Stuck between Spanish major (excel at but well paying?) and Biology (good at/like). Help!!

College Majors
1

Hi, I’m deciding whether to follow Spanish major, which I really enjoy and excel at, or stay with Bio, which I love/like and can do good at. I am currently a sophomore Biology major. Biology has always been a strong suit and my parents/family believe that I am too smart to do anything that isn’t as challenging. I have always excelled highly in every Spanish class (I love learning foreign languages/ about the world). Even the Spanish instructors have tried to push me to continue with Spanish. I also feel more motivated/competitive in Spanish. On the other hand I love Bio too (thinking to be an MD) because I love anatomy and I want to save lives/ make a difference. While I could continue with it, another factor is that I am worried it could be too stressful. I do want to have a family one day. Everyone says if you follow your passion then your happiness at the end of the day will overcome these things. But that’s exactly why I’m stuck. I love Spanish a lot, but don’t know if there are any options out there that would challenge me (mentally) and are high-paying like Bio does. Any help/thoughts??? :slight_smile:

P.S. I don’t want to be an instructor/teacher.

2

Are u thinking of solely pursuing a major in Spanish? If so, I can hardly think of a more useless major. The US is chock full of bilingual Spanish/English speakers, including little kids.

An undergrad bio major will not get u a high-paying job in that field. It will require a graduate degree.

3

You can also major in Spanish (or virtually anything, for that matter) and still go to medical school. You don’t need to major in biology to go to medical school–many don’t–you simply need to take a number of pre-med prerequisite courses.

4

If you are thinking about an MD, you are not averse to post-bachelor’s study. Biology is a good base on which to build a large number of medical careers (not just MD, but various ones which require less years of study than an MD: Physician’s Assistant, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Chiropractor, Optometrist, Dietitian, Pharmacist, Dentist, Clinical Laboratory Technician, etc.), as well as, through advanced degrees such as MS/MPH/PhD, careers in health or biological research.

The United States ABOUNDS with Spanish speakers. And I have observed that almost all of the resumes of people seeking interpreter/translator work on Indeed.com are of native speakers of the non-English language entailed. If you don’t teach, but you would like to do one of the medical or research careers I mentioned above, biology will serve you much better for building career-relevant knowledge than Spanish. Yes, it is good to be English-Spanish bilingual if working in a region with a lot of Spanish speakers, but one doesn’t need a whole degree in it to reach conversational proficiency. In fact, in my experience the process of learning Spanish from Spanish-speaking neighbors and following Spanish language TV is more appropriate in outcome and vastly more efficient than the academic process.

Instructors aren’t disinterested parties. Instructors in a field have a vested interest (whether they consciously realize it or not) in seeing their choice of field vindicated by others following suit and also in building “clients” (students) to receive their services and thereby confirm the validity of the instructors being at their jobs.

To be fair, perhaps I am a little biased the other way, having majored in science (chemistry).

I don’t, because sometimes you can’t get work doing the thing of your passion later on and have to make do with whatever work you can get - which you may not like anymore than the job-practical, but uninspiring, majors previously spurned. In those cases it’s hard to be very happy. Therefore, while passion is worth some “points” in the choice of a major, employment prospects need to also factor in the choice.

5

Can I apply to a UC school from a community college with a Spanish major (wanting to comtinue into medicine) if I haven’t finished all the required courses for the Spanish major? I’ve finished up to Spanish 4 (they offer until Spanish 6). Also, I’m applying to UCs in the fall and therefore have two more semesters of community college left. Would it be wiser to concentrate on the Bio, Chem, etc classes or do I need to finish Spanish? Thank you! :slight_smile:

6

Countless students who start college w medical school ambitions don’t follow through. Therefore, when choosing a major, consider what you’re going to do w that major if med school doesn’t happen.

7

I don’t agree with the “follow your passion” advice, not on its face, anyway. I think that your major choice should be a combination of your own interests and skills and a pragmatic evaluation of the job market.

That said, the unemployment rate for common foreign languages (8.1%) and biology (7.8%) is about equal. I’m not sure where this idea that Spanish is a dead end but biology leads to bountiful post-college employment comes from.

Yes, the U.S. abounds with Spanish speakers…which is precisely why a Spanish degree might be useful. First of all, Spanish speakers tend to be lower-income and not necessarily qualified to do jobs for which a bachelor’s degree is required. Second of all, somebody needs to fill those positions to interact with Spanish speakers. Thirdly, there’s no need to make the assumption that a Spanish major will jump into translation or interpreter work. There’s a vast ocean of jobs that can be done by a Spanish major, not all of them directly relevant to Spanish language, even. I have two friends from college who majored in Spanish; both are gainfully employed in jobs that are relevant to Spanish, and neither works as a translator or interpreter.

On the flip side, it’s not like there are an abundance of BA-level jobs in the field of biology that can be easily had by recent graduates, either. Basically, biology and Spanish are both in the same boat as far as that goes: most of them who don’t go to graduate school will probably end up doing something that’s sort of tangentially related to their undergrad major, if at all. Biology isn’t particularly high-paying, either; recent college graduates in biology and Spanish make about the same amount ($30K), and the difference is not that large for experienced college grades (5+ years) with no graduate degree ($57K for biology; $54K for Spanish). The only place the big difference comes is for majors with graduate degrees, and I suspect that’s because biology majors are far more likely to go to medical school than Spanish majors.

All of the medical occupations that were listed could be done with either a major in Spanish or biology. In fact, one of my favorite former students who’s currently in a program to become a registered dietician was a French major in undergrad. I had some former language majors (most commonly Spanish and French) in my public health graduate program.

Nah. Money is pretty important to your happiness. It’s important not to struggle to pay the bills, and it’s important to be able to enjoy the work that you do every day. Besides, some people’s passions don’t pay: few people are ever going to get paid to read novels, go hiking, write music or attend opera concerts.

[Why you shouldn’t follow your passion](why you shouldn’t follow your passion — Ask a Manager).

That said, you could make a middle-class income to support yourself well with either a Spanish or a biology degree; it kind of depends more on what skills you develop and experience you get.