<p>I'm a prospective econ major, with a possible double major in poli sci or pub pol (if that's possible).</p>
<p>Right now, I'm considering</p>
<p>Econ 55
Writing 20
Math 102
and something else.</p>
<p>Should I take courses to fulfill requirements in ALP, CZ and such in my freshmen year?</p>
<p>I have also seen that some courses apply to differrent "areas of knowledge." Does this mean that if I take this course, I get credit for different "areas of knowledge"?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>For your last slot, I suggest a foreign language, since you'll probably need 3 semesters anyways.</p>
<p>so would econ 55 and math 102, writing and a foreign language be a pretty typical schedule
I don't want to overwhelm myself just yet...</p>
<p>Its not a coincidence that you (braap), originpranks, and someone else on this Duke forum are looking at the same schedule; it is very common.</p>
<p>hm... i can't take foreign language... it's at the same time as one of my classes unfortunately...</p>
<p>Does anybody have a good suggestion for an intro-level poli-sci class?</p>
<p>"so would econ 55 and math 102, writing and a foreign language be a pretty typical schedule
I don't want to overwhelm myself just yet..."</p>
<p>Econ 55 with Timmins is not easy and you will probably need to work a lot in order to understand it. If math 102 is anything like 103, that will be hard and time-consuming. Writing really varies and intro foreign languages can be time-consuming especially if it's the 1 or 2 level with 5 meetings per week.</p>
<p>I would recommend against taking Math 102 until you're sure you want to be an econ major (lots of people drop it after 55) since the only thing it fulfills besides a QS is the econ major requirement.</p>
<p>originpranks, why don't you try a PubPol (the first one is 55, I think) class? If you do end up double majoring, doing this first semester will go a long way in making sure requirements are met early. </p>
<p>...or you can get one of those pesky Ethical Inquiries out of the way. I hear they're really annoying.</p>
<p>hm... I'm almost 100% sure that I will pursue econ, but I'm actually thinking about pushing math 102 to second semester and take sth easier (for credit in different "areas of knowledge") so that I'm not pushing myself too much first semester....</p>
<p>juss sayin', you can never be 100% sure before you even take a class. Each freshmen class probably loses at least 100 econ majors because of 51 and 55. I myself have at least 3 friends who dropped their econ majors/minors after taking 55, and I know there are tons more. I wasn't even sure if I was going to continue as an econ major while in 55, even thought I got an A in the class, though mainly because our professor was so bad. But these sorts of things that are out of your control can and do happen and can change your perspective on a subject.</p>
<p>55 actually wasn't that bad of a class when I took it. Tom Nechyba taught it - he wrote the book that you guys used - and was amazing. I know of a few people that switched to Econ because of him and that class, so judge the class on the content rather than the professor.</p>
<p>Christopher Timmins is teaching 55 this year... and he's supposed to be pretty bad I heard ...</p>
<p>Uhh, I had John Gross. Believe me, you don't know bad.
John</a> Gross - Duke University - RateMyProfessors.com</p>
<p>omg godevils2011... is this guy still around in the econ department?</p>
<p>Hahah nah, he was just a visiting professor; I think he was helping Nechyba with writing his book or something.</p>
<p>i hope we had Nechyba for 55... he's the one that wrote the textbook right? it'd be so interesting to use your instructor's book for text... and actually listen to him lecture</p>
<p>Haha yea Nechyba did write the book that hopefully you guys will still be using. If you have the book already you'll notice that he uses many examples from his own life to illustrate distinct economic principles, and he would do it with long winded stories. He also showed photo albums of his family while telling the stories. It was awesome because reading the material, I found many of the exact same stories in the text and portions were almost word for word so it was really easy to connect with the principles and I think that's why people love his class (and do well). Really hope you guys have him.</p>