will meet this requirement) and a Writing 20 (Focus won’t fulfill this one).
Focus courses do tend to have lots of Areas of Knowledge and Modes of Inquiry codes. You don’t really need to worry about these but just know that Focuses will usually fulfill a good number of graduation requirements.</p>
<p>OK - so if this is the full list of FOCUS courses available, which are losers? Which do the Duke students recommend?</p>
<p>Fall
Between Europe & Asia: Explorations in Culture, Law & Cognitive Science
Engineering Frontiers: Living Systems for a Living Planet
Evolution & Humankind
Exploring the Mind
The Faces of Science
The Genome Revolution & Its Impact on Society
Global Health: Local & International Disparities
Modeling Economic & Social Systems
The Power of Ideas
Virtual Realities: Digital Media, Imagined Worlds, and Immersive 3D Environments
Visions of Freedom </p>
<p>Spring
Entrepreneurial Challenges
Muslim Cultures: The Middle East & Beyond</p>
<p>I’ll second the Visions of Freedom recommendation. One of the four professors has been teaching his exact Focus course for over 10 years. The IDC brings tons of really interesting guests to give speeches and field questions, and everyone that I know loves their classes/professors/coursework. It’s entirely humanities-oriented (i.e. reading/writing), so if you’re not into that type of thing, beware. I mean, you could have upwards of 300 pages of reading a week between your two classes. Totally worth it.</p>
<p>My friends in the Power of Ideas also seem to like it.</p>
<p>@KateLewis: The best advice I can give you is to find a Focus you’re interested in, and then try to find people who were enrolled in it and get their advice. In college you’ll find the professors are far more important than the course material. </p>
<p>Be careful with Between Europe & Asia. If you get in Edna Andrew or Michael Newcity’s class, you’ll love it. If you get in David Need’s class, you will hate every second of your miserable existence. Also, we got shafted because all the Focus clusters students got to take subsidized trips somewhere, and we didn’t get to go anywhere. (The Muslim Cultures focus students get to go to Turkey or Egypt, for instance, although that might change because it’s being moved to the fall next year.)</p>
<p>My child is currently in “Exploring the mind” focus program.
I don’t think our experience was great with this program.
Unlike other regular courses, the courses in focus program expand in so many random directions depending on the instructors, but they still get the letter grades as other traditional courses.
In my child’s case, it was quite exhausting to be in this program.
They had to put so much unlimited time on the random topics compared to other shaped-up courses like math, chem etc., and the grades were very harsh and the reading materials was enormous and loose.
many of other Ivy leagues have similar program, but they give the grade as pass/fail. </p>
<p>Depending on the topics of the program, the quality of the program can fluctuate vastly with each instructor’s ability.</p>
<p>This program still needs a lot of improvement. It contains too much uncertainties and yet the grade system can be unfair.
It is an ambitious program of Duke, but not a well-balanced one compared to other regular courses, yet. It can endlessly exhaust the freshman’s morale and valuable time. </p>
<p>To my child, we think it would’ve been much better to take regular courses (which you know what to expect to learn) and balance out the rest of the time in other enjoyable activities.
We, parents, now regret recommending this focus program to our child.
I heard some focus courses are ridiculously easy to get good grades, but some courses are the opposite. Depending on which courses they enroll, the difficulties of the courses seem to fluctuate randomly.
Unless Duke standardizes the focus program in various ways (incl. the quality,the grade system, etc), I discourage other people to take this.
My child was very interested in this topic to begin with and still is, but the topic was too vast to cover in one semester with a letter grade system.</p>
<p>Too much chaos and still too much uncertainties on grades.
Definitely it was not a good start to my freshman.</p>
<p>^ What that parent is saying is that the Focus program is more humanities-oriented. All humanities courses are similar to what you’re describing (less rigidly structured, less <em>obvious</em> in study method, etc.). If you’re a huge math/sci guy, well, duh, stay away from Focus.</p>
<p>“all the Focus clusters students got to take subsidized trips somewhere,”</p>
<p>My D didn’t go anywhere that I know of.</p>
<p>My D likes the topics and the friendships they built within the focus program.
But, the focus courses took way more of her time than her regular courses.
A pass/fail system might work better for the focus program.</p>