Taking electives in medical school

[moo]

I was just wondering whether any medical school would allow you to take electives in another department. I know Penn does but do you guys know of any others that allow this? To turtleboard: I am interested in taking some (graduate) math courses... My interest in mathematics has peaked like a delta function the last few months and I don't want to leave this beautiful subject behind.

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[AJM]

Stanford allows you to take any class you want outside of the med school. When I was applying to med schools, it seemed to me that most schools I looked at that are closely affiliated with undergrad schools allowed their med students to take classes in other departments.

 

[bruinboy2000]

At my school (one of the UC med schools) we're pretty much allowed to take any classes we want in addition to our standard curriculum. The catch is that we don't have any time!! We're in class from 10am til 4pm in the afternoon, and outside of the 6 hours of class we still have to study. Classes outside of med school just don't seem to be practical with the crazy schedules we have.

 

[doepug]

At Hopkins, you'd have your afternoons free during your first year. You'd be allowed to take other classes during that time... in fact, it's really encouraged that students find something useful to do with those afternoons. Lots of people in my class took music courses at the Peabody conservatory, and I know a few people who took art classes. There isn't any reason why you couldn't take math (or anything else) in your spare time at Hopkins.

Good luck,

doepug
MS II, Johns Hopkins

 

[spacecadet22]

Hey y'all,
At Yale, they have a university wide open door policy to the medical students which includes taking courses in all of the professional schools including the Management and Law schools and all the undergraduate colleges. In addition, they also offer medical electives such as "the heart of Medicine" "Advanced biochem", etc through the medical school.
Also, we have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons to ourselves and almost all lectures and labs are optioanl, though highly recommended, attendance. Which reminds me, we also don't have grades and exams are optional, anonymous self-assessments.
Does it get any better than this?

 

[Smurfette]

Here at Wisconsin, my roommate is taking Spanish grad classes as well as being a Med1.
She is also on the 5-yr (extended program), which gives her 3-4 afternoons off per week which is when she schedules her Spanish classes for. BONUS: she pays no additional tuition to take the grad classes (i.e. she only pays for med school tuition, which is already prorated due to her not taking one 6-credit class.)

ALso, the university will let you take a year off as a break while in med school---to pursue other interests or whatever. I know a couple people planning on doing this as well.

As far as med school electives go, here, any electives are pass/fail (regular class are graded), minimal work, and scheduled during lunch or dinner hours. There are several electives we can take in the fall semester--Health Activism, Human Sexuality, and another one I can't remember. You are also allowed to go to lectures even if you do not register for the class. I've been surprised at how many people are taking the electives...but everyone really seems to enjoy them a lot.

Hope this helps!
smurfette