Benefits of being bilingual for medical school

[Daniel91]

Daniel91 Hey everyone, just wondering if being bilingual helps in the application process for medical school. I'm bilingual and Polish and English.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[gyngyn]

Daniel91 Hey everyone, just wondering if being bilingual helps in the application process for medical school. I'm bilingual and Polish and English.

Language skills are always a plus. Spanish is more likely to be clinically useful, though.

 

[Kochanie]

I think speaking Polish is helpful, but I might be biased. If you're in Chicago, obviously speaking Polish is almost as useful as speaking Spanish. If you're not, it might not be as useful.

 

[Medstart108]

Daniel91 Hey everyone, just wondering if being bilingual helps in the application process for medical school. I'm bilingual and Polish and English.

I don't think it helps too much for admissions, but maybe for residency if you apply to a program that has a lot of polish speaking patients.

 

[NickNaylor]

Aside from being a cool sidenote on your app, I doubt it will be all that important.

 

[What's Up Doc]

I agree, Spanish would be more impressive, especially since some schools highly recommend Spanish in order to be a competitive applicant, but any extra language is impressive and will definitely help your application

 

[gyngyn]

I agree, Spanish would be more impressive, especially since some schools highly recommend Spanish in order to be a competitive applicant, but any extra language is impressive and will definitely help your application

Some schools strongly recommend it.

 

[What's Up Doc]

Some schools strongly recommend it.

UCLA, we're looking at you

 

[FluffyPolishUnicorn]

Hey, I speak Polish too :0 yey us...

but being realistic unless you are applying in Polish-centric located school, it wont be much plus...

if you can you can mention it, but it wont give you a spot

 

[What's Up Doc]

Hey, I speak Polish too :0 yey us...

but being realistic unless you are applying in Polish-centric located school, it wont be much plus...

if you can you can mention it, but it wont give you a spot

There's no single activity/skill/talent/experience that will "give you a spot," so of course speaking Polish won't either, but it makes for a more well-rounded application

 

[FluffyPolishUnicorn]

There's no single activity/skill/talent/experience that will "give you a spot," so of course speaking Polish won't either, but it makes for a more well-rounded application

There actually is one : donate a building and you do have a spot , but with that being said, i agree, of course there is no guarantee no matter how impressive your app is.

And totally agree that being bilingual is a plus, maybe not bc of the language but bc of the perspective of a student, their approach - especially if you were raised in a different country, and the culture of that country had some impact on you upbringing...

have a great day everybody - its FRIDAY!!

 

[LizzyM]

The Wall Street Journal today has an article on valuable second languages for real estate agents by city that might be relevant to medicine/med school, too.

In every market, Spanish was #1 after English. Beyond that:
New York: French, Russian, Mandarin, Italian.
Chicago: Polish, Russian, French, Greek
Miami: French, Russian, Portuguese, Italian
LA: Mandarin, French, Russian, Armenian & Korean (tied)

So, OP, you might want to target your applications to Chicago and other cities not mentioned above who have substantial immigrant communities of Poles.

 

[Monika12]

-

 

[Kochanie]

Spanish is the language to learn everywhere, but Polish is equally as important in the Chicago-land area. There are tons of Spanish speakers and lots of the doctors I volunteer with speak some Spanish, but no doctors speak Polish and rely heavily on translators. It might not be important for getting in, but if OP stays in Chicago, it's definitely going to help.