Major & Minor
Explore and Discover. Our curriculum is designed to train students to meet emerging challenges in our health care system, as well as changes in medical education. We are dedicated to training the next generation of national and international health leaders—from doctors and nurses to economists and policy makers.
Major | Minor | Major/Minor Declaration
Medicine, Health, and Society Major
The major in medicine, health, and society investigates the cultural, economic, demographic, and biological factors that impact health. Drawing on courses in the medical sciences, humanities, and social sciences, this innovative interdisciplinary field of study transcends the traditional biomedical approach to understanding health and illness.
Requirements
MHS majors craft a plan of study that includes core MHS classes, electives that meets their particular interests, and an area of concentration. It requires 36 credit hours of course work, distributed as detailed below.
1. CORE COURSES
One of the courses (3 credit hours).
List of current course offerings can be found in the Undergraduate Catalogue.
2. CONCENTRATION
Four courses (12 credit hours) not used to satisfy the core course or elective requirements in one of the concentrations areas below:
- Global health: emphasizes social and political determinants of global health disparities, history of global public health concepts and practices, relationship between culture and health, various health systems.
- Health policies and economies: emphasizes the economic, legal, and political dimensions of health.
- Health behaviors and health sciences: emphasizes biological and social foundations of health.
- Inequality, intersectionality, and health justice: emphasizes how diverse structures of inequality intersect and shape health disparities; and considers the role of social justice movements in reducing inequities.
- Medicine, humanities, and the arts: emphasizes critical inquiry of our most basic ideas about health and medicine.
- Critical health studies: Students choosing this concentration must propose a set of four courses (12 credit hours) that form a coherent program of study related to critical health studies and receive approval from the director of undergraduate studies.
Lists of approved courses for respective concentrations can be found in the Undergraduate Catalog.
3. ELECTIVES
Seven courses (21 credit hours) not used to satisfy the core course or concentration requirements chosen from the Undergraduate Catalog. All MHS and MHS-approved courses may count as electives (except MHS 3830/3831; 3880/3881; and 4998/4999).
Up to 12 hours may be counted for the major.
Your grade in all of these courses will count toward your MHS GPA.
4. DISCIPLINARY REQUIREMENT
One course (3 credit hours) must be used to satisfy the concentration requirement or electives requirement.
Refer to the Undergraduate Catalogue for up-to-date course offerings.
Minor in Medicine, Health, and Society
The minor in medicine, health, and society is an excellent addition to any student considering a career in health care, government, biological science, and related fields. Gaining an understanding of the social foundations of health through the MHS minor, students get an in-depth education on health care, health policy, economics, racial, gender and disability disparities, and other related perspectives to help them achieve their long-term career goals.
Requirements
The minor requires 18 credit hours of coursework, distributed as follows.
1. CORE COURSE
One of the core courses (3 credit hours) listed in the Undergraduate Catalogue.
2. CONCENTRATION
Three courses (9 credit hours) not used to satisfy the core course or elective requirements in one of the concentrations areas below:
- Global health: emphasizes social and political determinants of global health disparities, history of global public health concepts and practices, relationship between culture and health, various health systems.
- Health policies and economies: emphasizes the economic, legal, and political dimensions of health.
- Health behaviors and health sciences: emphasizes biological and social foundations of health.
- Inequality, intersectionality, and health justice: emphasizes how diverse structures of inequality intersect and shape health disparities; and considers the role of social justice movements in reducing inequities.
- Medicine, humanities, and the arts: emphasizes critical inquiry of our most basic ideas about health and medicine.
Lists of approved courses for respective concentrations can be found in the undergraduate catalog.
3. ELECTIVES
Two additional courses (6 credit hours) not used to satisfy the core course or concentration requirements chosen from the undergraduate catalog. All MHS courses may count as electives (except MHS 3830/3831; 3880/3881; and 4998/4999).
4. DISCIPLINARY REQUIREMENT
One course (3 credit hours) must be used to satisfy the concentration requirement or electives requirement.
Refer to the Undergraduate Catalogue for up-to-date course offerings.
Declaring a Major or Minor
Students may declare a major or minor in MHS, after completing their first year, using this link. Please consult the student user guide. Please fill out the form and email it to mhs@vanderbilt.edu . You will be assigned an adviser and the adviser’s signature will be provided. You will then be instructed to turn the signed form into your school’s academic services office for processing.