English requirement

[mcat2]

<p>DS decided to “play it safe” when he was an UG: He took two semesters of courses offered by the English department (and none of them were jointly offered by English department and another department), and the course names have the word “writing” on them.</p>

<p>AP English? He had two 5’s in AP English in high school, and it showed up on his college’s transcript as equivalent to two semester worth of English classes. But he did not use them for any purpose – just to be safe.</p>

<p>BDM once said he believed medical schools might use the department name to help decide whether the class is an English class. I think DS followed his guideline to the letter.</p>

[emorydeac]

<p>I also agree it is wisest to “play it safe”. Many med schools require 2 courses in English. You may be able to get around this by contacting them and asking if writing intensive courses with special designations count as an English, but there is no guarantee this will be acceptable. Depending upon where you are accepted, this can definitely be a “roll of the dice”. My recommendation would be to take an English course, and if you are accepted to a medical school which requires 2 courses in English, take the second course last semester of senior year if you are averse to English courses. I would peruse the English Departments course atlas as there are courses for students who do not really enjoy English. Next semester my son is taking a course entitled “Baseball and American Culture” and will read books such as “Boys of Summer”, “Sandy Koufax:A Lefty’s Legacy”, “The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth” as well as watch films such as “Field of Dreams”, “Bull Durham”, and “Moneyball”. Hardly comparable to a class entitled “English Literature to 1660”. My point is there is a way to satisfy your English requirement without feeling as if you must suffer.</p>

[mom2collegekids]

<p>I think I’m going to ask my son to contact the Registrar’s office on Monday and ask if they can begin putting a W next to the courses that fulfill that W req’t. It will just make things more clear. </p>

<p>Maybe something besides “W” is better??? A “W” may look like a “withdrawal”???</p>

<p>if the Reg office balks, then perhaps have the Pre-Health office put in some pressure.</p>

[emorydeac]

<p>^^I meant to say an English course entitled “Baseball and American Culture”</p>

[kristin5792]

<p>

Maybe something besides “W” is better??? A “W” may look like a “withdrawal”???

</p>

<p>I’d say it just depends on the transcript. Mine’s set up such that it says something like this:</p>

<p>department…course number…course title…grade…credit hours…special designations. </p>

<p>There’s a key for special designations at the bottom: H-honors, *-independent study, W-writing intensive, M-math proficiency course (eg, chemistry and physics), S-service learning, T-transfer</p>

<p>I imagine the folks at the registrar’s office would’ve chosen a different letter for writing intensive if it would easily be confused for withdrawal. Additionally, I imagine withdrawal shows up in the “grade” part of the transcript, and the special designation of writing shows up with the course title or in its own separate column. In other words, I wouldn’t worry about it!</p>

[emorydeac]

<p>Not all medical schools accept a writing intensive course (even if it is designated as such) to fulfill the English requirement. If you are going to attempt to circumvent the 2 English course requirement at many schools, it would be prudent to contact the school and discern if such a distinction fulfills your English requirement.</p>

[kristin5792]

<p>FYI: Boston, Creighton, Drexel, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Loyola, Mayo, Missouri, Northwestern, SLU, Tufts, and Virginia accept WI to fulfill English requirements.</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>What about advanced writing courses that may not necessarily be titled under the English department? For example, the upper division (course number 100-199) College Writing courses at Berkeley:</p>

<p>[General</a> Catalog - College Writing Program Courses](<a href=“http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=College+Writing+Program&p_dept_cd=COLWRIT]General”>http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=College+Writing+Program&p_dept_cd=COLWRIT)</p>

[bluebayou]

<p>ucb: not sure what the question is…if you take a look at a couple of the colleges that kristin posted, for example, you’ll see that all requirements are institution-specific. (Heck, not all med schools even have an English course requirement. According the msar, only 85 med schools require a course in English.) </p>

<p>Harvard (current):</p>

<p>

Writing skills are important for the study and practice of medicine. This requirement may be met with any nonscience courses that involve substantial experience in expository writing. Advanced placement credits cannot be used to satisfy this requirement.

</p>

<p>Harvard (future)</p>

<p>

Analytical and writing skills/Expository Writing
Creative, complex, and compelling discoveries in medicine, as in other fields, involve grappling with good questions borne from close-reading analyses and careful observations. Therefore, effective courses in science and nonscience disciplines should focus on analytical and writing skills. In addition, at a minimum, HMS matriculants should have one year of critical writing/thinking preparation, preferably in a course devoted specifically to the development of expository writing skills. Specific skills students may be expected to master and apply to the fields of medicine and scientific inquiry include the following:</p>

<p>a. Writing logically and with clarity and style about important questions across disciplines.
b. Articulating persuasively, both on paper and in oral presentations, focused, sophisticated, and credible thesis arguments.
c. Appreciating the methodologies that particular disciplines apply for understanding and communicating results effectively.
d. Approaching evidence with probity and intellectual independence.
e. Using source material appropriately with scrupulous and rigorous attribution.</p>

<p>Although a specific expository writing course meets this requirement most directly and optimally, potentially, these skills can be honed in a science or nonscience course that requires extensive expository writing. Advanced placement credits cannot be used to satisfy this requirement.

</p>

<p>Georgetown:</p>

<p>

Any course that is considered ‘writing-intensive’ by your undergraduate school will fulfill our English requirement. Also, English AP credit that appears on your undergraduate transcript will satisfy the requirement.

</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins (current)</p>

<p>

HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES: A minimum of twenty-four (24) semester hours (or equivalent) in areas of humanities (English, History, Classics, Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Arts, etc.); Social Sciences (Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Anthropology, etc.) and behavioral science (Psychology, etc.). Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English.

</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins (future)</p>

<p>

HUMANITIES, SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
The study of the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, is an essential foundation for the study and practice of medicine (24 semester hours). Please see 2. Communication Skills under Additional Requirements, below.
These disciplines foster broad understanding of humankind and the increasingly diverse cultural and social environment of our world…</p>

<hr>

<p>COMMUNICATION SKILLS Required course work will include at least two writing-intensive courses, which can be in the humanities or the social/behavioral sciences and may be counted as part of the 24 semester hour requirement for the humanities and social sciences. It is expected that the student will have demonstrated precise and fluent communication in spoken and written English. It is strongly recommended that the student achieve basic conversational skills in a foreign language.

</p>

[TuftsStudent]

<p>Tufts has a full year writing requirement: English 1 and English 2. However, it is perfectly acceptable to take Philosophy 1 in lieu of English 2; the two classes write essentially the same amount each semester. I believe that a note about that is placed in the Committee Letter of Recommendation, which I imagine most med schools would be fine with.</p>

[bluebayou]

<p>^^Tufts Med was one of those in the msar that does not have an English requirement. (or did you mean Tufts undergrad?) From Tuft Med’s webste:</p>

<p>

English: TUSM does not have an English course requirement, although applicants must possess the ability to communicate effectively in spoken and written English.

</p>

<p>[Course</a> Prerequisites - School of Medicine - Tufts University](<a href=“Tufts University School of Medicine”>Tufts University School of Medicine)</p>