Living With Focus

“I think that Focus really helped me connect to the people in my dorm, and to draw connections among classes. I think that living with classmates makes a great deal of a difference because of the way we could arrange study sessions and help each other with our work.”
— Meng Zhou, Focus Program alumna and 2004 Baldwin Scholar

Focus students belong to a virtual family of 30.  They share the excitement of the engaged, collaborative learning while taking part in a close-knit intellectual and social community.

Students participating in the Focus Program during their first semester at Duke live in the same residence hall but also share it with other first-year students, enabling them to form a companionable academic and social community while encouraging friendships with all their first-year classmates. Focus students request room-mates through Residence Life & Housing Services.  All Focus students can request to have a single room or request room-mates for a double or triple room.

Students participating in the Focus Program during the spring semester will keep their assigned residence for the year.  First-year students will remain in their East Campus residence hall and sophomore students will remain in their West Campus residence hall.  Friendships within the Focus learning community are strengthened through educational enhancement activies.

Weekly discussion seminars with faculty and students are scheduled over group dinners.  The casual settings encourage students to learn outside the formality of the classroom.

The living/learning community allows for late night discussions that often explore how academic pursuits link to the world.  Casual intellectual explorations and academic flights of fancy are all facilitated by the Focus housing environment.  When the workload becomes challenging, friends and scholars are at hand to understand and assist.

Like all students at Duke University, Focus students are supported and sustained so they can explore and excel.  Intellectual curiosity flourishes in the safe learning environment of the Focus learning community.

Visit Residence Life and Housing Services for more information about Duke's residential campuses.

See who should apply to Focus and take that important step.