Question Regarding Graduate School Admissions

Graduate School
1

<p>I was just wondering if the amount of time one spends in undergrad school affects one's chance of being admitted to graduate school. I'm currently doing a double major in Math and Computer Science and I might throw in a few minors on top of that perhaps, I don't know yet. With me doing my double major, and the fact that my current undergrad school is so small that sometimes one has to wait over a year to take a required course in their major, makes me unsure about how long it's going to take for me to graduate, whether that be 4 years or 6 or whatever. Now I've thought about it and I can think of reasons to both justify and to condemn both arguments (staying in undergrad for a shorter period of time or staying in undergrad for a longer period of time).</p>

<h2>Short Period</h2>

<p>Pro: "Wow, this person got their undergrad degree in such a short period of time! He must have been an enthusiastic student that took as many classes as he can every semester which caused him to graduate eariler."</p>

<p>Con: "This student was only in undergrad for this long? Do they even have experience? Did they just streamline their undergrad career only to required courses so they could graduate quicker?"</p>

<h2>Long Period</h2>

<p>Pro: "Wow, this student must have a lot of experience and background. I see this student took the effort to take some extra classes, double major, minor, etc in order to make themselves are more stronger candidate!"</p>

<p>Con: "Wow, it took them this long to graduate? What were they doing? Slacking off? Re-taking classes until he passed them? This student seems a bit sketchy"</p>

<p>Then there's always the fact that some people, including myself, have other obligations such as working a job which might cause me to graduate later but I can't help it because I still need to be able to support my financial needs/wants.</p>

<p>Basically, what I REALLY want to know is, is it ok for me to stay in undergraduate school longer in order to make myself a more stronger applicant (double major, minors, etc) or will staying in undergraduate school longer imply something negative about myself to graduate school admission committees, hurting my chances of admission?</p>

<p>Any suggestions, thoughts, insights, etc are appreciated :)</p>

2

<p>Depends. 5 years is fine, as it takes many students that long. Six years, it depends on the reasons. If you had to go part-time or take semesters off for your health, caring for other family members, or for financial reasons, those are forgivable. If you’re taking 6 years because you are just taking endless classes, that should raise some eyebrows. And anything longer than 6 years for reasons that don’t involve finances, part-time study or serious illnesses are going to have people questioning your ability to finish things.</p>

<p>On the other end, I think finishing in 3.5 years is fine and normal. Finishing in 3 years is also fine if you have gotten the kinds of experiences you need (research experience, language study, laboratory skills, prerequisite classes). I think anything shorter than that will have people asking what was the rush and whether you are mature and experienced enough for graduate school.</p>

<p>There is no reason to “throw a few minors” on top of a double major. The point of a minor is to explore in depth an area of study you aren’t exploring in a major. But since you already have two majors, you should just take classes that interest you rather than throwing in a “few” minors, especially if you already know that you have to wait to take required courses in your major. Picking up a few useless minors is not going to make you a stronger applicant. I don’t even think a double-major will necessarily make you a stronger candidate; you just need to take the classes you need to take. There’s nothing wrong with a math and CS double major, especially in something like computational mathematics or something. But you could also major in CS and take a bunch of math classes of your own design (not following a major pattern), or vice versa. And you certainly don’t need anymore minors.</p>

<p>So no, don’t stay longer than about 5 years just because you want to take some interesting classes. Graduate.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your insight! I’m double majoring in Math and CS because I like both fields and to be honest, I still don’t know what I want to do with either of them, but they complement each other very well so I’m not doing myself too much harm by taking both since it’s not like both are mutually exclusive.</p>

<p>I was only considering minor’s that may be complementary. A lot of fields such as biology (bioinformatics), economics/business (profit modeling, etc), and physics (self-explanatory) can have both math and computer science applied to them. I have yet to begin pursuing any of these, but I think they could be interesting nonetheless.</p>

<p>Overall, I’m still in the dark with what I want to do. If anything, I’ll do as you suggested and just take a few classes that interest me, perhaps it’ll help narrow down my interests a bit.</p>