<p>According to a new post at US News by Menachem Wecker, there’s no statistical backup for the theory that studying Latin and Greek as an undergrad offers a significant advantage for med school applicants.</p>
<p>My theory: someone who wants to go to med school enough to study Latin & Greek in addition to premed coursework is likely above average in motivation, and is also demonstrating significant non-science ability. If there is any evidence of a higher success rate in med school admissions for classics majors, it’s likely more about the student than the major.</p>
<p>"If there is any evidence of a higher success rate in med school admissions for classics majors, it’s likely more about the student than the major. "</p>
<p>That’s always been my opinion too. The students who I know in med school (and I know quite a few of them, since I am one myself) all seem to have been considerably above average students as undergrads–many of them top of their chosen academic field at the undergraduate level at their university. </p>
<p>As far as I can tell, the trick isn’t what or where you study. The trick is finding your passion, doing it well, and putting in the effort to achieve your goals.</p>
<p>At Brown, the Classics department noticed that every one of their students pursuing medical school got in somewhere (something the biology department can’t claim) but I suspect it’s for the reasons as stated by Roger and Kristin.</p>
<p>Once you’re in med school however, keeping track of the terminology can be much easier with a strong foundation in the two languages.</p>
<p>That being said, I milked my classics major for all it was worth when applying to MD/PhD programs. I used it as part of my why MD/PhD essay and also frequently drew parallels between the research skills required to interpret an extinct society based on snippets of art and historical accounts and researching unknown pathways by obtaining snippets of data frequently disjointed in time or serving as a proxy for some other process.</p>
<p>Learning language is what millions of years of evolution has designed our species to do. A better explanation for the high success rate would be an extremely biased sample. Probably only a tiny tail slice of the normal curve from the department applies to MS, where the biology department sends a nice thick slice.</p>
<p>Classics teaches you much more than just language. You learn about ancient history, important philosophical teachings, and most importantly, about human interaction. Why WOULDN’T a med school want a classics major?</p>
<p>Statistics like these are generally meaningless since it is a very self-selected group from humanities majors that even apply to med school. So the numbers say less about the school than about the students themselves.</p>
<p>If there was a classics major who knew everything possible about ancient history, important philosophical teachings, and human interaction, but didn’t know a lick of biology or chemistry and failed all his/her science classes (and scored a 17 on the MCAT…1 PS, 15 VR, 1 BS), I almost guarantee you that a med school wouldn’t want this person.</p>
<p>Yes, I know that it’s absolutely possible for a classics major to understand science well enough to go to med school.</p>
<p>I think med school applicants as a group are above average in aspects such as motivation – the same would apply to med school applicants who happen to be Classics majors.</p>
<p>Also, given the med school prerequisites, the example phonyreal98 proposes is utterly unrealistic.</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly with phonyreal98 in his/her response, but I just feel that being a Classics major, like many other majors, offers insight into the more humanistic side of learning that may be helpful to have as a doctor.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at mom2collegekids’ school (thank you, mom2collegekids!!). He is double-majoring in History and Classics and planning to go on to law school. </p>
<p>Yes, it’s a really rigorous program. Especially Greek!</p>
<p>I would imagine that most professional schools would recognize the rigor of the program. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with the comments about self-selection of students One aspect that has not been discussed is the style and quality of advising. A department can achieve near-100% admissions stats by simply discouraging weak candidates from applying. While I doubt the Classics dept cited does this, it would work. If evaluating a department, one has to look at the number of students who go on to your desired goal (grad school, employment, etc) and what kind of students they are. Rarely is so much data available, and even if it were, it could not “prove” a program would benefit you more than another. One cannot perform controlled experiments in any case (unless one was willing to randomly assign students to majors).</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble, but law schools only care about gpa+lsat. Major is a non-issue, unless it is a vocational major than it become a small negative. Any liberal arts major is just as good as any other. Double majors are of zero value to the applicant. OTOH, engineers do get cut some gpa slack for LS, but just a little.</p>
<p>I doubt very seriously that a person who hasn’t the prerequisite science courses would even consider applying, let alone a classics student.</p>
<p>What about a student who is a double major? My daughter is in 3rd year at Williams College. She is biology and Spanish major. She is currently spending a semester in Spain. As part of the program she is doing internship at children’s clinic in neuropathy. What do you think of that combination?</p>
<p>Applicant must have high college GPA, decent MCAT score and certain reasonable EC’s. Applicant should be reasonably sociable to have successful interview. The rest seems to be of very secondary consideration for Med. School, IMO. There are many pre-meds with multiple majors and major(s)/minor(s) combo. I do not believe that they do it to increase their chances. They know that if they do not like the subjects, they might not do well in these classe. Doing very well is essential. Ddo not take classes if you are not interested. Most people who have multiple majors or major(s)/minor(s) combo are truly interested in them. Their interest also sparks interesting discussions during interview and so do some unusual for pre-meds EC’s that are still somewhat medically related. I would advise to pursue your personal interests and not tailor your additional academic and non-academic activities so much to Med. School. However, Med. Schools requirements have to be complete (as I have mentioned above). I am talking about activities outside of these requirements. Others might have different opinions based on their personal experineces.</p>
<p>OTOH, fluency is Spanish can be a plus factor at certain med schools, AFTER one gets the interview invite…UCLA, for example. But the key is fluency in the language (complemented by medical Spanish), not the ability to critique Spanish literature in the native tongue.</p>
<p>^Yes, Spanish is a big plus and more opportunities while in Med. School (D. is nowhere near high Spanish population, very far from CA, FL, TX, AR…and all other places like that). However, I do not think that it is a factor in acceptance. Also D. is taking Medical Spanish outside of her Med. School program, where she was able to place at intermideate level. I cannot judge her fluency level, but I heard her speaking while on vacation in Mexico. We were impressed, but we do not know Spanish.</p>
<p>What do you guys think of majoring in engineering for pre-med? I would like to major in mechanical or some other kind of engineering program and do my pre-med courses. However, I don’t want to take on a major that will kill my GPA and not allow me to get into a good medical school. What do you think?</p>