Non- Trad Foreign BS to Accelerated BSN to MD

[AmrTX79]

A little tricky situation here: I am a 43-year-old male, single, no children, permanent resident, and I am applying for my US naturalization this year. I hold a bachelor's (4-year degree) in science with a double major in zoology and chemistry from a university in my country of birth in north Africa.

I worked in the medical sales industry for over 10 years between 2003 and 2014 with multinational corporations, like JNJ and 3M, in both Egypt and Dubai. I am used to being in the operation rooms and on the bedside doing advanced wound care dressing changes and ostomy bag evaluation in difficult cases that needed consultation on leaks.


I've been wanting to go back to school to study medicine for last 15 years, I never did and I put my parents and siblings financial needs before my dreams, I am currently working for a government organization in my city in south Texas, in a business development capacity, but now that I am at that age I still find myself drawn into my dream of becoming an MD even more than before, I need some help, to decide what is the best path, if any to achieve that, I am currently enrolled in a community college in my city, and need to get around 18 pre-reqs completed so I can apply to an accelerated nursing program in the university of Texas, that have no problem with how old my overseas BS is and will accept is as a bachelor degree but won't accept most of the sciences credits and requires me to retake them before being accepted, this will take me around 2 years, and if I got accepted I will need another 13 months to complete the accelerated program, my question is, would a Med school accept my foreign BS and the Accelerated BSN from the university of Texas if I met the MCAT requirement? Sorry for the lengthy post.

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[gyngyn]

A little tricky situation here: I am a 43-year-old male, single, no children, permanent resident, and I am applying for my US naturalization this year. I hold a bachelor's (4-year degree) in science with a double major in zoology and chemistry from a university in my country of birth in north Africa.

I worked in the medical sales industry for over 10 years between 2003 and 2014 with multinational corporations, like JNJ and 3M, in both Egypt and Dubai. I am used to being in the operation rooms and on the bedside doing advanced wound care dressing changes and ostomy bag evaluation in difficult cases that needed consultation on leaks.


I've been wanting to go back to school to study medicine for last 15 years, I never did and I put my parents and siblings financial needs before my dreams, I am currently working for a government organization in my city in south Texas, in a business development capacity, but now that I am at that age I still find myself drawn into my dream of becoming an MD even more than before, I need some help, to decide what is the best path, if any to achieve that, I am currently enrolled in a community college in my city, and need to get around 18 pre-reqs completed so I can apply to an accelerated nursing program in the university of Texas, that have no problem with how old my overseas BS is and will accept is as a bachelor degree but won't accept most of the sciences credits and requires me to retake them before being accepted, this will take me around 2 years, and if I got accepted I will need another 13 months to complete the accelerated program, my question is, would a Med school accept my foreign BS and the Accelerated BSN from the university of Texas if I met the MCAT requirement? Sorry for the lengthy post.

I don't know of any US MD schools that consider degrees from other countries (except Canada). There are schools that do not require a degree (from international applicants) if a sufficient number of units have been acquired in a US school. The rub is that nursing science courses are not generally considered the equivalent of non-nursing classes.

I recommend that you check with the schools to which you plan to apply before embarking on this course of study.

 

[AmrTX79]

I don't know of any US MD schools that consider degrees from other countries (except Canada). There are schools that do not require a degree (from international applicants) if a sufficient number of units have been acquired in a US school. The rub is that nursing science courses are not generally considered the equivalent of non-nursing classes.

I recommend that you check with the schools to which you plan to apply before embarking on this course of study.

But would the Accelerated BSN be accepted as a valid Bachelor degree from the US? it is accelerated but it is still a bahelor degree.

 

[gyngyn]

But would the Accelerated BSN be accepted as a valid Bachelor degree from the US? it is accelerated but it is still a bahelor degree.

It would not work here but maybe things are different in TX (most things are...).

 

[Just D.O. it]

But would the Accelerated BSN be accepted as a valid Bachelor degree from the US? it is accelerated but it is still a bahelor degree.

It would at many places I know of, but like @gyngyn said, you would need to make sure to do all the science pre requisites separately. The science courses from a nursing degree will not satisfy medical school pre reqs.

Also I know you didn't ask about it, but its important that you understand that if you embark on this path now, you will be in your Mid 50s when you get your first consultant-level job/paycheck.

Do you truly have the stamina and motivation to go through with this knowing your career could very well be shorter than the number of years you had to spend in school to get there?

 

[AmrTX79]

It would at many places I know of, but like @gyngyn said, you would need to make sure to do all the science pre requisites separately. The science courses from a nursing degree will not satisfy medical school pre reqs.

Also I know you didn't ask about it, but its important that you understand that if you embark on this path now, you will be in your Mid 50s when you get your first consultant-level job/paycheck.

Do you truly have the stamina and motivation to go through with this knowing your career could very well be shorter than the number of years you had to spend in school to get there?

Thanks for the reply, I understand that I would still need to complete more pre reqs for Med school, my main concern was that most med schools require a 4 years bachelor degree from the US and if the accelerated bachelor program would suffice this requirement, if you don't mind can you please share with me more about med schools options that you know of that might accept an accelerated bachelor degree, and for the age concern, I understand that but the older I get the more I regret not doing it and it is getting worse the older I get, I don't have kids or a big family just a GF who is an RN and we both don't want kids and I will be mid 50's at some point anyways regardless of going to med school or not. again, thank you for your kind reply.

