Duke Orientation
From Duke Wiki
So that's it then, eh? You're in and you're in to win.
Welcome to your Duke Orientation. In the next few paragraphs, everything you need to know for the the next four years of your education at Duke University will be given to you. Should you heed this advice, you just might graduate with the grades you need, the job you want, and the girl/guy of your dreams.
Contents |
[edit] The first months
Don't be fooled by all the friendly smiles and the easygoing "you have all the time in the world" manner of those around you - these early months will define you more than any others once you get here. The playing field is vast - dozens of majors to choose from, hundreds of courses and clubs, and unimaginable freedom to study abroad, research and define your own education are available to you.
But let's start small.
[edit] Where you are living
So, you're in a freshman dorm. The first rule of dorms is, your hallmates will be your friends for the rest of your time here. High level administrators in Residence Life and Housing have crunched the numbers and through their complex calculus have found the perfect group of people to surround you with. So make friends with them.
The truth is, we all have a tendency to form strong bonds with the people we see day in and day out, especially when we first arrive in someplace new. But don't let that stop you. The most important thing you can do is not let your dorm define you. In other words, explore all the social opportunities you can, as quickly as you can. The window of newness is closing already, and no one will fault you in those first months for just wanting to meet them. Each dorm is unique and some have clearly better arrangements. Blackwell and Randolph have miniature "quads" - formed by the space in the hallway above their arches. Though they have no furniture or TV, These are by far more social spaces than the two common rooms which are dry, sterile, and unfun. But head over to Southgate or Gilbert-Addoms and you'll find common rooms abuzz with activity and study and play. These dorms, just by virtue of their layout, will introduce you to more people.
[edit] Important first steps
The most important things you can do in these early times are:
- Adjust to a college schedule. Go to class every day, every time and pay attention while there. You will not get A's if you don't.
- Make friends with upperclassmen. The more the better. They know everything and they want to tell you, so that you know it early enough to matter. There are lots of ways to do this. Just take on a story assignment at The Chronicle in the first month and don't worry about the reporting, use it as an opportunity to meet the staff of upperclassmen who not only know stuff because of their advanced years, but because all the rumors on campus lead through their office.
- Make friends with a few key professors. Everyone knows these professors by name, and they probably would not mind if you just dropped in and said "I heard I should talk to you from Duiki.com" - Michael Gustafson III in Engineering, Hunt Willard in Biology, Michael Munger in Political Science, Tony Brown in Public Policy.
- Set a few key dates. Make a point to know when your finals are, when you plan to do your laundry, and when you need to register for housing and classes in the Spring. Knowing this early will make it possible to plan around it, and believe me, you want to plan around it.
[edit] Sophomore Year
Wow, time flies. When I last left you, you were but a wee little freshman and now look at you, a big strong Sophomore. Let's see how you've changed since we last talked.
[edit] Your "you-ness"
Suddenly you are no longer an amorphous ball of clay. There's some structure to you. You have a circle of friends now. You either chose yourself a new roommate or stayed with your original, and either way you are pretty good friends. You have some activities picked out and you're going to focus on them. This isn't high school, you're not spread thinly across 12 and you're not leading them all, but you like what you're doing and your starting to think "could this be what I want to do?" - those are good thoughts, but hold your horses. Maybe you came in with a major and have already made some good progress, and maybe you haven't but no matter what, now is the time to take a step back and take a breath and say, "ok, what do I sort of want to do with my life?"
[edit] The "Major" and what it means
At Duke, like some other top-tier schools, three big "paths" cover about 3 standard deviations of the student body's career choices, accounting for about 95% of the future careers of its students. Now, if that last sentence made sense, you probably know what these are. Generally speaking, Law School, Medical School, and Business School are the three places you might want to go. And you want to go to the best, of course. But how do you get there and how do you distinguish your unique desires within something as broad as the statement "I'm going to medical school"?
The most popular major at Duke is Economics, and many students choose it because it sounds like it might relate to business. The most popular engineering major is Biomedical Engineering because 100% of its students that wish to attend medical school will be accepted somewhere according to Duke's statistics. Political Science, History and Public Policy get the rest - and together these majors account for the educational paths of well over 50% of all students at Duke. But what is there to know about these major(s), and are any of them right for you?
[edit] Economics, Engineering, Electives - Egads!
Many students enter Duke with rather romantic misconceptions about the nature of what they want to do. Here's the 5 second wrap up of these majors.
[edit] Economics
Economics will subject you to 5 courses each rigorous in its own way. These "core" courses will not ask for papers, but problem sets. They will demand that you memorize certain fundamental principles and extend them on tests. Economics 105 will require a solid understanding of multivariable calculus, which at Duke is either Math 102, 103, or 105 now. The others will simply require strong memory and good algebra, with 139 (econometrics) requiring a good understanding of expectations and limits.
