Ivy League vs.

[GeorgeII]

Hi All,
First off I’d like to start with a few things about myself:
I have a bachelor’s degree from another country from about 7 years ago; I got accepted into one of the Ivy League schools, hoping to study to ultimately attend medical school. Because my current bachelor’s degree is from a non-US school, I was advised on getting a second degree instead of doing a post back program… Taking that advice, I am going through a full program at the school with the goal of earning a bachelor’s degree.
My GPA is around 3.0 and I have a couple of concerns/questions: should I continue studying in this school and risk having a low average GPA (around 3.0) or should I transfer to school that is a bit more easier, where hopefully my GPA would be higher? Trying to understand what type of an emphasis/weight the type of school one attends vs. the GPA they receive plays in the application process for medical schools.
Thank you in advance for your advice!!!

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[flip26]

What Ivy accepts students who already have a 4 year degree? And who advised you to get a second degree? You need to do the research, but I was under the impression that what you need is the pre req courses done at a US college - you should not have to repeat 4 years of college - seems like you would be better off in a 1 year post bacc program...

Whatever...you need to make straight As, and even that will leave you well below average GPA for med school admissions...since you already have completed one college degree, med schools are not going to give you any slack on anything less than stellar GPA performance in a second chance degree quest...

 

[Lynkeus]

Well, on the other hand, for all the (ab)use the terms "grade in/deflation" see on SDN, there actually is some merit in keeping in mind differing grading policies when speaking about the educational systems of different countries. It's for that reason that the GPA and grades from foreign institutions don't count in the AMCAS GPA unless an accredited U.S. university or college transfers the credit; the major exception here of course is Canada, whose educational system is rather similar to the U.S. (or vice versa, depending on your point of view).

As such, unless the OP went to Canada, or the 3.0 is recognized as such by a U.S. institution, I wouldn't worry about the old grades "dragging down" the AMCAS GPA. Even so, it's still probably unnecessary to completely complete an additional degree; the vast majority of U.S. medical schools only require premedical coursework to be completed at a U.S. school. Most applicants have a degree, it's true, but my assumption would be that possessing a degree from another country and excelling in the required coursework at a college here would be sufficient.

As to the question of Ivy vs. Non-Ivy, which seems to be a matter of perpetual debate, and premeds on an internet forum are probably not the best source of information on that matter. My personal (very biased) opinion, as I went to a large public university, is that it doesn't really make too much of a difference so long as it's not a community college. The MCAT is supposed to serve the purpose of equalizing between varying degrees of difficulty at different schools. Whether it does or not is beyond the scope of this post, but take that for what its worth.

What country are you from, anyways? And g'luck, as always.

 

[GeorgeII]

Thanks for your feedback. Just to clarify, because my other undergrad degree is from a NON US school, US schools do accept applicants for a US bachelor’s degree. Also, my GPA from my 1st bachelor’s is 3.7, however, since it’s very difficult to compare hours/credits done in a non US schools to US standards, my adviser recommended that I get a second degree to improve my chances of competing against students who have a bachelor’s degree from a US school.

 

[flip26]

Thanks for your feedback. Just to clarify, because my other undergrad degree is from a NON US school, US schools do accept applicants for a US bachelor’s degree. Also, my GPA from my 1st bachelor’s is 3.7, however, since it’s very difficult to compare hours/credits done in a non US schools to US standards, my adviser recommended that I get a second degree to improve my chances of competing against students who have a bachelor’s degree from a US school.

So your Ivy GPA is around 3.0? That is not nearly good enough for med school, but I assume you already knew that...

Not sure what you should do, but I think you got bum advice on repeating college - it was not necessary - and you have now dug a hole for yourself that you probably could have easily avoided.