5 yrs undergrad - Double Major (Please give me your advice)

[Guest tuncrypt]

I have finished my third year, a very very bad year. My 1st year's GPA was 3.74, 2nd's was 3.60, and for 3rd I expect 2.5-3.0 (!!!). So I'm thinking about adding another year to my undergrad to boost up my marks, if not to offset the third year, then at least to have seperate good years that are presentable to schools that do not consider the complete entirety of your marks, e.g. - "Best two years", "All but your worst year", etc... those kind of schools.

 

I will make a 4 year Biology degree to a 5 year Biology + Psychology degree. I find psychology classes to be easy compared to bio, which goes towards the mark-boosting (in fact, I should've just majored in psych in the first place, but oh well). And if not for medicine, I at least find psychology to be quite interesting, and would prefer that field (or bio-psych... ethology, animal behav., zoology) for graduate studies.

 

 

So what do you think of this?

What do medical schools think of fifth years? How many schools are selective in the way I mentioned?...Are able to disregard one very disastrous year?

What do schools think of fifth years, in regards to- fifth years that are within the degree (ie double majors) versus fifth years that are non-major "victory laps"?

Thank you very much for this and any other advice and comments you could give me.

[Guest avenir001]

Hey tuncrypt,

 

I don't have answers for all of your questions but I can tell you about someone I know who has been in a similar situation to yours. She was majoring in biochem but began to find it too difficult and boring and as a result her marks suffered. She was also taking some psychology electives which she loved and did really well in. So after she graduated from biochem, she decided to make herself academically more competitive by doing another degree in psyc. According to her younger sister (who is my friend), psyc is really working for her and she'll be applying to meds in a year or two.

 

I don't know the specifics but I think doing one special year is ok with most med schools. But I don't know how/if unclassified students get to register in the courses they want. They get the latest registration opening dates and most of the desirable courses may be full by then so a special year probably has its own problems.

 

If I were you, I'd go with the second degree in psyc because you get to work towards a degree in something you enjoy and you're sure to get the courses you want. Whatever you decide, make sure your marks go up from now on...because the trend in marks from year to year is important and you want to give the impression that you are consistently improving.

 

If your 4th + 5th year marks make their GPA cutoff (3.78 this year), you can apply to Queens after your 5th year. For Western, you'd need to go into Honours Psyc to be considered. Other schools I'm not very familiar with but you could check their websites for the specifics of how they calculate GPA cutoffs...but I think Queens and Western are probably the most forgiving in terms of a few years with low GPA's.

 

Anyways, I hope this helps and good luck to you.

[Guest scooter]

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‚h@‚‚Œ‚“‚@‚„‚‰‚„@‚ ‚T@‚™‚…‚‚’@‚ƒ‚‚‚‚‚‰‚Ž‚…‚„@‚„‚…‚‡‚’‚…‚…@i‚”‚ˆ‚‚•‚‡‚ˆ@‚‚“@‚†‚‚’@‚‚“@‚h am the only one who combined Psy Science with International Politics) and I am glad I did the two degrees because if i'm there for 5 years anyways i want some more letters on my degree for my money :hat

I don't think anyone considered my 5 years as a victory lap so that never came up as an issue. Also, they seemed to look favourably on the different areas as it showed more diversity in courses.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

[Guest Sunmoonandstar]

I also did a fifth year and did a double major in psychology and biology to offset marks below the cut offs. For me the low marks were in first, second and third year. I was offered admission at Queens and Western last year and accepted Western's offer. I can't speak for their policies this year or next, but I can tell you that my extra year did not even come up as an issue at these two schools as far as I know. I applied everywhere else in Ontario and didn't get any other interviews. You can pm me if you have any other questions.

[Guest peachy]

I also did five years of undergrad to complete a double major because I switched majors a few times, and so needed the extra year to get all my required courses in. It was no problem for the schools I applied to. A fifth year within a degree is not treated any differently from a fourth year, as far as I am aware.

[Guest tuncrypt]

Thanks. I am not just looking to apply to Ontario, but also the US, Caribbean, etc. And btw, I noticed an error in my post:

 

"and for 3rd I expect 2.5-3.0 (!!!)"

 

which should actually be

 

"and for 3rd I expect 1.5-1.8 (!!!)"

 

it's that bad, LOL.

[Guest WhiteTiger]

ouch...

[Guest yeast invertase]

For all of you that did a fifth year, how did you get around the stipulation that the courses that you take corresponds to your year of study (i.e. if in 3rd year, 3 of 5 courses must be 3rd year or higher)?

 

I too plan on doing an extra year in order to have two straight years of > 3.70, but was uncertain how to go about doing so. I was planning on taking a bunch of "upper level" electives (mostly sociology), which would be considered 3rd/4th year at my institution.

 

As I understand, this would be fine if I was doing a special year (or "victory lap"). However, would this still be okay for my extra undergrad year (i.e. have 3 of 5 courses at that 3rd/4th year level)?