Does AMCAS evaluate foreign coursework?

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Engg to Doc

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Hi,
I did my prereqs in a foreign country. If I have my transcripts translated by the 'International Education Research Foundation',
can I be waived from having to redo my prereqs again? I e-mailed Stanford and they told me that I need not have to, provided AMCAS will take into account my translated transcripts. Anyone know anything about this?

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Hmm...it is my understanding that there is a minimum of one year of your undegrad work completed in the States, so I can't see why the AMCAS won't look at prereqs completed outside provided that you've fulfilled that minimum requirement.
 
Actually, I did my undergrad (all 4 years) outside the U.S and did my Masters (2 years) here. Does that change anything? I have 1 yr of Gen Chem and 1 yr of Physics, that I don't really want to retake!
 
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I hate to lead you on with wrong ideas...do you have a premed advisor to whom you can address this issue? better yet, why don't ya call the AMCAS and ask? Their email response's quite slow, but it's another way of directing the question. Good luck.
 
Thanks,
My premed avisor told me to call AMCAS and a few schools I was interested in. I e-mailed AMCAS and Iam 'Patiently Waiting'. (though its a different wait than yours!)
 
LOL. <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" /> I remember their email response time was somewhere between 7-14 business days. Why dont' ya give them a jingle instead if you're all ready to submit the application? It's faster this way.
 
I am a year away from applying, Am doing my prereqs now. I guess I can afford to wait. I only need to know if I can be exempt from taking my 1 yr gen chem and 1 yr physics prereqs, and do the Bio and orgo prereqs alone.

Here's to all of us patiently waiting out there...
 
AMCAS will not evaluate your foreign credentials nor will they accept the evaluation from a commercial evaluation service. However, there are two ways around this.

The easiest way is to register for a course somewhere and go through that school to have your previous coursework transferred. They will ask you for a commercial evaluation of your foreign transcripts and after that this credit will appear on that schools transcript. AMCAS then verifies and recognizes this coursework (as having been transferred to the US school).

The other way to get around it is to have professional evaluations sent, not through AMCAS, but to individual medical schools. Some accept this in lieu of an AMCAS verification, some do not. This way takes much more work and luck on your part. I did it the former way.

Good luck
 
Thanks,
That seems like a smart idea. I'll probably do it the way you did too.
 
Could you please elaborate on how one does a transfer? If one already has a M.S., would you register for an undergraduate course and enroll in an undergraduate major? Or, would you enroll in a graduate major?

Thanks!!
 
AZT said:
Could you please elaborate on how one does a transfer? If one already has a M.S., would you register for an undergraduate course and enroll in an undergraduate major? Or, would you enroll in a graduate major?

Thanks!!
Congrats on resurrecting a thread that's almost 4 years old!

The major issue with AMCAS is that they do not consider grades in another country as being equivalent to grades earned in the U.S. and, if the top grade earned overseas only appears in 'overseas format', AMCAS will not honor that grade. In their instructions, they clearly point out that a transcript waiver should be filled out for foreign transcripts. In my case, I took a chance by sending my foreign transcript to AMCAS as well as a professional U.S. evaluation of that transcript and AMCAS kept the courses on the form, with evaluated grades, but they did not verify them so they were not counted toward a GPA on the AMCAS form. It's complicated and it's a pain, but it was the best of a difficult situation.

You can only transfer those credits into a U.S. undergraduate degree, which means a second B.S./B.A. in the U.S. I know internationals who have taken this route, but it's costly and it takes longer. Your other alternative is to do the prereq's again in the U.S. Most U.S. medical schools ask for this. Be aware that most U.S. medical schools will ask for 90 credits, completed in the U.S. or in Canada. A few will ask for >60. Those credits can often be satisfied with a mixture of undergraduate or graduate work in the U.S. + U.S. prereqs.
 
I am having the same sort of problem. I completed 2 years undergrad in London (doing a Biomedical Science degree) but then decided to transfer to a university in USA. The university here transferred my credits and applied some of my classes that I had taken in England towards a few pre-requisites that I need for med school.

I called AMCAS because I wanted to know if my classes that I took in London would be counted towards my GPA. I was told that since I took those classes at an international institution, even though my current university transferred and gave me credit for them, as long as I was not given actual letter grades from the university in USA AMCAS would not count them towards my GPA. Therefore, on the application, I would need to request a transcript waiver. However, I still have to list all the classes that I took in London on the application and Medical schools will be able to see them. Personally, I thought that this wouldn't be very accurate since the UK and USA grading scales are SO different, so just to be safe I am getting my classes from London evaluated externally. Also, if any questions arise, I can submit the report from the external crediential evaluators to either AMCAS or the medical school itself. Overall, getting my grades evaluated has def. made me feel better because I feel like I have everything covered now.
 
chilon85 said:
I am having the same sort of problem. I completed 2 years undergrad in London (doing a Biomedical Science degree) but then decided to transfer to a university in USA. The university here transferred my credits and applied some of my classes that I had taken in England towards a few pre-requisites that I need for med school.

I called AMCAS because I wanted to know if my classes that I took in London would be counted towards my GPA. I was told that since I took those classes at an international institution, even though my current university transferred and gave me credit for them, as long as I was not given actual letter grades from the university in USA AMCAS would not count them towards my GPA. Therefore, on the application, I would need to request a transcript waiver. However, I still have to list all the classes that I took in London on the application and Medical schools will be able to see them. Personally, I thought that this wouldn't be very accurate since the UK and USA grading scales are SO different, so just to be safe I am getting my classes from London evaluated externally. Also, if any questions arise, I can submit the report from the external crediential evaluators to either AMCAS or the medical school itself. Overall, getting my grades evaluated has def. made me feel better because I feel like I have everything covered now.
This, sadly, sounds right. It's hard to get hold of AMCAS, but they are pretty frank when you get through. My degree was also from the U.K. If those credits were transferred into a U.S. undergraduate degree, you'll get the credits but not the GPA for the AMCAS BCPM (science) section from your U.K. studies. You wouldn’t want it either; the method of assessment is so different in the U.K. that it would not benefit you. Some U.S. institutions do list actual foreign grades on the U.S. transcript and, in this case, AMCAS keeps them and they count toward your GPA.

The best you can do is to finish your U.S. degree and obtain a professional evaluation for the grades earned in the U.K. by a designated credentialing adency (especially if they were prerequisiste courses). Make sure you use a bonafide brand name agency like WES. Arrange for both an official transcript to be sent to AMCAS from the U.K. as well as an official U.S. evaluation. I did this and AMCAS allowed me to list the names of the prerequisite courses taken in the U.K. as well as the evaluated grades, but it was not part of the science GPA calculation because AMCAS did not "verify" them. Medical schools still considered those credits as earned (rightfully so) so I didn't care. Simultaneously send an official foreign transcript (in your case, it’s worthwhile because this will be in English) to each medical school you will apply to as well as an official U.S. evaluation of that transcript. It's really the best you can do if you want to avoid taking all of the prereq's again in the U.S. if you are short of time or money. Since you will have a U.S. undergraduate degree, I honestly predict no issues when you apply. Make sure you have a fine showing on the MCAT. Good luck!
 
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