I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here. My pre-med reqs and my core requirements for the school I'm attending are immense and ridiculous. however, I know medical schools glance upon those who have some sort of Spanish major/minor favorably. My question is, would it be more beneficial for me to complete my spanish minor and spend a crap ton of extra time doing it, or participating in volunteering for events that cater to hispanics, which will make me fluent in spanish. which do med schools prefer, if any? Would it be better for me to say my volunteering focused on the hispanic population has made me fluent, or just straight out minoring in it. Please let me know.
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The use of language to help others is more important than a minor.
As someone who has done both, I will tell you that you will likely not be fluent if you just minor in it. Minoring doesn't take much extra time (about 1 class per semester for all 8 semesters). Even those who major in Spanish and study abroad for a semester are advanced in their Spanish but most are not 100% fluent.
If you volunteer for events that cater to hispanics, you will also not likely become fluent unless you are volunteering every day for multiple hours. People really underestimate how much time it takes to become fluent, especially if you are not 100% immersed.
Don't do it for the way it will look - do it if you want to. Personally, I would do both if you really care about learning the language.
As someone with a Spanish minor and having lived in a foreign country for a few years, unless you are an incredibly gifted individual, you wont be fluent through either of those. I didnt consider myself fluent for the application. Id imagine the volunteering would be better as far as applications go.
I would go with the volunteering. From my experience, adcoms do not really care what minors you have, if you have minors, etc.
You are also more likely to retain more of the language if you are using it in a real-world setting rather than in a classroom.
You are also more likely to retain more of the language if you are using it in a real-world setting rather than in a classroom.
What if I can completely understand Spanish (including what is written), but can't speak it fluently. How would that be seen by adcoms?
Some is better than none. Fluent is better than just some. Don't overthink it.
