I’m currently a freshman at Arizona State, majoring in anthropology. Originally I wanted to double major in anthropology and linguistics, but there’s no linguistics major at my school and transferring isn’t an option. My two primary prospective career fields are linguistic anthropology and public health. My school’s public health degree is sad, so I’d rather not major in it. Linguistic anthropology is a little less realistic because it’s such a niche field . . . so I’ve recently decided on majoring on something science-y to have a good background for internships later in undergrad, and to make me a more competitive grad school applicant. I need seven more anthropology classes (so 1/semester) for the next three years, so not double majoring is pretty dumb since I’d be taking at least three electives per semester anyways. I was going to pick a second major in microbiology or human nutrition, both of which require a considerable amount of science classes (actually, nutrition requires two semesters of O chem while microbio only requires one), but I’m not that interested in either. What do I pick as my second major?
You don’t have to pick a second major. If you want to pick up some science classes as a supplement to your major, you only have to take the science classes. Not double majoring is not “pretty dumb”; there’s nothing wrong with using those elective spaces to do some unstructured or less-structured exploration of other interests. Not majoring means you can take the classes at your own pace, in whatever order you want, and without worrying about satisfying requirements that are unnecessary for you.
Secondly, why do you think something “sciency” will set you up better for internships? If your interests are more in the social sciences side of public health, you can get great internships without taking a lot of science classes. I mean, science classes are useful and interesting if that’s what you want, but I wouldn’t take them just because you think it’s going to make you look better. Linguistic anthropology programs won’t necessarily care that you have science classes unless you express an interest in melding those science classes with your anthro work.
Some suggestions that are related to public health are geography or urban studies, community advocacy and social policy, family and human development. If you like science and you’re interested in a more scienc-y double major or minor, check out biomedical informatics, applied math for the life and social sciences, earth and environmental studies, geographic information science. There are also a couple of business majors that may appeal to you, like the urban policy concentration or the public service and public policy one.