 

[AmrTX79]

I don't know of any US MD schools that consider degrees from other countries (except Canada). There are schools that do not require a degree (from international applicants) if a sufficient number of units have been acquired in a US school. The rub is that nursing science courses are not generally considered the equivalent of non-nursing classes.

I recommend that you check with the schools to which you plan to apply before embarking on this course of study.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Just D.O. it]

if the accelerated bachelor program would suffice this requirement, if you don't mind can you please share with me more about med schools options

Unfortunately there isn't a standardized list for this. You'd have to browse through individual school websites and contact ones that aren't clear to know their specific policies.


ATSU for example will accept foreign credits as long as it's listed and granted equivalency on your transcript from the American university you will receive your bachelors from.

 

[Darth Doc]

Another possible hitch (as a nontrad myself) is that it sounds like your science classes may be more than 10 years old. If so, for most medical schools you will need to retake all of those sciences.

Many of your courses from your home country might count as credits outside of the science major or core courses- you'd have to talk to the university or college you plan to attend to get that information. Even between state universities in the same state those rules change.

Medical schools do accept nurses, if they have all of the required classes, which would take you at least another year after the nursing program. The science courses required for nursing majors do not include organic chemistry or biochemistry (nursing versions won't count), so even with a nursing degree, you'd still need to take those courses.

Honestly, you're already calculating your education to be over three years to get a nursing degree without including the required science classes. Why not apply for a different major like biochemistry, kinesiology, biology, psychiatry, or anything that interests you but doesn't require you to add more than a 4th year for the sciences you'd need?

Good luck! You're in for an interesting experience!

 

[AmrTX79]

Another possible hitch (as a nontrad myself) is that it sounds like your science classes may be more than 10 years old. If so, for most medical schools you will need to retake all of those sciences.

Many of your courses from your home country might count as credits outside of the science major or core courses- you'd have to talk to the university or college you plan to attend to get that information. Even between state universities in the same state those rules change.

Medical schools do accept nurses, if they have all of the required classes, which would take you at least another year after the nursing program. The science courses required for nursing majors do not include organic chemistry or biochemistry (nursing versions won't count), so even with a nursing degree, you'd still need to take those courses.

Honestly, you're already calculating your education to be over three years to get a nursing degree without including the required science classes. Why not apply for a different major like biochemistry, kinesiology, biology, psychiatry, or anything that interests you but doesn't require you to add more than a 4th year for the sciences you'd need?

Good luck! You're in for an interesting experience!

Thank you for the information. The main reason I am going for an accelerated BSN is to have something to fall back on in case everything else failed. 2 weeks ago I started taking my prerequisites in a community college and I should be done by this time next year(I am keeping my full-time job and taking almost everything online), I am planning to attend a private University that doesn't require all the history classes and US government classes that the public schools require(10 classes ), so my prerequisites now are only 7 classes, the program is $65K though. If everything happened as planned I should start my 16 months ABSN in mid-2024 and be done by the end of 2025. And I will see from there if I still have the energy, finances, and ambition to do more, I might try to get into a nurse anesthetist (CRNA) program if I could.

 

[ahnonemoose]

Nursing school faculty speaking here. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing is a bachelor's degree. Doesn't matter what state you're talking about. It's a 4-year degree with 60+ hours of junior and senior level nursing courses. In other words, 4 semesters. You start nursing school after completing 60 hours of prerequisites - history, English, government, etc.

Accelerated BSN is a slippery term with a sordid history. It was popular 15-20 years ago. Start nursing school in January, graduate in December was how some of them were structured. That's really 11 months to do 60 hours of course work and 700-800 clinical hours because you don't start on New Year's Day and you're finished before Christmas. At other schools, accelerated means start in the summer, continue in the fall, continue in the spring, and finish the following summer. You take 4 semesters in 15 months in one of these programs. The 1 year accelerated programs started being phased out although a few are still available. Attrition rates are very high, up to 60%. You don't solve a nursing shortage by creating programs with high double digit attrition rates. Nursing schools lie by omission about on-time graduation rates. Technically, if you graduate in 150% of the scheduled time, you've graduated on time. Finish a 4-semester BSN program in 6 semesters and you graduated on time. When you ask the on-time graduation rate, you'll be given the 150% graduation rate. Why anyone would think they'll be the exception to a high attrition rate makes no sense to me. An accelerated BSN is a BSN. It's the same number of semester hours with the same number of clinical hours. The difference is in the elapsed time to complete it.

The big differentiator in nursing education is the clinical part. You want to go to a large nursing school in a large city so that you can have clinical experiences at big hospitals. Attend a community college in a rural area and your clinical experiences will be of lesser breadth and depth. A nursing degree should cost $25,000, not $65,000. Nursing students take chemistry and microbiology classes not accepted by medical schools. The only nursing school prerequisites acceptable to medical schools are statistics and English composition. Nursing courses are not of interest to medical schools.

Nursing is far more inclusive than medicine when it comes to age. Nursing is pretty much age blind.