<p>Hi there. I'll be a part of Trinity 2012 in the fall. I'm not completely sure what I hope to major in, but I'm thinking about either biology (and later heading to grad school) or focusing on premed (and heading to med school later). </p>
<p>That being said, course selection seems pretty daunting for me right now, with all of the options available at Duke. I've taken a number of AP exams in high school and have/hoping to receive 4s and 5s on all of them (bio, englang/comp, englang/lit, ushist, macroecon, microecon, amer.gov, compar.gov, psych, physCmech, physC E/M, bc calc)</p>
<p>1) Trinity lets you exempt 2 courses towards your 34 credit requirement, correct? Which courses do you think I should exempt, given my situation? Does it make a huge difference? </p>
<p>2) I found out that I am in the first window for registration (on the 24th of June I believe). How should I make the most of this opportunity, i.e., which classes should I definitely go ahead and enroll in because they will quickly fill up? (I've heard that a top priority should be enrolling in a good Writing 20 class, one with a topic that is interesting to me, before it fills up.)</p>
<p>3) Are there any required courses/areas of study that I should definitely get out of the way first year?</p>
<p>1) I think this is based on personal preference because you'll want to use them to fulfill a requirement in subjects that you're not the best at and have no interesting in studying, and know that you can use the others for placement. If it were my decision, I would use one for English (I don't think it matters which one as long as it gets an ALP out of the way), and one US History. If you get high enough scores, definitely try to place out of Biology 25, Econ 51, and Math 31 and 32 if you have to study these subjects because Bio 25 is soooo boring (not to mention 4 hour labs/No leaving early), Econ 51 is a major weedout class I hear, and you'll be bored with busy work in those Math courses.</p>
<p>2) Definitely Writing. Also all freshmen in Trinity have to take a seminar during either semester. Similar to Writing, there are many choices and each class has relatively few people, so its good to pick one that you'll enjoy.</p>
<p>1) Trinity lets you exempt 2 courses towards your 34 credit requirement, correct? Which courses do you think I should exempt, given my situation? Does it make a huge difference? </p>
<p>Well, you get to exempt 2 courses towards graduation. All this means is instead of overloading 2 semesters to graduate on time, you just have to take 4 classes every semester to finish all your credits. You don't pick classes to use towards this requirement, rather you just get 2 blanket credits. They don't count towards any T-Reqs or anything.</p>
<p>The rest of your APs will all go on your transcript and you can use as many as you want for placement purposes. </p>
<p>3) You'll probably want to take Chem 21 or Chem 23 if you're pre-med, and perhaps Biology or a Math, depending on your AP credits. Alot of my pre-med friends did Chem 21 and Math 41 or 32 their first semester.</p>
<p>Another thing that I forgot to mention. I took Differential Equations and Calc C at a local university this year...how would this affect my math placement?</p>
<p>pretty sure that it's really tough to get transfer credit at duke... it would prolly just prepare you really well for math 103 and further math classes (if u need any)</p>
<p>I need some clarification on something...first year students have to take 4 courses per semester, correct? </p>
<p>I'm starting to make a rough draft schedule based on everything I've heard/learned so far. I think I'm ready to take a tough course load, if I have to. My strong suits are Bio and Math, and I guess this schedule will depend on if I receive pre-matriculation credit for DiffEq and Calc C. </p>
<p>Fall 2008:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Writing 20: (I've got first window, so I'll definitely want to enroll in the Genetics/Society course while it's available)</p></li>
<li><p>Chem 21L: (I didn't take AP Chem in high school, kinda makes me wish I did. But, I'll have to take a lot more Chem classes if I plan on majoring in Bio w/ concentration in genetics)</p></li>
<li><p>I was thinking about putting Biology 26L here, but I couldn't find it in the course listing (all I could find was 25L). Also, do you think it's smart to take Chem21 and Bio25/26 in the same semester?</p></li>
<li><p>Math 103??? (Unless I can exempt through pre-matriculation credit)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any current Duke students (esp those in a similar situation to mine) want to post their freshman year schedules? I think it'll be a great help to us panicking 2012ers!</p>
<p>I would honestly avoid doing W20, Chem 21, Math 103, AND Bio 26 together. I would probably go ahead and skip Math 103 for now, because for pre-med you only have to have one math class. That would prob be a good second semester class after you've gotten adjusted to college, and Bio 26 is out of the way. I think that will definitely be a tough courseload. Other than that, take another class you're interested in...perhaps get an ALP out of the way, start your foreign language or something! Don't stress yourself out too much...there will be PLENTY of time for that later.</p>
<p>2nd Semester:
Math 103, Seminar, BAA 93, Chem 22</p>
<p>1st Semester Sophomore Year:
Bio 25, Chem 151, various other classes...
