<p>Hey, I'm still an undergrad and I was wondering if it was okay to graduate in 5 years with a BioSci degree. I'm a 3rd year premed student and I have about 9 more upperdivision classes to take as well as the MCATs. So I was wondering if it was okay to stretch this out to one and a half or two years, resulting in a total of 4 1/2 or 5 years total for graduation. </p>
<p>Will graduating in 4 1/2 or 5 years impact my chances of getting into med school?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading!</p>
<p>Nope - won’t be a problem.</p>
<p>I’ve always said that it depends. If 5 years is pretty common at your school, no issue. If 5 years is very weird at your school (as it was at mine), then it would be a problem.</p>
<p>^ how would the ADCOM know what was normal at a particular school, unless they had first-hand knowledge?</p>
<p>Lots of ways. First, as a rule of thumb, name-brand privates don’t do five years, while publics do. Second, they’ve had lots of applicants from that school before, most likely. Third, a quick phone call to a premed advisor. Fourth, the school usually publishes those statistics in various guidebooks (“four year graduation rate”).</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I buy this line of thinking. Colleges with weaker students have lower 4-year graduation rates (and therefore it would appear more “normal” to graduate in 5 or 6 years). I think whether or not you are penalized for taking extra time to graduate will depend on the reason. If it’s because you did a triple major, then it’s understandable. If it’s because you only took 12 credits a semester and had a withdraw from school for a semester, then that’s a red flag.</p>
<p>Well, lots of engineers from Berkeley, for example, have to take five years because the engineering classes just aren’t available for them to graduate in four. Even triple majors at Duke (my home school) don’t take five years, so that reason wouldn’t fly.</p>
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<p>See, my line of thinking has always been the opposite of this. Privates could care less if you take extra time - brings in lots of money for them. Publics (like my alma mater UCLA) does all they can to move you out in 4 years (minimum progress requirements, unit caps, etc.). </p>
<p>Either way, I still maintain that a 5th year won’t hurt you in admissions. Beyond that, you’re probably getting into questionable territory, but a fifth year is pretty common.</p>
<p>You’d think. But I only ever once saw a kid take five years at Duke, and we all referred to him as “that kid who took five years.” It was not a compliment.</p>
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An Econ major I know at Harvard took five years to graduate. She said the reasons were because she did a program where you get both Bachelors and Masters degree upon graduation (there was a formal name for this program but I can’t recall it now) and also because she studied abroad for a year. Are those reasons appropriate?</p>
<p>The Master’s would be. Study abroad would not.</p>
<p>My opinion is sort of a middle ground…assuming you go to a school where 5 years is extremely out of the ordinary. It’s a not a completely benign occurrence, but it’s also not a major disadvantage. It simply deviates from the ideal. No one has a perfect application, so it’s just one of many flaws, one that’s probably not as bad as getting a C in a required BCPM course. </p>
<p>Did no one ever change their major at Duke? Seems really improbable that you’d be known as “that guy” based on not graduating in 4 years.</p>
<p>Plenty of folks changed their majors. They still graduated in four years.</p>
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Super humans…</p>
<p>No, just good institutional support and adequate planning.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the replies. From what you guys are saying, it seems like graduation in 5 years really depends on what school you’re currently going to. So here’s a little background info on me:</p>
<ul>
<li>I spent 2 1/2 years at Junior College.</li>
<li>I’m currently a 3rd year undergrad at UC Davis.</li>
<li>GPA 3.6</li>
</ul>
<p>Very common at Davis. Don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>How about six years?</p>
<p>Six years and I’d start to worry no matter what.</p>
<p>;) Let me rephrase that…did no one at Duke ever change their major during junior year (perhaps to something very unrelated like a chemistry to business switch)?</p>