Last set of classes of undergrad!
I’ll be honest, it was actually kind of difficult finalizing which classes I would take this semester. I finished all of my requirements, so I had a lot of freedom in deciding what to take. The hardest part was narrowing them down to fit 12 credit hours. All the classes I’ll be in this semester are purely for reasons of interest. Even though I had enough credits to graduate in December, there were just more reasons to stay the full four years at Vandy. One, I will get to take some super cool classes here that I’ll never have the chance to once I start medical school. Two, with one more chemistry class, I get a minor! Three, fun commencement activities in May plus just a socially super fun second semester!
All of my classes will be Tuesdays and Thursdays, which allows me to be flexible with research and schoolwork during the rest of the week. I’ve only gone to all my classes once so far, but I am anticipating that they will be quite enjoyable. Without further ado, here are my classes for my final semester of college, worth 11 credit hours:
Health Care Policy: This class is the reason I took intro macro and microeconomics last year. As a future medical student, I think learning about the economic perspective of health care policy will give me a professional edge and I will be a more informed person overall. I had also heard raving reviews about Professor Renhoff.
Nanochemistry: With all the pre-med requirements I’ve taken, I only needed one more chemistry course to obtain a minor in chemistry, so why not? I do not know much about nanochemistry except that it is a buzz word in tech research now and it has some pretty cool potential applications in medicine. I’m excited to learn more about the subject! A small yike is that the exams have a maximum window of 6 hours, so I’m hoping they will not be hard enough to actually take 6 hours to finish! Although, they can’t be nearly as bad as the MCAT was (7.5 hours!).
Literature and Public Policy: I decided to take this class with Dr. Jay Clayton after meeting him at panel and discussion events regarding the intersection of humanities and science, and his encouraging me to sign up for it! The idea behind the course is to learn about not only how policy affects the arts but how the arts affect policy.
MHS research for credit: As I’ve written before, I’ll be continuing my Type 2 Diabetes stigma research with the Behavioral Medicine in Chronic Conditions Research Group with the Nephrology Department at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. If all goes to plan, I’ll get to submit a paper to a journal by the end of the semester!