BME + Public Policy plausible?

Colleges & Universities Duke University
1

<p>Hi I was wondering if a dual major in BME and Public Policy is reasonable, i.e. can I do it and still graduate in four years? Also BME requires 5 Social Science/Humanities Electives; can the Public Policy core classes count for these electives?</p>

<p>Also in an unrelated note, how is Math 103 in terms of difficulty, and are the concepts taught used heavily in higher math classes? I took Multivariable Calculus at a different college while I was still in high school, and I’m wondering if I should take the transfer credit and move up or just retake it at Duke.</p>

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<p>Pretty sure it’s doable in 4 years. In fact, I haven’t yet heard of a double major combination that isn’t doable in 4 years. You just won’t have a lot of free time and will probably need to overload more. </p>

<p>As for electives, yes some of your core classes will count towards those electives. However, you need to satisfy breadth as well as depth requirements for those 5 classes. They are:</p>

<p>1) Must cover 3 different areas (like social science, ALP, Civ, etc) with one being SS. </p>

<p>2) 2 must be from the same department with one being 100-level (I probably need to check on this)</p>

<p>So if all your pubpol classes fall under Social Science, then you still need to take humanities that cover 2 more “areas.”</p>

<p>As for math 103, it is difficult yes but highly dependent which teacher you take. The concepts taught aren’t really used in higher required math classes (at least 107/108) because those tend to be totally different (linear algebra, diff eq) where vector calculus isn’t very useful. In fact, I think 107/108 is generally more useful for BME than 103 but that’s just my experience. Things may have changed with the new curriculum. </p>

<p>Finally, regarding transfer credits, Duke is actually pretty strict about awarding them for classes taken before matriculation. You can read all about the restrictions here under pre-matriculation credits:</p>

<p>[Duke</a> University | Trinity College of Arts & Sciences : Academic requirements](<a href=“http://trinity.duke.edu/academic-requirements?p=ap-ipc-and-pmc-credit]Duke”>http://trinity.duke.edu/academic-requirements?p=ap-ipc-and-pmc-credit)</p>

<p>If you can’t get transfer credits, however, you can probably get placement into higher math classes. But, you need to make sure that the number of math AP credits + math transfer credits + math courses taken at Duke = 5. If you place higher but end up with less than 5 math courses after you finish your requirements then you’ll need to take a higher math elective.</p>