ULP COURSES

Here you will find a list of upper level courses that you may take in your U3 year. The physiology major requires 9 credits of upper level physiology (ULP) courses.

Courses	Pros	Cons	Evaluations
PHGY 425: Analyzing Physiological Systems	Easiest option to learn programming skills (MATLAB) for processing physiological data (vs. BMDE 519) Small class size (~25 students), mix of NEURO and PHGY No final	Not recommended for students who have never programmed before (TA’s introductory lectures explain MATLAB in terms of other languages) Extremely frequent evaluations which can be tedious (1-2 small assignments per week) Profs lecture styles and engagement will vary (some are easier to hear than others)	Assignments: 70% Presentation and Paper: 30% (in pairs)
PHGY 451: Advanced Neurophysiology	Marking scheme is all non-cumulative and there’s no final which is amazing!! So you just need to make sure you keep up with classes Very interesting topics if you like neurophysiology and all lecturers (5 of them) are very good	You need to make sure to keep up with material because there’s a class test every 2.5 weeks Extra tip – pace yourself well for Cooper’s test, he’ll make you write a lot and you don’t want to run out of time	Class Tests: 5 @ 20% ea.
PHGY 488: Stem Cell Biology	Small class size (~20 people) Interesting material Long answer exam questions (e.g. pick 4 of 7) Straightforward exam questions – easily graded Course Coordinator: Dr. Anastasia Nijnik is great!!! Dr. Nijnik is a fantastic prof and really cares about her students, she emphasizes what she wants you to know for the final She (audio) records all her lectures!! Term paper is graded fairly	2x 2 hour lectures per week A lot of evaluations	Presentation: 20% (in pairs) Term Paper: 25% (5 pages single spaced) Particpation: 5% Final: 50% (written)
PHGY 502: Exercise Physiology	Nice to have class with the U3s all together again One 2hr lecture per week (sometimes less if they finish early) Lecturers are generally very dynamic, engaging, interesting Covers a broad range of topics	Focus can be quite microscopic / cellular Goes over lots of experimental data, lots of graph interpretation (con if you’re not keen on that) Best to be familiar with resp and cardio sections of PHGY 312 – profs expect this knowledge to be fresh Doesn’t tell you how to bulk, just tells you how to improve your cardio	Midterm Paper: 40% (10 pages) Final: 50% (MC) Particpation: 10%
PHGY 461D1 + PHGY 461D2: Experimental Physiology
PHGY 508: Advanced Renal Physiology
PHGY 513: Translational Immunology	Different prof every class talking about their speciality – can get an understanding of a broad range of current immunology topics Only have to answer 3 questions on the tests (1 per lecture) so can literally not know 3 of the 6 lectures and still get 100 3 class tests (NON-cumulative) and 6 lectures per test, only have to answer 3 of 6 questions (and it’s 1 question per lecture so it’s chill)	Some topics can be dry Some lectures could be confusing without any immunology background	Tests: 3 @ 20% ea. Term Presentation: 30% Participation: 10% (discussion)
PHGY 515: Blood-Brain Barrier in Health and Disease.	Super interesting with many guest lecturers Very small class, you get to know everyone If you put in the work, you will most likely receive a good mark Learn how to criticize journal articles	You will not know your grade until it shows up on your transcript Sometimes, what is asked of you is unclear	Preparation and discussion of research papers: 50% Mock grant: 25% Oral Presentation: 25%
PHGY 516: Physiology of Blood	Physiology of Blood 1 is *NOT* a pre-req Lots of profs (e.g. Nijnik!), interesting topic Small class, this year ~20 people, the year before only had 7 Elaborating from PHGY 313 content, Blank is the course coordinator for this course as well Opportunity to improve your presentation mark by participating in discussions after other students’ presentations	Seminar every class, read a paper and email a couple questions Quite long, but only once a week 1x 3 hour class once a week 2h lecture, 1h seminar	Presentation: 15% Final: 45% Term Paper: 40%
PHGY 518: Artificial Cells	Easy and chill until the last 3 weeks of November Chang is very chill No exams		Participation: 20% Seminar Presentation: 40% Term-Paper: 40%
PHGY 520: Ion Channels
PHGY 524: Chronobiology	Prof is super keen on answering questions (actually gets a little offended if you don’t) Interesting material that hasn’t been taught before! Lots of assessments, so if you don’t do well on one there’s plenty to fall back on Small classes	Lots of assessments Not recorded Material can get a bit dry	Midterm: 20% Paper: 20% (5 pages) Seminar: 20% Final: 25% Participation: 5% Summary Figures for Seminars: 5% Summaries of In-Class Article Discussion: 5%
PHGY 531: Topics in Applied Immunology	Seminar style class – small class size allows you to interact extensively with your peers Assigned papers cover a wide variety of immunology topics Small workload – you have to work very hard for your one moderating class, but for the rest of the semester you just need to participate Profs bring snacks to class! Traditionally taken by IHI students	Require a solid immunology background to understand the papers Must read 2 papers every week Traditionally taken by IHI students	Moderating a Seminar Class: 50% Participation: 50%
