RELG 2650

I highly recommend this class for any students going into any healthcare profession. It is an easy A, but also just a genuinely enjoyable course. This class discusses physician assisted suicide, different religions and their approaches to health/the body, end-of-life ethics, organ/tissue transplants, abortion, birth, public health and parenthood. It is a great course to take to better understand different views on hotly debated topics in medicine. Professor Flores is also such a genuine, caring professor. I would highly recommend this as a science and society credit too.

The grade:
1) The current breakdown: Participation: 25% (10% discussion + 10% Tophat Participation + 5% Outside Event) , Midterm: 25%, Reading Response Essay: 25% (20% essay + 5% presentation in discussion, opportunity to rewrite for a higher grade), Final: 25%
2) Midterm: Incredibly easy exam! If you study, you will find it simple and straightforward. The study guide provided is all you need to know for the exam.
3) Essay is a 3-5 pages double spaced argumentative essay on the topic of that week
4) She does not want anyone to fail, so she doesn't make anything impossible.

This was an alright class -- a bit over-hyped. It didn't require much effort, but the lectures were slow. The content on the surface level seemed like it should have been interesting, but the methods of this class made it pretty boring. Professor Flores is super kind and a great person, the content just moves slowly. Also, be prepared to focus much more on medical ethics than on religion. Overall, not a bad class, not a great class, but low effort either way. #tCFfall22

Preface - I took this class to fulfill a requirement and I thought that it sounded relatively interesting and fit with my field of study. If you don't have an interest in religion, don't take this class. The readings are so incredibly dense and you will be examining contested topics through a religious standpoint. There was more of a focus on ethics than I expected, which I appreciated, and Prof Flores is a lovely person. But the readings are so dense and it will be painful to get through if you don't have any interest in the topic and are just taking this class for an easy A. General note, I've taken several classes in the RELG department, and have not had a great experience with TAs, so keep that in mind as discussion grades are a major part of your grade.

#tCFfall2022

Prof Flores is extremely nice and definitely has a great sense of humor. One thing that I could not get past in this course is how her lectures felt like I was being read a textbook every class. I think she writes a script of what she wants to go over in class, which I appreciate as I'm sure it takes a lot of time, and it shows how much she wants to make sure we learn. However, I wish she would not write a script, and would instead teach more based off of bullet points. When she reads off the script, it can make the class feel so monotonous and boring. Whenever she would tell her own story, her voice was much more lively and engaging. For that reason, expect to pay attention hard in lecture to get anything out of it; the powerpoint slides do not help much. The TAs and Prof Flores were all very helpful, knowledgable, and accommodating throughout this semester. The class itself was not too bad, with the midterm, the semester paper, and the final being very fair. It's definitely possible to get an A, but I did study for the midterm and put a lot into my paper. I would recommend this class, just know it can be a bit desne at times. #tCFfall22

Expect to take this course with a bunch of very anxious pre-meds. It's good material if that's the path you're going down. As for me, I'm just a RS minor, so I probably shouldn't have taken it. Flores is very nice, but her lectures are incredibly dull. Also, assuming she still uses TopHat, maybe look elsewhere, because wow does that software suck. Still though, if you know her from somewhere else or follow her on Twitter and you wanted to take her class, you'll probably get something out of it, but it was definitely the low point of my day three days a week.

The material for the class was super interesting, one of my favorite courses at UVA so far. The readings are dense so I normally skim to get enough to talk about during discussion for participation points. She reviews MOST of the reading in lecture but the study guides will be very helpful to show what information you need to get from the reading. The grading for the class was fair: 4-6 page reaction paper to a reading: 20%, participation: 10%, midterm: 30%, final:40%. The TAs and Prof Flores were both amazing so I truly enjoyed the class and I got the grade that I wanted. Coming from someone who doesn't like to read an A- is definitely achievable! Also just a heads up because she doesn't mention it, the course reader for this class is about $60 from NK Print and Design.

If you are pre-med - TAKE THIS CLASS. Seriously, the information is incredibly valuable and Professor Flores is the most approachable professor I have had at UVA. Go to office hours, get to know your TAs, as they determine majority of your grade. There is a good bit of weekly readings but if you are interested in medicine and policy they are actually enjoyable. Discussions are mandatory and clarify the readings a good bit. Overall, highly recommend this class as a supplementary class or elective.

