Help please!

<p>These are my classes for the fall so far in my focus program. Im hoping to major in one of these areas: biology (premed), economics, comparative international studies, or history. What should I use for my elective? A math course or a chem course to fill up requirements? A random fun course? A language course (ive taken french for 5 years when i was a child and then spanish for 8 so i want to go back to french)? Thank you so much for your help- I have no idea what to do! </p>

<p>BIOLOGY 92S - GLOBAL DISEASES 1.0
F01 Tu Th 10:05 AM-11:20 AM</p>

<p>ECON 99S - FOCUS PROGRAM TOP IN ECON 1.0
F02 W 2:50 PM-5:20 PM
Topic: ECON/POLICY INTL. HEALTH </p>

<p>FOCUS 105 - SPECIAL TOPICS IN FOCUS 0.5
F09 Th 6:00 PM-7:30 PM
Topic: DISEASE IN TIME & SPACE </p>

<p>WRITING 20 - ACADEMIC WRITING 1.0
F96 Tu Th 2:50 PM-4:05 PM
Topic: PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS</p>

<p>Well if you're premed and don't have credit for Chem 21L most focus people elect to do that. It's a full year course, so 21L is a pretty standard chouce,</p>

<p>If, however, you already have credit and can go into orgo, pretty much anything goes.</p>

<p>yeah im just not completely sure if i want to be premed- would it be a complete waste if i ended up wanting to major in economics or international studies? like could i use it to fill up some requirement? i got a 3 on the ap chem exam (sophomore year) and a 710 on the sat ii so im assuming that doesnt count as credit right?</p>

<p>so according to the chemistry website (don't ask why I always go to the department websites... I just like to), a score of 3 on the AP test allows you to either take chem 22L in the spring (as in skip 21L) or take chem 23 at any point. However, you don't get the actual credit for "chem 19." Since you'd doing pre-med, it's advised that you take another chem class later (e.g.- biochemistry) to fulfill your fourth chem requirement.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.chem.duke.edu/undergraduate/general/indsty/placement-faq.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chem.duke.edu/undergraduate/general/indsty/placement-faq.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I'd advise taking Chem 21L. You might not be prepared enough for Chem 23 if you took AP Chem 3 years ago and only got a 3 (most others will have a 4 or 5). Also, when I thought I was pre-med, I was advised not to just skip into 22L in the spring (I got a 4 on the AP) because you won't cover all of the info that will be helpful when you take Orgo.</p>

<p>As someone who flipped back and forth about 20 or 25 times between pre-med/not-pre-med, I'd suggest taking the Chem. I'd rather look back on a class and say "That was a waste" than be stuck having to figure out a tricky schedule later on. If you don't take the Chem and then decide to be pre-med after your first semester, you have to take it in fall of sophomore year, which means that if you don't want to take summer classes, you won't take Orgo until Junior year, which means you can't study abroad (as a potential ICS major, that's bad), and it'll just be generally harder to plan your schedule. Also, Chem does fulfill the NS requirement - granted, there are easier ways to do this, but as an Econ or ICS major, you would have had to take 2 non-major-related classes in order to fill that req anyway. Just my 2 cents.</p>

<p>thanks for all the help- I just feel like if all my other classes have to do with global health it might be a bit much to be taking an intense chem class on top of all of that, maybe i should mix it up a bit? also if i realize by the end of the first semester that i dont want to be premed, do i have to keep taking that chem course 2nd semester or can i switch out?</p>

<p>you can definitely switch out...a ton of people did. </p>

<p>You can mix it up, but if you do decide to be premed you're going to have a ton of catching up to do unless you take that chemistry course. Plus with a focus like global health you can bet most of those people will be taking chem as their elective anyway, so you won't be the only one throwing chem on top of a focus curriculum. </p>

<p>AND if you decide you don't want to be premed, think of all the other courses you can take. Plus you'll have a ton more schedule freedom when you're done with focus, so you can always take those courses for a less restrictive major/path later on.</p>

<p>what are some of the requirements and prerequisites i will need later for econ, bio, comp int studies, etc later? also, how hard is it to start fresh with french?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/Undergraduate/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/Undergraduate/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>here's a link to the undergraduate bulletin, which will contain much of the information you need for pre-reqs, as well as course descriptions. It should be very helpful in learning about that:)</p>

<p>I'm amused that your choices are bio, econ, and CIS... very divergent choices there...</p>

<p>So focus students are enrolled in more than 1 seminar, but nonfocus students call only enroll in 1 seminar their entire freshman year?</p>

<p>
[quote]
So focus students are enrolled in more than 1 seminar, but nonfocus students call only enroll in 1 seminar their entire freshman year?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No, that's not true. You can enroll in as many seminars as you want.</p>

<p>Yea, you can actually take as many as you want, you just have to at least take one.</p>

<p>so which math or chem class should i take? I got a 3 on the chem ap in sophomore year and i havent gotten my grade back from the calc, i got a 5 on stat though. What would you recommend? Thank you so much!</p>

<p>Based on the chem AP, I believe you're "tracked" into 21, though I could be wrong (i.e. 23 may be open, in which case I'd take that).</p>

<p>Stat AP is irrelevant.</p>

<p>Wait for the calc grade to decide between 31, 32, 41, or 103, and the math department's guidelines should be pretty good (should be online somewhere).</p>