Not sure whether to take a new language or cancer bio?

[SleepingPillow]

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Hello,

I'm in the process of choosing my classes for next year(junior), and can't decide if I wanna take Korean 1 or a evening class of cancer bio.

I want to take Korean because I think it would be a fun class and had heard great things about it/the professor. I think it would be a good break from the biochem and physics types of classes I will have, and I'm pretty interested in Korean culture as well (a lot of my friends are Korean(I'm not))

Cancer bio, on the other hand, is an evening class so it's a lot easier than actual legit classes. It would be a GPA booster(but I think Korean would be as well but with more work) and I get to learn something relevant to medicine

Anyways, Just wanted to toss this out and see if other people have ideas?

Happy Easter

P.S. I know Spanish is a better language to take, but I already did and long story short I hated it.

 

[freedoctor17]

Hello,

I'm in the process of choosing my classes for next year(junior), and can't decide if I wanna take Korean 1 or a evening class of cancer bio.

I want to take Korean because I think it would be a fun class and had heard great things about it/the professor. I think it would be a good break from the biochem and physics types of classes I will have, and I'm pretty interested in Korean culture as well (a lot of my friends are Korean(I'm not))

Cancer bio, on the other hand, is an evening class so it's a lot easier than actual legit classes. It would be a GPA booster(but I think Korean would be as well but with more work) and I get to learn something relevant to medicine

Anyways, Just wanted to toss this out and see if other people have ideas?

Happy Easter

P.S. I know Spanish is a better language to take, but I already did and long story short I hated it.

Do you need the gpa booster? Why would it be easier just because it's evening? If you know for sure it'll be easy and you need to bump your science gpa up then sure take it. If your science gpa is already 3.7+ then the Korean class sounds more fun. Personally as soon as I finished my required classes I signed up for the easiest/most fun classes I could find (for next semester). Initially I planned on taking more upper level science like anatomy and immunology classes but I decided I'll have plenty of time for that in med school and I wanna relax and enjoy my last year.

 

[altblue]

Hello,

I'm in the process of choosing my classes for next year(junior), and can't decide if I wanna take Korean 1 or a evening class of cancer bio.

I want to take Korean because I think it would be a fun class and had heard great things about it/the professor. I think it would be a good break from the biochem and physics types of classes I will have, and I'm pretty interested in Korean culture as well (a lot of my friends are Korean(I'm not))

Cancer bio, on the other hand, is an evening class so it's a lot easier than actual legit classes. It would be a GPA booster(but I think Korean would be as well but with more work) and I get to learn something relevant to medicine

Anyways, Just wanted to toss this out and see if other people have ideas?

Happy Easter

P.S. I know Spanish is a better language to take, but I already did and long story short I hated it.

It sounds like you'd be a lot more interested in taking Korean, and it doesn't sound substantially harder than cancer bio. Unless you're lacking upper level bio or feel a strong need to take it to help your sGPA, I don't think lacking undergraduate cancer biology would hurt you in medical school.

Undergrad is short and it's the last time you get to truly take classes without consequence. As long as you're set for med school, you should take what you'd enjoy.

 

[Oso]

It sounds like you'd be a lot more interested in taking Korean, and it doesn't sound substantially harder than cancer bio. Unless you're lacking upper level bio or feel a strong need to take it to help your sGPA, I don't think lacking undergraduate cancer biology would hurt you in medical school.

Undergrad is short and it's the last time you get to truly take classes without consequence. As long as you're set for med school, you should take what you'd enjoy.

I agree with Jim: do what sounds most interesting to you, which is the Korean class. You'll have plenty of time to learn about cancer bio in med school and beyond (if you so choose). Plus, evening classes are kind of a bummer, use that time to party (or chill)

 

[curbsideconsult]

If most of your friends are Korean, I assume you all go out to Korean restaurants a lot. For that reason alone, I vote for taking Korean so you can understand what's on the menu without having to ask the servers. It'll get you brownie points and they might bring out some free food!

 

[maplecookie]

Hi, just wanted to put my input with foreign language classes from my experience: I love them and I think you get a great experience especially with the smaller classes that they tend to be. And as you mentioned, it was a breath of fresh air from all the other science coursework. But, if you're only taking it for one semester I don't think you'll get too far in actually learning the language beyond the alphabet and basic words/structure especially since Asian languages are so different from Western ones.
This is to say, I think you should take it if you're interested in it and your pre-med stuff is settled, just temper your expectations of what you'll get out of it in one semester (though it can be a great starting step if you're thinking of furthering your studies in that direction, self-directed or with classes).

 

[SleepingPillow]

Thanks for the great responses!
The consensus seems to be that I should take cancer bio if I need the boost. I AM in a situation where my sGPA and therefore cGPA isn't in great shape due to very poor freshman year. This year it's been a lot better, and am currently at a 3.9ish right now with orgo and 2 bio classes (pending last midterms and finals ofc), so a very significant upward trend if I pull through.
Next semester, it would be biochem, physics, global health (want to minor in anthro), and korean/cancer bio. With cancer bio it would be 11 science credits (w/out it, 8). I could take both and that would be 19 credits total, but honestly only biochem and physics are (very) difficult, and others would be relatively easy and would still be doable but tight. Also unsure if I want to continue research next fall... Ahhhh this sucks, I think I might just sign up for both and decide after I get my final grades.

Evening classes are considered a lot easier here because the ones through the science departments are brutal (I go to a certain notorious premed school).
Yeah, I would prefer to take Korean for longer than one semester.

 

[curbsideconsult]

Thanks for the great responses!
The consensus seems to be that I should take cancer bio if I need the boost. I AM in a situation where my sGPA and therefore cGPA isn't in great shape due to very poor freshman year. This year it's been a lot better, and am currently at a 3.9ish right now with orgo and 2 bio classes (pending last midterms and finals ofc), so a very significant upward trend if I pull through.
Next semester, it would be biochem, physics, global health (want to minor in anthro), and korean/cancer bio. With cancer bio it would be 9 science credits (w/out it, 6). I could take both and that would be 19 credits total, but honestly only biochem and physics are (very) difficult, and others would be relatively easy and would still be doable but tight. Also unsure if I want to continue research next fall... Ahhhh this sucks, I think I might just sign up for both and decide after I get my final grades.

Evening classes are considered a lot easier here because the ones through the science departments are brutal (I go to a certain notorious premed school).
Yeah, I would prefer to take Korean for longer than one semester.

You cooooould do an independent thesis and combine Korean/cancer bio by researching the high prevalence of GI cancers amongst the Korean population (especially in K-dramas 😛 )