<p>I am going to brown university next year. Should I take foreign languages because Brown doesn't really require them, and I'm not fond of them? Does taking foreign languages looking better on your college transcript when applying to medical school than not taking foreign languages? Thx</p>
<p>Not sure that it necessarily improves your app, but being able to speak Spanish fluently (or even not fluently, but well enough to get by) will be a huge, HUGE benefit when you get to medical school and also for rotations. You can help so much by translating for others, and then you also don't have to worry about getting a translator for yourself. I took four years of spanish in HS, to get out of my colleges language requirement, and now I'm really wishing I had continued on in my language. It would really help me a lot in some certain areas.</p>
<p>I'm on the executive board of my schools student run clinic and that is really our #1 issue is translator availability and how it affects the quality of care we are able to provide.</p>
<p>Well, I heard most pre-med students take Latin (at least that's what my mom told me to take). And to answer your question, being multilingual is an extreme asset in applying to medical school (not to mention it's helpful beyond mere schooling).</p>
<p>What the heck... Latin?? I've never heard of this, and it sounds like a bad thing to do, to be frank. I mean, if you're looking for names of organs, you might as well just take Greek (lots of names derived from there, too) or start studying from Grey's a couple years early.</p>
<p>Note: I am not actually suggesting these, just saying that they'd probably be equally helpful/neurotic.</p>
<p>well, not being too experienced in the ways of pre-med, I've, amny times, wished that I had taken Latin. Apparently many english words and scientific classifications are rooted in, if not compeltely, Latin. So, if you want to take a language just for the heck of it, and not to use to travel to foreign countries... it could help. Though, why anyone would not want to learn an un-dead, yes, un-dead, language is beyond me.</p>
<p>Most of the latin names are gradually being replaced by the anatomists...my profs were pretty leinient about going back and forth between english names and latin ones. However that might not be the case at some places. I'd imagine that most clinicians do not use the latin names very regularly simply because they're clinicians and don't care.</p>