Foreign undergrad/US PhD requesting advice

[AndreyK]

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Hello,

I am a non-traditional prospective med school applicant.
I am 38, US citizen. I have undergrad from non-US college and PhD in Biochemistry from a good US school with GPA 3.74 (98 credit hrs). I am considering pursuing an MD degree. I have strong biomedical research background with good publications and US clinical volunteer experience.

From looking at many forum posts, I realize that my best strategy is to find schools that will be willing to accept my foreign undergrad plus US PhD or to enroll in a pre-med post-bacc program, which should also cover for any lacking pre-reqs.

Can anyone recommend from their experience schools that will be willing to work with applicants like me? Also, recommendations for a reasonably priced post-bac program would be appreciated (in mid-Atlantic area).

Another (related) question is my pre-reqs: I have most pre-reqs as part of my foreign degree (short of organic chemistry and English), which, as I understand, most schools unfortunately will not accept, whereas as most of my American PhD classes are more advanced (biochemistry, cell bio, genetics, etc). Are there schools that will be willing to accommodate this?

Thank you so much!

 

[clausewitz2]

Short answer: many schools, possibly most, won't care that your grad classes have more advanced content and won't like that you don't have US pre-reqs. Some will toss you pretty swiftly on the Pile of Unloved Apps for not having the right classes on an AMCAS evaluated transcript. Still possible to get accepted -I did with a similar situation - but you are at a disadvantage. There are lots of qualified US applicants with easy to compare US transcripts, sadly.

 

[Belladona]

I'm in a similar situation, except that I don't have a PhD or anything else other than my foreign UG.

I'm a US Citizen, 32 and very bad GPA from a foreign business school, which I believe it's as good as nothing for a med school application.

So I'm trying to figure out the best path to take to prepare to apply to med school - I don't care how long it takes.

Some people have recommended I start over getting a new major in US that would include all the pred meds. Other people have told me a masters degree and the pre meds will be just fine.

My end goal is to do research so I would like to be accepted in a good research-oriented school, which happen to be the most competitive.

What do you guys think would be the best path to overcome my major weakenesses (age, bad GPA and foreing UG)?

 

[clausewitz2]

You will have to do at least all the premed reqs in the US, and I think a couple upper-level sciences that you do well in would go always towards assuaging doubts based on your foreign UG. Is it from a foreign school that medical school faculty in the States are likely to have heard of? I definitely believe that I got one interview this cycle solely because of that (60% or so of the questions I got were about it). However, realistically, a lot of schools will just throw your application away, so expect a lower yield than people with a US bachelor's. apply very broadly; I applied to 20 schools and got four interviews, despite a strong MCAT (37T), the PhD, and an average matriculant GPA in the undergrad classes I did in the states. The system is just not set up to handle you.

Some schools will require a certain number of US credit hours to even consider you, but this varies from school to school. check with places you are interested in attending.

Good luck, and there is hope!