<p>I don’t think this has been addressed recently, so I feel the need to ask- does Duke really care about its undergrads as much as Blue Devils Day lead me to believe? I know its a research powerhouse for grads, which can suggest tenured professors who ignore their undergraduate students. I’ve heard that the professors in the humanities are more approachable and more interested in students and that teachers in larger beginning lectures (Bio, Econ, Chem) are often TA’s or professors that could care less about the students. At what point do majority of classes and professors become outstanding? I guess what I could also ask is, how approachable are professors (even in large lectures) at Duke, and is research available for even middling students? (if it helps at all in answering, I’m interested in majoring/minoring in Biology, English/Literature, Anthropology…)</p>
<p>It sounds like the FOCUS program really stimulates interaction with faculty</p>
<p>Most of my professors have been very approachable and helpful. They always have office hours, but if you can’t make the scheduled time, you can usually set up an appointment at another time. Last semester, two of my professors always answered questions over e-mail and they were always very helpful. My professors this semester are the same way. For the larger lecture classes, it will usually be harder to communicate with them directly, but they always have office hours if you are interested. </p>
<p>Also, the TA’s (mostly for discussion sections) can be good and helpful, but some classes won’t have any TA’s. Overall, my experience with the Duke faculty has been very positive.</p>
<p>The opportunity to interact with faculty is one of the VERY BEST things about Duke. I was in FOCUS last semester, and I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best professors (experts in their field) as a first semester freshmen. However, it is definitely not limited to seminars. I took organic chemistry last semester (~90 students) and am taking intro geology this semester (~90 students). I made a point to ask them questions after class and go by during office hours- as a result, they know me quite well even though they were relatively large classes. Classes at Duke tend to be very small. Most of my classes so far (with the exception of the previous two) have had 30 students at most, and 15 is the norm. My largest class next semester will have 14; my smallest class will have 8. </p>
<p>I just got back from a weekend field trip to the Marine Lab, so I’ll do a promotion speech for it in addition to faculty interaction. It was absolutely AMAZING. Two professors and 5 grad students came on the trip. Considering there was only 18 of us, that was an extremely high faculty-student ratio. We spent the weekend poking around the salt marshes, hiking on Shackleford Bank (with wild horses), trawling on the Susan Hudson, examining our catches in the lab, etc. It was a blast, and I got to know my professors really well. Keep in mind that this is an <em>introductory</em> class and most of the other kids in there aren’t even science majors!!! </p>
<p>In short, this is DEFINITELY one area in which Duke excels. Professors are always willing to work with you. Next semester I’m doing an independent study with a professor who’s been retired for several years, but he was very excited about temporarily coming out of retirement! I have yet to have a single professor that I didn’t know very well.</p>
<p>Yeah - I’m so used to being able to speak with my professors, I can’t even imagine what it would be like NOT to have that at a college. True story - last semester, for my 14-16 page final Writing 20 paper, I really wanted to work with my professor and let her teach me the “correct” way I should be writing. I wound up e-mailing her multiple times daily for revisions, opinions, criticism, etc. I e-mailed her so often that out of curiosity I checked at the end of the process - we had exchanged 55 or so total e-mails…most of which contained pieces of my paper that she was commenting on or I was asking her to read over. THAT IS A LOT. I wound up getting an A on the paper because I had essentially revised it with her guidance so many times. She actually sought me out one day to ask me if I was okay…when I said yes, she said she was worried about me because she had not gotten an e-mail in a few hours.</p>
<p>I mean, that just sort of happens to be my favorite story from the year. I’m currently going through the same constant-e-mail revision process in my English class this semester (we’re up to e-mail #10). I’ve gotten hours of one-on-one extra help with my professor (not TA, professor) from a 350 person lecture class. If you want the attention, you can just show up at office hours or e-mail your professor and, at least in my experience, they will almost always accommodate your schedule and take the time to meet with you. It’s pretty sweet.</p>
<p>Wow, sounds pretty nice! Thank you for all the help.</p>
<p>warblers- that Marine Lab experience sounds awesome. which class was it?</p>
<p>EOS 12 (or Bio 53) Dynamic Oceans</p>
<p>It’s basically an intro oceanography course divided into three units (geological, physical/chemical, and marine bio) and team-taught by three professors. The EOS department offers a lot of other fun classes too- a paleontology class that goes to Yellowstone, a volcanology class that goes to Hawaii, etc.</p>
<p>FYI, the Marine Lab is offering a new pre-orientation experience this year called Project Waves.
