Hi everyone, I am a current high school junior looking into a career in clinical hemotology/oncology. I will be applying for some BS/MD programs, but in the case that I don’t get into those, I am trying to decide upon a major to use as a base for applying to med school. I would like to major in biochemistry. I’m not looking into any engineering as math is not my exact forte, and I don’t really love chem, so I don’t want a strictly chem major. I love bio, however I don’t want to be stuck with a degree in biology alone if med school doesn’t work out for some reason. My question however, is if it would be smart to double major or minor in another area, most likely unrelated to science. I love learning languages. I will complete AP Spanish next year and feel like I am semi-fluent in the language, however I’ve recently become very interested in learning East Asian language, particularly Korean. I speak English natively. I’m just wondering, would it be weird to either double major biochem/Korean language or major biochem and minor Korean language? I don’t really want to do Spanish after high school and I have a passion for learning Korean. Would this be a waste of credit hours/major or minor, or do you think it could also be seen as something that would make my application to med school a little more unique? Would a more science/math related major/minor perhaps be better? All input is welcome!
Why? And why do you think that biochemistry will add some additional value over and above biology? The outcomes for college biology, chemistry, and biochemistry majors are pretty much the same. Similar unemployment rates, similar starting salaries for recent graduates (around $30,000).
Would it be smart? If you actually have a passion and desire for something else enough to double major in it, then yes, it’s fine. If you are just thinking about double majoring because you feel like you should/need to, then no, don’t worry about it. And no, it’s not weird to major in biology and minor/double major in Korean (assuming that your future college has Korean; a lot of schools don’t). I will point out that you don’t need to double-major or minor in Korean to learn it. You can just take classes in it, and maybe study abroad in Korea and/or do a Critical Language or Boren scholarship (which supports students who want to take less commonly taught languages abroad; Korean is included in both, I think). You might also be interested in doing a Fulbright ETA to Korea or the EPIK program, both which allow you to teach English in Korea, for a few years before medical school. (It’s becoming increasingly common for people to take a few years between college and med school.)
I doubt that a Korean language major will enhance your medical school application much, but just because it doesn’t doesn’t mean it will be a waste of time. Not everything you do in college should be oriented towards getting into medical school - you should explore your interests and take classes/do things because they interest you.