Academics

First Year Electives

First Year Spring Elective Requirement

100 units of elective credit is required in the spring quarter of the first year of medical studies. To fulfill this requirement, students can select elective courses and/or the option of a faculty sponsored independent study. To fulfill the requirements of Scholarship & Discovery, first year students will either need to take a Scholarship & Discovery track elective or complete the Summer Research preparatory requirement. 

Additionally, students who participate in the Summer Research Program will apply 50 units gained from their preparatory requirement towards the spring elective requirement. This will fulfill the Scholarship & Discovery requirement.

For every 50 credits that students elect to take, they should anticipate spending a minimum of 5 hours per week on that elective. Students may take more than 100 credits. All courses are graded Pass/Fail.

Elective courses may be taken outside of the BSD for a Pass/Fail grade with instructor approval.

Elective Courses

In early March, first year students will receive a link to an online registration system for spring elective courses. Any course that is not in the registration list or is marked 'Consent Only' in its description can be added by sending a email confirming the course number, course title, and the consent from the department or the faculty offering the course.  The consent must be returned to Michael McGinty

2019 Deadline to add an elective: Monday, March 25, 2019.

Readings, Research, and Independent Study Preceptorships

First year students may also fulfill their spring elective requirement by taking a Readings, Research course, and/or an Independent Study preceptorship. Students need to locate and make project arrangements directly with a sponsoring faculty member.

To register for Readings, Research, and/or Independent Study courses please use the Preceptorship/Independent Study Proposal. The proposal form needs to be confirmed by the sponsoring faculty member via email to  Michael McGinty. A comprehensive description of the research or project needs to included in order for it to be evaluated. The proposal will then be reviewed to determine the number of units it will receive. Please allow a week for review.  Results will be communicated via email.

Courses in Another Division

  • Go to http://registrar.uchicago.edu/classes to browse courses in other divisions. 
  • While students are able to take courses in another division, either an email confirmation from the instructor or an add/drop form signed by the instructor will be needed to be brought to Maureen Okonski, BSLC 104Q, to have the course count towards the Spring Elective Requirement.   
  • Please check with the division offering the course to ensure the course is open to students outside their division. Please be aware that many courses have time requirements that are not conducive to your Pritzker schedule.
  • Registering for business school courses: Chicago Booth School of Business.  This is an updated resource for Non-Booth students taking Booth courses: the newly-revised and updated FAQ section of our website: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/taking-courses-at-booth/faq. The FAQ has been updated and expanded to include answers to the most commonly-asked questions from Non-Booth students about taking courses at Booth and now includes sections on prerequisites and faculty permission, registration, and access to online materials, as well as sections specifically for graduating students.  Questions can be sent to:   Sarah.Arehart@chicagobooth.edu

100 units of elective credit is required in the spring quarter of the first year of medical school.

Course selection will be randomized so there is no need to be the first to submit course selection.

Yes, all students who do SRP have to be registered for this 50 unit elective.  By completing the SRP application and subsequently being accepted into the program, you will automatically be registered for these units without completing additional paperwork.

The MINIMUM time requirement to satisfy these 50 units includes: 1 hour per week working directly with your faculty mentor, and 4 hours per week of independent study (learning lab techniques, literature review, etc.)  Please know that this should be discussed with your mentor, and he/she may have additional time requirements to get you prepared to be successful during the summer.

Yes.

50 credits of the required 100 credits should be in a scholarly area which can be satisfied EITHER by taking the SRP preparation OR one of the S&D electives which are labeled that way (Med Ed, Health Care Delivery, Community Health, Global Health).  The other 50 units can be satisfied by any course listed in the electives online catalog or most courses in the University.

If you are participating in SRP, you do not have to take a track elective.  However, if you have a strong interest in a specific track that OFFERS an elective (Med Ed, Health Care Delivery, Community Health, Global Health) you can take that track elective to learn more about the track and to get to know the track leaders.

Yes, you can as many electives that you feel you can reasonably handle.

Yes you can, depending on the open seats and prerequisites.  Please consider that due to the workload required of the medical school curriculum, the time commitment to one of these courses generally makes it unfeasible.