Is it an obligation to take a foreign language?

[Gladiolus23]

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Do med schools really care about whether you learn a foreign lang. or not?

I currently don't know any and having to take it in college is difficult because I would have to start all over (I'd have to take a few classes at a community college first though because the beginning foreign lang. class at my university already has students that can speak the lang. in it!)

I would much rather prefer not taking any foreign lang. but i am scared that med schools might reject me based on this.

 

[premedgear]

Do med schools really care about whether you learn a foreign lang. or not?

I currently don't know any and having to take it in college is difficult because I would have to start all over (I'd have to take a few classes at a community college first though because the beginning foreign lang. class at my university already has students that can speak the lang. in it!)

I would much rather prefer not taking any foreign lang. but i am scared that med schools might reject me based on this.

From what I have seen, it is not a requirement for admission but many students do it.

People at my uni have to take a year of foreign language in order to graduate or have 2 years of foreign language complete at a high school. Weird, but it helps get people to step out of their boundaries.

 

[BABSstudent]

Do med schools really care about whether you learn a foreign lang. or not?

I currently don't know any and having to take it in college is difficult because I would have to start all over (I'd have to take a few classes at a community college first though because the beginning foreign lang. class at my university already has students that can speak the lang. in it!)

I would much rather prefer not taking any foreign lang. but i am scared that med schools might reject me based on this.

Of course it is not a requirement! There are only a handful of things that are requirements and those are physics, gen chem, ochem, etc.

As for admissions, do whatever you want to do! For some people, myself included, have learned a second language because we wanted to do it. For others, they may have done research all throughout college. But this doesn't mean they are absolutely required.

To be honest, even two years of studying a foreign language at a university isn't going to make a difference in your ability to speak another language. You really have to immerse yourself in it by studying abroad and studying it for a few years. Even after 4.5 years of learning Spanish, I still find myself making rookie mistakes.

 

[TheLeadSeed]

Don't take a foreign language just because it will look good for medical schools. Also, I'm pretty sure a school wouldn't care if you took a foreign language or not. It might be a good topic during an interview. But what if you don't get A's in the foreign language and end up hurting your gpa?

Just complete the pre-reqs, do well on the MCAT, have good EC's, and you'll be fine.

 

[deleted407021]

I strongly recommend taking a foreign language course. My semester of German was great. I still think in Deutsch occasionally.

 

[survivordo]

Certainly not a requirement and let's face it, a semester of Spanish isn't going to make you good enough to converse with the homies down in the ED. After 2 semesters I am still left with "Tu tiene dolor? ---points to body part". It's one of those things where you use it or you lose it not to mention technically you have to be fluent for it be a legal medical conversation so you're probably going to end up using an interpretor anyway.

Like everything else med school... only do it if you love it.

Survivor DO

 

[hmockingbird]

Not a requirement, I think a lot of people take it because it's a requirement for their college's general ed. I took one semester of German my freshman year and I think that is why I decided to do that. I didn't have room in my schedule to keep taking it after that though.

I also remember some med schools saying it was a plus if you knew Spanish due to the population they served or their mission or something like that but I feel like you'd have to be pretty committed to Spanish to stand out there - like someone else said, not just taking a semester. I kind-of took that as if you maybe minored in Spanish it's a heads up it would look good on your app but they're not going to count it against you if you don't know any Spanish.

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Medical school is an intensive foreign language course with some concepts thrown in. Why not get some experience in college?

Take Greek or Latin if you're a turbo gunner. Take something else if you're interested.

 

[Koalafied]

Medical school is an intensive foreign language course with some concepts thrown in. Why not get some experience in college?

Take Greek or Latin if you're a turbo gunner. Take something else if you're interested.

There is some truth to that statement.

 

[Omppu27]

Definitely not an obligation, but i do recommend everyone to try to learn a foreign language.

 

[Gladiolus23]

Yeah I don't mind taking a foreign language as a class..but there's no way I will be able to master it and be fluent in it by the time I apply to med school. I don't have any decent background knowledge in Spanish or French, etc. to minor in it.

I just wanted to make sure that med schools won't look down on me for that. I know many applicants are very fluent in another language because they've stuck with it from high school. However, I'm in a different situation because I didn't have to take a foreign language in high school =/

 

[Bbroush]

I was blessed enough to serve a 2 year mission where I learned spanish and spoke it fluently, but I have used it often since than and have incorporated it into my "brand" for applying to medical school. So for me it's a huge benefit, but that's because I took 2 years out of school and was only speaking Spanish and decided to keep it up by staying involved with Hispanics in my community and internationally. But don't do it if you don't have to or you are not going to apply it, i don't think it would benefit your application.