Med school applicants with foreign coursework

[nursedoctor]

Hi, I am curious to find out if there are medical school applicants out there with a foreign undergrad degree or current medical students who were accepted in medical school with foreign coursework.

I have a fairly decent GPA and evaluated by a third party company but worried that universities might have preferred third party evaluators. I could not afford to pay for another evaluation ($200-300!!), it would be easier for me to use the same evaluator (NACES accredited) that I used and just request for extra copies to be sent to schools requesting it.

Anyway, I am just being paranoid that I might get discriminated with medschool apps due to my foreign coursework. I am taking prereqs at a 4 year uni and planning to take MCAT early next year. I will also complete my masters degree here in the US in December. I that enough proof that my undergrad performance is on par if not even better with my academic performance here in the US? :/

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[Amygdarya]

I have a BS degree from a foreign country and a graduate degree from the US, and I got accepted to several good US MD schools this cycle.

Basically, what you will have to do is to check out the specific requirements for each school you're interested in applying to. You can find this information on schools' websites or contact the admissions by email or phone. Some schools require a US undergraduate degree, period (eg., Mayo) but they're a minority; just make sure to exclude them from your list, so you don't waste your money. Some schools require at least 90 credits or an equivalent of 3 years of US undergrad classes (eg., TX state schools). Most commonly, schools require prereqs to be taken in the US, which is what you're already doing. A small minority of schools (as a rule, top private schools that are more open to international applicants) may accept some combination of US and foreign courses. In other words, it depends on the school and you should find out about each individual school.

In my experience, having a US graduate degree does help. If your US undergrad GPA is good, you have a solid MCAT score (MCAT score is important for everyone, but for foreign grads in particular; also, if English is not your first language, make sure to do as well as you can on Verbal), good ECs and LORs, you should be fine Having your undergraduate degree from a foreign country does make things a little more difficult, but not impossible.

(On the other hand, being a US citizen/permanent resident does make a huge difference.)

 

[nursedoctor]

Hi @Amygdarya, that is very informative and encouraging! Thank you! do you mind sharing which med schools accepted you? That would be very helpful Also, what are your stats? Mcat, gpa, ec?

 

[Amygdarya]

Hi @Amygdarya, that is very informative and encouraging! Thank you! do you mind sharing which med schools accepted you? That would be very helpful Also, what are your stats? Mcat, gpa, ec?

While my stats etc. are not a secret, I feel liked I've mentioned them too often on SDN I PM'd you the details.

 

[chewy2008]

Hi, I am curious to find out if there are medical school applicants out there with a foreign undergrad degree or current medical students who were accepted in medical school with foreign coursework.

I have a fairly decent GPA and evaluated by a third party company but worried that universities might have preferred third party evaluators. I could not afford to pay for another evaluation ($200-300!!), it would be easier for me to use the same evaluator (NACES accredited) that I used and just request for extra copies to be sent to schools requesting it.

Anyway, I am just being paranoid that I might get discriminated with medschool apps due to my foreign coursework. I am taking prereqs at a 4 year uni and planning to take MCAT early next year. I will also complete my masters degree here in the US in December. I that enough proof that my undergrad performance is on par if not even better with my academic performance here in the US? :/

Another foreign undergrad here! I've been doing research via MSAR. Not sure if you're interested, but Virginia Commonwealth accepts foreign undergrads who will complete a Master's or PhD. http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/admissions/md/faq.html#q5 Hope this helps!

 

[nursedoctor]

Thank you for sharing that i will look into it.

 

[Amygdarya]

Another foreign undergrad here! I've been doing research via MSAR. Not sure if you're interested, but Virginia Commonwealth accepts foreign undergrads who will complete a Master's or PhD. http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/admissions/md/faq.html#q5 Hope this helps!

Case Western also mentions it on their web site that they accept foreign undergrads with US graduate degrees if they finish prereqs in the US (I interviewed and got waitlisted at 2 Case programs, but I don't think I didn't get accepted outright because of my foreign undergrad, there may be so many reasons for it).
But, to be honest, these schools are a bit more restrictive than most of the schools, i.e. they require at least some US degree, while there are a lot of schools that don't require any US degree, as long as you complete your prereqs (or, for some schools, 90 credits) in the US.