<p>Hey all you new Dukies who are already stressing about scheduling. Ohh, how quickly you learn to be a Duke kid! Anyway, I just wanted to post this thread to let those of us who have been there let you know about some good courses/profs we took so you can get better info than the sometimes ridiculously off-base reviews on ratemyprofessor.com. I'm a Trinity kid, so sorry engineers. JoeMeyerwitz is an engineer that's on this site, so ask him about that other world called Pratt.</p>
<p>Tell me what subjects you are thinking about and I'll try to give you some advice about good profs/courses if I can. My best advice will be in Econ, Chinese, or the Religion depts.</p>
<p>Um, well, the one year I've been at Duke I sort of took a bunch of random classes all over the place, but I can offer the most help with Psych. I also took Intro BAA, Math 41, an English 26, and Spanish 101, so I can try to help with any of those if people are considering them...</p>
<p>Okay...I was thinking for the humanities credit that I have to have this semester, as an engineering student, I wanted to take a psychology-ish class. I have so far SOCIOL 106 (social psychology) with Linda George...but there are only 8 seats left and am worried that 1)all the spots will be gone by the time I register and 2)it's mostly upperclassmen since 62 of the 70 spots have been filled. I was also thinking about taking PSY 92: Cognitive Psychology with Stephen Mitroff (which has 12 of the 25 seats taken) or PSY 97: Developmental Psychology with Elizabeth Brannon (which has 6 of the 25 seats already filled). Can someone help me, with what to do/advice to give?</p>
<p>I didn't do FOCUS but I had a ton of friends who did. They seem to be a good amount of work, but the profs usually take that into account and from what I've heard, it's not difficult to get an A- or B+ as long as you really stay on top of everything.</p>
<p>i was in the "blow off' focus, but it wasn't back breaking by any means. stay on top of your work, go to class, speak up in class, and you won't do poorly... so much is based on discussion, and you can work with your classmates in the dorm. i'd go for the class if you're interested in it! ps- which econ is it? who's the prof?</p>
<p>i've heard social psychology is a good course. is it crosslisted in the psych department? because i'd see how many seats are available there too. i'm not familiar with the psych department at all, but last fall a bunch of my friends took abnormal psych (none were psych majors) and all seemed to really like it and found it very interesting.</p>
<p>i'm thinking about introductory japanese. is that course a waste of time and my tuition at duke? i will also be taking econ 55D, which professor do you recommend? </p>
<p>1 more question about ACES, i'm trying to move courses from my alternate bag into my primary bag, but i can't. there should be an upward arrow that i can click on to move courses from bag to bag, but the arrow isnt there.</p>
<p>Wannabeazn - what registration window do you have? Even if there are only 8 seats left, there's a good chance you'll get SOC 106 if you're 1st window. If you're in 2nd or 3rd, just keep it in your primary bookbag and check after the 1st day. If there are still spots open, go ahead and try for it. If not, remove it (you can't be on a waitlist your first semester), and have some other interesting courses in your alternate bookbag that you can sub in.</p>
<p>PSY 92 and 97 are both intro courses for the Psych major. I didn't take 92, but I took 97. 97 was....well...I took it with a different professor, but I think the course matter stays the same. After the 1st week, I stopped calling it Developmental Psychology and started referring to it as "Mommy Psych" because it was basically a class on how to be a good mommy (or daddy...the class was like, half guys. and 90% athletes). We actually had a lesson on how to distinguish different types of baby cries - no joke. It was probably one of the easiest A's I ever received - I didn't open the textbook once. I went to every class, but very few did - I just liked making myself go so I could keep up with the slides and not have to study them all the night before the test (since he put them all online anyway and that's what most people did). In the end, if you want an easy A, go for 97 - but I left that class really feeling like I hadn't learned very much, which I resented a lot. I personally would rather take a more challenging class that I knew really taught me a lot than an easy class that guaranteed me an A. But yeah, 97 was almost entirely freshmen and very easy, so if you want a simple humanities course, go for it. If you want a general psych class, I might actually suggest Psych 11 - somewhat easy, but everyone I've spoken to who took it really liked it and found it informative.</p>
<p>So... I'm going to be in the visions of freedom focus this coming semester and I'm trying to figure out what to do with my one left over slot.</p>
<p>My current schedule looks like this:
-Special topics in Focus: Th 6-7:30
-PoliSci 101F Nature of Freedom: Tu Th 4:25-5:40
-PubPol 195S Selected Topics: W 10:05-12:35
-Writing 20- Academic Writing: Tu Th 10:05-11:20</p>
<p>So, I like that schedule a good bit... no classes too early and all Tu-Th at this point. I just have to figure out what other class to fit in.</p>
<p>I am considering math (Math 31L for me)... but the only section I could get is an 8:45 MWF and that makes me kinda sad.</p>
<p>I could also do STA 101- Data Analy/Stat Infer for a math credit...</p>
<p>And I'm looking at a couple science courses:
-Conceptual Physics (Tu Th 2:50 to 4:05... so those three days would be busy)
-or The Dynamic Earth MW 2:50-4:05</p>
<p>So... any suggestions? Should I go with an easier course like The Dynamic Earth with Focus or is doing a Calc class a decent idea? I'm not going to be a math or science major... so those are just filling core requirements.</p>
