<p>Hello current and prospective Duke students, Ive been accepted to Duke Class of 2014 as ED. I look forward to seeing you next summer! As a prospective pre-med, I want to ask current Duke students a couple of questions about freshman course choices.</p>
<p>1) Should or Can freshmen take both chem and bio classes in the fall and spring semesters? When I look at the past CC posts, I found some students recommended bio or chem only, but others seem to have taken both in their freshman year. What are pros and cons to take both subject at the same time?</p>
<p>2) I have AP 5 for bio now and expect to have AP 4 or 5 for chem and Cal at the end of my senior year. Ive learned that these AP scores can be used to skip out the intro courses for bio/chem/math, but at a maximum 2 courses. Then, what combination (bio + chem, bio + math, or chem. + math) are best strategy? As a prospective pre-med and biology major, I am likely to have many requirements for biology and chemistry courses, so I thought opting out bio and chem. would be the best choice. How do you think?</p>
<p>3) I heard that AP 5 bio can be used to be placed to BIO26A or 26B and AP5 chem for CHEM151 in the freshman year. If I choose to take these bio and chem at the same time, is that the good course choices, or such a combination kills me with too much work? Some posts say both are very touch classes and take up many hours for labs.</p>
<p>4) I am very much interested in taking the Focus Program. If I understand correctly, the Focus Program includes courses that can be counted as Writing 20 and a seminar course that are part of the freshman requirements. Is that correct? If so, can I take both bio and chem classes together the Focus Program? Is there anybody who has experience with such a course choice?</p>
<p>5) I am interested in studying international relations and global heath issues. Does anybody know good/interesting classes to study these subjects?</p>
<p>1) Yes you can and you probably should if you are a premed and intend to do a chem/bio/neuroscience major. </p>
<p>2) As far as I know, AP credits can be used to place you out of as many courses as you want. However, only 2 can be counted as credits towards graduation. The point is to make you take more advanced courses instead of entering with like sophomore standing graduating in two and a half year or something, not to make you waste time taking stuff you’ve taken before. The 2 credit limit is also increased if you intend to graduate early. I’m in Pratt so I don’t know the specifics for that but plenty of other people have answered that before and Trinity’s policy is easily found on duke’s website. </p>
<p>3) The combo of Bio and Orgo certainly won’t kill you with work. But it also depends on your other two courses, if you are taking seminars and writing 20 as your other courses that schedule will be fine. If you plan to take other sciences/labs then it gets iffy. Also I will point out (as I tend to do every year) that med schools generally require 1 year of general chemistry with lab and that AP chem will only give you 1 semester credit. That means if you skip straight to orgo, chances are you will need to take another inorganic chemistry later on. Biochem usually do not count towards gen chem either since it usually substitutes for orgo and it doesn’t have a lab. One route that I recommend is to take chem 43 instead but seems like plenty of freshmen do the straight to orgo thing anyway so do what you feel like and talk it over with your advisor once you get on campus. </p>
<p>4) Never did focus program, sorry. </p>
<p>5) Is there a global health focus or something along those lines? I recalled hearing about it. One of my friends also mentioned that he was doing a global health certificate, so that might be something worthwhile to look into. </p>
<p>Edit: found the GH certificate website, it has some course listings and requirements.</p>
<p>Edit2: BTW, isn’t it a little too early to be worrying about this stuff? Enjoy your senior year while you can. I can tell you that this winter break (I’m a senior) is probably the first vacation where I have absolutely nothing I need to do since the summer before I started college. So really, take it from a premed who’s been there and done that, you shouldn’t really worry about it this early. Just sit back and relax now that you are in. Oh and congratulations :)</p>
<p>Thanks, SRB. My brother, who is now at UChicago, told me that the best way to find info about courses is to ask upperclassmen in the same college. Your comments have solved many of my questions. </p>
