SOC 2280

Highly recommend if you are interested in the human impact of medicine, especially discrimination and high costs in health care. If you aren't pre-med and need a course to fulfill some type of science requirement, then definitely check this one out! With Prof. Aviles, you read three books and have a discussion post every week or so! The discussion posts are fairly straightforward and easy. There is a midterm and a final that are also easy if you just read the books.

I am very conflicted about this class. As someone interested in public health, the material was fascinating and felt very relevant. The lecture could be quite boring and difficult to keep up with as Professor Aviles talks very fast. There are three books to read throughout the semester and about 30-40 pages of reading are due before each class. These readings are not optional as they are needed for discussion and will be on the test. The tests were difficult. They consisted of two tests with 5 multiple choice questions and a short essay and a final with 10 multiple choice questions and a long essay. Missing one or two questions can severely lower your grade. Professor Aviles is very helpful individually and really knows what she is talking about. She tries to make the class interesting even when health care reform can be a dry subject. She also provided opportunities for a lot of extra credit which lifted my B+ into an A (she also rounds grades up). I only recommend this class to people interested in medicine or public health.

I feel like this class was way harder than it should of been. There was a ton of reading every night and lecture and discussion attendance are required. At least this semester, the first mid-term was only a two-paragraph essay and five multiple choice questions but they all had multiple right answers and there was no partial credit offered. There's not a lot of room for error in this class and I also felt intimidated by the professor. If you have a choice of TA, take it with Yapeng - he is really sweet and willing to help you understand what's going on.