<ol>
<li>Trinity or Pratt? (I'm assuming Trinity, but just checking).</li>
<li>What majors are you considering - seriously just throw at me anything you might be thinking of.</li>
<li>Are you pre-med?</li>
</ol>
<p>I think you would be happy with having something on Mondays... I have a friend who basically had no class last semester (all classes after noon, each class only met twice a week for a short period of time) and said that he felt like a bum, staying up late and sleeping in late. He's taking a bunch of tougher classes next semester now.</p>
<p>Having said that, I truly despise 8:30/8:45s. I had them every day last semester and ended up skipping chem on mondays and wednesdays, leaving me with bio on tuesdays and thursdays and chem recitation on fridays. It was just too much for me, especially because I was working on West until 12:30 two nights a week, would get back to east around 1, and then would try to finish my homework in the following hour. It wasn't pretty at times. I was able to manage once I "cut back" my number of 8:30s to 3, but I made sure that I didn't have any this upcoming semester. I also lucked out last semester that my early classes were large lectures, because I was able to skip chem, but also I slept through a couple bio classes (both while in class and while in my dorm sleeping through my alarm), but attendance wasn't taken so I didn't have to worry. </p>
<p>Having said that, I also have a friend who took math 103 last semester as an 8:30 and was completely fine with it. It really depends on if you're a morning person or not... though your preference is liable to change when you're in college.</p>
<p>Is "the dynamic earth" the same as "rocks for jocks," does anyone know? If it is, I've heard it's a pretty decent class for non-science majors.</p>
<p>"1. Trinity or Pratt? (I'm assuming Trinity, but just checking).
2. What majors are you considering - seriously just throw at me anything you might be thinking of.
3. Are you pre-med?"</p>
<ol>
<li>Yup Trinity</li>
<li>Just throwin em out: Poli Sci, PPS, Philosophy, Econ, English (probably either as a second major or minor if i did do it), who knows...</li>
<li>No!</li>
</ol>
<p>OK DrumNDukie, just giving you a heads up on the distribution requirements. You do NOT need to take calculus OR any real science classes (aka Physics). In fact, if you don't need the calculus for Pratt, Pre-Med, or anything else, I would strongly, strongly, STRONGLY, STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST taking it. STRONGLY. Math at Duke is A KILLER. Math was always my "thing" in high school, I got an A+ in AB, and I threw myself a damn party at the end of this semester when I somehow managed to get a C in Math 41. The test averages are usually around the same number as the class....when you're in Math 31, 32, or 41. Just DON'T DO IT. There are so, so many easier ways to get QS distribution requirements...like Stats, possibly some Econ classes (I don't know), etc. As for the Physics, are you only doing that for a science requirement? Do you really like Physics? Once again, I think that there are much easier ways to earn Science credits - I personally did mine through Intro BAA and Bio Basis of Behavior (which I wouldn't recommend unless you really love neuroscience, but yeah).</p>
<p>My best piece of advice for you is to use that slot to try and start looking into possible majors. In retrospect, I came in convinced that I was going to be a Psych major so I wanted to get going on as many Psych classes as possible - as of now, I'm still a Psych major, but I sort of wish I'd used my freshman year as more of a chance to experiment with different things I found interesting. Honestly, the distribution requirements are so easy to fulfill, most of them will take care of themselves. For now, just focus on classes you REALLY find interesting and try to find a path. Do not take PPS 55 - it's a weeder and, from what I hear, difficult. If you decide on a PPS major, save that for sophomore year. Maybe try taking an English class (suggestion: not 26 because, while interesting, it doesn't count towards a major or minor), Econ 51, a Philosophy class, or a Poli Sci class. Or maybe try something totally random, like Religion or a new language. If you want to get ANY requirement out of the way, the one I would suggest working on is the language one, actually - it's the one that you know you're going to have to do, and the only one that you know you can't get rid of through major classes or anything (unless you major in a language). First semester freshman year is actually a great time to get started on the language requirement.</p>
<p>Yeah... my main thought with Calc was that it would be necissary for later Econ classes I believe (or at least would assume)</p>
<p>Also... a question on languages:</p>
<p>I took Spanish in High School (3 Years but effectively 2... long story) ... but I know very little Spanish. So if I did spanish I would probably start in Spanish 2</p>
<p>I was also looking into perhaps starting a new language instead... like German or something... but it seems like that would be less practical in the future.</p>
<p>Also... as far as perhaps putting off Calc: the section I would take would be with Lewis Blake... who seems to be considered "the best" recent Calc 31 teacher... and I really want a good teacher for calc.</p>
<p>Are you sure that you don't need calculus for pre-med? I was looking at this one med school and I think it required one year of calculus (Hopkins) and I looked at Duke's as well this morning and I think that maybe they didn't require a calc course. But honestly....if I don't have to take calc....then I'll drop it right now lol. Currently I have calc 41...and I was somehow told that it was a lot easier than 31 and 32.</p>