How many of you that have been accepted graduated in five years?

Your taking 5 years to graduate is irrelevant to your chances of being admitted into medical school. Stuff that matters: GPA, MCAT, ECs, Personal Statement, interviewing skills. Use that extra year you're planning for to stack up some ECs.

Also, multiple majors and minors are also useless for medical school admissions. Do them because you're interested in them.

 

The only potential drawback I can think of is them asking why it took you 5 years when it takes most only 4. Is there any reason as to why you're graduating after 5?

 

Majors, double majors, triple majors, minors, they mean nothing in medical school admissions. Do extra majors/minors because you are truly interested in them.

 

I will be graduating in five years but I could have finished in the four if I wanted to. I didn't want a gap year though and so I decided to pick up an extra major just for the fun of it. I don't think it really matters whether you graduate in four or five. As long as you don't take an outrageous long time like 8...then there might be some questions.

 

^ I'm thinking about doing that. Take about 2 classes a semester while stacking up EC's.

 

National average for graduation time is 6 years.

 

For undergrad??! What? Why...?

 

Some college's such as Cincinnati's Engineering have a 4-6 quarters of Co-op experience that force the program to be 5 years.

 

He's right, but it's a skewed stat because it factors in the total number of years between the time you start and the time you graduate, not just the time you were in school. A lot of people start, then take ten years off and come back to finish. Also, some schools have programs that essentially force you into being there more than four years.