How about greencard holders with foreign bachelors

[ErgoMD]

I always hear that greencard holders are treated the same as US citizens. Is this true even if a greencard holder have foreign undergrad degree?

thanks everyone!

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[blueflower77]

I think you have to have a certain number of undergrad credits at a US institution. You are correct about green card holders being treated the same way as US citizens. Except for voting rights, the legal rights (federal loans and private loans) are essentially the same. You can also legally be a state resident. Do some research on med schools that you want to apply to or perhaps just calling them might help.

"Applicants to the *** School of Medicine need to have earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution before entering the MD program."
- This is a copy-and-paste from a website of one of the schools, so I would just call them and ask what they mean by an accredited. Some schools may give you way some not. Just see for yourself.

 

[anavistas]

It really differs from university to university. I have contacted these schools by e_mail and I haven't heard back, probably they are really busy (?)
Some schools want your whole undergrad degree here in US or Canada, some other just between 45-90 undergrad credits here, some want the same credits but accept a mixture of grad and undergrad, some other require only one year and some other only pre_reqs, and some other accept international post-bacs....
The whole process is very subjective and many adcoms even don't know the answer to your question simply because they've never encountered this situation.
AMCAS doesn't verify your documents or your GPA but you can send your transcripts to each school.

 

[ErgoMD]

Thanks for your response.
I actually had my foreign transcript evaluated and the evaluation report says that the foreign Univ where I got the degree is regionally accredited and that the degree is equivalent to a foreign bachelor's degree.

Most Cali Med school websites and other med schools, say that if you have studied outside the country, then you should have at least a year of study in the US prior to applying. I called them to ask if their is a specific number of credits or kinds of courses that they would like us to take, but they would always say that they do not advise bout what kind of courses or how many courses. I think that they should make some guidelines for applicants like myself and be more clear about their requirements.

Again, thanks for your feedback

 

[ErgoMD]

*correction* what I meant to say was that my degree was equivalent to a US bachelor's.

 

[anavistas]

You would definitely do yourself a favor if you take all pre_reqs here, that's the best option.

 

[203746]

I had to use a service to have my transcripts evaluated and it showed that I have the equivalent of a US bachelors degree- don't just use any service there are only a couple that the ada will accept.
I was told that they would recognize my bachelor's degree but that all of my science pre-reqs had to have been taken in the US. Which was fine for me considering I got my degree in business anyways. So I'm doing the pre-reqs right now.
Hope that helps.

 

[ErgoMD]

Thanks JSschaefer. Actually, I have a degree in Biology so I have taken all the prerequisites for med school already. Which brings me to another issue.. should I retake all the prerequisites? I actually got good grades on them, the lowest grade I had was a B. As for the evaluation service, I used WES, I don't know how popular it is though.

I just finished a semester of physics 1, orgo 1 and bio1. I was thinking of not retaking all the prereqs and do upper division level courses for my second semester. I am actually planning on applying this coming cycle.
As I have posted earlier, several med schools require at least a year (which I assume is equivalent to 2 semesters) prior to applying for those who are international students or those who have studied outside the country.

What do you guys think?

anavistas, thanks for the response. Are you in the same situation?

 

[sharmi]

I am probably in a similar position as the OP. I too did my Bachelors in Chemistry and Masters in Organic Chemistry from a foreign school. I was initially inclined to take the missing Bio Pre-reqs and some upper div bio courses and then apply - but I have changed my mind. Our foreign course does not count at all in the AMCAS grade assessment and I am pretty sure that I would be at a disadvantage if I applied with just the Bio courses showing up in my AMCAS app. What is the incentive for med schools to accpet me versus someone who has does good and taken all the pre-reqs here ? None, I would say. At least they need something to compare me against the others. The foreign degree is foreign to the ADCOMs, they cannot evaluate it in the same way they do for US degree holders. I did an transcript evaluation from WES, but those equivalent credits granted by WES still wouldn't show up on AMCAS. Several schools I am sure, would not even look at my app plus my foreign transcipt to figure what classes I taken from which "alien" (well, foreign is alien to most ADCOMs, I suppose) university and how it was graded. The med school system here (and in most countries) is very deep rooted in tradition and don't like to change "their" ways.

Anyway, here I am retaking all my pre-reqs (and yes, even Chem I/II and Orgo I/II, even with a masters in Chemistry/Organic Chemistry ) because, I really want to get into Med school and want to have a much stronger app with a solid US GPA. I will have 40 credits by the end of this Spring semester and plan to apply next year (2011) and I expect to have around 72-75 credits by then. I am from California and it really really competive here (too many good applicants compared to the number of schools). Califonia schools (except for Davis - which requires 90 credits from a US school, I believe) require a year in a US school, but that is really the bare minimum. I doubt that would even bother to look at my background once see that my AMCAS GPA does not have all the prereqs - they have way too many great applicants to spend their precious little time my "incomplete" app. But, if I have my prereqs or better 60+ credits from a US school, I think they might spend the time to dig into my app. I also intend to apply to Texas schools and all of the schools in Texas require 90 credits from a US school before matriculation. I will take the remaining 15 or so credits during my application year - they will mostly be specialized courses in Biology or Behavioral sciences.

This was my perspective and you are free to decide for yourself. We as non-traditional applications coupled with a foreign degree are really at a serious disadvantage when it comes to applying to US med schools. There a several applicants with foreign degrees that have been successful here, but they have either completed 60-90 credits or secured a second BS degree from a US school. Several were here trying to do a MS or a PhD in their subject area in the first place but still took the time to complete most if not all (I say most, because some were not eligible to take undergrad credits in the subject they were doing a PhD in ) the undergrad credits required for med school. Sounds funny - but sadly, IMHO, its true.

 

[mpfc]

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[Goucher2013]

So I am in somewhat of a similar situation here.
Permanent Resident with foreign bachelors, but both Masters and PhD from well respected North American Institutions. Talked to AAMC and they confirmed that they do not take foreign transcripts or do GPA calculations.

What have people in this situation done (other than re-taking the classes, which is something that I am not considering doing at the moment)? Has anyone been successful dealing directly with the universities to figure out equivalencies? How do Universities deal with the lack of a GPA equivalent (mind you, I do have a GPA from Masters and PhD coursework, but I know that this is not what is typically used).

I had some undergraduate credit from part-time study in the UK, plus a UK MA. No one gave two hoots about this stuff during my med school application. It was all empty credit and putting it on my app was merely a formality. I didn't put a GPA for either experience. Neither was ever mentioned before, during or after my interview. If it's a highly relevant degree, you might want to mention how it makes you a better applicant in your essays and/or interviews. Otherwise, it's just paperwork.

 

[engr2dr]

I had some undergraduate credit from part-time study in the UK, plus a UK MA. No one gave two hoots about this stuff during my med school application. It was all empty credit and putting it on my app was merely a formality. I didn't put a GPA for either experience. Neither was ever mentioned before, during or after my interview. If it's a highly relevant degree, you might want to mention how it makes you a better applicant in your essays and/or interviews. Otherwise, it's just paperwork.

I know that this post is from 2013. Considering that med. school's traditional approach, I don't think much have changed as far as the requirements in 2015.

I am wondering what approach did you take Goucher? Did you take all pre reqs again and how many credits did you have when you applied to the schools?

Your story would inspire we, struggling and aspiring non trads.
Looking forward to your reply,
bw.