One of the first things that you learn as a pre-health student in university is that you can major in whatever you want, as long as you complete the pre-requisites for graduate schools. While this is 100% accurate, a lot of students do not take advantage of this because it can be difficult to manage the pre-requisite STEM courses while also balancing the requirements of a completely unrelated major.

However, difficult ? impossible. I am a senior pre-dental student at Umass, where I am finishing dual degrees in biology and Spanish, a minor in Portuguese, and the Spanish & Health Certificate. I have learned a lot along the way, and want to share my experience with other pre-health students who are considering majoring in Spanish, or any other non-STEM major.

The first tip that I would like to share is to be over the top organized. I believe that to be a competitive applicant (and not a complete mess), you should have at least 3 excel sheets that you update and refer to regularly. The first list should be a complete list of every requirement that you need to complete before graduation as well as the courses that seem beneficial or interesting to you. Bring this list to every advising meeting and make sure that you are not missing any sneaky GenEd. I color coded my spreadsheet so that it was clearly marked with what classes I had completed, and which classes I would take each semester. When you are staring down the barrel of multiple majors or separate requirements, it can be very overwhelming. By having one single sheet that contains every critical piece of information, everything becomes simplified. The second list that you should create is a record of every single extracurricular you complete. Dental school applications ask students to report shadowing hours, volunteering, clubs, jobs, research, academic enrichment events, and manual dexterity practice. When in the midst of applications, this information can be hard to recall. Keeping a list that includes dates, times, names of references, and any other pertinent information makes it a million times easier to report these things accurately. Lastly, once you take your pre-health exams (DAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc.), create a spreadsheet with every single school and their average statistics. My dental school spreadsheet contains the information in the image below. Once I had recorded each individual school’s statistics, I color coded each box based on if I had met the standard, was really close to it, or if it was out of reach. When making decisions on where to apply to, the options get narrowed down because I can look only at the schools that I met the average or was close to.

The second tip that I have is to find classes that are interesting. When you are trying to meet requirements, it can start to feel like we are taking classes simply to check off boxes. This can lead to a mindset of getting discouraged with higher education. Pursuing medical / dental / PA / etc. school is a long haul, and we can’t burn out. The best way to avoid this is by taking classes that actually interest you. The Spanish department offers two classes that combine Spanish with pre-health: Spanish 356 (Spanish for medical professions) and Spanish 456 (Spanish translation for community health services) as well as a certificate designed for students who are attempting to combine the health field with Spanish. This idea of finding classes that are interesting includes when we picking GenEds and even classes within our major.