Correspondence programs

[eds]

I'm an American, currently working in Asia and interested in going to medical school back in the States. My undergraduate degree didn't include many sciences, so I image that I would need to take the requisite pre-med classes before taking the MCAT and applying to med schools.

Can anyone recommend the most expedient way to pursue this? I was considering taking as many courses as possible via correspondence, but I don't know what schools offer good, credible programs.

I would like to hold onto my job for as long as possible before entering med school, in order to continue saving money.

Any recommendations or suggestions would be most welcome!

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[pyau03]

Hi,

I think you will have to come back to the US to take the pre-med science classes. I doubt there are any correspondence programs (I presume you mean those distance learning classes that are so popular in the business fields) b/c you have to do the labs for bio, chem, orgo, and physics, students will have to be physically present to carry out the experiments. I may be wrong though. Well, you should visit www.aamc.org and do a search on post-baccalaureate programs. Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Nora]

There are many universities in Canada (if you are interested) that offer prerequisite classes through correspondence. The lab portions of those courses are usually done over 3-4 days which adds up to the same number of hours for those attending an on-campus course.

There are 2 accredited universities that I am aware of that you may want to call up and get more information:

University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It is ranked as one of the top undergraduate schools in Canada.

Athabasca university is an open learning school that is exclusively distance learning but has a wide range of lower and upper science courses available.

Many people will tell you that anything other than an on-campus completion of prerequisites would be acceptable. This may very well be the case in some schools but I have 2 friends who have been accepted to med schools at MSU and Albert Einstein who have done their prereq. at the above schools.

Look into these schools, call up the med schools that you're interested in to find out how they feel about it, and then go for it!

Best of luck

 

[amy73]

Hi

How about doing the non-lab parts of your education from there in china and then planning to take atleast 2 semesters physically here in usa.. i think that most places will accept a foreign transcript if they are supported by some good work here and good letters of recommendation... good luck.. feel free to PM me..

Bye
Amy

 

[Ms. Dawson DO]

www.excelsior.edu provides a list of distance learning courses...alot of sciences that somehow include labs as well. i was very skeptical, but a girlfriend took a few courses and her transcript didn't say anything about it being a distance course.