PHGY 550: Molecular Physiology of Bone	GREAT course coordinator (Dr. Murshed) Small class size (~20 people) Almost everyone gets an A No Final Takes participation not for a grade but says that if you have good attendance and you’re a few percentage points away from that A you’ll be bumped to the next letter grade Class helps you learn to read paper and generate hypotheses instead of just asking you to memorize information for an exam	Papers are hard to get started (must formulate and test a novel hypothesis) Also grading really depends on what prof’s paper you write Molecular Cell Biology can be dry if you aren’t interested in it Literally the most boring class you can take at McGill, unless you like bone stuff Can be hard to get a spot, as grad students/dentistry students need to take it as well Weekly summaries due You will have no idea how you are doing in this class Dr. Murshed likes to email you your marks (via Excel Spreadsheet) sporadically instead of using myCourses
PHGY 552: Cellular and Molecular Physiology
PHGY 556. Topics in Systems Neuroscience.
PHGY 560. Light Microscopy-Life Science
BIOL 532. Developmental Neurobiology Seminar
BMDE 505. Cell and Tissue Engineering	Easy 20% from simply showing up to every class (2hr lecture once a week) Very interesting subject matter, classmates are majority biomedical engineering grad students that are genuinely engaged	4 (which most people opt to do) grant proposal has no set length, but requires creative thinking and you are expected to put as much work into it as the term paper Some of the lectures are a little boring as they are solely engineering based, and some are repeat lectures from classes like EXMD 506 and artificial cells	Participation: 20% Presentation: 40% Grant Proposals: 4 @ 10% ea.
BMDE 519. Biomedical Signals and Systems
EXMD 502. Advanced Endocrinology 1	Lecture content is interesting Lecturers have research experience within the topic they’re teaching in so it gives you a more applied sense of what you’re learning Seminar and term paper are graded pretty lightly No midterm Lecturers will generally point you in the direction of the material they’re going to test on the final	Grades come in towards the end of the semester so it’s hard to track how you’re doing Seminar presentation dates are released kind of last-minute so you have to make sure you’re prepared to possibly present on the first day Final is weighted heavy	Term Paper: 30% Oral Seminar Presentation: 10% Written Exam: 60%
EXMD 503. Advanced Endocrinology 02.	Interesting material, fantastic profs No midterm! Very little work through the beginning of the semester	Final is worth a lot 15-20 page paper All of the evaluations occur at the end of the semester – unsure of how you are doing in the course until the very end	Term Paper: 25% Seminar Presentation: 10% Final: 65%
EXMD 506. Advanced Applied Cardiovascular Physiology	Super nice course coordinator (Dr. Schwertani is chill) Last class is a great review for final Small class size (~30 students) Great lecturers, usually a different one every week Because there’s a wide variety of lecturers some are better than others Some even give you their final exam questions directly Some really interesting clinical lectures (e.g. mitral valve replacement) Class is only 3 hours once a week (2h lecture, 1h group presentations) Clinical opportunities – you can easily get to know profs and doctors and get valuable clinical experience Is clinical-based and teaches you really interesting cardiology concepts	Presentation groups are assigned on first class so the first presentation already begins the second class Was held at the Glen Hospital last year (far away)	Particpation: 5% (attendance is written down) Term Paper: 30% (10-15 pages double spaced) Presentation: 15% (~40 minute presentation, group of 3 students, present the article assigned by lecturer Final: 50% (12 short answer questions and choice of 2 out of 12 essay questions)
EXMD 507. Advanced Applied Respiratory Physiology.
EXMD 508. Advanced Topics in Respiration
MIMM 414. Advanced Immunology
MIMM 509. Inflammatory Processes
PSYC 470. Memory and Brain
PSYT 500. Advances: Neurobiology of Mental Disorders	Very interesting (if you’re interested in mental disorders), covers a wide variety of disorders, material is not too difficult First couple lectures are a bit dry, background information	Different profs every lecture/topic, and they can be hit or miss Class composition is mostly neuroscience majors, they have a better background for this course than PHGY students	Midterm: 25% (short answer) Term Paper: 25% (5 pages) Final: 50% (short and long answer)

Courses listed count towards the upper level physiology requirement (ULP).

Access our syllabus repository: Here!

ULS Courses

Here you will find a list of upper level courses that you may take in your U2/U3 year. The physiology major requires 6 credits of upper level science (ULS) courses. Please note, this list is not all-comprehensive. Refer to the Physiology Departments official website here.

Courses	Pros	Cons	Evaluations