4 years undergrad vs 5 years undergrad and applying to med school

[Baylor2012]

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Does it really matter if one spends 5 years in undergrad over 4 years in undergrad? Would it hurt your application when the time comes around for med school application?

 

[Trexate]

Does it really matter if one spends 5 years in undergrad over 4 years in undergrad? Would it hurt your application when the time comes around for med school application?

Just be prepared to offer an explanation.

 

[adeline]

not unless you're obviously screwing around with like, 2 classes per term and no work/ecs to show for it.

 

[Van Chowder]

not unless you're obviously screwing around with like, 2 classes per term and no work/ecs to show for it.

Yep, but otherwise no it doesnt matter! They encourage you to study what you want, if you want to double major in physics and history, it may take you 5 years to graduate as oppose to the Math major that can be out in 4 years. peep it?

 

[cmart989]

I'm staying a fifth year after my upcoming senior year. This will 1. help to raise cGPA and sGPA for me since I am at a low 3.2 right now, but with a new retooled method of going about things, I can pull off a 3.6 with straight A's straight through. 2. I can use the fifth year to take courses for a double major and a minor that also look good (check to see if there are any minors that have some courses you need in them). I ended up minoring in Medicine Health and Society here at Vandy and it fulfills some bio courses and also has a spanish course in there too for my spanish major. 3. You can use the fifth year to retake courses and whatnot.

Just make sure you have some money behind you and a good reasonable explanation for adcomms.

Vandy's adcomm guy told me to be able to explain the reasoning. If it sounds reasonable, then taking a fifth year won't be a problem. In my case, raising GPA, taking courses that I want to take, and spreading the time out to fulfill majors and minors is a good enough reason for the adcomm guy.

 

[BlueAether]

I'm on the 5 yr mark, and I've got an excellent reason. $$$ School cost a lot of money, I don't come from a rich family, loans are not an ideal situation and if I can put them off, it's what I intend to do. That and I flopped around between majors for a while, but who doesn't do that? Taking more time to graduate in over 4 years is becoming more common.

I mean, unless you're in school for 17 years retaking the same class over and over and over, I don't think it'd be an issue, people have uncertainty, people have money issues (especially in this economy), people have personal emergencies, people live life, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to go off track a bit, especially if they are otherwise well-qualified. But that's just me.

Bottom line, it is what it is. You can wish you'd done this, wish you'd done that, wish everything had gone according to plan. Wish you had a plan, wish you hadn't made any mistakes, but you can't change any of that. All you can do is do the best with what you've got. And again, I could only hope schools would realize that not everyone is able to flawlessly accomplish the difficult task of becoming a doctor, or college in general.

 

[scotsdoc54]

nevermind

 

[silverhorse84]

I took five years to complete undergrad, and no one ever asked me anything about it. As far as I could tell, none of the schools I applied to even noticed. But I didn't apply to top schools, so I guess some of them might want to know why.