Help me choose a humanities class..

[iqe2010]

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There are literally tons of classes I could take to receive my humanities credit, but I've narrowed it down to few. I know I need to take something to get an easy A in, but college isn't all about grades. I want to into a class I actually enjoy rather than just siting in front of some boring old teacher flip through ppt slides. And I'm willing to take a challenging but also interesting class. Here's what I have:

African American Studies
Greek and Roman Myths of Heroes
Gender & Race in Ancient Greek Myths
Introduction to Philosophy
Introduction to Ethics
The Bible and Western Culture I

All these class are really interesting to me, I wish I could take them all, but sadly I'm not rich and I'm want to graduate on time lol. Which one should I choose? And if you took something different and enjoyed it let me know.

 

[JESSFALLING]

"Introduction to Philosophy" is #1. (Might not be "easy" though, that depends on prof)

Every student should take "Introduction to Philosophy", along with "Introduction to Psychology" and "Introduction to Economics" (or "Macroeconomics").

"Introduction to Ethics" comes as a close runner-up due to the importance of ethics in medicine. However, I would see if your uni has a more specific course such as "Biomedical Ethics".

P.s. African American Studies isn't really a humanities subject...it's likely more related to social science.

 

[Wolfman89]

I'd say go with ethics or have some fun and go with Greek and Roman Heroes

 

[NickNaylor]

I'd go with philosophy or the Bible/western culture course.

 

[iqe2010]

"Introduction to Philosophy" is #1. (Might not be "easy" though, that depends on prof)

Every student should take "Introduction to Philosophy", along with "Introduction to Psychology" and "Introduction to Economics" (or "Macroeconomics").

"Introduction to Ethics" comes as a close runner-up due to the importance of ethics in medicine. However, I would see if your uni has a more specific course such as "Biomedical Ethics".

P.s. African American Studies isn't really a humanities subject...it's likely more related to social science.

I'm taking intro psych right now in summer school for my social science credit. It's a pretty cool class. I'll look again to see, but I'm pretty sure there are no medical-related core classes at my school (at least in humanities). It would be nice to have a medical ethics class though. Or maybe it's incorporated in the class. And at my school African American studies is a humanities credit for some reason.

 

[NightGod]

Take the Ethics. I took it last semester and am really glad I did. It's good to get exposure to ethical philosophies from outside your comfort zone. Plus it's probably the most tangentially medically related one in the list.

 

[Mithril]

My vote goes to ethics.

 

[senorsquishie]

Ethics for sure.

 

[phnerd1105]

Ethics definitely. I always hear how on interviews, students get grilled with ethics questions. It will be good to have some background in it.

I've taken philosophy as well. I personally was not a fan, but it was interesting to other people. Note that most of these classes will have a lot of reading, so be prepared.

 

[NKChemEng]

Go with philosophy, IMO. It's interesting, and REALLY teaches you how to think and to write. It's quite a useful course. Of course, depends on who the prof. is. Find out about the respective professors for each of those courses and take that into consideration as well.

 

[Geekchick921]

I'd take the heroes one, sounds fun!

 

[Ansar]

philosophy or ethics
decide by coin toss

 

[NickNaylor]

Ethics definitely. I always hear how on interviews, students get grilled with ethics questions. It will be good to have some background in it.

I've taken philosophy as well. I personally was not a fan, but it was interesting to other people. Note that most of these classes will have a lot of reading, so be prepared.

The ethics questions you're likely to encounter on interview don't require an ethics background to answer well. They simply require you not to be a *****.

I'll give you an example of an ethics question I was asked. I lost some major weight and mentioned it on my application, so it was almost always discussed in my interviews. One of my interviewers, a student, told me that he regularly works in a kids clinic and sees a lot of kids that are obese. Normally physicians must report kids that are malnourished to the state's child welfare department. He argued that obesity in children results in just as harmful medical conditions in children, but the ultimate consequences aren't immediately obvious. He then asked me if I thought physicians should be required to report parents with children that are extremely obese to the state.

An ethics class won't help you with this question. What will help you is taking a little time to think about the situation and formulating an answer that you can back up. If you can think on your feet, these questions are extremely simple.

 

[Whatyousay]

The ethics questions you're likely to encounter on interview don't require an ethics background to answer well. They simply require you not to be a *****.

I'll give you an example of an ethics question I was asked. I lost some major weight and mentioned it on my application, so it was almost always discussed in my interviews. One of my interviewers, a student, told me that he regularly works in a kids clinic and sees a lot of kids that are obese. Normally physicians must report kids that are malnourished to the state's child welfare department. He argued that obesity in children results in just as harmful medical conditions in children, but the ultimate consequences aren't immediately obvious. He then asked me if I thought physicians should be required to report parents with children that are extremely obese to the state.

An ethics class won't help you with this question. What will help you is taking a little time to think about the situation and formulating an answer that you can back up. If you can think on your feet, these questions are extremely simple.

