L&S First-Year Pathways

Futures in Healthcare is a year-long cluster. You’ll be enrolled in a full complement of courses that meet recommended first-year courses for medical school, as well as a course on the histories of race and immigration in public health debates. You will be enrolled in all courses for both semesters of your first year. Course descriptions for Spring 2027 are also available below. 

Course Descriptions (Fall 2026)

• • ETHSTD 12: Historical and Contemporary Issues in Ethnic Studies, 4 Units
    Study of historical and contemporary issues in the field of Ethnic Studies, highlighting how the lived experiences of racial and ethnic groups in the past shape contemporary issues. Topics will vary from semester to semester, but may include topics such as pandemics, monuments, Black Lives Matter, social movements, immigration, and health disparities. Course topic will be posted to the online schedule of classes at the beginning of each term.
    
    
  • MATH 10A: Methods of Mathematics: Calculus, Statistics, and Combinatorics, 4 Units
    The sequence Math 10A, Math 10B is intended for majors in the life sciences. Introduction to differential and integral calculus of functions of one variable, ordinary differential equations, and matrix algebra and systems of linear equations.
    
    

• • PSYCH 1: General Psychology, 3 Units
    Introduction to the principal areas, problems, and concepts of psychology. This course is required for the major.
    
    

Meeting Schedule (Fall 2026)

• ETHSTD 12: TR 2:00-3:30 PM
• MATH 10A: MWF 12:00-1:00 PM; Discussion TR 8:00-9:30 AM
• PSYCH 1: MF 2:00-3:00 PM; Discussion T 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Major Prerequisites and L&S Breadth/General Requirements

Course Descriptions (Spring 2027)

• CHEM 1A: General Chemistry, 3 Units Stoichiometry of chemical reactions, quantum mechanical description of atoms, the elements and periodic table, chemical bonding, real and ideal gases, thermochemistry, introduction to thermodynamics and equilibrium, acid-base and solubility equilibria, introduction to oxidation-reduction reactions, introduction to chemical kinetics.
• CHEM 1AL: General Chemistry Laboratory, 2 Units An experimental approach to chemical sciences with emphasis on developing fundamental, reproducible laboratory technique and a goal of understanding and achieving precision and accuracy in laboratory experiments. Proper use of laboratory equipment and standard wet chemical methods are practiced. Areas of investigations include chemical equilibria, spectroscopy, nanotechnology, green chemistry, and thermochemistry. Completion of, or concurrent enrollment in 1A is required.
• HISTORY 32: Earth on Fire: Global Environmental History since 1492, 4 Units The past five hundred years have witnessed the rapid transformation of the earth’s biosphere, resulting in biodiversity loss, species extinction, deforestation, land-use change, and the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions impacting the stability of the earth system. This class examines the origins of these environmental crises by studying global transformations of environment and society since the fifteenth century, emphasizing the intensifying resource demands of imperial globalization, industrial capitalism, commodity frontiers, unfree labor, food systems, and postwar economic development. By ending in the late twentieth century, the course also situates the ideas and politics that have emerged to imagine new environmental futures.
• MATH 10B: Methods of Mathematics: Calculus, Statistics, and Combinatorics, 4 Units The sequence Math 10A, Math 10B is intended for majors in the life sciences. Elementary combinatorics and discrete and continuous probability theory. Representation of data, statistical models and testing. Sequences and applications of linear algebra.