Can you transfer in medical school?

yalla22 said:

Is there a transfer process for medical students?

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yes- after the 2nd year

yalla22 said:

-is it harder than gaining admissions in the first place?

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yes- if you're not at the very top of your school, then forget it. Also, available spots are dependent upon how many students drop out in years 1 & 2. If no one drops out, you're SOL.

yalla22 said:

Can you transfer from caribean to US md?

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Yes, but as mentioned above, it's very, very tough.

yalla22 said:

or DO to MD?

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In theory, it's possible. A few MD schools say that they'll allow DOs to transfer. However, I've never personally heard of it happening.

yalla22 said:

Thanks

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Your're welcome. Good luck, OP!

Some medical schools also say in order to transfer the school you are transferring from has to be on par with the school you are transferring to.

I've heard of someone who started out at a carribean school then transfered to Rush for his clinical years. That was a long time ago. If you're thinking of doing Carribean, you might want to ask the people at those schools to see if it still happens (though they may be insulted by the question).

Wizard of Oz said:

Theoretically? Yes. Ever happen? Almost never.

Thing is, you still have to meet the standards of the school you're transferring to. If you couldn't get in the first time, why would they take you as a transfer?

Also, the place you're transfering to MUST have open spaces. They're not going to make room for you.

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Agree -- transferring sometimes occurs but not nearly as frequently as in undergrad. You usually need a pretty compelling reason to transfer (family related reasons are most common), and the target school has to have an opening. And you have to beat out anyone else who wants to transfer. And it usually has to occur after your second year of med school, as not all schools do the first two years in the same order or systems vs subject approaches so you could otherwise end up with gaps in your education. And you usually have to have done satisfactorilly on Step 1. It's exceptionally rare for someone to transfer from carribean to US, so I wouldn't consider this a realistic game plan.

Bump

I'd like to know if anyone else knows someone who has transferred and and why. What criteria are they looking for? Top of your class? MCAT? Specific score on Step 1?

thesauce said:

Bump

I'd like to know if anyone else knows someone who has transferred and and why. What criteria are they looking for? Top of your class? MCAT? Specific score on Step 1?

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You also need a old school's Dean's letter. So if you are rejected, you also need this DEAN to write you a letter for your residency applications. So if you are transfering from a DO to MD, this might be a risky...since if you get rejected your Dean will know you dont want to be at that school. And when it comes to writing you a letter again, lets say it might not be the best one

But I imagine you need HIGH STEP 1 score and have to be at the TOP of your CLASS.

duplicate post

sonyvaio2700 said:

You also need a old school's Dean's letter. So if you are rejected, you also need this DEAN to write you a letter for your residency applications. So if you are transfering from a DO to MD, this might be a risky...since if you get rejected your Dean will know you dont want to be at that school. And when it comes to writing you a letter again, lets say it might not be the best one

But I imagine you need HIGH STEP 1 score and have to be at the TOP of your CLASS.

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This is actually a misnomer. I didn't know until last week that a dean's letter is not a letter of recommendation. It is just a compilation of everything that your clinical evaluations have said about you. The dean has very little or no personal input. He's just the one who compiles evaluations.

Wizard of Oz said:

Theoretically? Yes. Ever happen? Almost never.

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Agreed. I picture it like playing college football. Hoping to go pro is perfectly fine, but you'd better be damn satisfied with your fallback.

I've read on many school websites that they accept transfers into their third year class for students with financial difficulty---so like transfering to your state school if something goes really wrong financially or if there is an illness in your family that you need to be close to home for or something.

i picture it as an option for people in extreme circumstances more than anything else.

From the pre-DO FAQ:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=240220

http://services.aamc.org/tsp_reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.search_policy

Select for "Medical Students enrolled at Osteopathic Association-accredited medical schools" or "Students enrolled in international medical schools".

1) Schools do allow transfer into the second year, though this number is smaller than schools that accept transfers into third year.

2) More schools allow transfers from DO schools than international (non-WHO) schools.

3) There's a separate criteria for 'hardship', which leads me to believe that if there are available spots and you are a stellar candidate, you might be able to transfer simply on stats and space availability alone.

As mentioned, the numbers are small - and apparently not differentiated by the AAMC site as the number of transfers for a particular school do not change with changing transfer criteria, so it must be the total number of transfers per year.

What's interesting is there only two schools that allow international transfers in year two and seven for year three, but for osteopathic transfers, it's nine and fifteen, respectively. Quite a difference.

Bottom line - choose your school and situation as carefully as possible, as it will be exceedingly hard to transfer.

