Bad idea to stay a 5th year?

[Muscles00GT]

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I'm entering my junior year of undergrad and I am on schedule to graduate in 4 years. I had originally planned to take the MCAT this April and apply as soon as the admissions cycle opened for 2009; however, my GPA is not so great. I thought about staying an extra year, taking more science courses, and picking up a minor in microbiology or some other related science major in order to improve my overall and science GPA and applying for 2010. Will DO schools look down on the fact that I stayed an extra year? Thanks

 

[DiverDoc]

IMO absolutely not. These days more often than not it takes more than 4 yrs to get the job done. I am going into my fifth year and I have 2 interviews scheduled so far. I would be in complete shock if adcoms looked down or even mentioned it in interviews. But like I said, got 2 lined up already, I came from a CC as well. Hope this makes you feel better. Youll be fine, no worries.👍

 

[r2cole1]

I agree that this is absolutely fine. In fact, I think it is a great idea.

 

[Empi]

I dipped my toe into the academic water when my youngest was in Kindergarten. I took one class in the fall and two classes in the spring.

That didn't count as my first year, did it? I applied as a full time student for the following fall (I was in Adult Studies for the first parttime year,) I'm pretty sure the first fulltime year counted as year one.

 

[Empi]

I am assuming the reason this topic came up was because some schools look at your courseload to see if you can handle a lot of work at once.

 

[walkoffhr]

I also took a fifth year, and am taking another year off.
The positives are:
- Opportunity to raise GPA
- Opportunity for more volunteer/clinical experience
- Opportunity for better LOR's
- Opportunity to better understand who you are and what you want out of medical school/life.

The negatives:
- That douchebag from your organic chem class goes to medical school a year before you

 

[Empi]

- That douchebag from your organic chem class goes to medical school a year before you

 

[Muscles00GT]

thanks for the replies! It's a little disheartening knowing that I'll be there for an extra year, but in the end, if i can improve my GPA, as well as my extracurriculars and volunteer activities, I think it will be worth it.