<p>Ok, this may seem a silly question, but how hard is it in Duke?</p>
<p>For example. would life in Duke be as if you took 7 AP courses every single year, or will it be (or seem) easier since you do what you want?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>It all depends on what courses you take. You can definitely find very easy courses at Duke, but there are also very challenging ones. The easiest course I took at Duke was Psy 97 (Developmental Psych) where I literally spent 15 hours out of class the entire semester and got an A+. The most work was probably BME 154 (Biomedical Electronics & Measurements II) where I spent probably 20 hours/week outside of class with torturous problem sets and lap reports on top of studying for exams. Problem sets were often due the SAME day as an exam! </p>
<p>So, varies GREATLY depending on your schedule. I’d suggest not taking BME 83L Biomaterials, ECE 52L Switching Theory & Logic Design, BME 154L Biomedical Electronics & Measurements II, and Chem 152 Organic Chem II in the same semester 
I do know people who have had schedules like this and I think they are crazy…3 engineering courses in the same semester is my limit…</p>
<p>So, in summary, you can strategically choose easy courses if you want to have a relaxed schedule, and can easily find tougher courses if you want to be challenged. There are also many humanities that may be a lot of work, but it’s easy to get a good grade assuming you do the work.</p>
<p>Who did you have for Psych 97? I’ve done better on BME 83 and Physics 62 tests than Psych 97 tests! I have Brannon.</p>
<p>Oh, I want to take Social Psych, sociology, Econ. </p>
<p>PS: I’m an 09’er, so I HOPE to get into Duke</p>
<p>ha! I had Bonner. Sooo easy. But you must be really engineering oriented for having done better on BME 83 tests…those are crazy talk.</p>
<p>Not to generalize…but, I’ll do it anyways Sociology is universally known as one of the easiest majors at Duke. I took Intro to Sociology freshman yr, and it was actually more work than I expected considering the major’s reputation. There were a LOT of papers to write, but overall, the subject matter was quite easy (but the professor I had only taught it that one semester and has never taught it again). Social Psych as a singular course (with Linda George) is apparently interesting and not too difficult. I’d say Psych courses vary greatly in difficulty depending on the topic area and professor. Neuroscience and bio basis psych courses tend to have a lot of memorization. Econ is the most popular major at Duke and has some tough courses, but I wouldn’t really know considering I took zero econ courses.</p>
<p>And, ya, to follow up on DukeRose, the same course can be easy and hard depending on the prof. I’ve known people who took Psy 11 (Intro to Psych) say it was super easy with one prof, and then much more challenging with another.</p>
<p>Course difficulties at Duke depend to a large extent on the instructor you have. The extent is slightly less if many instructors are teaching the same course (think math) and the final exam is a block exam. Thus, it’s very hard to generalize about course difficulties at Duke as a whole. I think the best you can do, is to ask around, ask upperclassmen who’ve taken the course, look at ratemyprofessors.com and pray that you’ll be lucky and get the easy teacher when it comes time to take the course.</p>
<p>During my high school career, I have taken thirteen APs, I would still say Duke classes are much harder. The main reason is that the competition is much tougher. </p>
<p>As someone who has taken Calc BC (5’ed) and is taking Math 32 right now, I know my grade is going to likely be worse in 32 because the competition is tough!! Many classes are curved to a B-, which is something, I bet is not being done at your high school. Tests are harder and on the AP tests, you could get a 5 and still get many questions wrong. </p>
<p>So, yes, Duke’s courses are much more rigorous than the AP’s. Be prepared to study. If you are a conscientious student already (I wasn’t in high school), you will likely not have too many problems being part of the competition.</p>
<p>I find Duke to be much more difficult. The work is just more challenging–and everyone is really smart. I found math here to be especially hard. Perfect test scores won’t keep you afloat here…</p>
<p>WOw… thnx for all the help
I just hope that social psychology, sociology and economics arent too hard :p</p>