Minor for a pre-med student?

<p>I'm a Freshman with a major in biology on the pre-med track. I tested into fourth semester Spanish, and am currently taking that class. The plan was that, since I'm already way ahead, I can just take a few more credit hours in Spanish after this and then have my minor in Spanish.</p>

<p>But my interest in Spanish has really died down, and I don't even know if I'll need it for my career. Besides, a minor is supposed to be something that genuinely interests you, right? There's no way that I will keep my Spanish proficiency up in my adult life unless it is part of my job, which at the moment I don't anticipate. (I plan on becoming a research physician, and even if I became a practicing physician instead, I plan on living in the northern US or on the East Coast- MA).</p>

<p>Instead, I was thinking about dropping my Spanish class and instead pursuing a minor in Food Science (I am already enrolled in a food science class and find it very interesting). My parents, however, think that this is extremely stupid. They think that I should stick with Spanish, that it will benefit me in the long-run, and that food and nutrition science is for "betty crocker". </p>

<p>What does anyone else think? Would a food and nutrition science minor make me look "betty crocker" or stupid, especially when it comes time to apply for med school? Should I stick with Spanish? I'm really trying to decide what would be best and I only have a few more days left this semester to drop my Spanish class if that's what I decide to do. I don't want to waste time, effort, and money on a minor that won't benefit me.</p>

<p>Thank you for any responses!</p>

<p>As a physician myself, it really doesn’t matter what you major or minor in. I think that having Spanish would definitely be a plus given the demographics in this country. I majored in French, and many times I regret that decision given the fact that I have almost no opportunity to use it.</p>

<p>You don’t need to minor in anything unless your major requires.</p>

<p>It’s good to be fluent in Spanish, but you don’t need a minor for that. I don’t know how Spanish minors work at your school, but at my son’s school Spanish Lit classes were req’d, and that didn’t interest him. So, he took the lower division Spanish classes, medical spanish, conversational spanish, and business spanish. No minor, but he’s fluent.</p>

<p>Most of D’s pre-med friends (including D.) had graduated from UG with combo of major(s)/minor(s). They did not do it for Med. School. They did it because UG is the only time that you can afford to pursue all of your interests. D. had 2 minors and graduated with one - Music. Her friend has graduated with Art minor (this one is tough, art is very time consuming), another one graduated with triple majors, 2 of them were Spanish and Latin Studies (related but not at all to her main Zoology major). Do whatever you wish, there will be no time in a future, not even time to sleep as much as you want, so make sure you sleep good number of hours in UG also.</p>

<p>Medical Schools will not care about your minors and/or additional majors. If you do not have any personal desire to pursue them, then you better not. Music minor was a great relief for my D., great R&R and she enjoyed it enormously. It also allowed her to meet people outside of pre-med (another one was participation in sorority, also very positive experience that she did not even plan before) Just try new things, UG years are perfect for that!!</p>

<p>…BTW, D. is pretty fluent in Spanish after taking only one college sememster. She uses it at every opportunity at Med. School. Yes, it is great to be fluent in Spanish!! And any additional foreign language would be a plus (she used her other foreign language at least once)</p>

<p>As others have said don’t think of things in terms of minors. Think of your major, your premed reqs and then classes you are interested in taking. If it just so happens that those classes correspond to a minor…great have them put it down…but really you’re taking those classes for pure interest and/or to learn a skill like a language, computer, or knowledge of something. The skill and knowledge you learn from that class is what’s important not that you can say you have a minor.</p>

<p>If you have two people and one of them has a minor in Spanish but isn’t really fluent and someone took a couple Spanish classes and knows the language… the person that’s fluent is the better hire. Minors are really artificial.</p>

<p>^Well, some classes are not available to somebody who is outside of major/minor. As an example some classes are very limited in size. I believe that some of my d’s Music minor classes had only about 7 students. I do not believe that she would have an opportunity to take all of her Music composition minor classes if she was not a Music Minor. In fact, the Recording Studio time must be very limited and non-accessible to non-minors, non-majors. So in some respect, Minors are not such an artificial thing, they might be a path to certain opportunities that are not available outside of minor/major.</p>