<a href=“http://orientation.studentaffairs.duke.edu/programs-student/pre-orientation/projectwaves.html[/url]”>http://orientation.studentaffairs.duke.edu/programs-student/pre-orientation/projectwaves.html</a></p>
<p>So…turns out I am the new chair for the Faculty-Student Interaction Committee… Which, in part, means any anecdotal information students/prospective students/parents/anyone want to send me or post here is great, or PMing / AIMing is great, or conveying ideas for how to improve things of for what you want when you get here is…you know…</p>
<p>Just in Pratt? Or do you accept Trinity stories too :)</p>
<p>Actually - and this is funny (at least to me) - it’s an Arts & Sciences (i.e. Trinity) committee. 'course, Pratt folks take about half their classes in Trinity, so it makes sense.</p>
<p>I just wanted to say that I’m not even at Duke yet and I’ve emailed countless faculty with questions for class placement next year. They have all responded within 1-2 days, some even as soon as a few hours. One actually asked me to call her to talk about my questions. </p>
<p>I think that’s pretty good considering I’m not even AT the school yet!</p>
<p>So this is kinda cool: [Top</a> universities worldwide by staffing level](<a href=“Times Higher Education - Wikipedia”>Times Higher Education - Wikipedia).</p>
<p>Heh, that is cool.</p>
<p>I would say that I have had a very good response from faculty. Both Professor Blake and Professor Rasiel were very fast in responding to my inquiries about summer classes, as was the Pre-Major Advising Dean Milton Blackmon. My roommate for next year has a great pre-major advisor… he emailed his advisor at the end of last semester because he was afraid that he might fail a class, and he wanted to know what to do if that were the case; his advisor emailed him back within minutes and told him that he would be picking him up in like 20 minutes to take him to dinner to talk about it. I thought that was pretty cool. (my roommate ended up being fine).</p>
<p>The only professor that I have had a difficult time getting in contact with has been Robert Cook-Deegan. I have been trying to get in contact with the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy because I’m really interested in combining my prospective Biology and Public Policy majors into something that centers around Genome ethics and policy, and I wanted to ask about the types of jobs available for graduates and if there were a higher education for me to seek (grad school, law school, etc), and also if there were a lab I could work with or do some type of internship with. Still, it doesn’t surprise me that it would take a while to get a response… Dr. Cook-Deegan is part of like 20,000 programs at Duke. See, if only I had gotten into the Genome Revolution FOCUS…</p>
<p>BCD (Bob Cook-Deegan) was the faculty-in-residence in my dorm (Alspaugh). He is an ultra-cool guy and can really be an advocate for you - I know he was for one of my RAs. However, sometimes he can be hard to get a hold of. He could be on a UN trip, in Switzerland with his wife (she lives there), or doing whereever else. He is always extremely busy, but he will make time for you. You may have to give him a bit more time because he is not your average Duke professor - he’s kind of a superstar professor. All in all, amazingly cool guy and you should drop by Alspaugh dorm next year and say hello to him.</p>
<p>As far as Genome FOCUS, that was not in Alspaugh dorm (Athens in the Golden Age was) so you still may end up seeing him quite a bit if you end up there.</p>
<p>Its sounds like you are considering a Program II major. You should consider going talking to them first if that’s what you would like to do. Give BCD some time, he’ll be in contact with you.</p>
<p>Hmm, no, I’m not considering Program II. I’d rather do a double major, so that I have fall back plan(s). For FOCUS, I ended up in the arts Focus and lived in Giles. Also, I emailed him about mid-semester last semester, so I’ll have to email him again sometime if I hope to hear an answer.</p>