Great class! It's not very hard and the material is pretty interesting, you don't actually have to do the readings because the lectures explain them well. Easy A class!

I really enjoyed this course, and the topics it discussed. As much as I liked Flores as a person, I did find her lectures to lack any sort of intrigue. We were discussing really cool topics but somehow her powerpoint just didn't reinforce that. I loved discussion, and I was a huge fan of my TA Eric. He didn't force us to sit in awkward silences, would fill them if need be, always answered our questions, and really focused on topics that we saw on the midterm. The class was super interesting, and covered a lot of modern topics. They changed it to one response paper, making the workload very manageable too.

Nicole isn't too shabby, and the TA's were wonderful! It's a shame that the TA's will probably be different next year, but Kyle made this class wonderful. I found Dr. Flores' presentations to be redundant and not the most intriguing or clarifying, but discussion sections made all the difference. Kyle provided insight and summaries that really helped me to understand and synthesize the material. Further, he wrote the tests and was a fair grader; TA's are entirely responsible for your grade in this course. It is also worth noting that the final is 40% of your course grade-- which can be either very helpful or detrimental. Overall, I enjoyed this class, but it is somewhat harder to get an A over an A- due to the limited number of grades in this course (3 reading responses, midterm, final, and participation grade)

This class is so interesting, highly recommend. Flores is so sweet and you learn a lot, though there's a lot of reading. The tests aren't too hard, but you do have to study.

This class was disappointing. After reading so many positive reviews I was excited to jump into this class. However, they restructured the class and tests this year and made it unreasonable. This class takes itself way too seriously and demands us to know irrelevant things like 'being able to match 60 vocab words with 20 different papers all talking about the same thing.' My TA sent out an email after the first essay and said that the general essay gets an 85% and only those that 'shine' get higher whatever that means. As someone wanting to take an interesting class away from the burden of regular biology classes, this class ended up being a thorn in my side. Some of the topics were interesting and Nicole is not a bad lecturer, but it is definitely not worth the amount of time this class demands. Think carefully before taking this class and don't get Eric Hilker as your TA.

I recommend this class to all my friends! It is very easy to do well because tests are based around the readings, which Flores goes over in lecture and then the TAs go over again in discussion. The subject matter is very interesting because it looks at different perspectives on current issues like abortion, physician assisted suicide, organ donation, and more. It makes you a much more understanding and informed citizen, and compliments a pre-health major or anyone interested in public policy. Friday lecture is actually just a an optional movie every other week. There is a midterm, final, and three two page papers that are graded on a check, check plus, or check minus system, and readings are much less than for a history class.

This class is essentially "read 100 pages, then in lecture we'll summarize the readings." That's it. Flores hardly offers new information in her lectures. The TA's are generally pretty good, however. I took this as a general elective because I thought it might provide more insight into law/public policy (because it was mentioned in the syllabus) but this class is really aimed much more at pre-meds. I'd highly advise you not take this class unless you have to.

Great and interesting class! Don't really need to do the readings because she goes over them in class and the lectures are online. Flores is always happy to help outside of class and clearly is very knowledgeable in the subject area.

Very easy course, what is in the assigned readings is restated in lecture so there's no need to both go to class and read, one will suffice. Students have almost no contact with Professor Flores and she has no role in your grade, everything about the grade (participation, essays, tests) is decided by the TA. Evan was a great TA.

You need to take this class cause Professor Flores is great! This course is really interesting. She is very knowledgeable and also an engaging professor. There is quite a bit of reading for this class, but with help from the TA’s and Flores, it’s very possible to get a good grade. You have to attend 3 events outside of the classroom that correlate to “Bioethics”, complete 3 response papers, midterm, and a final. If you take good notes, and READ you should do good in the class. The TA’s were very helpful, I personally just wouldn’t recommend Sorgen as a TA-I guess he knows his stuff, but his explanations and clarifications never really helped me.

Nichole is the bomb! Nuff said