aed premed honor society

Suggested Electives from AED Members

Most premeds know which required classes they should take but many struggle to find an interesting elective. Here are some courses and proffesors that we recommend.

 

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Electives

CHID 222 ~ Biofutures (NW, I&S)

Teacher: Philip Thurtle

Number of credits: 5

Why: Professor Thurtle is easily one of the best and most passionate professors at UW.  Students explore controversial case studies relating to patenting human cell lines, biopower, disability, the ethics of emerging genetic research, and other thought-provoking and exciting subjects. The class is intellectually challenging, and students will be able to learn new ways of thinking and simultaneously expand their knowledge in several areas such as communications, biology, ethics, law, and more. – Josephine G

 

Bio A 101 ~ Human Biological Diversity.

Teacher: Varies

Number of credits: 5

Why: This class is an anthropology bio course which goes through the basics of evolution. It helped give me a solid foundation is statistics and how stats are collected. It is a really good class to help set a foundation for research and evolution. I 4.0'd the class and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy I&S credit. – Kameron F

 

PHIL 242 ~ Introduction to Medical Ethics / B H 411 ~ Introduction to Bioethics

Teacher: Ingra Shellenberg or Sara Goering / Nancy Jecker (varies)

Number of credits: 5

Why: Medical ethics class is a great opportunity for students to be presented with real life case studies that have taken place, and put themselves in a position of forming opinions on how they believe they would go about handling these situations. It actually is a great way for a pre med student to get a better understanding of the ethical code they operate by. The class offers a case-based approach to major topics in bioethics, such as abortion, genetic testing, physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia and emphasizes utilizing ethical principles and methods of case analysis. Thus, the purpose isn't to be able to look into a situation and gauge "right" from "wrong" but to be able to think critically about all aspects of an ethical dilemma. – Anand K

Why: This class is crucial to becoming the best doctor possible.  Being a doctor involves making many difficult decisions and this class will provide a strong foundation as a basis for making these decisions. – Bryan B.

 

Architecture 251 ~ World Architecture: Non-Western Cultures

Teacher: Vikramaditya Prakash

Number of credits: 5

Why: I enjoyed this class because its focus is on a part of the world that I am not familiar with and I also very much enjoyed the professor. – Bryan B.

 

Geog 123 ~ Introduction to Globalization

Teacher: Matthew Sparke

Number of Credits: 5

Why: This class studies the phenomenon of globalization, and looks at how global politics and economics shape the world we live in today. As a science student, I found this class particularly helpful in giving me a better understanding of economics and politics, while still applying the concepts I learned to health and healthcare (there’s a whole unit on the inequality of healthcare). While Sparke is very biased, and I wouldn’t recommend this class to anyone who is staunchly in love with neoliberal capitalism (ex: the free market knows best, and deregulate everything), he does a good job of showing the history behind a lot of the inequality in the world today – especially in health and healthcare. Grading wise, this class involves one big project analyzing a TNC (transnational corporation) which is easy as long as you work with your TA on it (they grade it), and two exams that you’ll do fine in if you are good with detail. Sparke is also founding a global health minor in the near future, so be on the lookout for that. – Michelle D.

 

Biol 118 ~ Survey of Physiology

Teacher: Tolga Bilgen (varies)

Number of credits: 5

Why: This class sets up what human anatomy consists of, without overbearing students with heavy terminology. I took the class with Tolga Bilgen and he was an amazing teacher: funny, engaging, and his tests are all multiple choice with a non-cumulative final (which most students really like). Also, there is a corresponding 1-credit lab to accompany it that is optional, but I believe helps understand the class better. I would recommend this class to any student going into medicine, no matter what year they are. – Blake M.

 

Class 101 ~ Latin and Greek in Current Use

Teacher: Jessica Kapteyn (varies)

Number of credits: 2

Why: This class focuses on the greek and latin roots in words currently used today. It’s an easy two credit class that doesn’t take up a whole lot of time, and really expands your vocabulary. This is especially useful to science majors, because a lot of scientific terms have greek and latin roots, so it makes it easier to figure out or remember new terms you run across while reading papers, or textbooks. If you’re good at memorization this is an easy 4.0 – and although the grading scale is pretty rigid – the TAs know this and they’re not to happy with it, so they (well, at least Jessica) give extra credit opportunities on every quiz. I know I finished the class with over 100%. – Michelle D.

 

 

Professors

Clarke Speed

He's an honors teacher and he doesn't consistently teach one specific class. I've taken several classes with him and his understanding of social theory in Africa is astounding.  His classes are almost just a philosophic conversation between him and his students.  A lot of the material has to do with human rights and ethnographies of certain areas, which help with medical ethics discussions. – Natalie M.

 

Kate Boyd.

She’s an English TA working to get her Ph.D. and taught (at least for me Engl 240 and 242). Kate is a really cool teacher – and is very friendly and understanding (after the first couple of days of course, because in the first two days she’s trying to scare her class down from 40 people to maybe 30). Kate likes to teach Science Fiction and Fantasy books about social change. The readings she picks are always super interesting just because they’re science fiction, but they all also have a message, which can relate to health care, race issues, politics, and many other social justice issues. Plus, she really doesn’t like grading long papers, so you’ll have to do a series of short 1-2 page papers, but the longest you’ll ever have to do for her is 5-8 pages, most of which are open ended, meaning you can write about whatever you want as long as it connects to the books. I wrote the majority of my papers on health care and inequality in our current system. And as far as grading, if you go to office hours and tell her what you’re struggling with, she’s very willing to help you – and she grades on whether or not you listened to her comments. She realizes that some of us may not be native speakers, or English majors, and takes that into account when she grades you. Kate’s class is a great way to pick up a W credit, especially if you like Science Fiction. – Michelle D.