Very nontraditional :-) Do I have a chance?

[atty1108]

Hi, I'm 29, recent immigrant to US, Florida resident. I have foreign Bachelor's in Education GPA 4.0. Took all prerequisites in US GPA 3.9. MCAT 25Q. Do you think I have chances? And if yes, which schools should I try?

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[Pons Asinorum]

Hi, I'm 29, recent immigrant to US, Florida resident. I have foreign Bachelor's in Education GPA 4.0. Took all prerequisites in US GPA 3.9. MCAT 25Q. Do you think I have chances? And if yes, which schools should I try?

Have you taken at least 90 credit hours in the US? If not, you have no chance, as that's a requirement for all schools I believe. If you have a 3.9/25Q, according to the AAMC's stats, from 2007-2009 you would have had a 42.5% chance of acceptance. Lesson here: the lower your stats, the more schools you should apply to.

 

[sugaree]

Hi, I'm 29, recent immigrant to US, Florida resident. I have foreign Bachelor's in Education GPA 4.0. Took all prerequisites in US GPA 3.9. MCAT 25Q. Do you think I have chances? And if yes, which schools should I try?

For a reliable answer speak directly to the admissions office administrators at the medical schools you are interested in. Not that you won't get answers here, I just wouldn't rely on it for something so seemingly important. I would want to find out for myself from the source.

 

[TriagePreMed]

No chance at all. Go to Caribbean or into Podiatry.

Just kidding.

 

[sharmi]

I believe the low MCAT score will hurt you the most. You need to pull it up for an MD admission. Your US GPA with just the pre-reqs is great and contrary to what some have said you dont need all 90 credits completed in the US for all schools. You do need a bachelors degree from some accredited school somewhere in the world. You will need 90 US credits for some schools though.

I have a bachelors and masters from a foreign school and scored a 30+ on the MCAT and am planning to retake next spring (because of a low verbal score - inspite of scoring 12/13 in the sciences). I did some research and good majority of the schools just need the pre-reqs or a 1 year of classes completed in the US. Some need 2 years while some public schools need the full 90 credits. But, that is the bare minimum for foreign graduates. The more US credits you have, the better / easier will it be for them to gauge you and your level of interest in Medicine.
Based upon my research, schools that need 90 credits include:
All schools in Texas (except for UT Southwestern and UT San Antonio)
George Washington University
Northwestern University
Dartmouth Medical School
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Wright State University
Temple University
Eastern Virginia Medical School
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia University
Marshall University

Few need a bacc degree in the US like:
Michigan State University
Mayo Medical School

So that excludes about 20 MD schools from 133 total. Lets say that for whatever reason you cannot apply at another 20 odd schools. That still leaves you with 70% of US MD schools to apply with what you have (if you can bring up your MCAT score) - which to my mind is a lot of schools as realistically speaking you would only apply to 20 some schools on an average at the high end.

Keep in mind that the pre-reqs at some schools includes some credits in humanities/social sciences - which you may lack if you are a science graduate at a foreign school.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

We'll just have to agree to disagree - a simple google search of "medical school" + 90 credit hours shows well more than 20 schools. With a 25Q, they need to be able to apply to every school they can is the bottom line. I would focus on the Florida schools, looks like a few of them are would require 90 hours.

I believe the low MCAT score will hurt you the most. You need to pull it up for an MD admission. Your US GPA with just the pre-reqs is great and contrary to what some have said you dont need all 90 credits completed in the US for all schools. You do need a bachelors degree from some accredited school somewhere in the world. You will need 90 US credits for some schools though.

