Taking 6 years to graduate~

[ddhm]

Does anyone know from experience whether taking longer than 4 years to obtain your undergraduate degree is viewed negatively by adcoms?

I'll be graduating May, but switching majors a few years back and working abroad for a year recently has lengthened my undergrad record to 6 years.

Or is taking 4+ years to graduate pretty common nowadays and adcoms are somewhat understanding about it?

Anything appreciated. Thanks~!

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[Snahster]

Does anyone know from experience whether taking longer than 4 years to obtain your undergraduate degree is viewed negatively by adcoms?

I'll be graduating May, but switching majors a few years back and working abroad for a year recently has lengthened my undergrad record to 6 years.

Or is taking 4+ years to graduate pretty common nowadays and adcoms are somewhat understanding about it?

Anything appreciated. Thanks~!

I don't know whether it is common or not but it doesn't really matter anyway since you are obviously planning to apply and cannot change how many years it took for you to get your undergrad degree. I don't think it will hurt you. Hope for the best and see what happens.

 

[ddhm]

I don't know whether it is common or not but it doesn't really matter anyway since you are obviously planning to apply and cannot change how many years it took for you to get your undergrad degree. I don't think it will hurt you. Hope for the best and see what happens.

yeah, i know -- the additional years taken can't be changed. but you get the sense from talking to dental schools that they want to minimize the number of students in their class who don't graduate from dental school on time, in addition to minimizing attrition rates, etc. so i was just wondering if adcoms might use to some degree the length of your undergrad record as a factor to help them predict those kind of issues.

anyone have some sort of experience that would lend credit to that kind of thought at all?

 

[xdianaax]

The only problem I would see you having is them thinking you can't take a full workload in school so you spread it out...that's the only thing I think that might raise concern

 

[shamrock2006]

The only problem I would see you having is them thinking you can't take a full workload in school so you spread it out...that's the only thing I think that might raise concern

precisely...as long as you carry a solid load each semester...the length of time it takes you to graduate really shouldn't matter. good luck!

 

[reapply2007]

It took me five years to finish my degree. It didn't come up. However, as you get more credits in and out of the sciences the Adcom will get a better sense of how you perform academically. This is something they brought up. For example at six years you probably have 180 semester hours. Your GPA is probably a fair representation of your academic prowess. If you have any upward trend in GPA or trend in GPA after you discovered your true interest then this is something you could think about for a response to an interview question. Unless it's something really gripping, I wouldn't focus on this issue in the personal statement. Use the personal statement to talk about why you want to be a dentist.

 

[eleminopee]

i'm gonna finish in 5 years. it took that long to bring my GPAs up from freshman year nobody mentioned it in my 5 interviews. they did however mention my freshman year grades.....booooooooo.

 

[lifeisgood]

I took 6 years to graduate and I even took a semester off to go surfing in Fiji, Australia, and Indonesia. I never had a very full courseload but I was working the whole time. Never came up in my interviews and I got into my number one on Dec 11th.