<p>We all know there are required classes to get into medical school and we all know that you can major in something besides biology or chemistry. But i've heard that if you do major in something besides those, lets say psychology, you have to spend more money and an extra year or so in college to finish your major and your premed preqrequisites. Is that true?</p>
<p>You may or may not have to add more than four years depending on what your major is and how many other classes you can fit in with your regular schedule. The money you’ll be spending is for the prereq classes (some of which might be part of your general education requirements anyway).</p>
<p>I don’t understand the whole “extra money” thing. Other than lab fees, which you pay regardless of your major at my old university, you shouldn’t have to pay more unless you university charges by the credit even after you are a full time student (Where I went, after 12 credits the rest were free). If they do, then yes you would have to pay for those extra classes.</p>
<p>Very few majors would require another year or two to be a pre-med. Psych is definitely not one of them, because it is a relatively low credit hour major. The ones that tend to require another year are things with enormous credit requirements (engineering, assuming you aren’t in a specialty that would make you take those pre-reqs like biomedical engineering. Music at my uni was also infamous for this).</p>
<p>Not true about spending more time in college. But you can if you want to.</p>
<p>My D is an English major and will be done in 4 years despite not doing any premed coursework first semester and transferring schools. You should be able to finish a major and do premed coursework, you just won’t have much room in your schedule for other interesting classes.</p>
<p>It is remarkable what you can finish up if you have the discipline and the desire. I know plenty of friends who graduated with the equivalent of a years additional education (no AP or IB, actual college credit) while working, being involved with multiple ECs, and doing research. It really is amazing how much free time you have if you are able to cut out distractions. For example, I probably have spent two hours today farting around on the internet. If I had the resolve, that’s an entire days worth of lecture I could have gone over at least.</p>
<p>The one that require 5 years is engineering, which is normal, pre-med or otherwise. In D’s program, they are not allowed to graduate earlier when having engineering major. Other than that it is up to a person. Some people like to take it easy, others to cram it up, there is no right or wrong way, just different.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of variability in programs. For instance, all my school’s engineering degrees are 4-year programs.</p>