I have acceptance offer from a school in rural Illinois right now, but want to avoid being 280k in debt when I graduated. My families reside in NY and I want to transfer to Stony Brook/Downstate/NYU to be close to my family and lower my debt

Is anyone familiar with the transfer process for the New York school. What kind of class standing and USMLE score should I aim for?

would financial reason be compelling enough for transfer application?

tkim said:

From the pre-DO FAQ:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=240220

http://services.aamc.org/tsp_reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.search_policy

Select for "Medical Students enrolled at Osteopathic Association-accredited medical schools" or "Students enrolled in international medical schools".

1) Schools do allow transfer into the second year, though this number is smaller than schools that accept transfers into third year.

2) More schools allow transfers from DO schools than international (non-WHO) schools.

3) There's a separate criteria for 'hardship', which leads me to believe that if there are available spots and you are a stellar candidate, you might be able to transfer simply on stats and space availability alone.

As mentioned, the numbers are small - and apparently not differentiated by the AAMC site as the number of transfers for a particular school do not change with changing transfer criteria, so it must be the total number of transfers per year.

What's interesting is there only two schools that allow international transfers in year two and seven for year three, but for osteopathic transfers, it's nine and fifteen, respectively. Quite a difference.

Bottom line - choose your school and situation as carefully as possible, as it will be exceedingly hard to transfer.

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NewKidin2block said:

I have acceptance offer from a school in rural Illinois right now, but want to avoid being 280k in debt when I graduated. My families reside in NY and I want to transfer to Stony Brook/Downstate/NYU to be close to my family and lower my debt

Is anyone familiar with the transfer process for the New York school. What kind of class standing and USMLE score should I aim for?

would financial reason be compelling enough for transfer application?

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First,when you dredge up a 2 year old thread, please state in your post that you are doing so, so nobody responds to older posts.

Second, as mentioned above, transferring in med school is a very rare thing, tends to only be allowed after second year, and tend to only be allowed for a small subset of reasons, none of which you seem to have. You can't transfer just to be near family or to save money. You might be able to transfer if a spouse is relocated, if a family member becomes ill and requires you to be closer to home. Debt is never going to be a good reason -- every person in med school has debt. And even if you had a compelling reason, which you really don't, you have to be more competitive than everybody else who wants to transfer, and the target school(s) have to have a spot. So I suggest this is going to be very unlikely for you to be able to transfer.

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atomi said:

Yes. I have known people who have transferred from carib to us MD.

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Thats nice. He asked that over 2 years ago.

Carib to US transfer is pretty uncommon... Carib to US, starting over is more common.

But transfering between US schools is very uncommon. As L2D said, there has to be compelling reasons for the transfer... and family and debt arent compelling. Schools want to keep the student they accept. Also, the continuity of education is compromised, since though the curriculum is standard, the order of things differs among schools. So, about the only time where some schools would consider a transfer is between second and third year.

I know someone who did transfer, and his compelling reason had to do with the PhD he was working on simultaneously.

howelljolly said:

Thats nice. He asked that over 2 years ago.

Carib to US transfer is pretty uncommon... Carib to US, starting over is more common.

But transfering between US schools is very uncommon. As L2D said, there has to be compelling reasons for the transfer... and family and debt arent compelling. Schools want to keep the student they accept. Also, the continuity of education is compromised, since though the curriculum is standard, the order of things differs among schools. So, about the only time where some schools would consider a transfer is between second and third year.

I know someone who did transfer, and his compelling reason had to do with the PhD he was working on simultaneously.

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I think that it's a bit more likely to be able to transfer if you have a fiance or wife/husband in another med school or residency. My classmate is engaged to a student at another med school and was looking into it and he said that they said it was likely he would be able to do it.

From the perspective of USNews ranking, the schools I am transferring to is about same ranking as my current school.

I am contemplating whether to wait another year, and reapply, but considering the economy. My one and a half year old MCAT score is 37, but my GPA is not that high, sub-3.5.

Considering the current economy, I believe 2009-2010 cycle will be the most difficult one in 5 years.

mmmcdowe said:

It's also probably a bit easier to transfer down the latter rather than up it. Like house going from Hopkins to U of M

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NewKidin2block said:

From the perspective of USNews ranking, the schools I am transferring to is about same ranking as my current school.

I am contemplating whether to wait another year, and reapply, but considering the economy. My one and a half year old MCAT score is 37, but my GPA is not that high, sub-3.5.

Considering the current economy, I believe 2009-2010 cycle will be the most difficult one in 5 years.

