Need some honest advise!!!

[shemshad6682]

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Hey all:
This website has great resources and information. After reading many posts and replies, I decided to write my own story hoping to get some feedback from you guys.

Here it is:

i am a senior undergrad student at university of maryland graduating this may. So far, I have a 4.0 sGPA, 3.89 overall. The reason for the high gpa is the fact that I went to medical school oversees for two years and took most of the basic, science courses that any medical student should take such as three semesters of human anatomy, two semesters of physiology, biochemistry, and epidemiology, one semester of microbiology, histology, virology, embryology, physics of medicine, nutrition, etc. However, when i came to U.S in 2006, I could not transfer any of those credits to here and sadly, had to start all over again taking courses some of which I had taken in my high school education. Imagine how painful that is!!!! so my priority became finishing these courses as soon as possible. I started taking 21-22 credits a semester getting all A's and hopefully can graduate in 3 years. being a full time student, however, did not leave me anytime to have some necessary ec's at all except for a published research project whi I was in medschool and shadowing a couple doctors in the summer. I am planning to take one or two years off doing research at NIH, taking MCAT probably next Fall, and also doing some community service and other stuff.

and here are my questions:

1-how much do you think my prior experience as a medical student will affect my application either positively or negatively? how is it going to look to addcomm?

2- I just took a practice test without any kind of preparation or studying(I mean it!!!) and i got BS:10 PS: 9 VR: 7 but I think I can improve it to AT LEAST 11-11-9 (eng is my second language, so verbal is a little harder for me, I assume). Given all these history and assumptions, I wanna ask the most common question: What are my chances? I strongly prefer to go to umd which is my state school, schools in D.C or schools at the east coast.

I appereciate your comments.

edit: my major is biology.

 

[Morsetlis]

1.) Why did you leave after 2 years to come to the US and repeat undergrad? Why won't the grades transfer? Anyway, you may list this special circumstance in your AMCAS statements, outside of the Courseworks section. Some documentation showing your excellence in these courses will give adcoms hopes that you will do well in a USMD school.

2.) Your scientific schoolwork is impeccable. However, I'm wondering about the low diagnostic MCAT. You will need to have a higher (33+) MCAT to go with the high GPA to show that you didn't do some weird voodoo overseas.

3.) Research and shadowing are good. If possible, add in clinical volunteering or shadowing experience.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Study for the Mcat and you'll be good.

 

[shemshad6682]

1.) Why did you leave after 2 years to come to the US and repeat undergrad? Why won't the grades transfer? Anyway, you may list this special circumstance in your AMCAS statements, outside of the Courseworks section. Some documentation showing your excellence in these courses will give adcoms hopes that you will do well in a USMD school.

2.) Your scientific schoolwork is impeccable. However, I'm wondering about the low diagnostic MCAT. You will need to have a higher (33+) MCAT to go with the high GPA to show that you didn't do some weird voodoo overseas.

3.) Research and shadowing are good. If possible, add in clinical volunteering or shadowing experience.

Thanks for the post.
To answer to some of your questions, I came here bc i thought that U.S has a lot more to offer especially in terms of education and other oppurtunities, and even though i may have fallen behind a couple years and have to apply again, I don't regret my decission. about my practice test, i took it out of curiosity and had absolutely no prep for it. a lot of physics or organic stuff i'm sure i can improve a lot by just going over the formulas and notes i have. so i guess with 2 or 3 months studying, i can get it to 31+ (average MCAT for UMD is 30-31).

the level of the courses i took in med school i think was high enough that when i repeated some of them here in my undergrad, such as physiology, biochem, cell bio, anatomy, etc they were so easy and i was able to easily get A's. i feel like the stuff i went through in med school was so more intense and complicated than here (offcourse, we are comparing it to undergrad, but i think my gpa should give an indication).

 

[GoSpursGo]

Please don't post the same thread in multiple forums. I'm merging your two posts.

 

[Catalystik]

Will you be an international applicant (as opposed to a US citizen or green card holder)? If so, you have another whole level of difficulty getting accepted into a US allopathic med school, so your application needs to be strong in every respect. Don't forget leadership. Besides clinical volunteering, do some nonmedical community service. Try to get in a teaching experience. Publications are golden and your research needs to be substantive. And you'd need a stronger MCAT score than a 31, most likely.

 

[shemshad6682]

Will you be an international applicant (as opposed to a US citizen or green card holder)? If so, you have another whole level of difficulty getting accepted into a US allopathic med school, so your application needs to be strong in every respect. Don't forget leadership. Besides clinical volunteering, do some nonmedical community service. Try to get in a teaching experience. Publications are golden and your research needs to be substantive. And you'd need a stronger MCAT score than a 31, most likely.

well, I have green card, so i guess i won't be considered as international. Right? Is there a difference between being citizen or having a green card in terms of admission to med schools?
Thanks

 

[Catalystik]

Is there a difference between being citizen or having a green card in terms of admission to med schools?

No, you are competing for a spot on an equal playing field.

 

[shemshad6682]

Anyone else???

 

[DrYack]

No, you are competing for a spot on an equal playing field.

Some schools don't take international students, state schools mostly.