At Duke, first-year students live together on East Campus to build strong social bonds with their classmates. They also take courses designed to integrate them into the larger Duke academic community and prepare for a successful academic career.
Academic Options For First-Year Students
Constellations
In Constellations, students explore a timely topic from multiple disciplines and perspectives with some of Duke’s most esteemed faculty. Once matched with a Constellation, students delve into a central question in three courses in their first year: one in the fall, another in the spring, and their first-year writing course (Writing 120) in one of the two semesters.
Focus Program
Duke's Focus Program for first-year students provides clusters of courses designed around an interdisciplinary theme. Topics for study include the cognitive sciences, ethics and global citizenship, genomics, knowledge in the service of society, global health, international politics, contemporary and medieval cultures and social ideals. Focus faculty come from academic departments in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Medicine, and the Pratt School of Engineering and are leading researchers in their fields.
Thompson Writing Program
Writing and research are the cornerstones of the Duke undergraduate curriculum. The Thompson Writing Program (TWP) helps you develop as a writer from your first through senior year at Duke, and supports faculty who teach writing in a wide range of courses across the curriculum. All entering undergraduates must complete Writing 120 in their first year at Duke. Writing 120, "Academic Writing" is an intense introduction to critical thinking and writing; it teaches you how to argue creatively in response to the work of other scholars and intellectuals.