<p>I know it is still too early to start worrying about the course registration. Yet, my winter break has started from yesterday, and I cannot help but feeling I want to do/think something about my future life at Duke. Thinking of what opportunities will be available at Duke is not at all stressful (at least for now) for me. </p>
<p>Anyway, I appreciate your help. I hope I can hear from other current Duke upperclassmen as well.</p>
<p>Seems like SBR’s got just about everything covered. As for #4:</p>
<p>Yes, Focus classes do automatically fulfill your freshman seminar requirement. However, while many Focus classes have been said to involve lots of writing, they do not fulfill your Writing 20 requirement. Writing 20 is a separate course in itself, and all freshmen, whether in Trinity or Pratt, are required to take it.</p>
<p>You can indeed take Bio and Chem with the FOCUS program; however, you may have priority for writing 20 in the Fall semester (half of the entering class gets priority for writing 20 in the fall, the other spring). I’m not sure how this works entirely, but I do think it would be advantageous for you to take writing 20 if you have priority that semester. I would also caution against taking Bio and Chem with certain FOCUS classes. Although several of the FOCUS programs do not entail much work, others may involve a large amount of work, and when combined with Orgo and Bio classes, may prove to be a bit too much for first semester. If you can finish your language requirement first semester, I would recommend getting that done early.</p>
<p>Usually the bio classes are full by the time freshmen take them. However, they’re also changing the bio curriculum-all majors now need to take BIO 101L and 102L. I’m not even sure if they will accept AP credit anymore. As for chem, a 4 or a 5 would place you into Chem 43L (they might not even have that next year, so it might just be chem 31L). I honestly wouldn’t go into Orgo first semester, as gen chem would provide a nice review for the semesters of orgo and biochem that you’ll most likely take in the next few years.
As some people have mentioned, Chem 31L, Bio 101L, an easy writing 20 (see ratemyprofessors) and maybe an intro language or an easier seminar would definitely be doable.</p>
<p>Bio 101L says Chem 31L is a prerequisite. But what if I have AP Chem credit because I got a 5 and would technically be placed into orgo, which is a higher level class than 31L. I want to take 31L and Bio 101L together so would that be possibly if one is the prereq for the other?</p>
<p>@asiandukiepookie:
Hard sciences are going to be more work than humanities. It really depends on your course selection and which professors you get. If you are interested in a Focus topic, then it’s probably worth it. As a student who did Focus though, I can tell you that it isn’t worth it to do Focus just for the sake of doing Focus.</p>
<p>In regards to question 1:
Woah there. PLEASE. Just take it easy first semester. If I could go back to that very first summer of picking classes, I’d facepalm myself and not jump into the hardest classes I could find - like organic chemistry, or higher level humanities classes. </p>
<p>First: it’s your first semester. The transition is huge and you need some time to figure out how to succeed in classes (which classes to go to, which to skip, when readings are necessary, etc.). Plus, you’ll be meeting some of the people who are going to be your best friends for the rest of your life: don’t let a heavy course load prevent you from getting out, meeting people and having some fun. </p>
<p>Second: This isn’t high school. It’s no longer a matter of taking the hardest course load possible to impress… well, see, you’ve made it. There’s no one to impress anymore. Embrace this new opportunity to take the classes you want to take, to pursue those passions that you had to set aside junior year to take AP Calc. Don’t kill yourself: develop your self - your personality, your ideals, your moral character, your goals, etc. You have the freedom now - so take it! </p>
<p>In regards to question 4:
Yes, Focus is highly recommended if you find one that appeals to your passions. It’s a great interdisciplinary way to approach a topic that you love and the freshman-living-structure (everyone in the FOCUS lives in the same dorm) allows you to really get to know your peers both in the classroom and hang out with them in your free time. The professors are also much more approachable and it’s easier to form intimate relationships with them. Definitely apply if you find one that suits you.</p>
<p>^ Believe me, employers/grad schools will be far more impressed with someone who pursues their passions and goes outside of their comfort zones (e.g. bio/science for a “science person”).</p>
