<p>At the rate I'm progressing with my course work now, I think it will reasonably take me at least 4.5 years to graduate, instead of the expected 4. Do med school adcom's discourage this, or hold it against you in any way during the admissions process?</p>
<p>The average age of entering med students is (if I remember correctly) 25, and a lot of people do graduate and apply for med school after 5 years. It also gives you more grades/coursework/time for ECs to put on your application.</p>
<p>So no, it is by no means a disadvantage and can actually work to your advantage.</p>
<p>Somebody would be 22 when they enter medical school if they graduated HS at the normal pace and undergrad at the normal pace, correct?</p>
<p>Yeah, that's right. Although at a lot of places, the "normal pace" for undergrad can be 5 years.</p>
<p>The best advice is to do what's normal at your undergrad institution.</p>
<p>If you are at a place where getting done in 4 years is the rule (Duke is like this according to BDM), it's probably best to also be done in 4 years.</p>
<p>Likewise if getting done in 5 is really common at your school, then it's okay to be done in 5 - but getting done in four is not a problem, nor an advantage. I went to a school like this, got done in 4 and wish I would have taken another semester or two...though that "regret" has diminished a lot compared to when I was an M1.</p>
<p>As long as you are doing well academically, it does not matter whether you finish in 4 or 5 years. </p>
<p>If you are in a 5 year program, then of course it is absolutely fine. </p>
<p>But if you are taking time off to do other worthwhile things, and can make that clear in your application, then taking 5 years to do a 4 year program also is fine.</p>
<p>It depends on why you need the extra year. If it's because you're doing a double major, then fine. If it's because you've been taking the bare minimum every semester, then that's not good.</p>
<p>Just curious what people's opinions are on the bare minimum. Is it 15 credits/semester?</p>
<p>15's about average. 12-13 every semester is not good.</p>
<p>Hm. If credits are measured by class hours, I had one semester of ten and one semester of forty-two.</p>
<p>In any case. Graduating in significantly more time than is normal is a serious red flag if this is happening for academic reasons. Obviously taking two years off to work in a non-profit organization does not count as a problem. But graduating in a longer-than-normal timeframe is reflective of poor planning, failing courses, light workloads, or some combination of the above.</p>
<p>If five years is normal, by all means take five years. If it's not, then something's going wrong.</p>
<p>At my state school, labs are usually 1 credit/semester. How can this be? Labs take a lot of time.</p>
<p>Sounds about right. A typical 4-credit science course at Cornell is three 1-hour lectures (3 credits) + one 4-hour lab (1 credit).</p>