Medicine, Health & Society Major (MHS)
If you’ve done any research on Vanderbilt, you probably know by now that we do not have a public health major. This initially posed a big problem for me because I have always been interested in health, wellness, and the disparities that come with health and medicine. I then discovered the Medicine, Health & Society (MHS) major and knew it was for me!
MHS is a great major because it is interdisciplinary so you can take a wide variety of classes to satisfy the requirements. For example, I have taken psychology, sociology, economics, and other subject classes to fulfill the major.
When you declare MHS, you also get to declare a concentration and must take four classes to satisfy the concentration requirement. For me, a girl interested in public health and the business of healthcare, Health Economies & Policies was a great fit. However, if you are pre-med, pre-nursing, pre-law or anything and everything else, there are many other concentrations to choose from!
Below, I have listed some of my favorite classes I have taken so far for MHS:
- Mental Illness Narratives – In this class, we learned about various different types of mental illnesses. The most interesting part of this class was hearing from guest speakers who struggled with the illness themselves. We also watched eye-opening movies and read interesting books written by mental illness patients.
- Perception – This class is an awesome neuroscience/psychology elective that focuses on how we perceive the world through vision and other senses. If you like illusions, this class is for you!
- Theories of the Body – This was one of the most unique classes I have ever taken. The content focused on how we use our bodies in society and how society controls our bodies through institutions. We specifically discussed the usage of the body in war, how the body is viewed in surgery and in death, and gender constructions of the body.