interviewing for medical school while abroad

[streudels]

i was wondering if anyone has had the experience of interviewing for medical schools in the united states at a time when they were out of the country (i.e. they had to fly to the US to interview). i'm currently considering interning abroad for 2010-2011, which also the same time i'll be applying to med school, and i wonder if it's an okay decision to be far away given the unpredictability of interview offers. at the moment, my application is not that strong and i'm thinking IF i get any chances to interview they'd probably be few and far between. my main concern is the costs.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MedBoundForSure]

I wouldnt do it. Unless you have the flexibility to leave the internship for at least a three month period. Invites are just way too unpredictable and the dates they give you once invited are pretty restricted. Its not like you can collect all your invites throughout the cycle and interview all in one week or something.

 

[red10]

The interview process can be costly enough when you're in the same state. Thinking about flying in from outside the country sounds like mommy and daddy are giving you way too much money.

 

[streudels]

what time period do interview invites usually get sent out? mostly from sept-dec or do they just get sent out from sept-june?

 

[red10]

what time period do interview invites usually get sent out? mostly from sept-dec or do they just get sent out from sept-june?

depends on the school and when you get you app in. Some schools are done interviewing, others will go into april

 

[Ok2Panic]

I did it this year. It was definitely complicated and painful, though. I'd suggest submitting everything as early as possible so you don't have to worry about paperwork from abroad and also so you have a little bit more flexibility when it comes to scheduling. I basically ended up having 8 or so basically back to back and right before Christmas.

After I got invited to the first two or so and scheduled them around the same time, I e-mailed the schools that I was most interested in and/or I thought would be receptive and explained to them my situation and tactfully asked if they were planning on interviewing me and if so, could I do it in December. I definitely got more than one snotty or canned response back, but many of the schools were really flexible and willing to work with me.

So in short, it can be done! Huge PITA, and requires a lot of leg work and staying on the ball on your part, but not impossible.

 

[zamo28]

I am leaving for Africa at the end of feb for a three month internship but I have already attended three interviews and will attend a fourth before leaving. If I get any other invites while I am away I will have to decide if it will be worth it to come back, i.e. invite at state school with cheap tuition. A flight is expensive but if it will possibly save me thousands of dollars in tuition, I think it will make sense to travel to the interview.

 

[longhorn09]

Some schools (like Duke) allow you to do webcam interview. And it wont hinder your chance. My student host there actually did the webcam int.

 

[ocotillo]

I've been applying from abroad this year, and I agree with Ok2Panic: It's doable but physically and financially painful.

Most importantly, a lot of schools (in my experience at least) have been accommodating if you make sure to inform them that you are coming from abroad. Thankfully in my job it has been possible for me to take one- to two-week breaks every two months (October, December, and one coming up two weeks from now) to complete interviews.

The logistics involved have been troublesome, not the least having to arrange things from a different time zone without reasonable access to a phone that can call to the US. Then there are narrow time windows for flying back, and the stress of coming off jet lag into several interviews in a single week.

If you can land a job that you love and can survive in for the year AND that pays for your tickets, it's a great time in your life to pick up and live somewhere else/do something else--you probably won't have time to do this for many years after starting med school. I think it's a great experience and I would choose to do mine again. But it is very expensive and makes for a hassle.

One other thing: not that I have much experience with MD/PhD programs, but some have fewer dates available than for the MD-only students, so they are more restrictive to your scheduling. Also, for any program, sometimes invites come right at the wrong time and you have to put them off. Will it hurt your chances? Maybe.

 

[streudels]

thanks for all your input! is there anyone else out there who's been in the same situation?

making this decision is difficult for me as i'm very interested in practing medicine within the realm of global health and i know that the next year (same as my application year to med school) is crucial for me to understand this emerging field, especially from the ground where i can challenge my views of what i think global health medicine is as opposed to its reality and what it really entails. this is why i desire to go abroad.

 

[casillas]

I had wanted to go abroad during application year, but was strongly advised against it. Now I kinda wish I had.

I think the best thing would be to go abroad in January and that way you will have September to December to interview. and if by November you have not heard from some schools contact them and explain your situation, if they don't give you an interview then they probably weren't going to give it to you anyway.

 

[Bernoull]

i was wondering if anyone has had the experience of interviewing for medical schools in the united states at a time when they were out of the country (i.e. they had to fly to the US to interview). i'm currently considering interning abroad for 2010-2011, which also the same time i'll be applying to med school, and i wonder if it's an okay decision to be far away given the unpredictability of interview offers. at the moment, my application is not that strong and i'm thinking IF i get any chances to interview they'd probably be few and far between. my main concern is the costs.

Well you main challenges will be logistics and cost. Except if u're going to Mexico or Canada for ur internship, it'll be very expensive and consolidating most of ur interviews into a single trip can be nearly impossible. Different schools will review and decide on ur file at different times, and unless u have an extremely compelling application, most schools won't let u interview regionally etc. Obviously, cost is an issue for you, so u're best strategy would be to schedule as many interviews as you can before or after your internship.

