<p>How hard would it be to maintain a high gpa as a pre med student if you double majored in biology and a foreign language? Biology is my favorite subject and as a future pre med it would be good subject to major in, but I also love languages. And also people who major in a subject outside the sciences tend to fare well in med school admissions (I think). </p>
<p>And also do you think it would be possible to double major AND have enough time to spend a semester/quarter abroad? (That's asking for a lot, I know)...</p>
<p>Biology and Spanish is a ridiculously popular double major choice for premeds at my school. They seem to handle it well. I didn’t go that route (bio major, minor in leadership & public service) so my insight is limited but it seems like a reasonable idea.</p>
<p>The answer depends on the majors’ degree requirements at your undergraduate school.</p>
<p>Count up courses or credits for each major and breadth requirements. Then subtract any overlapping courses. If it is no more than the total number of courses or credits to graduate, the double major can be done.</p>
<p>An alternative is to major in one, and take courses in the other but not worry about getting the last few courses to complete the major in the other (though if the one you do not major in is biology, you still need to get all of the pre-med required courses).</p>
<p>It will require some thoughtful scheduling to fit time abroad in and also finish the pre-med requirements early enough to go straight through. My daughter’s undergrad had a core curriculum that also had to be completed and which made it especially tough. It can be done, though my daughter decided early on that she wanted to spend more than a semester abroad and that planning on a break before medical school would allow her to fit in everything she wanted to do as an undergrad.</p>
<p>kristin,
"Biology and Spanish is a ridiculously popular double major choice for premeds "</p>
<p>-Agree. D’s friend is triple major Zoology/Spanish/Latin studies (well, last 2 obviously related). She is going to Med. School next year. Apparently was a success. Even my D. could have done it, since she started in 3rd year Spanish according to her placement test, but she was more interested in Music (Music minor). 3rd year Spanish (just one sememster) gave my D. ability to speak pretty freely while we were in Mexico few weeks ago. I was amazed, not mentionning that I did not understand anything.<br>
It seems to be a very good idea for an MD to know Spanish. I say, go for it!!</p>
<p>What is your goal? Is it to become fluent in a language and/or get some exposure to a few languages?</p>
<p>It’s not necessary to actually major/minor in a foreign language to become fluent or more fluent. </p>
<p>Usually majoring/minoring requires literature classes in that language which may not be what you want. If such classes aren’t your interest and/or they might jeopardize your GPA, then don’t go that route.</p>
<p>My son will graduate with about 24 foreign language credits…mostly in Spanish and some in Italian. But, he won’t have a major/minor in either because he only wanted to become more fluent in Spanish and somewhat fluent in Italian. </p>
<p>ucb is correct. If your college has a Core Curriculum, a double major does not allow a lot of electives, unless you can fulfill some of the Core requirements with AP/IB credits.</p>
<p>But if your college is like most of them, a double is doable. The study abroad portion is more problematic unless your college offers starting course sequences in the spring – most privates do not. A friend’s D was a bio-span double major at Stanford, and took a semester abroad. As a result, she had to take physics over the summer.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids, my goal is to be fluent in French (I can already hold a decent conversation so I wouldn’t be new to the language) but I’d like to be able to speak at least some Spanish as well. So I’ll probably double major if possible and if I have any left-over electives I’ll use them for Spanish</p>
<p>*@mom2collegekids, my goal is to be fluent in French (I can already hold a decent conversation so I wouldn’t be new to the language) but I’d like to be able to speak at least some Spanish as well. So I’ll probably double major if possible and if I have any left-over electives I’ll use them for Spanish *</p>
<p>Ahh…well as long as you don’t mind taking French Literature classes and you’ll do very well in them, then fine. </p>
<p>Have you looked over the req’ts for a French major?</p>
<p>Yes, they’re pretty extensive and I’d have to take the lit classes. So I really don’t know what to do. I’d like to double major but on the other hand I really want to keep a high gpa. Maybe I should just minor in French</p>
<p>This decision doesn’t have to be made right now. You have to graduate with a major in something, but you can drop a second major well into your senior year with no problems (at most schools). So you can start working toward it, and if you decide that you don’t want to complete the major or if you realize that there’s no real way to take all the classes you want to take and double major, then you don’t have to finish the french major.</p>
<p>The above post is right. Many start a double major but end up not finishing the reqts for the less important major or minor because some of the reqd classes aren’t desirable or will hurt gpa. </p>
<p>Like I said my premed son will have a bunch of spanish credits but no major or minor because he wanted fluency, not spanish lit classes.</p>
<p>Ok. Thanks guys for the info and thanks mom2collegekids. Fluency is my goal so I may start the major and if the lit classes, etc. are too much to handle just drop the second major and take the route your son did</p>