Professor
Robert Frank
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2018 - This is a semi-objective view of the class. Do not take this class if you want an “easy” or “breather” class. It is a lot of work. Workload: 6-8 hours of reading a week 1 Midterm 1 Final 2 Summaries 1 7-8 page essay Midterm breakdown: -5 identifications (write 3 important historical facts about a certain event, person, object etc...) -2 short answers (recommended 1 full page in length) -1 short essay (recommended 3-5 pages in length) Final breakdown: -10 identifications (same as midterm) -2 short answers -2 essays (one short, same as midterm, one long, 6+ pages recommended in length.) Professor Frank is passionate about the subject, clear, and wise. He is a helpful professor in office hours. Discussion is interesting and allows students to get into the “meat” of the course and see the “bigger picture” of larger implications in medicine. Biases I had: I hated this course. Honestly. The sheer amount of reading was outrageous and a lot of the times, useless. One reading detailed 14 cases of people with diseases and they all ended up dying. What was the point of that? What did we learn? Nothing really. I also loved this course. It shows how medicine isn’t objective. It takes into account poverty, war, industrialism, and a multitude of other benefactors and sees just how much medicine effects society in different facets. It’s so largely a class that shows the grand scheme of things you can’t help but find a new perspective of what medicine really is. Conclusion: I wouldn’t take this class again because I was a naive freshman and thought that a class about medicine would be happy and fun but that’s just not the case. Medicine is all sorts of corrupt and demented but also necessary and at times, jubilant. The class itself is objectively just an immense amount of work. But it did teach me a lot and to that end, I can’t say it was horrible.
Winter 2018 - This is a semi-objective view of the class. Do not take this class if you want an “easy” or “breather” class. It is a lot of work. Workload: 6-8 hours of reading a week 1 Midterm 1 Final 2 Summaries 1 7-8 page essay Midterm breakdown: -5 identifications (write 3 important historical facts about a certain event, person, object etc...) -2 short answers (recommended 1 full page in length) -1 short essay (recommended 3-5 pages in length) Final breakdown: -10 identifications (same as midterm) -2 short answers -2 essays (one short, same as midterm, one long, 6+ pages recommended in length.) Professor Frank is passionate about the subject, clear, and wise. He is a helpful professor in office hours. Discussion is interesting and allows students to get into the “meat” of the course and see the “bigger picture” of larger implications in medicine. Biases I had: I hated this course. Honestly. The sheer amount of reading was outrageous and a lot of the times, useless. One reading detailed 14 cases of people with diseases and they all ended up dying. What was the point of that? What did we learn? Nothing really. I also loved this course. It shows how medicine isn’t objective. It takes into account poverty, war, industrialism, and a multitude of other benefactors and sees just how much medicine effects society in different facets. It’s so largely a class that shows the grand scheme of things you can’t help but find a new perspective of what medicine really is. Conclusion: I wouldn’t take this class again because I was a naive freshman and thought that a class about medicine would be happy and fun but that’s just not the case. Medicine is all sorts of corrupt and demented but also necessary and at times, jubilant. The class itself is objectively just an immense amount of work. But it did teach me a lot and to that end, I can’t say it was horrible.
Most Helpful Review
Dr. Frank was one of the most dynamic and engaging teachers I have had in four years of UCLA. He explained the significance of what we were learning, not just random facts, and related them in a fun and often scary way to real life (descriptions of small pox made my skin crawl, no pun intended!!). Great teacher!! If you want to learn about diseases in history, take his class!!
Dr. Frank was one of the most dynamic and engaging teachers I have had in four years of UCLA. He explained the significance of what we were learning, not just random facts, and related them in a fun and often scary way to real life (descriptions of small pox made my skin crawl, no pun intended!!). Great teacher!! If you want to learn about diseases in history, take his class!!