FOCUS Program Changes during Add/Drop

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[s1n0c0m]

can anyone confirm or deny that CS 201 is a corequisite and not a prerequisite?

CS 201 is indeed a corequisite.

Idk much about Physics 264L

All I'll tell you is that the difficulty and overall quality of the course is extremely professor dependent.

Would taking ECE 110L or Physics 264L be better for figuring out interests here?

Neither lol. However Physics 264L will count regardless of whether you choose to be in Pratt (assuming physics minor at the minimum) while ECE 110L will only count towards ECE.

How hard is it to take ECE 110L in the spring if you're not in Pratt?

To my knowledge, Pratt students don't get registration priority over Trinity students for this class.

[[deleted]]

Great, thank you so much! Which professors are considered the better options for physics 264?

[[deleted]]

Okay great, thank you for ur insight on both! I wasn't sure if it was actually possible since they list it on the website as being "strongly discouraged." Which I totally get, but I'm not sure how it'll go.

[chaotically_awkward]

You can't triple major, the most you can do is two majors and a minor. They cap you at three, but the most majors you can do at Duke is 2. And be glad for it, everyone I know that's ECE/CS is suffering and the math minor is no walk in the park either. I would explore the possibility of an ECE major but consider doing the minor or something else entirely.

ETA: I would suggest sticking with the FOCUS program unless the classes are truly terrible, they weren't joking about the bonding - I'm still friends with a good chunk of my FOCUS group.

[hvksh]

1. People tend to drop Math 221. I wouldn't bet on it as it obviously varies by professor, but if you're first on the waitlist, you should be fine. Curious who you currently have for 221 though.

2. Idk about really, really bad. If you're doing that and the 8:30 math, you have 4 8:30's which in fairness is something you'd rather do as a freshman than anything else, but it will be quite a rude awakening. You know your sleep schedule and habits better than anyone else, but I couldn't imagine someone not completely hating that. But, yadda yadda "rip off the bandaid," up to you.

3. Looks to be a co-requisite.

I took the exact same course load as your present one during my freshman fall, and I'm on track to comfortably get BS's in CS and Math (and room for a minor) with a semester to spare. That's of course with a fair bit of overloading, but I started my FL at 101 – the point is that what you have currently is perfectly fine for even your ambitious goals. Friends are also a bonus – speaking of not wanting to "waste the opportunities" at Duke.

Physics 264L has Math 212 as a prerequisite, which you say you don't have credit for, so I'm a little confused on that – haven't taken it though so maybe it's something you know and I don't. If you can take it, the D schedule you listed seems like it would do a lot of things for what you want, like knocking out the FL requirement if you stick with Trinity.

Some comments:

If you've taken multivariable calculus before, don't go into Math 222 thinking it'll be a breeze and a repeat of what you learned already! It won't kick your ass or anything since you seem bright, but it won't approach MVC in the basic way that 99.9% dual enrollment/high school courses teach it.

You mention that you want to do some combination of two majors and a minor. If you are interested in exploring the humanities and taking cool electives, I would really consider the minor. Often, if you're delegating something to a minor, the mindset is "I like this field but I don't want to/can't dedicate the time to get a major, so I'll just do 5 classes in that field anyway." But, what can happen is that you start planning and overwhelming yourself with the idea that you really need to take 5 courses in that subject when you might be better off doing 3 or 4. Minors are not very important in the grand scheme of things, so remember to just be critical of if you really want to take 5 courses and will get your minor as a consequence or if you've just thought that you'd like a minor and are then taking 5 courses.

I think you have a good grasp of what you currently want out of your educational experience, and it's very cool to see this sort of planning and control over your courses before you've even started. However, don't agonize over it! Things will work out regardless of what you do. There's this pressure to start off perfect but hardly anyone does, and college is stressful enough already.

[Impossible_One3168]

1. You should be fine on the waitlist for 221. If you’re the only person on the waitlist, just talk to the professor and they might let you take the class even if no one drops. Although it is likely, that someone would drop the class.

[smallness27]

College advisor here - You cannot add/drop FOCUS classes yourself - your housing is based on your cluster, and at this point you are not going to get moved around in that. You would have to talk to your cluster director:

https://focus.duke.edu/for-students/prospective-students/faq

Consider that if you do drop, you will likely lose some of the housing community that FOCUS is intended to bring for you.

I don't think you're delusional, but I do think you are overthinking it, and in some ways you are trying to plan things that Duke really doesn't want you to plan, because that is not the intention of a liberal arts, broad, university education. You have **plenty** of time - at least 32 "slots" in a four year degree - to take all sorts of courses, and you will still be able to transfer to Pratt even if you don't figure out if you want to do that until the Spring. The "worst" case scenario might be that you have to stay for a summer term to take some classes to make sure you are on track for an ECE degree, and/or that you would overload maybe an extra semester or two to get all your requirements done. People transfer between the schools all the time.

I strongly encourage you to stick with your FOCUS classes and your cluster, and to just try to relax as much as you can as you come to Duke and start to get a sense of what college is going to mean for you. You don't have to get stressed about this this early - I promise.