Essential Information

 

The Medicine and Society Minor is easy to complete if you pay attention to WHEN courses are offered, HOW OFTEN they are offered, and HOW to enroll in courses that are restricted to majors.

Enrollment demand in required msoc courses is very high and, consequently, seats in these courses are scarce. Please understand that we are making every effort to help you complete the minor. You should plan your course of study with some flexibility in order to make sure you can graduate with the minor. We often need to restrict courses to graduating seniors and juniors; we are hoping this situation will ease in the future.

English 3154 is offered every spring semester. We usually enroll students who are seniors or juniors first, in order to make sure that they have the credits to graduate.

History 3724 has been offered every semester for the past few years. Enrollment is initially restricted to history majors, however, so during course request MSOC students must email Ms. Janet Francis at jafranci @ vt.edu to request to be enrolled in the course. Please send her a polite e-mail message with your request to be enrolled as an MSOC student, your student number, and your status (sophomore, junior, senior).

Sociology 4704 is offered every other year in the fall. It will next be offered in Fall 2010.

Geography 4074 is offered every year, usually in the fall.

Students who have difficulty enrolling in Soc 4704 or Geog 4074 can take an elective from the list as a substitution. The best in this regard are other social science courses. ALL SOCIOLOGY COURSES ON THE MSOC ELECTIVES LIST WILL COUNT AS A SUBSTITUTION FOR SOC 4704 OR GEOG 4074 FOR THOSE STUDENTS GRADUATING IN 2010. FOR STUDENTS GRADUATING IN 2011, WE HAVE ADDED THOSE COURSES TO THE REQUIRED COURSE LIST. Make sure to communicate with your minor advisor for permission to substitute.

STS 3314 is offered every spring semester. We may need to begin restricting the course to graduating seniors and juniors, in order to accommodate demand. UH 3004: Biomedical Ethics is usually offered every semester, but enrollments are limited.

OTHER IMPORTANT TIPS:

Pay attention to the rule concerning 15 hours at the 3000 level or above. This means that only 2 electives can be below 3000. If you take UH 2984 with BIOL 3504H as one elective, only one other elective can be at the 1000 or 2000 level.

Make sure you are making steady progress through the minor. It is best to take at least two courses by the end of your junior year; that way you have the benefit of MSOC ideas during your medical school interviews and for writing your personal essay.

ELECTIVES:

The elective courses are usually offered either fall or spring; some are offered every other year. The notebook in Honors and in Professor Hausman's office has information about when courses are usually offered. Very few are offered in the summer.

DOUBLE COUNTING:

Most courses will count both for credit in the Curriculum for Liberal Education and the MSOC minor; double counting is also accepted for courses in other minors.

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