I am planning on taking PSYC 116 Behavior, Health Care and Society - Psychology for the Health Professions and wanted to know how the class is. Is there too much writing and reading in this class? I know it all depends on the professor, but I just wanted to know if it is a hard class to take as a foreign language speaker.
English is my second language, so I am a bit scared I will struggle in the class.
Thanks in advance!
Social science classes always involve a fairly good amount of reading. Not as much as, say, a literature class where you may be assigned to read a 300 page novel every week or two. If your course has a assigned text, you may be asked to read 1 or more chapters for class each week. Perhaps some additional journal articles beside the textbook. If your course doesn’t have a textbook, you’ll likely be given one or more journal articles to read each week.
Typically social science classes will require several shorter opinion/topic papers (length 3-10 pages). Number of papers depends upon the instructor, but 1-5 is pretty typical. You may also have a longer research paper assigned as a final project instead of a final exam. Some instructors may assign written homework to be turned in weekly/bi-weekly.
There will be a course policies & curriculum handout on the first day of class. It will list assigned papers, exams, their weighting and often will give you an outline of the topics covered w/ the related reading assignments. If it looks like it’ll be too much for you, you can drop the class.
Here’s a course info sheet from Earlham College for a course with that title–https://epress.earlham.edu/medicalhumanities/files/2017/10/Syllabus-Intro-Prehealth-2017Fall-116-no-comments.pdf
And just a heads up–medicine as profession requires HUGE amounts of reading. Not just as med student, but also as practicing physician. D1 (a PGY4) was home for her sister’s med school graduation this week. I asked her how she plans to spend her time off. Her answer-- I have to catch up on my professional reading.
I see from your other posts you are an international student.
Will you have a green card by the time you graduate from college?
International students are a HUGE disadvantage when it comes to med school admissions. Last year only 106 internationals (~85% of whom are Canadians) l matriculated into all US medical colleges combined. Over 1200 applied.
Internationals are disadvantaged in 2 ways:
most US med school do not accept international students. Only 40 say they do, but only about 15 or so accept internationals on a regular basis.
there is little or no FA available for international students. Most US med student finance their education through federal government loans; internationals are not eligible for these loans. Nor are they eligible for the various scholarship-for-service programs. International students must prove they are able to pay 100% of their medical education costs before they are allowed to matriculate. Proof means you have a letter of guarantee of financing issued by your home country government OR depositing into a US escrow account an amount determined by the med school. (This ranges from 1 full year’s tuition to 4 years of the full estimated COA. So anywhere from about $58,000 to $350,0000)
@WayOutWestMom , I am not an international student. I do have a Greencard and have been attending high school here in America for almost two years.
I am just a first generation immigrant.