Phd student in US, undergrad abroad

[hjui1000]

Hi everyone,
I am currently Phd in physiology in the US and I am really interested in practicing medicine. My undergrad GPA is almost A. The only problem is that I did my undergrad outside North America.

I found few MD or DO programs that accept foreign undergrad degrees but knowing how competitive it is to get into an MD program, I am worried that my application will be weaker than anyone else with comparable credentials but did their undergrad in the US.

My first question is whether I should spend a year to retake all the core pre-med courses? If yes, are there any post-bac programs that accept applications from students with science background? Most of the programs I found online are geared for applicants who did not take the pre-med courses in college.

My second question is are there any MD programs which give preference to PhD holders?
Thanks

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[Jeffrety]

How soon do you want to start med school? If its ASAP then apply to the schools that take your UG degree now and see how you do. Your PhD will be a strength at every school since it's in a healthcare related field. Medical schools also like you to have extra letters at the end of your name because it makes them looker better to admit highly qualified applicants that already hold doctorates.

I advise against postbacs unless there is a hard guarantee of admission to their med school. Save money and retake the prereqs at a JC or local university if you are willing to wait.

 

[hjui1000]

Hi Jeffrety,
Thanks. I am not in a hurry and would rather not rush my applying with only two few schools willing to consider my undergrad B.Sc. I decide not to join a formal postbac program but just take courses at my university, do I still take the very basic premed courses such as general bio, chem and organic chem or would the adcoms put more weight if I took advanced 4th year level courses. In order to save on tuition expenses, I would prefer to take all courses over 1 year

 

[SpicyFalafel]

do I still take the very basic premed courses such as general bio, chem and organic chem or would the adcoms put more weight if I took advanced 4th year level courses. In order to save on tuition expenses, I would prefer to take all courses over 1 year

Yes, you will have to take the required pre-reqs., which are pretty much lower science course work. there is no way around it, because you will see most of the content on MCAT. There is no reason for you not to take some upper science course work, I am assuming it would be super easy for you(PhD). I would suggest a few courses(cell bio, Human anatomy, physiology, bio chemistry). Also, my situation is similar to yours, but I do not have PhD. my undergrad is from foreign institution as well. My advice is to enroll in any university as non-degree applicant.
hope this helps, feel free to ask me any related questions.

 

[hjui1000]

Hi,
thanks for the reply. I have checked AMCAS application guidelines. It seems that AMCAS does not accept transcripts from foreign institutions. They do not accept evaluation services such as WES.
Would I still enter my BSc courses on the AMCAS application? Do I need to send the foreign transcripts to the Medical schools instead?

 

[Scottish Chap]

,
My second question is are there any MD programs which give preference to PhD holders?

Columbia University - 3 year MD track if you have a PhD.

 

[SpicyFalafel]

Hi,
thanks for the reply. I have checked AMCAS application guidelines. It seems that AMCAS does not accept transcripts from foreign institutions. They do not accept evaluation services such as WES.
Would I still enter my BSc courses on the AMCAS applicatio

Yes, you could still enter your course work.However, you final calculated GPA would be zero.
you have 2 options:
1- try to get some of your foreign course work transferred into US college/university with the intention to obtain a 2nd bachelor.Don't panic, you really won't take more than 10 to 12 credit hours(mainly electives/or core courses such as history/humanities/physical education). the university would accept WES evaluation and transfer your credit hours+ GPA into US transcript.( don't do this unless your GPA is high, and find out what is the maximum credit hours they would accept, some schools policy accept 90 credit hours, others accept whatever could transferable.
2- take the pre-reqs and couple upper science course work as I mentioned before, list your foreign course work on AMCAS under foreign institution, list your US coursework by it self, AMCAS would calculate your GPA based on pre-reqs only, and school would still be able to see that your have a bachelor degree.

You don't need to send any transcript if you choose option 2, but you will do so once your accepted.

 

[hjui1000]

Yes, you could still enter your course work.However, you final calculated GPA would be zero.
you have 2 options:
1- try to get some of your foreign course work transferred into US college/university with the intention to obtain a 2nd bachelor.Don't panic, you really won't take more than 10 to 12 credit hours(mainly electives/or core courses such as history/humanities/physical education). the university would accept WES evaluation and transfer your credit hours+ GPA into US transcript.( don't do this unless your GPA is high, and find out what is the maximum credit hours they would accept, some schools policy accept 90 credit hours, others accept whatever could transferable.
2- take the pre-reqs and couple upper science course work as I mentioned before, list your foreign course work on AMCAS under foreign institution, list your US coursework by it self, AMCAS would calculate your GPA based on pre-reqs only, and school would still be able to see that your have a bachelor degree.

