Need of Advice

[UKGRADUATE]

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Hi everyone, really enjoyed this forum so much, and I think all of you are great prfessionals, and wish you the best for your careers.

My question, I did my bachelor in Britain, but currently residing in California and working for a pharmaceutical company. I wanted to go to medical school longtime, so I decided its about time to persue my dream here in the states, so I contacted my local medical school, which is UCSD, they told me my uk gpa is 3.01 which is really low for a admission to a medical school, so they advice to go and do post graduate courses in biology chemistry and physics at local uni extensions, which I will be starting in Jan/07.

My question is that my bachelor was in pharmacy, but I don't wanna persue a career in pharmacy, would that look bad in my application if I am not a practising pharmacist when I apply to medical school, even though I work for pharmaceutical companies.

My second question, am taking evening classes for the pre-req, currently am doing chemistry and biology classes, two this semester and 2 next , and two after that, this is the most I can do b/c I work full time, plus I wanna get straight A's in my pre-req for the medical school, will that look again bad in application since I am not taking them in full-time basis.

Please advice me if anything wrong with my approach to a career as a doctor, any advice will be appreciated.

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

Hi everyone, really enjoyed this forum so much, and I think all of you are great prfessionals, and wish you the best for your careers.

My question, I did my bachelor in Britain, but currently residing in California and working for a pharmaceutical company. I wanted to go to medical school longtime, so I decided its about time to persue my dream here in the states, so I contacted my local medical school, which is UCSD, they told me my uk gpa is 3.01 which is really low for a admission to a medical school, so they advice to go and do post graduate courses in biology chemistry and physics at local uni extensions, which I will be starting in Jan/07.

My question is that my bachelor was in pharmacy, but I don't wanna persue a career in pharmacy,
My second question, am taking evening classes for the pre-req, currently am doing chemistry and biology classes, two this semester and 2 next , and two after that, this is the most I can do b/c I work full time, plus I wanna get straight A's in my pre-req for the medical school, will that look again bad in application since I am not taking them in full-time basis.

Please advice me if anything wrong with my approach to a career as a doctor, any advice will be appreciated.

"would that look bad in my application if I am not a practising pharmacist when I apply to medical school, even though I work for pharmaceutical companies." No

"will that look again bad in application since I am not taking them in full-time basis." No

You've got the right idea there. It's important to ace them. Taking them part time while working won't hurt you at the vast majority of schools. It's much more important to get A's.

Best of luck to you

 

[UKGRADUATE]

MiesVanDerMom,

Thanks for your advice and appreciation, I think the odds against me in getting into a medical school, but I believe with Persistence & Perseverance anything can be acheived, and I still have few good years before I consider myself old for medicine (26 this year).

 

[Scottish Chap]

MiesVanDerMom,

Thanks for your advice and appreciation, I think the odds against me in getting into a medical school, but I believe with Persistence & Perseverance anything can be acheived, and I still have few good years before I consider myself old for medicine (26 this year).

I'm surprised UCSD would try to 'guess' your GPA since the two systems (U.K. and U.S.) are so different and you cannot convert them easily. I do not trust their assessment at all--it's crass at best-- but you pretty much need to do what they say if you want to go to their medical school. Do you have a first, a 2:1, or a 2:2?

I, too, had a degree from Britain. I'm a second year medical student now. Have your British degree evaluated by WES and, if you earn >60 credits from the U.S. and do well on the MCAT, you should be fine. I've PM'd you with a helpful link.

 

[UKGRADUATE]

Scottish Chap

Thanks for the reply, great post u have forwarded to me, really informative and I decided to follow the degree path, I will apply locally to get a degree in the USA, it will be for me the same time, I might be able to earn a degree here in less than 3 years if I can get my work over in UK be recognised, I have in mind degree in biology, I can do it in my local uni in about 2 years while I am working towards the pre-req for medical school. BTW I hold a really bad 2.1 from university of portsmouth.

Another question, what do u think of online degrees, will medical school look into that and down grade for it, or degree is just a degree, regardless where you took it???

 

[Scottish Chap]

Scottish Chap

Thanks for the reply, great post u have forwarded to me, really informative and I decided to follow the degree path, I will apply locally to get a degree in the USA, it will be for me the same time, I might be able to earn a degree here in less than 3 years if I can get my work over in UK be recognised, I have in mind degree in biology, I can do it in my local uni in about 2 years while I am working towards the pre-req for medical school. BTW I hold a really bad 2.1 from university of portsmouth.

Another question, what do u think of online degrees, will medical school look into that and down grade for it, or degree is just a degree, regardless where you took it???

If you can, try to stay away fron online degrees. In your case, you need to look as close to a U.S. applicant as possible so try to make your application strong by transferring those credits into your known local school - even if it's a state school rather than a prestigious private university. GPA and MCAT matter more now. If I can do it, you can too. Good luck!