Need advice please!... international student

[AlexOdentchkin8]

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Hi everyone,

I'm speaking on behalf of my friend who is interested in applying to med school. I told her SDN was a great place of advice so I was wondering if you could help her out. Thanks.

I have an international bachelor degree in biological engineering from Colombia. I am thinking to apply to Med Schools in Canada or maybe US and right now I am doing a Master's degree in Biochemistry in Canada. My undergrad GPA is 3.7 . I am planning to take the MCAT but I would like to know what are my realistic chances of being accepted as a canadian resident with an international degree.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Hi everyone,

I'm speaking on behalf of my friend who is interested in applying to med school. I told her SDN was a great place of advice so I was wondering if you could help her out. Thanks.

I have an international bachelor degree in biological engineering from Colombia. I am thinking to apply to Med Schools in Canada or maybe US and right now I am doing a Master's degree in Biochemistry in Canada. My undergrad GPA is 3.7 . I am planning to take the MCAT but I would like to know what are my realistic chances of being accepted as a canadian resident with an international degree.

Lower than if you were from the states... but high performing canadians get into schools all the time. Colombia as in the country? Or Colombia as in the University, which has branches all over the world (Carribean, Israel)?

And listen, it is expensive to apply. That's the number one drawback. Your GPA is solid, your MCAT needs to be stellar. You will likely not apply to the Yale, Duke, or Baylors of the medical schools, but there are many others in the states that take qualified applicants. Its expensive, and I wouldn't recommend you applying 4 times, but if you want to practice medicine (especially in the US) then the best way to do that is to get an allopathic US medical school. The only way you will know if you could have gotten one is to try. Finish masters. Take MCAT. Apply. Have your MCAT be above a 30 (really above a 35 to be competitive). Make sure your app is in and done the first day it is available (have letters written, description of extracurriculars are already written and edited) and send it out broadly. The 5000 dollars you spend now will be worth it if you get to practice in the US as an allopath later in your life.

 

[AlexOdentchkin8]

Lower than if you were from the states... but high performing canadians get into schools all the time. Colombia as in the country? Or Colombia as in the University, which has branches all over the world (Carribean, Israel)?

Colombia as in the country

 

[aerodoc]

Colombia as in the country

I'm not familiar with the Canadian process but as far as the US medical schools go:

To be honest, your friend probably has a much better chance of getting a residency with a Colombian medical degree than getting into an American medical school.

Keep in mind that I'm running on the assumption she's not a citizen of Canada...

Getting into a US medical school is notoriously difficult for international students (apart from Canadian citizens in US schools) and most don't even accept them at all. Many of the schools in the US (for example Wayne State) who accept international students ONLY accept Canadian citizens. Beyond that, I'm under the impression that credits earned at a foreign undergraduate institution are not counted the same....i.e. her GPA or pre-reqs may not be directly transferrable. There are people on this board that have overcome that obstacle though...

In my opinion her best course of action if she REALLY wants to practice in the US is to either get her Canadian citizenship before applying or get her degree in Colombia (Universidad del Valle or Universidad de los Andes are two off the top of my head with good reputations with graduates practicing in the US) and then apply for residency. Her cost of tution will be FAR lower as well. The only downside is that a medical degree in Colombia takes 6 years and she won't be guaranteed a residency after that in the US or Canada either...

 

[AlexOdentchkin8]

She is planning to become a Canadian resident by the time she is applying and besides that, she would have earned a Master's degree at McGill University in Canada. Would it give her more of a chance of getting acceptance to either Canadian or US Med Schools?