American applying to medical school in Turkey

[Squirrrel]

Hello - I was wondering if anyone could give me any helpful information/advice about applying to medical school in Turkey. I am hoping to move with my fiance next summer to Turkey, and will have completed a BS in biology. I know that Turkish students typically enter medical school immediately following high school and that the Turkish programs are six years. My questions are:

1) Does anyone have experience/know whether or not I may be able to recieve credit for my degree here, such that it may be less than six years to complete the program?

2) What standardized exam(s) are foreign students required to take for admission?

3) How far in advance to students typically begin the application process?

4) How competative is admission for foreign students (aside from depending on the university)?

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[jeannejr]

Hi Squirrel,

I've just completed applying to medschool in Turkey, here's what I've discovered:

- for admission you can either take the YOS exam for foreigners, which is offered once a year, or some schools are now accepting the SATs (by the look of things, it also seems that most of the better schools are the ones accepting SATs, but of course that's debateable).

- the application process happens over a summer (i sent in my apps in june/july, found out late august whether i was accepted or not), unless you're taking the YOS exam which I think happens in April....then of course the process would take longer.

-i'm not certain exactly how competetive it is for foreign students, but i do know there is a specific quota for foreigners in most schools. If you do go the SAT route, you should have no problem getting a decent score after 4 years in college, and should thus get in pretty easily.

-the application is seriously no problem. it's mostly a lot of paperwork and hoops to jump through, but as far as i could tell, nothing as intense as medschool applications in the states.

- as for getting credit for your BS degree, I've heard of that being done, though I think it is more likely to happen at a private university (I heard of it from Yeditepe University), rather than at a public one.

Lastly, I dont know if you already speak Turkish, but i do hear that even the "english" programs also use Turkish, and in fact, some of them require foreigners to test proficiency in Turkish before they're permitted to start. Just a little FYI.

Hopefully that helps.