<p>A car really isn’t necessary from what I’ve heard with the busses and the bull city connector incase you want to get into Durham (and it’s free). You can bring one, but it’s not that necessary.</p>
<p>Looking back on my 4 years at Duke (and I’ve kept pretty good records on my book expenses), I’ve spent between $95 - $500 per semester on book with the average probably being something around $200-$250 per semester. I’ve always bought very good to new condition books either on Amazon (direct or through third parties), half.com, or at the Duke store if it was a special package or something published in-house by Duke (like lab manuals). </p>
<p>The one time I had to spend $500 was when I was taking an upper level electronics course that had multiple expensive textbooks (required because of the bundled programming software) which were not widely used (so few used copies). Most of the time is was in the $200 range.</p>
<p>Regarding cars, if you don’t feel comfortable bringing a car your first year then leave it home and use zipcar/public transportation/friends. There will be plenty of options. But if you do plan to bring one, buying a permit is pretty easy (and cheap too), you buy online and it’s shipped to you or you can go to the parking office and buy one on the spot (if still available). I don’t know about East Campus parking, but for West Campus (blue zone), they almost never run out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I talked to my parents and decided not to bring my car :)</p>
<p>On a scale of 1 - 10, how diverse is Duke?</p>
<p>Regarding book prices, just like SBR I also kept records of how much I spent on books over 4 years. I was interested in investigating myself since there have been so many complaints in recent years of soaring textbook prices, and I thought you could get a lot of money back from selling back to the bookstore. I spent a total of $1830 and managed to get $321.5 back from selling them. Note that I didn’t sell most of the books in my major because I knew I would use them after college. If I had sold them I would probably have gotten an extra $150. </p>
<p>My advice is to buy on sites like Amazon and sell back to the bookstore. The bookstore is the last place you would want to buy books because of the markup but the first place you would want to sell your books back to. This is because you can’t beat the convenience of just swinging by the Bryan Center at the end of each semester to sell them back, and you also don’t have to pay commission and shipping as you would on sites like Amazon. The prices they offer are pretty reasonable as long as you bought your books used from a third party. Just make sure you get the American edition not an international edition because the bookstore won’t buy it back unless the ISBN is exactly the same.</p>
<p>I also never sold my books except my math 103 book. Still kind of regret selling that book because it was a good reference but I managed to make a $15 profit between buying new on amazon and selling it back which was too tempting :)</p>
<p>Easiest freshmen classes to fulfill the STS, R, NS requirements?</p>
<p>Ya any easy art classes for someone who doesn’t really like art</p>
<p>How is the Engineering school at Duke? I’m planning on pursuing Civil Engineering. Are there many research opportunities available?</p>
<p>@ yodelo: I suggest perusing though this website: <a href=“http://www.cee.duke.edu/undergrad/current-students[/url]”>http://www.cee.duke.edu/undergrad/current-students</a></p>
<p>thanks for the link!</p>
<p>After browsing CC and FB, it seems as if everyone but me has a plan for their freshman year. My major(s), however, are still thoroughly undecided. Because of my profound indecision, I have a few questions for both upperclassmen and incoming freshmen (answer none or all of them, I’ll take anything). I’d really appreciate some input, it’ll seriously help me decide where I’ll go in life.</p>
<p>How did all of you come to your present decision? Is there any advice you can give that could help me reach a decision of my own, like a career interest survey? Does anyone here know of any classes that are germane to a wide variety of academic fields without being too stringent? How much should factors such as career practicality weigh when I consider majors such as Philosophy? Do any of you actively desire to work in the industry of the degree you’re pursuing or am I looking at this the wrong way?</p>
<p>ATM at East Campus…</p>
<p>Does anyone know which bank’s ATM is located at the east campus dinning hall?</p>
<p>Wells Fargo (Wachovia)</p>