Humanities & Social Sciences Courses for Pre-Health Students

Prepare for pre-med and pre-health studies.

Students seeking admission to medical and health professional schools are either required or strongly encouraged to complete courses in Psychology, Sociology, and other humanities and social sciences disciplines.

UCLA Extension offers XL-level humanities and social sciences courses (listed below) that pre-health students may find beneficial. These are degree-credit courses that can be transferred to all UCs and CSUs, and most other universities. See additional information on grading, credit options, and more.

Some of the courses below may also help students prepare for various pre-health exams such as the MCAT.

The UCLA Extension Pre-medical & General Science Studies Certificate allows up to three (maximum) courses in the humanities and social sciences disciplines to be taken for certificate credit. This list may be helpful to students in the certificate program looking to browse and enroll in XL-level elective courses.

Anthropology:

Communication:

COMM ST XL M147 – Sociology of Mass Communication

Psychology:

Sociology:

Languages:

Linguistics:

LING XL 1 – Introduction to Study of Language (online); offered Spring

Philosophy:

PHILOS XL 9 – Principles of Critical Reasoning (online); offered Spring

Public Health:

PUB HLT XL 10 – Introduction to Public Health (online)

NOTE: The Pre-medical & General Science Studies certificate program only allows a maximum of three XL courses in the Humanities & Social Sciences disciplines to count towards certificate credit. Courses taken beyond the three permitted will not count towards certificate credit. If you have questions about which courses count towards certificate credit, please reach out to your certificate advisor.