Is spanish a good pre med major? I know I can get a high GPA but I’m worried that I won’t do good on the MCAT. Also, is Spanish considered a humanities major or what?
All foreign languages are considered humanities. So Spanish is a humanities major.
“Good” pre med majors are in the eye of the beholder. What’s good for one person may not be good for another. Major in what interests you.
Med school pre-reqs pretty much cover all the basic knowledge you’ll need for the MCAT. So doing well in your pre-reqs and, more importantly, developing a deep understanding of the material covered in those classes plus some intense MCAT prep --and you should be able to do fine on the MCAT.
(The dirtly little secret of pre-med is that your classes don’t actually prepare to take the MCAT; you have to prep on your own.)
40% of med school students didn’t major in a STEM (science, technology, engineering or math), so Spanish is a fine major as long as you complete the pre-reqs.
If you think Spanish is an easy grade, don’t you think the adcoms can figure that out, too? I’m pretty sure they are NOT looking for students who push the ‘EASY’ button.
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I think that might be student-specific. My classes at a large state flagship school were excellent preparation for the MCAT.
“If you think Spanish is an easy grade, don’t you think the adcoms can figure that out, too?”
The fact that Spanish is easy for OP is no reason for OP not to do it, nor does it mean the adcom will think that OP took the easy way out. OPs application includes a science GPA as well as an overall GPA so there is no chance that the adcom is going to be dismissive of any particular major. In fact, some medical schools and residencies in areas serving large Spanish-speaking populations actively recruit for bilingual (Spanish-English) applicants. Being fluent in Spanish is a significant advantage in many specialties and in many parts of the country.
You’re not going to get in Medical School just because you can speak Spanish. Your other point is a good one. If you take an easy major, you had best look good in your requireds. That’s why it is a bit of a risk.
“The dirtly little secret of pre-med is that your classes don’t actually prepare to take the MCAT”
“I think that might be student-specific.My classes at a large state flagship school were excellent preparation for the MCAT.”
I know I’m going to fumble my post. Although I get the point of both above posts I tend to side more with team “dirty little secret.” College bio, chem, etc profs just teach bio, chem; not bio, chem with MCAT in mind. Can some students take this material, retain, and then translate this material 1, 2 or even more years removed into a competitive MCAT score? Yes. But IMO, most are going to need to rely on some additional reinforcement (aka preparation) of basic concepts as the MCAT approaches. The additional reinforcement in terms of time and materials needed will absolutely be student dependent. If anything, I think students will need to go over past questions. I vaguely remember S talking about the big difference he thought between MCAT and Step 1 was the use of distractors in the answers where MCAT might have had 1, maybe 2 distractors in an answer whereas Step ! often had 3,4 which is why Step 1 was so much more difficult. If my recollection of S’s comments is correct, I’m sure he didn’t get this prep from Bio 1, Chem 1, or in case of Step 1, from first two years of med school courses.
Yep, agree with @jugulator20, undergrad courses present the material that is the basis of the MCAT but the MCAT isn’t really a fact based test - it’s a reasoning test using passages that present new material and then you answer questions on that.
When I was studying for both the MCAT and Step 1 - I basically never touched any books/notes from my classes. You study from test prep materials because they present the right material with the right focus for the exam - sometimes that lines up with your class, sometimes it doesn’t.
I always like to use this article from the Harvard Crimson about how Harvard premeds say that their classes don’t prep them for the MCAT when someone brings up the idea of going to the school that will do the best at “prepping them” for the MCAT: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/16/mcat-test-prep-premed/
And sitting in those Biology, Chemistry, Physics Psychology and Sociology prereqs. are students planning to do a lot of other things besides going to med school. It would be presumptuous for premeds to think those classes are all about them, and should be specifically geared for their particular postgraduate program admissions test.
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Is spanish a good pre med major? I know I can get a high GPA
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how do you know that?
Justonedad, you seem to have a bias against humanities majors. Nationally, 40% of med school admits were not STEM majors. Were they ALL fooling the adcoms with their easy course loads? It’s nonsense to assume that Spanish is a mic and adcoms will dis it. The stats say they don’t.
I agree that just one dad seems to think that Spanish would be considered an easy major. There are many STEM kids who couldn’t handle a humanities major to save their life. What is easy for one is not always easy for another. I will make sure to tell my MS3 daughter that she took the easy way out with that Classics major. Yep.
What about those of us who did both a STEM and a humanities major?
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