You don't need to send any transcript if you choose option 2, but you will do so once your accepted.

Thanks for the suggestions,
If I can find a US school willing to transfer a good chunk of my undergrad courses including the core premed courses (general chem/org chem/bio/physics/math/english), would the MD program admissions consider me as if I had taken those core courses in that US school?
I am not really aware how course transfer works, but would they take into account a subset of courses that fulfills the maximum credit hours they are willing to accept and calculate my GPA based on these courses?

Just to make sure I got your point regarding GPA, if I had a low GPA, I would be better off with option 2, because my GPA will= solely be based on the new courses I take in the US and the adcoms would not consider my undergrad GPA?

 

[hjui1000]

Columbia University - 3 year MD track if you have a PhD.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I have read online about Columbia's PhD to MD, but how competitive is this program? I can imagine there must be a lot of well qualified applicants with both PhD and undergrad degree done at US institutions.

I have also read that both Tulane and Des Moines DO program, also had similar PhD to MD programs but I could not find them on the schools' websites.

 

[SpicyFalafel]

f I can find a US school willing to transfer a good chunk of my undergrad courses including the core premed courses (general chem/org chem/bio/physics/math/english), would the MD program admissions consider me as if I had taken those core courses in that US school?

No, you would still have to retake. MD and DO schools prefer that you do science course work in US college( at least 32 hours) which would be your pre-reqs.

I am not really aware how course transfer works, but would they take into account a subset of courses that fulfills the maximum credit hours they are willing to accept and calculate my GPA based on these courses?

You will need to contact one of the 4 year colleges/university in your area, talk to admission about getting a 2nd bachelor. They will ask for your transcript to be evaluated and sent directly to them through WES/Joseph silney. They will go off that course by course evaluation. Your courses that you had taken back home probably won't be the same as most the courses in the US.(lack course number/ difference in credit hours). They will accept those as electives to some of the courses they have in their science degree, but would still list them as they listed on your foreign transcript with the same grades you have earned previously( which would be easy for AMCAS to verify them(listed on US transcript).

Just to make sure I got your point regarding GPA, if I had a low GPA, I would be better off with option 2, because my GPA will= solely be based on the new courses I take in the US and the adcoms would not consider my undergrad GPA?

Yes, most of the school would not care for your foreign GPA, hard to evaluate you based on different credentials/ grading scale. Actually, they will see that your have the bachelor degree plus DIY postbacc, and your US PhD.

 

[chewy2008]

Hi everyone,
I am currently Phd in physiology in the US and I am really interested in practicing medicine. My undergrad GPA is almost A. The only problem is that I did my undergrad outside North America.

I found few MD or DO programs that accept foreign undergrad degrees but knowing how competitive it is to get into an MD program, I am worried that my application will be weaker than anyone else with comparable credentials but did their undergrad in the US.

My first question is whether I should spend a year to retake all the core pre-med courses? If yes, are there any post-bac programs that accept applications from students with science background? Most of the programs I found online are geared for applicants who did not take the pre-med courses in college.

My second question is are there any MD programs which give preference to PhD holders?
Thanks

Check out Virginia Commonwealth and Case Western. They accept applicants who earn a U.S. master's or PhD if they have earned a foreign bachelors.
http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/admissions/md/faq/#q5
http://casemed.case.edu/admissions/process/international.cfm

 

[y123]

Are you an international student?

 

[clausewitz2]

As long as you do the pre-reqs at a US institution, there is absolutely no need for you to do a second bachelor's or anything silly like that. I was in your exact situation, and am now starting my fourth year of medical school. It may depend slightly on where you did your undergrad - if it is a "name brand" foreign institution that people are likely to recognize or be vaguely familiar with, your lack of a US undergrad degree per se is unlikely to be insurmountable. If it is from East Shandong Polytechnic, this is probably going to be an issue.

Be prepared regardless for some schools just tossing out your application summarily because they can't be arsed to deal with the hassle of figuring out how to credit your foreign undergrad. Sadly in medical school admissions just about any cut they can make to their enormous piles of applications is going to be tempting, no matter how poorly thought-out it may be.