Is it possible to postpone either ur application cycle or internship. Besides virtually all schools offer international medicine opportunites, so y complicate/jeopardize ur application unnecessarily?

 

[JLC]

I was abroad in asia the year when I applied.

In my opinion applying shouldn't hold you back from doing something you want, obviously it may be more difficult but IMO well worth it. I traveled back twice for interviews, the first time for 11 days and interviewed at 8 schools, the second for 4 days to interview at 2 schools. In my experience, almost most of the schools were very helpful in giving me interview dates. I simply emailed them explaining I was out of the country and as I would be back in the US during ___ month if they could let me know asap if I could interview there. In fact I was even able to schedule cornell and columbia right next to each other (I heard back from cornell first and emailed columbia telling them specifically I would be in NYC on ___ date and they gave me the day I wanted)...So I'm not sure if people who are advising you against going abroad are from personal experience or not, but IMO med schools do try and be helpful.

Three words of advice however, try to apply early ( I didn't ) IMO that can only help give you time to plan your trips. Second DO NOT COME INTERVIEW DURING SNOW SEASON! Thankfully none of my interviews were at a bad time. Could you imagine if you were delayed for one interview?
And last, save your money, I couldn't afford to go to baylors interview due to cost.

good luck and do the abroad internship!

 

[shinneunhae]

I"m in a similar situation....
I have a year-long research internship opportunity abroad (through which I might be able to get my name on a paper), but I would have to leave the states around August of 2012.
If I'm applying for med school at the beginning of the 2012 summer, how do you think schools will respond? Should I hold off on mentioning it until I get an invitation for an interview, and then try to get workable interview dates/options?

Will this interview hassle make me less competitive as an applicant? Should I turn down the research opportunity?

 

[235788]

i think its a bad idea OP. Is going abroad really necessary?

 

[LifeTake2]

I"m in a similar situation....
I have a year-long research internship opportunity abroad (through which I might be able to get my name on a paper), but I would have to leave the states around August of 2012.
If I'm applying for med school at the beginning of the 2012 summer, how do you think schools will respond? Should I hold off on mentioning it until I get an invitation for an interview, and then try to get workable interview dates/options?

Will this interview hassle make me less competitive as an applicant? Should I turn down the research opportunity?

You bumped a 2-year old thread, next time please create a new one...but you get a pass since you are new this time.

As for your question, unless you are Doogie Howser don't do it. Yes, it is possible to manage, but why would you do ANYTHING to put you at a disadvantage when <50% of people get in that apply?

Not to mention the cost and the chance that the 1 school that will just love you decides not to deal with the extra headache and just passes you over!

 

[Narmerguy]

I will probably be abroad when I apply. When I was evaluating my options, I emailed a couple schools to get a sense for how they would handle my constrained schedule and they all indicated that they would try to work around it. It was a small sample size, but I think if you are polite, organized, and give them early notification (and preferably more than one option) that schools will understand that some of these things are unavoidable. If you miss out on 2-3 schools but am able to spend the year doing something that you care about, that's not so bad--at least not to me.

 

[MelMelisqueen]

I've been abroad since early October, managed to get all but two interveiws in since I left. The other two i did when I was home for Christmas. The thing is, they will work with you once they give you an interview day (I actually ended up at penn the day after my interview invite), but until that point you are a scrub basically, and they will not look at your schedule at all. So, DEFINITELY get everything in early. I'm talking June 1st early. Include your time constraints when they ask on the secondary or whatever, but keep in mind that they won't even look at that stuff until after they decided to interview you, so if you're already out of the country by the time they decide to, it's a bit more of a scramble. If you're leaving in August, there will be almost no schools that have started interviewing. Really don't think that's feasible without the ability to take multiple week-long breaks, and trust me, it is exhausting to take an international flight to interview the next day.

 

[Guero]

You bumped a 2-year old thread, next time please create a new one...but you get a pass since you are new this time.

As for your question, unless you are Doogie Howser don't do it. Yes, it is possible to manage, but why would you do ANYTHING to put you at a disadvantage when <50% of people get in that apply?

Not to mention the cost and the chance that the 1 school that will just love you decides not to deal with the extra headache and just passes you over!

More often than not you get yelled at for creating new threads when one already exists, hence Narmerguy's signature.

I"m in a similar situation....
I have a year-long research internship opportunity abroad (through which I might be able to get my name on a paper), but I would have to leave the states around August of 2012.
If I'm applying for med school at the beginning of the 2012 summer, how do you think schools will respond? Should I hold off on mentioning it until I get an invitation for an interview, and then try to get workable interview dates/options?

Will this interview hassle make me less competitive as an applicant? Should I turn down the research opportunity?

Thanks for the bump. I had the same question and stumbled upon this through a search.

There was some great diversity in the response advice; thank you all for the help!