Dental degree from another country counting towards pre-med?

[nanonot]

Hello everyone,

I went to dental school in my home country(middle eastern one). Back then, I wanted to do business, and was not really interested in dentistry or medicine. I graduated 5 years ago, with a cGPA of 2.9. I have a couple of concerns, and I wonder if any of you could help me with:

- Would my overseas dental degree count towards my premed qualification?
- Should I do premed in North America, would the dental school GPA be a black spot on my application for medical school(DO/MD)?
- Would I look like a job hopper to adcoms?

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[DrMidlife]

- Would my overseas dental degree count towards my premed qualification?

No. Pick a US medical school, find their admissions website, look for admission requirements. Look at a few schools, not just one.

- Should I do premed in North America,

If you want to go to med school in north america, yes, and you probably have to do quite a bit more than the prereqs

would the dental school GPA be a black spot on my application for medical school(DO/MD)?

yes, and/but med schools don't care about foreign coursework, even though you have to pay to have it evaluated.

you should assume that north american coursework will be very different from what you're used to, and you should be worried that 2.9 in your home country indicates you will have to work VERY hard.

- Would I look like a job hopper to adcoms?

You can't use the normal US or Canadian premed yardstick on yourself at this point. You're not in that game yet. Find out what US & Canadian premeds are expected to do. Do that.

If you're trying for US med school, and you don't have US permanent residency or citizenship, that's an even bigger problem than your bad foreign grades. US med school costs $250k or more, and the US won't lend you that money. Non-citizen/non-greencard candidates are generally top 5% academically.

If you're in Canada, find the Canada forum.

Best of luck to you.

 

[nanonot]

That was really helpful DrMidlife! Thanks!