<p>I'm pretty sure that I want to apply to the focus program first semester and was wondering if those with experience could give some insight about which clusters to choose. Right now I've narrowed it down to five that I like the most in the following order of preference:</p>
<p>-Exploring the Mind
-Modeling in the Economic and Social Sciences
-Visions of Freedom
-Ethics, Leadership and Global Citizenship
-Between Europe and Asia</p>
<p>Which one of the five should I eliminate so that I can list the other four on my application? Which ones are usually good/bad? I've heard the science related clusters (specifically the genome one) are good, but I'd rather do something humanities/social science related.</p>
<p>On the website its official name is Between Europe and Asia: Explorations in Culture, Law & Cognitive Science. And can you expand a little on why its not good? Thanks.</p>
<p>Arzachel, Thanks for getting this thread started. I am also very interested in the FOCUS cluster program and would love to have any input from students who have participated in the program. I am particularly interested in Artist at Work, Power of Languages and Memory & Invention. Input anyone? Thanks! pozzol</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand what the FOCUS Program is. How can I know if FOCUS classes will fulfill GE requirements? Can I apply for the spring semester, or is it a full-year program? Any information would be much appreciated! Oh, and I realize that I’m hijacking this thread, so please don’t hesitate to tell me to go ahead and start a new one. No hard feelings!</p>
When you get access to ACES, it will list what T-reqs your focus class fulfills </p>
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It’s a semester-long program offered in both spring and fall, with greater selection in the fall. Fall FOCUS generally builds community better since you will be living together with your fellow FOCUS students. </p>
<p>Exploring the mind is not worth it if you’re not totally interested in neuroscience/neurobiology. The puzzles of the mind class is harshly graded and ill-taught. The same can be said for the linguistics course (though it’s graded a lot easier). The two biology-related classes are awesome, but it’s generally regarded as bad if you sign up for both (though people have done it).</p>
<p>Are there any good ones outside of the genome one? And what do you think of Visions of Freedom and the Econ one? The ethics/global citizenship one looks good too.</p>
<p>Is it restrictive (course-wise)? Meaning, if I’m in Focus for a semester, are all my classes automatically chosen for me? Are they better/worse/taught differently than normal classes? </p>
<p>When you say “greater selection”, do you mean it’s harder to get in in the fall than in the spring?</p>
<p>Also, what would you suggest for a potential English/political science double major?</p>
One of my friends was in Visions of Freedom. She had some really positive things to say about it and apparently it really improved her writing skills; however, she did have some reservations about the work load. I also have a couple of friends in the Modeling Systems one (I assume this is the econ one you’re talking about?). They said it can be good or bad depending on which of the two courses you select. </p>
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<p>Two of your classes are chosen for you. If you have writing 20 priority for that semester, you must also take a writing 20 course. The general consensus is that generally more prestigious faculty usually teach FOCUS classes, and all of the classes are seminar sized. This usually correlates well with increased quality of instruction; however, it really depends on the teacher and the material. For example, I really enjoyed the seminar nature of one of my FOCUS classes, but I really disliked the other due to the professor and the fact it degenerated into a small lecture class instead of a true seminar. </p>
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<p>As in there are more FOCUS programs being offered in the Fall (something like a dozen or so), but only two or three are generally offered in the spring. I’m not sure about the acceptance rates, but I would venture to guess that, due to greater supply, the fall ones are easier to get into. </p>
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<p>Visions of Freedom. I frankly regret not taking that FOCUS (it was my second choice), and talking with people who were in that FOCUS and just listening to the stuff they have read/learned makes me regret my decision. According to my friends, generally everyone in that FOCUS is a Political Science or Humanities oriented person and the classes reflect this interest by finding the confluence of the two fields (I’m not sure of the class selection, but you can easily find out if you look on the FOCUS website). Again, I must caution you, from what I heard, the workload is somewhat heavy. However, most of my friends seemed to genuinely enjoy their experience in that FOCUS.</p>
<p>What is the name of the genomics one? Which ones are good for engineers. I thought with the way that the 1st year engineering curriculum is layed out, a FOCUS program would be really difficult to do.</p>
<p>I would love to know what FOCUS programs other engineers have done. If my D is interested in poli sci even though she is majoring in engineering, can she take the Freedom one or does that put her in too many classes outside of her major?</p>
<p>I’m interested in the Faces of Science focus and the global health focus but have not heard much of anything about either.
Does anyone have any information about how people like those and if they feel that it is worth it?? </p>
<p>I was an engineer (transferring out of Pratt next semester though), and I did the exploring the mind focus. It wasn’t terribly hard on my schedule, perhaps due to the fact that I had a lot of extra credits coming in that allowed me to free up space in my schedule for my FOCUS classes. If you don’t have ANY AP credits and you are an engineer, I would probably recommend against it, but you should probably talk to your dean about it before you enroll.</p>
<p>If I am only interested in one cluster, can I apply only for that one, or must I choose 3 additional ones. </p>
<p>And also, if I am accepted into one of those 3 and not the one I’m interested in, will the classes automatically register, or do I have a say in it? In other words, can I (in a sense) reject my acceptance to any of those other 3?</p>
pozzol</p>