As a continuation of that thought, when the interviewer gives you an ethics question, are they looking for a specific answer, or are you fine as long as you provide the appropriate rationale? Interviewers have their own biases, after all, so have you ever found yourself playing an uphill battle when you're trying to justify a response that may not fit what the interviewer had in mind?

 

[NickNaylor]

As a continuation of that thought, when the interviewer gives you an ethics question, are they looking for a specific answer, or are you fine as long as you provide the appropriate rationale? Interviewers have their own biases, after all, so have you ever found yourself playing an uphill battle when you're trying to justify a response that may not fit what the interviewer had in mind?

In theory the interviewer should accept your answer as long as it justified well and reasonably logical. They definitely have their own biases, but he/she is SUPPOSED to be neutral. Now you certainly might run into an interviewer that is extremely combative and actually debates you on your position; however, I think that's inappropriate for the interviewer to do and I think most admissions offices discourage interviewers from doing so.

 

[tman5890]

I'd go with intro to philosophy, I really enjoyed my philosophy classes. Pretty interesting.

 

[JESSFALLING]

The ethics questions you're likely to encounter on interview don't require an ethics background to answer well. They simply require you not to be a *****.

I'll give you an example of an ethics question I was asked. I lost some major weight and mentioned it on my application, so it was almost always discussed in my interviews. One of my interviewers, a student, told me that he regularly works in a kids clinic and sees a lot of kids that are obese. Normally physicians must report kids that are malnourished to the state's child welfare department. He argued that obesity in children results in just as harmful medical conditions in children, but the ultimate consequences aren't immediately obvious. He then asked me if I thought physicians should be required to report parents with children that are extremely obese to the state.

An ethics class won't help you with this question. What will help you is taking a little time to think about the situation and formulating an answer that you can back up. If you can think on your feet, these questions are extremely simple.

I'd like to hear how others would respond to this scenario. I'm still thinking on how I would respond, but under the gun I guess I'd say that "Ideally, physicians should report all cases of parental neglect. Kids need advocates that can speak and act on their behalf."

 

[Avoidthetiger]

There are literally tons of classes I could take to receive my humanities credit, but I've narrowed it down to few. I know I need to take something to get an easy A in, but college isn't all about grades. I want to into a class I actually enjoy rather than just siting in front of some boring old teacher flip through ppt slides. And I'm willing to take a challenging but also interesting class. Here's what I have:

Every semester of my undergrad, I choose 2-4 classes extra that I was interested. I would show up to that class for the first week or two- and get a feel of the professor, my peers, and the course requirement before committing. I would suggest doing that.

Honesty though, I hate Intro classes. Too much busywork usually. I also though about taking a religion class once -- but it was filled with religious people, which I am not. I would probably go with the Greek myths one....

In conclusion - Don't commit now. Use your school's drop/add period to explore different classes... and then figure out which one you will enjoy the most.

 

[Mithril]

I don't think you should take ethics with the intention that it will help you on your med school interviews. Ethics is a broad study that is part of everyone's daily life. In my opinion, taking an ethics course will allow you to better rationalise the choices you have to make throughout your undergrad and medical career and the rest of your life, whether those choices pertain to medicine or not.

 

[NickNaylor]

I'd like to hear how others would respond to this scenario. I'm still thinking on how I would respond, but under the gun I guess I'd say that "Ideally, physicians should report all cases of parental neglect. Kids need advocates that can speak and act on their behalf."

The problem becomes how do you decide what is "over the line?" This was something I discussed in my answer. You run the risk of having an overzealous physician that reports parents like crazy, which, in my opinion, is nearly as bad as reporting no one.

There has to be some kind of objective criteria agreed upon by the medical community that says, "these parents are definitively causing harm to this child." Coming up with such a standard that justifies taking away children from parents is a pretty hard argument to make.

 

[ceasefire]

I'd take Philosophy as my first choice, Ethics as second.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'd take the heroes one, sounds fun!

I second that.

 

[NewYorker9]

1) Philosophy
2) Ethics
3) African American Studies
4)Bible and Western Culture

 

[235788]

Why is this a thread? Why don't you ask your friends who have taken the class before.

 

[cdm3413]

There are literally tons of classes I could take to receive my humanities credit, but I've narrowed it down to few. I know I need to take something to get an easy A in, but college isn't all about grades. I want to into a class I actually enjoy rather than just siting in front of some boring old teacher flip through ppt slides. And I'm willing to take a challenging but also interesting class. Here's what I have:

African American Studies
Greek and Roman Myths of Heroes
Gender & Race in Ancient Greek Myths
Introduction to Philosophy
Introduction to Ethics
The Bible and Western Culture I

All these class are really interesting to me, I wish I could take them all, but sadly I'm not rich and I'm want to graduate on time lol. Which one should I choose? And if you took something different and enjoyed it let me know.

Introduction to Philosophy. However, I'm bias - I'm a philosophy major.
I think you'll love it.

 

[Person0715]

Ethics? Pssh, who needs a class to tell them what's right and wrong?

I would take Greek and Roman heroes. Greek and Roman mythology shows up everywhere, so its pretty useful to know and its awesome when you understand obscure allusions to mythology.