<p>There are four pre-orientation programs to choose from: Summer Reading, Project Waves, Project WILD, and Project BUILD. The idea behind these are nice, get to know your classmates before orientation, but do the current Duke students out there reccomend them? And is a there a certain program that you feel is stronger or just more fun than the others or any of the four that is rather weak?</p>
<p>well, I did Project BUILD, so I can tell you about that one. In my opinion, doing the program was the best choice I made in coming to Duke. I met so many people through it, and I got to serve the community. You are split up into crews of eight; three crew leaders and five crewlets. Basically, the program is eight days long, and each day you go to two different service sites for three hours each. After this, you have dinner with the entire group and then get to take part in some activity (for example, we did bowling, we went to a Durham Bulls game, we did a scavenger hunt, etc.). After that, you break off into crews again and hold interviews. What this means is that each night one person in the crew gets to tell his/her life story, and he/she gets as much time as he/she wants to do so. After the story has been told, the rest of the crew is allowed to ask questions. Now, on a normal night, these interviews begin no earlier than midnight, they usually take about 3 hours, and you have to get up at 8:00 every morning, so you can imagine how sleep deprived people get. Due to this, questions end up going from "how did this event in your life make you feel?" on the first few nights to "if you could be any species of cactus, which would you be and why?"</p>
<p>Anyway, that's the low-down on Project BUILD. I highly recommend it. I am going to be a crew leader this year because I enjoyed it so much last year. I hope this helped!</p>
<p>As for the other programs, I have not heard much about Project WILD as a pre-orientation program... most people I know who did it started off with it as a 'house course,' which trains people to be leaders for the program. Project Waves is a new one for you guys that takes place at Beaufort and I think is supposed to be a combination of BUILD and WILD. I have no clue what Summer Reading is, though all of you are going to have to do summer reading anyway.</p>
<p>man...I wish I could do Project BUILD, but my parents don't want to pay the $375 just so I can leave them earlier lol</p>
<p>summer reading is required. i don't think there's a summer reading PROGRAM.</p>
<p>For me, it's PWILD or bust. I've heard amazing things about it. </p>
<p>I'm going to be backpacking across India for three weeks, resting at home for 4 days, and then backpacking across the Pisgah forest with PWILD for two weeks. mmmmm</p>
<p>PWILD! I hate camping, so I didn't do it, but I totally wish I had. The people are amazing, and it's seriously like a mini-cult on campus. My roomie is a PWILDer and so I sort of wormed my way into the group by meeting her friends/them becoming my friends/etc. I'm so glad I did - that group really became my home. It's just an awesome group of down-to-earth, crazy, artsy, original, REALLY nice, chill, fun people and I'm so, so glad that I've had a chance to get to know them. I still hate camping, but if I could go back in time and do PWILD I would - that's how much I'd love to spend some time just chilling in the wilderness with these guys. Doing PWILD (and BUILD too, I'd imagine) also gives you an automatic group of 50-or-so friends the second you step on campus, as all of the non-pre-orientation folks are just meeting people. Do it!! Aghhh, I didn't even do it and I am still obsessed with PWILDers (although they've made me an honorary one, so I can claim that that counts). I'd recommend PWILD if you're interested in meeting a huge group of people that all basically fit the description I provided above - I seriously don't think I've ever met a PWILDer who wasn't like that and I didn't love.</p>
<p>I didn't do any of the pre-orientation programs at Duke because I thought that I would be leaving soon enough. However, every single person that I've met who has done any of the programs say that it is one of the best decisions that they have ever made. I would highly recommend doing them.</p>
<p>I don't regret not doing one-- I didn't graduate from HS until the end of June, and since I was already having a shortened summer, I didn't want to sacrifice more of it. </p>
<p>BUT, that being said, everyone I know who has done a program has absolutely LOVED it and the people they spent all that time with are still some of their best friends.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure this will be the first year of existence for project waves and the summer reading is more of a required first year orientation event. I didn't do either of the pre-orientation programs for much of the same reasons as dukestudent2009's.</p>
<p>Did both preorientations have about the same number of guys and girls participating?</p>
<p>ahh I signed up for Project WILD... hope it isnt to hardcore for me! ...I haven't camped much since f'n cub scouts.</p>
<p>For BUILD, registration is first come, first serve... so the first 80 freshmen who sign up get in. Surprisingly, though, we do end up having a pretty even mixture of guys and girls.</p>
<p>Project WILD sounded so good, if it was one week shorter I would totally go for it but 2 weeks hiking in the mountains is a little too hardcore for me. Good luck DrumNDukie!</p>
<p>when do each of these programs begin?</p>
<p>I am planning on doing Project BUILD... seahorse... when and where and how can you sign up? Do you have to wait for the big packet with info in the mail? Anyone know when we get that?</p>
<p>i put myself on pwaves' email list, so they sent me a link telling me where i could sign up. there really isn't a rush becacuse you can't hold your place until you send in your deposit, and they said that there's going to be more info on that when you get the packets in mid-may. but for you curious cats out there here's the link they sent me. just scroll all the way down and click on either wild, waves, or build to get to their app. you'll need your netID and password though, so toughies for those who didn't get that info yet.</p>
<p>yay! so if you haven't figured it out by now, i'm doing waves! who else is gonna do waves with me? :D</p>
<p>There are also ROTC orientation programs before the official start of school... Not that just anyone can sign up :)</p>
<p>Sounds like some people really have liked pre-orientation, but are there any current Duke students who didn't do pre-orinetation and are glad they didn't for some reason? And also, by no doing pre-orienation, have you felt 'left out' or disadvantaged at all?</p>
<p>Dropping in to say that bandcampgirl is one of my friends, and while I'm on these forums rabblerousing for PWILD, everything she's said is exactly on the dot.</p>
<p>Check my post in the Duke 2010 forum. 2 weeks may seem like a lot of time to spend out in the forest, but a lot of PWILDers, after the trip, agree that part of what made is so special is you got to spend that much time with these people. Instead of walking out of PWILD knowing around a hundred people, you walked out knowing a hundred, and with a couple dozen good friends. You've already laughed with them, shared stories of hard times with them, know where they came from and where they're going, and its like you've known each other for forever. 2 weeks may sound long, but when you're out there it's a fantastic experience and doesn't feel like its a "long" trip, but ends too short.</p>
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And also, by no doing pre-orienation, have you felt 'left out' or disadvantaged at all?
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<p>Naw. From what I can gather from people who were in the programs, I think PWILD is the only one that really fosters strong social bonds. By their own admissions, PBUILDers didn't seem as close after it was all done. I could be wrong, but that is what I've heard. :)</p>
<p>Well banana, yes and no. I mean, I met a lot of people during pBUILD, including my fellow crew members a lot of people from other crews. On the other hand, there were about 80 people (freshmen and upper classmen combined) doing the eight-day program. I'm still meeting people who are like "yeah, I did BUILD with you, but we never got a chance to talk." I'm not sure how many go on pWILD, but I'm sure that having two weeks together in the wilderness where it's a little more difficult to get away from one another would provide for stronger bonds amongst the group as a whole. As I said before, some of my closest friends I met through pBUILD... but that doesn't mean that I know the entire troupe.</p>