<p>If I decide to double major, will it look bad for grad school if they see that I'm not as specialized as a result of double majoring? If I say, double majored in physics and chemistry and decided to apply to grad programs in physics and chemistry, they wouldn't be as enthusiastic in me as if I majored in one of them and specialized in it, right?</p>
<p>Also - if I'm rejected by grad school, could I stay in undergrad for another year and apply again? Do grad schools look down on students who finished college in 5, not 4 years?</p>
<p>I don't think so, undergrad is a time, where you explore different subject areas to see what you want to specialize in. And if you go browse random webpages of different professors, you can see they have multiple and very diverse research interests. Some profs even have 3 degrees in 3 different subjects. Eg - BS in ece, MS in mech, PhD in biomed eng. So there's no way grad school will look down upon you for having multiple interests. </p>
<p>I don't know if you can stay in school once you have graduated. And if schools look down upon students who finish college in 5, the answer is that it depends. If you keep your course load light, get good grades and do research along with that, there is no way they will look down upon that, but you don't have any extra-curricular involvement or research along with the courses and you finish your degree in 5 years, then yeah, it may cause a little bit of problem esp. if your grades are not top notch. </p>
<p>So I think your grades have to be really good to justify the 5 years.</p>
<p>I'll put it to you this way, simfish. I know a guy who majored in biology as an undergrad at Harvard, and is now getting a master's degree in civil engineering at MIT.</p>