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<li><p>I'm trying to convince my mom to let me take a double major in Human Development and Psychology purely out of interest. She argues that taking another major will force me to stay at school for another year, and may possibly lower my GPA. Will spending another year at undergrad decrease my chances for admission in a physical therapy grad school? Assume that GPA stays the same either way.</p></li>
<li><p>I am an athlete on my school's track and field team. Is being an NCAA athlete favorable in the eyes of grad school admissions officers? Once again, my mother is arguing that it hurts my GPA.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>Taking an extra year will not hurt you and the double-major may help you - I’m guessing knowledge of psychology may well come into play when doing physical therapy on patients. Their mental state would have a lot to do with their recovery.</p>
<p>The athlete thing won’t help or hurt you. Rule of thumb for grad school: if it’s not academic and not related in some way to your proposed field of study, it’s pretty much irrelevant. Grad school admissions is generally done by a committee of professors in your field’s department or school, and they don’t care about your extracurriculars.</p>
<p>A fifth year won’t hurt your GPA – and may even help it, if you are like most students and get better grades as you mature – but I understand your mother’s concerns. Paying for college, even a state school, is very expensive. Until you’ve paid tuition for your own children, you won’t fully understand the burden it places on household finances.</p>
<p>How about a compromise? If you cannot complete a double major in four years, then choose the more marketable degree and simply fill your electives with courses from the other. You might even be able to make this second field a minor, so it’s obvious that you’ve taken a substantial number of courses in this other area. At the very least, you’ll be taking courses that interest you.</p>
<p>Note: your athletic experience may be a boost for that particular field, if in your SOP, you tie your experience as an athlete to your reasons for pursuing a degree in physical therapy. But just listing it on your resume won’t do anything.</p>
<p>One quick thing about your athletic status - while most adcoms will not care about your athletic record, some will look on it favorably. The ability to sustain a high GPA (and otherwise qualify for grad school) while still maintaining yourself in a competitive athletic program requires qualities like time management and dedication, qualities that grad programs like to see. I had an associate who was a competitive gymnast when he applied to grad school. We asked him about his experience, and he mentioned that his athletics were brought up in favorable light during a couple of his interviews.</p>