Focus

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>The FOCUS program is one of Duke's main selling points. I didn't take it myself, but I thought it might be nice to generate some buzz on it.</p>

<p>For those of you who have taken it, tell me about your experiences. I think it'll prove useful for our freshmen to know about.</p>

<p>The official Duke blurb:
*"The Focus Program is Duke’s signature program for first-year students, providing clusters of interdisciplinary seminars designed around a common theme. In these thematic clusters students explore issues such as genomics, freedom, the arts, and social ideals from multiple perspectives. The seminar-sized Focus courses foster close interaction with faculty from a diverse array of academic departments who are leading researchers in their fields.</p>

<p>Approximately one-quarter of the first-year class participates in Focus each fall semester. Focus students take four courses related to their cluster theme:</p>

<p>A Writing 20 course,
Two seminars, and
A half-credit Interdisciplinary Discussion Course (IDC) </p>

<p>The IDC gathers students and faculty in a weekly dinner seminar to discuss issues related to their cluster’s theme. All Focus programs include opportunities outside the classroom such as field trips, guest lectures, student-organized activities, or research service learning projects. In addition to the Focus courses, students register for one additional course of their own choosing. </p>

<p>As part of the Focus intellectual community, there is a residential component, where Focus students live in cluster-based groups in East Campus dorms."*</p>

<p>You can find a complete list of FOCUS topics here: <a href="http://focus.aas.duke.edu/programs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://focus.aas.duke.edu/programs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>jah, i like it. If I get in, I'll prob take FOCUS in the fall. I like the "exploring the mind" topic.</p>

<p>Anyone take FOCUS? Was it work intensive? Difficult? Harshly graded? Inspiring?</p>

<p>For most of the semester, my FOCUS wasn't much work. Plenty of reading, but for me that never took very long, especially since a lot of it was on SparkNotes. There were a couple points in the semester where I had a bunch of papers due at once, but I survived.</p>

<p>FOCUS = GPA booster</p>

<p>GPA booster huh... I like the sound of that!</p>

<p>The only thing I'm not sure about is the grouped housing thing...although I guess one roommate is as good as another. But is the FOCUS housing seperate/isolated from the regular freshman dorms?</p>

<p>I didn't do FOCUS, but I know the dorms aren't separate/isolated.</p>

<p>austin - Your roommate won't be in your FOCUS.</p>

<p>And I should add, FOCUS isn't a GPA booster for everyone. My friend was in a different FOCUS than me. She ended up with a sub 3.5 GPA.</p>

<p>Re: residence grouping:</p>

<p>You will all - or at least, mostly - live in the same dorm, on the same hall - but each of you will have a non-FOCUS roommate, meaning that your dorm and hall will be at MOST half-FOCUS. You all live near each other, which helps with the bonding, but you don't have a FOCUS roommate because that just might be too much.</p>

<p>LOL! Whoever said FOCUS was a GPA booster was clearly not in the Athens FOCUS. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>My two seminars were "Athens on the Brink" (history of 5th century Greece) and "Athenian Culture War" (Greek philosophy). My Writing 20 class was "Ancient Rhetoric." It was a lot of work. In my history class, we read the entire History by Thucydides (huge and very boring). In my philosophy class, we covered Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Thales, Empedocles, Zeno, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Democritus, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Melissus, Gorgias, Protagoras, the Dissoi Logoi, the Anonymous Iamblichi, Socrates, Plato, Oedipus Tyrannus, Prometheus Bound, and Hippolytus. All of these were the original works. In Writing 20, we read Plato's Gorgias, Euthyphro, Phaedrus, Apology, and parts of the Republic, as well as texts by Gorgias, Isocrates, and Aristotle. Our trip was to Washington, DC to examine the classical architecture. We were also required to see Lysistrata when it performed at Duke. </p>

<p>So, um, yeah. It was stressful. :p</p>

<p>so does choosing FOCUS limit your dorm options? Are there dorm options?</p>

<p>You don't get to pick your first-year dorm anyway, unless you want to be in Brown.</p>

<p>ok warbler lol, let me rephrase: Evolution FOCUS was a GPA booster ;) happy now?</p>