Need some help please! :(

[DownByTheWater]

Hi everyone,

I am a senior majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU. I'm doing bs/ms program (bachslor and master degrees in 5 years). However, I have dreamed to become a doctor, and that is the main reason I left my country and came here to study for college. Here are some numbers about me:

GPA: 3.93
MCAT: Verbal 7, PS 14, BS 12
Have been doing research in a protein engineering lab on Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease for two years (several projects, hoping to get published next year). Will do my thesis on this too
Have tutored math, currently a teaching assistant for undergrad Transport (a ChemE course) now
Club president
Volunteer experience Have about 100 hrs, far from enough so far. I will get more

I really want to be a doctor here. But I have done research, and it seems like medical schools here don't accept foreign students ;(
I want to retake my MCAT and score higher on the verbal. And I need advice from you, please please help me. I have lost hope in this path twice and I don't want to give up after going so far.
My questions:
1. What do I need to do as a foreign student to be admitted into medical schools? Although I think DO schools might be a better option with a more focused topic and more clinical experiences during school, I do want to be admitted into allopathic schools. What are my chances?
2. Is there any ways to improve verbal in my case? I have mostly done Kaplan reading passages and did well on them. Had most articles completely right, and ~2 wrong in 1 in 7 articles. I thought I was fine then I did AAMC and got around 9 in the practice exams. Then I bombed the real test Don't know what to do.

Please please help me. Almost every professors I went to told me I should forget about being a doctor because of my nationality....;( ;( ;(

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[deleted407021]

You are right in that your MCAT is very unbalanced given the low VR. Improved verbal capability comes with practice and I'm assuming English is your second language. I'm not certain that it will kill your chances, though. I'll defer to my more learned colleagues to answer your specific questions.

Have you done any shadowing of any doctors?

If that is you in your profile picture, I'd like you to know that you are a very pretty young woman but I'd suggest you change it to something else to protect your privacy.

 

[Mad Jack]

Your MCAT is fine. Imbalanced, but reasonable considering that English is your second language. Do you have any shot at a green card or citizenship in the future? How long have you been in the country? That will seriously affect your potential outcome when applying. Perhaps your biggest issue is funding- foreign students are generally not eligible for federal financial aid programs, and most medical schools cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. You will not get a free ride, so the financial side of things might be your downfall even if you were to gain admission.

 

[DownByTheWater]

You are right in that your MCAT is very unbalanced given the low VR. Improved verbal capability comes with practice and I'm assuming English is your second language. I'm not certain that it will kill your chances, though. I'll defer to my more learned colleagues to answer your specific questions.

Have you done any shadowing of any doctors?

If that is you in your profile picture, I'd like you to know that you are a very pretty young woman but I'd suggest you change it to something else to protect your privacy.

Haha it linked to my Facebook and it automatically uploaded my profile picture. Thank you for looking out for me! And yes, Mandarin is my first language. I think I''ll try the Princeton Review Verbal Accelerator... Hope it would work for me.

 

[DownByTheWater]

Your MCAT is fine. Imbalanced, but reasonable considering that English is your second language. Do you have any shot at a green card or citizenship in the future? How long have you been in the country? That will seriously affect your potential outcome when applying. Perhaps your biggest issue is funding- foreign students are generally not eligible for federal financial aid programs, and most medical schools cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. You will not get a free ride, so the financial side of things might be your downfall even if you were to gain admission.

Thank you for the reply! I have been in the country since first year of college. So I'm in my 4th year now. And I don't know how to get a green card.. One of my professor suggested me to get married! How absurd.
I'm not worried about the financial aid so far. My family is supportive enough to help me pay for a good amount of the tuition. I just need to get in.