<p>Hi, I want to double major in Arabic and Mandarin/Traditional Chinese as a premed. Is it possible to double major in two foreign languages while taking a premedical track? Only respond if you have some credibility on this issue, not just what you think because this is very important. THANKS!</p>
<p>P.S. Learning Arabic and Chinese are harder than French, Spanish, and German, so if you know someone who did spanish premed, they won't apply to me.</p>
<p>You don’t have to major in biochemistry to go to medical school. You don’t even have to major in science.</p>
<p>But your plan is utterly impractical. As you noted, both Arabic and Mandarin are difficult languages to master. In order to become competent in both of them, you’d need to arrange study abroad somewhere where Mandarin is spoken, and study abroad somewhere where Arabic is spoken. There just isn’t time to get all that done while completing your pre-med requirements–unless you plan to take much more than 4 years to get your bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>If you’re dead-set on majoring in one of those languages, you could do that, and then do a post-baccalaureate program for your pre-medical requirements. It would be pretty expensive, but you could do it.</p>
<p>First, I never said you have to major in biochem. I’m not dumb lol. 2nd, I agree with you, two languages and premed will be too much.</p>
<p>by the way, what’s this post-bacc talk? I can learn a foreign language and do premed in just 4 years, that I know for fact. I was specifically talking 2.</p>
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<p>For the most credible responses, it helps to look at the list of forums offered here on CC and post on the most appropriate one. </p>
<p>Moving to PreMed Topics forum.</p>
<p>I don’t entirely know what you mean by “credibility on this issue,” but I will offer that I am currently a second year med student and have a pretty good handle on the process of being a premed.</p>
<p>I am going to assume that double majoring in Arabic and Mandarin will be exceedingly time consuming. I’m assuming this because I know how time consuming a single language major is and because I know how frustrating it can be to make classes from different departments cooperate with each other when you’re double majoring. </p>
<p>I have no idea how much you know about being a premed, but for information’s sake, let me share the following with you:</p>
<p>1) “Being premed” is not just about taking the required science classes (1 yr + lab of: bio, chem, physics, organic; 1 semester English; 1 semester math; others, as requirements change; recommended courses in stats and biochem). There’s a lot more to it than that. Additionally, you won’t “get a break” for choosing to take two time intensive or academically difficult or rare or whatever majors; in order to be successful, you will still need to do all the things required of premeds on top of your other commitments.</p>
<p>2) You need to cultivate a wide range of high quality extra curricular activities. You should shoot for covering a range of the following: research (bench and/or clinical), shadowing (both a broad range of specialties and a lot of time spent with one doc to really get to know him/her), clinical experience (although you can get a lot of this while shadowing an doing clinical research), volunteer work (something you’re passionate about), and hobbies (to show that you’re more than just a drone who does school). Leadership experience and employment would be great too, if possible. This is very time consuming. I think accomplishing this task in a meaningful way will be your biggest concern.</p>
<p>3) You’ll need to form deep and meaningful relationships with professors and mentors who can attest to your character and your dedication to a career in medicine so they can write stellar recommendation letters for you. Considering that at least two of these 3+ letters must come from science faculty, and you probably won’t be taking science classes beyond those required, you might have limited options for recommendation writers–and those writers are probably writing for many premeds. This is a feature common to all non-science majors, in my opinion, but might be especially notable for someone in your situation (as you seriously probably won’t have time for extra science classes). </p>
<p>4) Ideally, there will be an underlying theme to the work that you do, which not only resonates with you personally but also sets you up for professional success as a physician. You should be able to communicate this passion and drive–both written and verbally–superbly. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could incorporate your love for other languages here. </p>
<p>Take home point: I don’t think Arabic and/or Mandarin in and of themselves will be the problem. I think your biggest problem is going to be fitting in all the other “stuff” you need to do. Keep in mind that the longer you’re in classes during the day (=normal business hours), the less time you’ll have available for all the stuff you need to do (as many agencies, clinics, etc etc etc operate during normal business hours). If you want to include the aforementioned study abroad experiences to practice Arabic and Mandarin, you will undoubtedly need to spend more than 4 years working on all of this. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing; many students take longer than 4 years just because they want to.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think you need to look at the undergrad catalogs for the colleges that you’re interested in and see what is req’d to do a double major and do the pre-med pre-reqs.</p>
<p>Then see if you can fit them all into 4 years. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you don’t want to overwhelm yourself to the point that your GPA suffers. If your goal is med school, then don’t let an unnecessary goal (double majoring) get in the way. After all, 5-6 years from now, you won’t want to be looking back and thinking, “dang, why did I insist on a double major? It screwed up my GPA and now I’ll never get to go to med school”.</p>
<p>I would imagine any school with general education requirements (ie not brown) would make this prohibitively difficult because it would be two majors + all the pre med requirements. A double major where one of the majors covers some/all the premed requirements would be a different story. You could major in one, and take some classes in the other and do pre med.</p>
<p>What about a Mandarin Chinese/biology premed? Does that sound better?</p>
<p>You did not state the reason why you want to learn languages at college. If the goal is to know languages, there are other ways to learn also. However, as I said, I do not know your goal, it could be something other than just knowing languages.<br>
Although D. is still taking Medical Spanish while in Med. School (outside of Med. School program), I understand that Spanish is NOT in your interestm, whihc is fine. The other 2 of her foreign languages would be considered more difficult though. The only UG experience with foreign language that she had was one semester of Spanish. She could speak and used it while working in free clinics abroad.<br>
Again, my point is that you do not need to learn in college, but maybe you personally have to, without knowing your goal, I do not know. None of foreign languages was mentioned in D’s application to Med. School, though. Never discussed it at interviews either. I mentioned all of these strictly to share my experience with foreign languages/pre-med situation. If it is applicable or not, you have to decide.</p>
<p>Mandarin Chinese and biology is theoretically much more manageable because the premed prereqs will also count toward your biology degree (at most schools). </p>
<p>The next thing I would look at would be the gen eds. At my school, for example, the College of Engineering has much different gen eds than the College of Arts and Science. (Both share the same “university gen eds” in addition to the College ones.) You can imagine, then, that choosing two majors from the A&S is more manageable than choosing one in A&S and one in Engineering. Are Mandarin Chinese and Biology part of the same college at your university? (They would both be A&S at mine.)</p>