I have a bachelors and masters from a foreign school and scored a 30+ on the MCAT and am planning to retake next spring (because of a low verbal score - inspite of scoring 12/13 in the sciences). I did some research and good majority of the schools just need the pre-reqs or a 1 year of classes completed in the US. Some need 2 years while some public schools need the full 90 credits. But, that is the bare minimum for foreign graduates. The more US credits you have, the better / easier will it be for them to gauge you and your level of interest in Medicine.
Based upon my research, schools that need 90 credits include:
All schools in Texas (except for UT Southwestern and UT San Antonio)
George Washington University
Northwestern University
Dartmouth Medical School
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Wright State University
Temple University
Eastern Virginia Medical School
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia University
Marshall University

Few need a bacc degree in the US like:
Michigan State University
Mayo Medical School

So that excludes about 20 MD schools from 133 total. Lets say that for whatever reason you cannot apply at another 20 odd schools. That still leaves you with 70% of US MD schools to apply with what you have (if you can bring up your MCAT score) - which to my mind is a lot of schools as realistically speaking you would only apply to 20 some schools on an average at the high end.

Keep in mind that the pre-reqs at some schools includes some credits in humanities/social sciences - which you may lack if you are a science graduate at a foreign school.

 

[sharmi]

I did not do a simple google search.
I did visit the individual web sites of all the schools for each of the states I was interested in - which is practically any state anywhere near the east or west coast, as well illinois, michigan, indiana, ohio, texas, kentucky, colorado, tennessee, georgia etc. There are some states (like idaho, nebraska, the dakotas, oklahama, wyoming, iowa, florida, alaska, hawaii) that I skimmed through and did not document in my notes. So, I have to say that my research has its limitations as I documented my findings for only 72 of the 133 schools - but its a sizeable chunk.

I scanned through the admissions sections of each of these schools web sites with special interest to find out what it said for US citizens with foreign degrees. Have noted down a few where it was not very clear and will reach out to those schools individually.
Based on my list provided in my earlier reply, only 19 out of 72 MD schools I researched need 90 credits or more from a US university. Only 2 schools of those 72 needed 2 years of classes. They are Wayne State University and University of Michigan Medical School.

Also, no questions about the MCAT score - already said it earlier. If the OP is interested in US MD, then it will have to come up.

OP - your best bet would be to visit the web sites of the schools you are interested in and read through they have to say for international applicant or an applicant with foreign bachelors.

 

[Helen Wheels]

Hi, I'm 29, recent immigrant to US, Florida resident. I have foreign Bachelor's in Education GPA 4.0. Took all prerequisites in US GPA 3.9. MCAT 25Q. Do you think I have chances? And if yes, which schools should I try?

atty1108, I would recommend you look into DO schools. I am not sure about your foreign degree and like others have suggested you might want to call schools directly to ask about that. In my application experience, I found the bar for MD programs to be very high. Your current MCAT score, to be honest, will hurt your MD applications very much. However, your MCAT score is around the median for DO.

 

[sharmi]

Just wanted to let you know that I emailed some of the schools that I am interested in and had questions about their pre-reqs and so far have heard back from 3 of them.

Georgetown and Temple came back telling me that I do not need to complete the whole 90 credits in the US. They will accept my 153 credits (as per the WES eval) from my foreign undergrad school and the 60+ US semester credits that I will have at the time of application (potentially rising to 75+ by the time of matriculation).
So far only Wright State came back and said that I need 90 credits in the US (before matriculation).

So Temple will be off my list of schools asking for 90 credits for folks with foreign UG degrees above. Yay !

 

[atty1108]

Take UM off that list as well. I called 12 schools that I'm interested in and only UM said they need 90 credits from US. Some of the schools were very interested in foreign applicant and encouraged me to apply even wiyh my low MCAT. I submited both AMCAS and ACOMAS applications, we'll see how it goes. Good luck to everyone!

 

[smartworks]

You guys motivation is awakening dormant dream. My story is not so different from you folks but difference I am still on H1B working in software Epic, predictive analytics. I have Biomedical bachelors from abroad. I would like to know if following courses count towards 60-90 prereqs like Anatomy, physiology , biochemistry, basic clinical sciences,biofluids , medical imaging etc.Thanks for your time and support to the community.