Did anyone else study abroad in London as a General Course student....

[spumoni620]

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Need help with AAMCAS entry and transcript requests...and as those of you who've studied at the LSE or Univ of London know, this study abroad program setup is complicated.

For me, I applied for this study abroad program through my home university, but I actually received a "General Course" transcript, certificate, and London grades based on the English grading system from the London university. I took 4 1-year-long London univeristy courses (i.e. NOT typical fluff study-abroad classes) and got tested along with the rest of the university students as though I was regular student of that university. The foreign institution was not affiliated with my home institution. There was little to no connection/contact with my home university while I was abroad for that year. Then the grades got translated back (much higher than what the foreign institution gave me) to my home institution with different course names.

My question: how did you (or how are you going to) characterize this in the AAMCAS application? As "independent attendance" or "study abroad through home university"? I'm leaning toward the former but don't know what to put for the transcript exception request.

Help!! Thanks in advance....

 

[surfdevl02]

Hey spum...i actuallly went to the LSE as well and had the same problems on AMCAS this past year. My premed advisor told me to put the 'independent' option because LSE is not affiliated with any US school. And as for the grades, they don't count a lick on your AMCAS so whether you got an A or a D it doesn't matter into your GPA calculation. Thank god because we spent the 10 week reading period of exams at LSE roaming around Europe on a Eurorail pass. Given its reputation, we all thought the LSE was a joke academically, especially after realizing our grades didn't count. Hope this helps....

 

[spumoni620]

Hee hee, I remember the "reading" period all too well...half of it spent in a Contiki tour across Europe 😀 What classes did you take there? Mine actually were killer tough (econ mostly...BAD choice.) 🙁

For us though, the grades DID count in my GPA, but luckily they were much more lenient in converting the lse grades back to home university grades. Do you think I can still get out of showing AMCAS the LSE transcript, since the credit and courses are reflected in my home transcript?? Did your courses show up on your home university transcript...with different names? (For us, the 4 courses translated to 30 hours of credit.) And finally...what transcript exception request did you put down??

Thanks again for your help. You were really quick! 🙂

 

[surfdevl02]

Yes, the courses will show up on your home school transcript but when you fill out AMCAS, your transcript has no bearing on what will be shown to med schools. AAMC has their own system so no, your grades will not show up on your AAMC gpa because the courses were taken from a foreign university and they do not accept foreign transcripts. Therefore you should put exemption on the part of the application that asks for a transcript from LSE. I'm not sure exactly what the question was on the actual app.

As for the classes i took, i "studied":

Economics of Social Policy
Intro to Econometrics
Race, Sex, and Slavery:Western
Sociology of Medicine

I remember the thing that pissed me off was that my Econometrics final was in late june so i was stuck in london after all my friends had already gone back home.

 

[spumoni620]

Thanks surfdvl...
feel reassured!! ouch you took econometrics??? man, i heard that was a killer class. i feel you about the june exam thing...i was only home in the middle of june too...

thanks for your help! 🙂