Need advice on starting the Med school Journey

First about your foreign coursework...

AACOMAS (DO) states:

Other Foreign Transcripts: Coursework taken at foreign institutions must be evaluated for U.S. equivalence by one of the following evaluation services, and an official copy must be sent from the service directly to AACOMAS. You should also have a copy sent to you for completing the AACOMAS application. Request a course-by-course evaluation and list the courses, subject codes, semester hours, and grades on the AACOMAS Colleges and Coursework application page, following the instructions. Your application will not be complete and cannot be verified without an official evaluation. Transfer credit appearing on U.S. institution transcripts, student copies of an evaluation or other foreign evaluations will not be accepted.
You should contact one of the following:
All institutions attended (including foreign institutions) and all coursework must be listed on the Colleges and Coursework page of the application form. If there are extenuating circumstances prohibiting this evaluation, you may request a waiver of the requirement of this evaluation. The letter must state the reason why you are requesting a waiver of the evaluation and must include your signature and AACOMAS ID number. Also note that transfer credit awarded at U.S. institutions for foreign courses will not be added to your Applicant Profile. Failure to submit a foreign evaluation or letter requesting a waiver (which is duplicated to your schools) will result in your file being incomplete. Questions should be directed to AACOMAS.

AMCAS (MD) states:

Independent Attendance, Transferred​

Courses attempted independently at a foreign institution must be
listed if the credit has been transferred to a U.S. or Canadian
institution using a credit hour system convertible to semester hours.​

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Independent Attendance, Not Transferred​

Courses (other than M.D. course work) attempted independently at a
foreign institution are not required to be listed if credit has NOT been
transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution EXCEPT to meet medical
school prerequisites unduplicated by other listed course work. If you
include this course work on your application:​

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Although foreign transcripts are never required for the primary
(AMCAS) application, individual medical schools can request
the transcripts to complete secondary applications. Therefore,
you should check with your intended medical schools about​

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transcripts as soon as possible.

Is my age and dental background going to be an issue ?
Your age an dental background should not be an issue. Many adcoms may want to know why you are changing careers from dentistry to medicine.

What is the earliest time that i can finish the pre requisites?
This all depends on whether or not your sciences from asia are accepted. If NONE are accepted, it will take you approximately 4-5 semesters to complete all of your pre-reqs (because most schools require the chemistries to be taken in order, and not at the same time... General Chemistry I, General Chemistry II, Organic Chemistry I, Organic Chemistry II, and Biochemistry (Biochem is required by only a few schools).

Is it worth even considering getting into med school given my age and background and low GPA?
This is a personal question that you will have to ask yourself. Personally I believe that it is worth my time and effort (I am 30 with a GPA lower than yours). IMO your GPA is definitely very competitive for DO and MD. The better indicator will be your performance on the MCAT. Just remember that DO schools generally tend to be more sympathetic to non-trad applicants.

I wish you the best of luck!
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My understanding is that at the very minimum, you'd probably have to take all the prerequisites at an accredited US degree-granting institution. Otherwise, med schools vary in how many total credit hours you need from US schools from 30 to 90. I believe your grad degree coursework will count toward this requirement.

You would do best to actually call med schools you intend to target and ask what their requirements are in your situation.

Your age is no barrier and your dental background gave you plenty of patient experience and makes you interesting/unique.

Some of the information in this thread may be helpful to you: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=677617

Another helpful post from 5/18/08

Scottish Chap said:

You'll basically find the following types of medical school 1. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S. with those credits to include chemistry, biology, physics, organic chemistry, and sometimes English. These schools are most common. Sometimes completion of the prerequisite courses alone with satisfy the Admissions Committee and they'll let you slide if you have a M.S. or a Ph.D. (with a decent GPA) from the U.S.
2. Those that want an entire U.S. undergraduate degree earned from scratch (Mayo Clinic springs to mind). These schools are uncommon.
3. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S., and the credits can be a mix of graduate school credits and one or two scattered prerequisites. If you look hard enough, you'll find a handful of these schools. This is the route that I took, but keep in mind that no two applicants look the same and so conditions will vary.
4. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S. and they won't make you do the prerequisites over. These medical schools are VERY hard to find, and usually a political connection at the school makes this possible.

If you want to bypass studying for a U.S. undergraduate degree, some colleges will allow you to roll several years of foreign undergraduate credits on a 'pass' basis into a an accelerated U.S. undergraduate degree, and you may only get away with taking the prerequisites over 18 months. Find BlueMirage on SDN. This is what he did, and he successfully gained admission, too.

In all of the above cases, a professional evaluated transcript of the foreign credits will generally be expected. AMCAS will not verify those grades, but several medical schools will add them to your file.

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I would make an appt with some schools and let them tell you...your situation is too complicated for us to give a complete picture....

we probably only can give what we know....and there are some things that might be required we may miss....

WaltonG said:

Thanks everyone for the reply. From your input I gather that the best option is to call the medical schools and ask for their policy regarding foreign bachelors degree. And how many credits they want from US.
1. Do they give this information by calling them or do I have to visit the schools?

2.In the US is it possible to get just the pre requisites from a state university without getting a BS? Or Post bacc is the only option?

3.To fulfill 90 credit hours how many years does that take?

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1.) Probably. Just depends on the school, I would really doubt they would make someone come in for a visit, especially since you could live anywhere.

2.) Most 4 years allow it, I have heard some dont, you would be non-degree seeking, again you would have to check with the schools individually (the undergrad schools that is).

3.) Full time is 12 hours per semester, two semesters per year = along time.
However, lots of students take 15 hours or more a semester and you have summer, mini-mesters, etc. You could probably get close in 2 years.

I'd maybe shoot Scottish Chap a message. He's a med student that got his degree overseas before matriculating in the US.