International non-trad

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Amygdarya

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Wow, terrific site (I've been reading it compulsively for more than a week), amazing thread! Thanks so much for sharing your stories, guys!

I'm 28 years old (turning 29 this week). Similar to Mouseben, I got my Bachelor's in Chemistry with concentration in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from a non-US school (one of the top Russian universities) and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from a mid-level US medical school. At the moment, I have 6 decent publications (and at least 2 more coming soon) - no Nature though :p. In the past 6 months I've been doing a postdoc in bacteriology of human pathogens at one of the top US medical schools. The lab is great, my projects are exciting and going pretty well (I'm presenting a project I started from scratch at a major conference in less than 3 months). So, it's not that I got tired or bored with research or something - on the contrary, I'm willing to continue it. However, I realized that my research lacks medicine. As you can see from my background, I sort of gradually moved from chemistry to microbiology of human pathogens - and the more I get into medicine-related science, the more I love it. So, I'm set on continuing biomedical research. However, I obviously lack clinical knowledge. Besides, I also realized that I want to participate in patient care more directly than, say, developing new drugs. Call it immediate gratification: I want to be able to help individual patients. So, I think the ideal combination for me would be being an MD with clinical practice and biomedical research. Due to a number of constraints I won't be able to start my application process before 2010 or even 2011, but I think it's a good idea to start preparing for it and try to improve my weak areas now.

(I've written so much and it's still just an introduction :D)

I have several questions regarding my situation and I will really appreciate it if some of you guys could answer them.

1) All my undergrad grades are from a non-US school. Mouseben has already touched on this subject (thank you!) and explained that there are at least some schools that don't absolutely require a US undergrad degree. However, being a physicist Mouseben did take the remaining required pre-med courses (chemistry, biology) in the US. I have all the required areas covered between my Russian undergrad (chemistry, lots of physics and maths) and US PhD (biology). My question is, is it OK for me not to take any more courses? I guess I should ask ADCOMs at individual schools about it as requirements my vary, however, I will appreciate it if some of you can share some insight.
On top of that, my average GPA is about 3.5 (something like 3.46 for my undergrad and 3.53 for grad school - in retrospect I realize it was stupid not to get higher grades in grad school, but I've been really focused on my research - nights and weekends in the lab - and didn't try hard with my grades at all). I haven't taken MCAT yet (started preparing for it, need to review a lot of material), but do you think a non-trad international with a GPA of about 3.5 has a chance of getting into a medical school? Do you think I can prove my academic abilities to ADCOMs if I get a decent MCAT score? (I know I have to pretty much kill MCAT.)

2) Extracurriculars - this is a tough one for me.
I have a pretty strong research.
I also have some teaching experience: 2 years of being a TA for medical microbiology - teaching labs, leading basic micro and clinical case discussions as well as grading lab performance for actual medical students - it was a serious activity, and the program director can confirm that (I'm actually planning to get a LOR from him as I think he has a pretty high opinion of my abilities and personal qualities :)). Plus I mentored summer students who came to our lab as well as helped younger grad students with their projects, papers, presentations.
I'm participating in a postdoctoral committee at my current place of work.
Next month I'm starting to volunteer at a hospital 1 day (6 hours) a week (so by the time I apply I will have done 1 to 2 years of volunteering).
I realize it's not much. (Can you count multiple blood donations for blood banks and research and being a research subject as volunteering? :D (just kidding)) Do you have any suggestions on how I can improve my ECs?
Also, could you share your experience on how to get closer to patient care when volunteering at a hospital?
And one last question for today: can speaking foreign languages improve your application? Besides the obvious Russian I also speak Spanish and am currently studying French. Wonder if I should work harder on it for the application if not for some other reason.

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