<p>In response to the OP, I’d take Chem 43L (I really liked Prof. Therien) and then take three classes that sound interesting. You only have 4 years, don’t waste them taking classes to impress people.</p>
<p>Ketty brought up an interesting point about perhaps not being so ambitious first semester. At the beginning of high school, the counselors always stressed about how a bad course selection in 9th or 10th grade could put you out of the running for many top colleges. Is it different for grad school? Will taking “easier” (using the term lightly) classes first semester of freshman year hurt or in any way affect your ability to get into a top medical or other type of graduate school?</p>
<p>I think I might have said this before a long time ago, but if you are going to pursue professional school (med/grad/law), protect your GPA at all costs. It doesn’t matter if you take rocks for jocks one semester, but do NOT take a higher course and then get a bad grade. A couple of reasons for that and since I’m a premed, I’ll state them with a med school slant:</p>
<p>1) Many med schools pre-screen their applications. Many top schools have 6000+ apps for ~200 spots. They won’t read your app the first time around. They’ll run your MCAT and GPA through a system and toss out the low ones before they take a serious look at any of them. So if you challenged yourself and got a few C’s, then you just eliminated yourself from competition. </p>
<p>2) While it’s true professional schools like to see you challenge yourself, that’s not the whole point. The whole point is to see you see challenge yourself and overcoming that challenge. If you did poorly in upper level molecular biology, then that not only won’t impress the adcoms, it’ll hurt you. Now they know you have trouble handling advanced material. This point applies double for courses like orgo. Those courses are fundamental for premeds but considered difficult for freshmen. Since adcoms don’t really care when you took them or whether you challenged yourself as a freshmen to take them (trust me, they really don’t comb through the transcript that carefully), most likely you’ll just show up as a student that might have problems with basic material like orgo. </p>
<p>3) GPA holes that people dig for themselves (especially early on) is very hard to climb out of. While schools like to see an upward trend, a consistently high trend is always better.</p>
<p>4) For those who don’t take gap years, you apply for med schools the summer after junior year, which means many med schools won’t see your senior grades at all before they make their decision. While that may be good for taking harder more challenging courses senior year it also means that you have less time to fix your GPA if you must. </p>
<p>Finally, freshmen year (particularly first semester) is a time of adjustment and acclimation. That makes it the riskiest time to be ambitious with your course selection. There’s plenty of time later (second semester for example) for that.</p>
<p>So is it just like high school then where the best case scenario is to take hard classes AND do well in them, while the next best case scenario is to take slightly easier classes and get A’s rather than challenge yourself and get C’s?</p>
<p>^Yes. I know I’m taking a pretty extreme position here and I just wanted to correct myself a bit. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that you should not take higher classes. If you want to get into a good med school you must take advanced classes. But you should know your limits. If you need to put it off for a year or shuffle your schedule so that you are only taking 1-2 hard courses a semester then you should do that. A few easy classes here and then won’t sink your application. A few bad grades, however, could.</p>
<p>Arzachel, The vibes I’m getting from SBR are that freshman year, especially, it’s best to play it safe with the courseload. And I think that unlike in high school where it is clear that AP English is more difficult than Honors English, I think the line is a little finer, so there’s a little less pressure to take the highest over perhaps the middle level of a course. (Am I getting this right, SBR?)</p>
<p>In terms of protecting freshman year, and specifically first semester, GPA, which chemistry class is better for someone with an AP Chem score of 5: Chem 31L or 43L?
And how is Psy 117 for first semester if I got a 5 on the AP stats test?</p>
<p>Hilary, you’ll be fine in Psy 117. It’s listed as a psychology course, but it’s just an introductory statistics course geared towards psychology students. They just teach more of the statistical tests/analyses that are used in psychology/social sciences, and less of those that aren’t.</p>