After the core, Economics becomes a major in which one is free to "choose his own adventure." One could complete the 5 remaining required courses in economics without ever completing another problem set. Alternatively, one could become more rigorous and abstract.
What economics will not teach you: About the world at large and how the world really is. It will not teach how financial markets truly operate (there may be one course on it in all of econ) or what they really do at an investment bank.
What economcs will teach: A special brand of reasoning which brings together mathematics and simple logical reasoning. In economics, optimization is all, and if you can do an optimization problem and think of people as functions constrained by other functions, you will have learned all you need to in this major.
[edit] Engineering
Engineering will ask that you give your entire undergraduate life to the field of engineering. Requiring more credits and with nearly no freedom for electives, combined with a rigorous lab schedule, engineers carry more hours in their years at Duke than anyone else, period. You will learn the fundamentals of the natural world in this major, and then to a limited extent the real-life extensions which go in in engineering. You need to love math and you need to be able to handle a few hours of homework each night to succeed here.
What engineering will not teach you: How to fix anything. This isn't your grandfather's engineering. You will not build or fix or design or change a single thing at Duke until well into your Junior year. Certainly you might simulate these things in a computer program, but Duke's focus (except to a limited extent in the new ECE curriculum) is all about tools, not synthesis.
What engineering will teach: How the world relates to numbers. Everything and everybody is a walking, talking, bundle of integrals and constants. Just when you feel comfortable thinking about the world this way, they'll ask you to re-derive it all in the complex plane. It's a tough journey.
[edit] History, Public Policy, Political Science
These majors walk the fine line between something about which one can be passionate, and a simply taking an alternate look at the reasoning in economics.
What HPPPS will not teach you: The rigorous reasoning which underlies what you are doing. These are not "ground up" or "first principles" majors - you will be given a model and given some reasons and asked to remember that model and remember those reasons. This cuts out a LOT of time and headaches from economics and other places, but you lose that feeling of permanently understanding something.
What HPPPS will teach: About the world as it is now, and how it was. These are human majors in social science, in that they fundamentally deal with people and problems relating to people. An economics class will whip out an example of discriminatory hiring practices to illustrate an interesting point about economics. HPPPS will whip out an interesting point about economics to help to explore and explain discriminatory hiring practices. And if you understand the subtle difference there, then you probably already know which major you want.
[edit] What are you DOING?
For a moment, it might be wise to talk about what else you are doing here. You made some choices last semester and now it's time to think about them.
Maybe you joined a Fraternity or Sorority, and that's good. You knew what sort of committment it would be and hopefully what it would be like. But be careful - that feeling of distance you have with those friends you made as a freshman (now affectionately termed "independents") is real. It's hard to enter the Greek culture and not be changed by it, but try hard because what you're losing is precious too.
Maybe you do not do anything on campus, in which case I advise this: You may be a successful person, but what sort of success will define you? As important as those excellent grades will be the friends you make and the impact you have as you make ripples in this place. You really will only attend Duke for these 4 years. Wouldn't you like something you did to live on after you're gone?
[edit] The "Sophomore Slump"
As Jordan Rice (at the time a Sophomore) put it in his Fall 2007 column, "Sophomore year has proven to be a meaningless void. It is the fifth Harry Potter book, the third Godfather and the Vietnam War all rolled into one pointless jumble of oblivion."
And while it may not be as bad as that, it can be pretty awful. The test will be not to lose yourself or your composure as things get tougher. Many people drop their engineering majors in this year, and you may (if you are one) feel that mass exodus of friends tug on you. Just try, really try, to envision that you 10 years from now - and in doing so make the decision to stay and keep going.
(this section does not apply to those highly successful people who got college figured out in the 1st semester of Freshman year above).
[edit] Junior Year
Internships and study abroad define Junior year. This section needs to be added.
[edit] Senior Year
The quest for work and the one-year goodbye. This section needs to be added.
[edit] Wrap up - Where to go from here
So what's the point? Is there a point? Let's find a point to this orientation. Together, we've explored what 4 years at Duke could look like and what you might want to do with them. But your experience will belong to you, and more likely than not, you haven't even matriculated before reading this. That's good, that's how it should be.
Use this big picture to think about these things before you thought you even needed to think about them and you just may make the right decision when you would have made the wrong one, or might just be that little step ahead you always wanted to be.
I suggest, if you are still here at Duke, that you peruse Duiki and share your own two-cents. Or keep reading if you think there's more to learn. Either way, college is a great, interesting, scary ride and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud. But remember it's just a ride and you'll have the time of your life.
