Undergraduate minor

[mike43s]

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Ok so im a biology major at psu, looking to go to med school, and want to pick up a minor. any suggestions on which ones to look into?

 

[aSagacious]

The one that's the most interesting to you.

 

[Hemorrage]

Ok so im a biology major at psu, looking to go to med school, and want to pick up a minor. any suggestions on which ones to look into?

the whole point of a major/minor is to study something your interested in. if you try and minor in something your not interested/good at your going to end up hurting your GPA and looking like a tool in an interview

 

[sector9]

What Saggy said, except I wouldn't even do a minor if it is a science minor. If you're only interested in science minors, then I wouldn't waste my time.

 

[coyotelime]

In my opinion, a minor doesn't really help your application for med school except at interviews, where you may be asked about it. Then discussing why you chose that minor could set you apart from the other applicants. Also, a minor could help "weave" the story of your application together further. For example, if you have a bunch of leadership positions and talk about the physician's role as a leader in the workplace/healthcare and take management as a minor, you can essentially talk about how your minor has developed your leadership skills, thus making you a more suitable candidate for medical school.

 

[235788]

minors are silly, they mean nothing.

 

[kexy]

minors are silly, they mean nothing.

I disagree. My minor in bioethics has been a positive point of discussion in almost all of my interviews. It's probably not worth delaying graduation to get a minor, but if you have the elective units, I think they can be worthwhile.
OP, minor in whatever interests you. Especially if it happens to be something like Spanish, Chinese, or bioethics; I imagine these can only help you with med school admissions. 👍

 

[Neurosis]

Minors are inherently useless...do something else, like more ECs.

 

[Doctor246853]

It sounds impressive to say verbally but besides that minors suck. Every student in my class are ____ majors/"pysc minors". It means nothing. Work on ECs or study with that extra time.

 

[Noah Capurso]

Don't waste time on classes just to complete a minor. If you happen to be interested in a particular subject, and happen to accumulate enough credits for a minor, fine. In a case like this, the minor could be a positive talking point in interviews because you are interested in the subject (like bioethics as mentioned above). However, if you take classes to complete a minor just to have it on your transcript, you won't have many interesting things to say in the interview and it will end up being a waste of time (and potentially a GPA drag). Use your time on activities you are interested in, not what you think will make your transcript look fancy.

 

[Lunasly]

It sounds impressive to say verbally but besides that minors suck. Every student in my class are ____ majors/"pysc minors". It means nothing. Work on ECs or study with that extra time.

How does a minor take away from EC's or other activities? I am doing a minor because I enjoy the subject matter, however it doesn't take away from my study time or EC time. I take 4 classes and 3 labs every semester with a mixture of those classes from both my major and minor. I don't take that many classes because I want to finish my minor, but because I am trying to stay consistent with my workload (Canadian schools also require a certain amount of credits per year).

 

[Ismet]

Minors are not completely pointless, unless you are picking up a minor just to add another line to your diploma. I am a neuroscience major getting a minor in music, and music has been the MAIN topic of almost every interview I've had. No one has asked me about my major, except when I talk about research.

If you have the credit space to add a minor, and it's a subject that you enjoy, then go for it. You will probably be asked about it in open-file interviews, especially if it's an interesting/uncommon subject.

 

[JESSFALLING]

I agree with the posters that mentioned ethics and music.... anything in the humanities shows depth if you are a science major. It's common, but I think that the knowledge you get from a psych minor is helpful for future doctors to have. You could pick up an art minor if you are interested in plastic surgery. A nutrition minor might be good for a future PCP. A minor in Spanish would have a lot of utility in most parts of the country. Find something that you're interested in and that helps you develop skills/knowledge that you won't get in med school.