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Do not go to a med school with the expectation of transferring, because you think it will be more difficult to get in directly later. It is extremely low yield. You are better off just buying lotto tickets. Only go to a med school if you plan to be there for 4 years. You can try to end up someplace else for residency, but don't kid yourself into thinking, yeah I'll go to X school and then transfer to where I really want to be. Doesn't work that way. If you don't have a spouse who is getting transferred elsewhere or a dramatic reason you didn't know about when you applied, it won't happen, period. It's not like undergrad where transfers happen often.

I transferred after 2 years from a highly regarded school to a much less highly regarded school in my home state. I was top of my class, 250+ Step I, multiple pubs, Masters from an Ivy, and an absolutely legitimate urgent family reason for transferring, and I almost didn't pull it off. It was 10,000 times harder than getting into medical school in the first place, and if I had it to do over, and had any real choice at all in the matter, I wouldn't have done it. There was one open transfer spot in the entire state when I applied, and somehow I got it. They had 300+ applications for that spot, and we're not talking about Johns Hopkins here. And once you get into the new school, your grades are all f'd up, you're not eligible for AOA, they don't know "what to do with you" for just about everything having to do with everything, and you have to spend all of your residency interviews explaining just exactly what the hell is going on with your application.

Not to condemn my new school, because I'm eternally grateful they accepted me. Its just the nature of the beast when you transfer.

DO NOT TRANSFER FOR ANY REASON OTHER THAN LIFE OR DEATH. IT IS NOT WORTH IT.

I have a related question to transferring:

I am considering my offer to a medical school right now, but find the research opportunities there very limiting (MD/PhD program). Is it possible to matriculate in the fall and concurrently reapply to other schools via AMCAS? Or how about deferring admission for a year and reapplying via AMCAS during that time?

I don't want to end up with no school to go to, but I also want to be able to go to a school with better research opportunities. Sounds very selfish, but i'm gonna have to be at a school for the next 7+ yrs getting my dual degree

tungers said:

I have a related question to transferring:

I am considering my offer to a medical school right now, but find the research opportunities there very limiting (MD/PhD program). Is it possible to matriculate in the fall and concurrently reapply to other schools via AMCAS? Or how about deferring admission for a year and reapplying via AMCAS during that time?

I don't want to end up with no school to go to, but I also want to be able to go to a school with better research opportunities. Sounds very selfish, but i'm gonna have to be at a school for the next 7+ yrs getting my dual degree

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No you can't matriculate and reapply, and for most (all but 1, I think) allo schools that allow you to defer (which is up to them, not you and by no means is deferral allowed as a matter of right to just anyone for any reason), they require you to agree not to reapply elsewhere during the deferral. So no, if you matriculate or defer, that is where you are generally going to have to be happy. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If a school doesn't have adequate research opportunities, you, as a MD/PhD applicant probably should not have allowed your application to go this far along. That being said, there is no law that says you can't simply be in a med school and go elsewhere (eg NIH, research foundations) for the research aspects, if your school has no objection. Inadequate research opportunities is NOT a good basis for a transfer, because that is one of those things you should have thought about before you applied. You are not going to get the nod for this, and most schools are careful not to poach other places MD/PhD students. However, lots of people do research at national programs during the summer after first year, and a handful will take a year (or more) off to research elsewhere (eg NIH), while in med school. So you can likely get good opportunities without dumping the school. It does seem odd to me however that any place that offers MD/PhD isn't adequate for the kind of research necessary for the second degree; you may be overstating the point because you really want to end up at a better, more state of the art, place with bigger name people. I'm afraid that you may just have to tailor your research to the equipment at your disposal, but that's not the same as lacking opportunities.

I don't see a transfer in your future if your sole reason is that the school you picked wasn't a good place for research. Again, unless your spouse is relocated by his/her job, or unless you have a dying family member in a particular region that you need to be close by, most places aren't going to put you high on their list as potential transferees. The number of transfer spots that opens up isn't large (usually 0-2 per program), won't generally occur until after the 2d year of med school because programs don't do things in the same order or the same approach during basic science years, and there will be others with more compelling needs for transferring applying to the same places. Don't waste your time thinking this is a viable option. You can take a shot, but expect it to be similar odds to buying a lotto ticket.

So to sum up the thread -- going to a better school, a more prestigious school, one with better research opportunities, one that's cheaper, etc won't get you a transfer. Dying family member, or sudden job relocation of spouse will give you a shot at a transfer. But even if you have a "good" reason, a transfer can only happen (1) if a target program has a spot, (2) you are a better applicant for the transfer than others with similar good reasons. And (3) it usually can only happen after 2d year and successful completion of Step 1, because school curricula don't line up too well in the preclinical years -- some places do first year courses in second year and vice versa, some use subject vs systems approaches, and you can end up with huge gaps in your education if transfers were allowed before this point. It also screws up your application in terms of class rank.