The Sociology Major - Medical Sociology Concentration enables students to advance their knowledge of the intersection between health, illness, and various aspects of social structures such as religion, class, gender, and race/ethnicity. This concentration is appropriate for Sociology students who want to go medical school or into the public or private sector to impact health and wellness among populations.
Students who are pre-health benefit from the Sociology Major - Medical Sociology Concentration by furthering their understanding of the complexities that impact the care of patients, groups and populations. The Medical Sociology Concentration provides pre-health students with an extensive academic portfolio appropriate for medical school, or alternatively, a strong compliment to other majors and disciplines.
To complete the concentration, students have to take three of the following courses (or a related course, subject to the approval of the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies and Undergraduate Chair):
SOCI 0002: Social Inequality and Health (First-year seminar)
SOCI 1110: Medical Sociology
SOCI 1111: Mental Illness
SOCI 2220: Health of Populations (if not counting for the advanced methods requirement)
SOCI 2230: Sociology of Bioethics
SOCI 2310: Anxious Times: Social Change and Fear
SOCI 2430: Race, Science and Justice
SOCI 2450: Poverty, Race, and Health
SOCI 2460: Social Inequality and Health
SOCI 2600: Global Health
SOCI 2952: Health and Social Justice
SOCI 2971: Bioethics
For the “2 SOCI or RELATED” requirement in the major, students in the Medical Sociology Concentration can count any SOCI course, or courses outside of SOCI that either 1) devote a substantial portion of their subject matter to sociologically related issues, and/or 2) are directly related to the field of health, healthcare, medicine or other medical phenomena.
Students who are pre-health and considering the Sociology Major - Medical Sociology Concentration, either as a primary major or secondary major, are encouraged to connect with the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss plans for completing the major while moving forward with pre-health requirements.