(and there were PLENTY of pre-med sophomores in Bio 25 with me!)</p>
<p>And then I did physics over the summer! Dropped pre-med before I took the other Bio classes you'll be taking, but I certainly had room to fit them.</p>
<p>I'd like to know what the difference between Bio25 and 26 is. I received a 5 on my AP Bio exam, so it says I can exempt Bio19 and go to Bio26L or a 100 level course. I looked for Bio25 in the online course listing but I couldn't even find it. I noticed that you took it, Loveduke?</p>
<p>If you're premed, you actually really don't even need to take math 103. Remember, this is college not high school. You don't have to keep take courses in every single area (unless you're trying to get t-reqs out of the way, then just take something easy in that cateogry like STA 10 which is much easier than 103). However, you obviously want to impress medical schools to show that you can do the work but don't go to overboard with taking all the hard courses, especially in your freshmen year. Thus, there is this critical balance between rigor of schedule and your GPA that you must always keep in mind, especially for med school. </p>
<p>I took Bio 25L, and it was quite a pain in the ass. There is a weird grading system set up such that if the final median grade of the class is below 80, then the median grade is the cutoff for a B-/C+. If the medican grade of the class is above 80, there is no curve at all. An interesting consequence of this system is that since the curve is based on the FINAL grade, when people drop out of the class (which a lot of people did last semester), they are no longer kept in the curve, which is just ridiculously unfair since it punishes people who stay in the class. If you have the AP credit, I would suggest you skip and take another bio lab course for pre med req's. </p>
<p>The difference between Bio 25/26 is most pronounced in the first semester. Bio 26AL (the first semester class) is a really small intimate class that's intense but of really high quality. You get a lot of attention from the professors. During the second semester, there are essentially the same. I had friends who took 26 last semester, and both 25 and 26 at least in the second semester are roughly the same in amount of work and difficulty. </p>
<p>Just for kicks, here's my freshmen schedule:</p>
<p>Fall:
Econ 51 (eventually weeded out and dropped :)
Math 103
Env49s
Chinese1</p>
<p>Spring
Bio25L
Math 135
Writing 20
Chinese 2</p>
<p>I looked at the schedule, and it looks like Bio 26L is the class they aren't teaching. I believe the subject matter of the two classes is a little different. Bio 25 covered everything from DNA/Genetics to Ecology...it's the Intro class. Bio 26 is called "Organismal Diversity" and I believe covers a similar, but slightly different subset of material? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. </p>
<p>The different I noticed in these classes, was many of my Bio MAJOR friends started in 26, while many of my non-Bio, PRE-MED friends took 25 first. If you have AP Credit, my suggestion would be DEFINITELY DON'T TAKE BIO 25. SriverFX was right on with the grading...it's horrible. The test aren't really THAT hard, but they grade them really harshly...they're like essay tests and I always felt like they slashed my ridiculous amounts of points if I didn't word something correctly. So I could really understand the material, get the gist of most of the questions, yet still get a 60 on the test. I worked my butt off and still ended up with a C, while many of my friends only managed Bs, B-'s (which, really, is fine for Bio 25 I think, but as pre-med you may disagree). To be honest though, most of the Bio classes tend to be like that (I've heard the same things about, like Sriver mentioned, 26 and 118). </p>
<p>Check out the major worksheet, although if may have changed since they last updated it. It looks as though, with AP credit, you may be able to just go straight to 100 level classes, and not do 25 OR 26 unless you really want to. Of course, if you feel like you'd benefit from covering the material again (I'm not sure how heavily stuff like this is asked on the MCAT...) then I'd choose 26.</p>
<p>Absolutely do NOT take Bio 25, unless you have to - this is not a joke.</p>
<p>My freshman schedule - Fall:
Math 103
Writing 20 (Hope and Fear in Cyberfiction, pretty fun)
EGR 53L
Chem 151L</p>
<p>Spring:
Econ 55
BME 8
Math 107
Bio 25 :( :( I would have had the best semester if it weren't for this class and taking up all my time with lab...</p>
<p>But I have another question. If I use my AP Bio exam grade to PLACE out of Bio19 but not get CREDIT towards graduation (I'm saving those two Trinity credits for other, less interesting requirements), will it still count towards the requirements for my major? Basically, will I be able to put a check mark in the blank that says "BIO 25L (or 19 or 20L)"?</p>
<p>I guess you guys have scared me out of taking Bio25/26.</p>
<p>Yeah, it does count towards the major but not towards the minor for some reason. But also note, for the bio major, you need to 26 eventually down the road.</p>
<p>"But I have another question. If I use my AP Bio exam grade to PLACE out of Bio19 but not get CREDIT towards graduation (I'm saving those two Trinity credits for other, less interesting requirements), will it still count towards the requirements for my major? Basically, will I be able to put a check mark in the blank that says "BIO 25L (or 19 or 20L)"?"</p>
<p>There seems to be a lot of confusion with this. You can't use your AP credits as graduation requirements in order to place out of any of these random classes...so you couldn't use an English AP credit to get an ALP so you don't need to take another. You can use ANY and/or ALL of your AP credits towards placement and generally major requirements, but just get 2 "credits" for graduation...you don't pick these classes or anything. You will have to take 3 writings, 2 ALPs, etc etc.</p>
<p>In terms of the Chem 21 curve...I find it's less harsh. They curve to a B-, so as long as you're above class average you'll usually get a B or above. The reason the Bio 25 curve is so horrible is because, as mentioned, if the uncurved average is a B, the class doesn't even curve at all, which is oftentimes the case.</p>
<p>Ok, how does this sound. For the 2008 fall semester, I could take:</p>
<p>Chem21L
Bio 116 (Ecology and Evolution): Will later be required by Bio major anyways
Writing 20
Foreign Language 1</p>
<p>Spring 2009:
A Seminar
Chem22L
Bio26L
Foreign Language 2?</p>
<p>I left out a math because, by designating BC Calc as one of my two "graduation credits" from AP exams, I'll exempt out of Math31 and Math32, giving me my two required quantitative studies (QS) credits and my two required maths for my Bio major. Therefore, this will keep me from ever taking math at Duke!! Hahahaha. I win!</p>