Med student from Europe wanting to transfer to 4 year college in US, help please

[wasted]

Hi...
I am Med school student from Europe. Here, as you probably know, the system is very different.
I ended 2 years of med school, which conclude courses like pre-med in USA, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, many more.. anatomy, physiology, immunology, central nervous system, social medicine, med. stats, med. informatics, histology and embriology, and some more..

I dont want to end Medical school, because I figured out I dont want to be M.D., I have 4 years until end and it's not for me. I went to it for wrong reasons (death of parent in last year of HS.)

Given European school system, if I quit now, all things I passed are total waste, and I need to go to something else from start, 5 years. Which I dont like, especially because here we cant try different things... a reason why many people dont finish school here because you cant change "majors".

So, I thought of transfering to USA, 4 year college, and taking for example, pre-med as minor and something else as major. Maybe psychology.

I read that it IS possible and that they will accept my passed exams, but maybe you know more?

Since i finished 4 semesters here, with many courses, I am hoping that I'd have to go at least 3 semesters less in 4 year college.

I favor Seattle area, some university with many different things, since I want to end up quite far from Medical field. Of course I'd choose pre-med as minor/major to get these 4 semestars accepted.

I read somewhere they accept pre-med courses from europe if your university has some USME (smthng like that) certificat, checked that, my has

Anyone has some advice?

Dont know really where to start. I was hoping to transfer from Spring semestar, but now I doubt I will get to admissions, they are mostly over, right? I know I need to pass SAT and TOEFL, doesnt seem like very big deal, but now i dont have time it seems.


Thanks!!!!!

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[LizzyM]

So, to recap: you've taken 2 years of medical school in Europe which is similar to two years of undergraduate education in the US. You do not want to be a doctor but you do want to come to the US to get an undergraduate degree in a subject such as psychology and you think you'd like to study in the northwestern US.

You need to identify some possible schools, write to those schools describing your coursework and asking if/how many credits could be transferred toward a BS or BA degree at that school. You might also ask about their policy on transfer students and the policy on international students. Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University are two to start with.

You aren't going to get much help here because the people here want to get into medical school while you are trying to get out.

 

[LizzyM]

American education system is different from the Europe education system.So i think you need to do some basic education before going to take admission in 4 years programs.

Someone who has had two years of post-secondary education in Europe should be able to go directly to a university in the US without any "basic education".

 

[wasted]

Hey, Lizzy, thanks for reply!!!

So, to recap: you've taken 2 years of medical school in Europe which is similar to two years of undergraduate education in the US. You do not want to be a doctor but you do want to come to the US to get an undergraduate degree in a subject such as psychology and you think you'd like to study in the northwestern US.

Exactly!!! Even though 2 yrs here are more than pre-med courses, probably, because they involve physiology,histology,immunology,central nervous system and anatomy... but I'd be more than happy if they count all that as 4 semesters.

You need to identify some possible schools, write to those schools describing your coursework and asking if/how many credits could be transferred toward a BS or BA degree at that school. You might also ask about their policy on transfer students and the policy on international students. Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University are two to start with.

Thanks. I'll check those.
I'm just not sure should I present myself as "wanting to keep with pre-med and trying something else" or be honest that i dont want to be M.D. at all. Because, ... I think they will have to take me as pre-med right? Other way they cant accept my courses I passed here in Europe.

What abou Central Washington University?

You aren't going to get much help here because the people here want to get into medical school while you are trying to get out.

yeah, i knew that. I just found this forum and... did it anyway haha

 

[wasted]

Someone who has had two years of post-secondary education in Europe should be able to go directly to a university in the US without any "basic education".

I am not sure from where is samuele123's post.. but yeah, i am positive that they accept our "pre-med" there. I've googled and on several places they said yes...

i am mostly scared that I will appear not serious enough so they will deny application because I dont seem to know wth I want. But I hear that's not unusual in USA, isnt it?

Also.. I've got very good HS grades, and many accomplishments in math area (competitions ) from HS, but my grades in college now arent that great..

 

[wasted]

At least you can help me with this; i am unfamiliar how exactly USA college system looks like. majors,minors..confusing.

I read somewhere that pre-med ISNT major/minor?

.. so ... is it possible to be... for ex. minor in pre-med and major in something totally different like... art?

and one more, last one , Masters in Psychology, how long does it take to get that, from HS ?

 

[wasted]

also, one more... is it possible to catch last train for winter/spring semestar now?
i know i need to take SAT... how long it takes to get SAT results?

 

[LizzyM]

US colleges and universities (colleges usually offer bachelors and masters degrees, universities offer doctoral degrees as well as bachelors & masters) are very used to having students come to college without knowing what they want to do.
In the US, bachelor's degrees generally require 4 years of full time study. The academic year runs from August or September to May or June (there may be some that finish as early as April). My school was like this: 2 semesters each year, each semester was 15 weeks long. Most classes met for 3 hours per week. The number of "credits" earned toward graduation was equal to the number of hours of classes per week . (labs were usually worth 1 credit even if they took more than 1 hour per week). We needed 120 credits to graduate (I earned 128 because of those extra labs). A "major" was equal to 30 credits (8-10 classes) and a minor was equal to 18 credits (usually 5-6 classes). The remainder of the 120 credits are made of "general education requirements" or "core classes" or similar required courses (some schools might require that you have x credits in social science, x credits in humanities, x credits in natural science, etc) and "electives" which are courses you take just out of interest. Most people took 15-16 credits per semester for 4 years.
There is the quarter system which involves 3 quarters rather than 2 semesters and I'll leave someone else to explain that!

There are undergrad courses in the US in histology, immunology, etc so there shouldn't be a problem transferring those classes to a US school, even if you don't choose to major in biology.

If you were to major in psychology you would need to complete 30 credits in psychology.... If you wanted to minor in biology, you would need 18 credits in biology and you might be able to count all the biology credits to you took abroad but there might be some weird requirement for a "Bio" minor such as having to take a course in ecology or environmental health so that even if you had 18 credits you might be required to take 3 more to earn the "minor".

Masters degrees in psychology are possible but not very useful unless you are going to do something like testing/assessment/evaluation of school age children for learning problems. Psychology research usually requires a PhD in psychology and providing clinical services (caring for patients/clients) usually requires a doctoral degree with a focus in clinical psychology. Sometimes the MS is awarded after the classroom work is completed on the road to the PhD.... The MS takes 1-2 years and the PhD takes several years more depending on how the dissertation research goes.

I think that it takes 6-8 weeks to get the results for the SAT. you can check www.sat.org for more information.

Central Washington says it accepts international students and they do accept students in any quarter of the year (one of those schools on the quarter system) so you could contact them and get more information or explore their website to find out the deadlines.... do keep in mind that getting a visa can take a long time so getting admitted as early as possible is important in order to allow enough time to get a visa.

 

[iducky]

Just another thing I wanted to throw out there. I know you stated that one of your parents passed away, are you going to be able to pay for all of this? International students if i am correct don't qualify for any type of federal financial aid. You would have to apply for private scholarships or for scholarships from your school. I have a friend who was filling out his i-20 stuff and at least at my school you had to have a notarized bank statement showing that you had enough funds to pay for everything or provide a letter from a sponsor in the US saying they would make their funds available to you.

Also it might be better to look at private schools since they do tend to give out more money than public schools~~

I'm from seattle so if you have any other questions about schools or the area.. feel free to ask =]