Bowens, TZ.

February 24, 1958

Dr. John Z. Bowers
Dean

University of Wisconsin
School of Medicins
vadtaon, viscermin

Dear Johns

Profassors Crow, Morton and syself: have discusesd on a namber of
occasions whether the cost 22tiefactory nssis of the teaching of genetics
to msdical umergraduates would act be the establishment of a uniform re-
quirerant, or et least strong encouragement, fcr this courst as a pre~-
roejuisite to sdmission. An opportunity for this my ariss if, as I anisr-
gtand is conteaplated, the Zoology Dsperiment's course in exbryology will
be reduced from five to three hours, We realize that any step such es this
should be unisrteken cautiously and this lettar is merely a preliminary
notice ami not pet & studied conciusicn.

While discussing this however we wondered if there might not be som
quesi-scientifie approach ts the question of cptimum pre-requisites. I
had in mind a statistical analysis of the last tive or six years asdical
classes tu establish what correlation, if any, there might be betesan the
elective courses that had heen teken by aduitted students and their per-
formance in mediensl schocl. This would include genstics but would by no
means be liritsd to it. wa realize that there would bs great hazards in
too detailed an interpretation of ths results, but if so such study exists
it might be worth while at least te collect ths facts. Gincs tne bulk of
students at the medical school are graduates of the University of aiscon-
sin, we are ina faveruble position here to cencuct such a study.

It 4s nol altogether unlikely that such studies have been made and
I hope that you can refer ma to them if that is the case. Another obvious
tack would be to poll the students theaselves with regard te their retro-
spective opinions on the value of those undergraduate college electives
they had taken and the ones they wish they had.

Yours sincersly,

Joshua Lederberg
Chairman, Department of Medical Genetics

JL/ew