Out of country during the application season

[Chemdude]

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I'm going to be overseas teaching at a medical college next year (I know, it's crazy...applying to medical school while teaching at a medical college). It's going to be very difficult for me to travel back to the US for interviews; it costs $2000/round trip ticket. I might have to delay all of my interviews for christmas break. One of my friends told me that some schools are willing to do video conference interviews. Has anyone every been in this situation?

 

[KLycos]

I'm going to be overseas teaching at a medical college next year (I know, it's crazy...applying to medical school while teaching at a medical college). It's going to be very difficult for me to travel back to the US for interviews; it costs $2000/round trip ticket. I might have to delay all of my interviews for christmas break. One of my friends told me that some schools are willing to do video conference interviews. Has anyone every been in this situation?

I don't know what your friend told you, but that is not true for any other medical school. Good luck to you $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[paul411]

Just out of curiosity, what will you be teaching?

 

[Chemdude]

Just out of curiosity, what will you be teaching?

Chemistry

 

[LifeTake2]

One of my friends told me that some schools are willing to do video conference interviews. Has anyone every been in this situation?

Most schools are flexible about schedules for things like travel & grouping multiple schools together, but no you are not going to get a US school to video interview you because you don't live in the US. You might get a Carib school to, but that is a whole different issue.

I've had at least a couple secondaries ask what I'm doing this year, including Emory which actually asks "where will you living during the interview season".

As a second point, not sure your intentions but living & working overseas for a year can impact your IS/OOS status for financial aid so be careful.

Good luck regardless.

 

[LifeTake2]

Where are you teaching? I can get to Europe, South America & most of Asia for < $2000 R/T so I'm just curious where you are going?

 

[Chemdude]

Thanks for the advice, LifeTake2! I'm teaching in Qatar.

 

[CodeBlu]

Thanks for the advice, LifeTake2! I'm teaching in Qatar.

That's an expensive flight. Hahaha

 

[theWUbear]

Check the thread I started a while back on the same topic

 

[deep122]

Take another year off? I'm sure this would look great on a medical school application, so if it's something you really want to do, then put off medical school for another year and enjoy life.

 

[Raziela]

I applied while living abroad. Definitely expensive, but some schools (but not all) will be flexible. Duke does video interviews.

 

[Hoya2009]

Duke offers online Skype-style interviews. At least they did this last cycle.

 

[phltz]

You should plan to come back to the US for three weeks or so of interviews, ideally in early December or possibly in January. Get your applications in early, make clear in your secondaries that you'll be living abroad and will need to schedule interviews in a specific window. Call each admissions office to run the situation by them and ask how to make sure this can be accommodated. You'll need to apply to a pretty tight list of schools, not 20 or 50 as some nutjobs like to do. It's possible that one or two schools won't be willing to accommodate your schedule (Hopkins springs to mind as a school that's seldom willing to accommodate anyone in anything). But if your application is solid, by and large you should be fine. I have several friends who have applied from abroad, and all were able to schedule interviews in a narrow window, and then got into fantastic med schools.

 

[Chemdude]

You should plan to come back to the US for three weeks or so of interviews, ideally in early December or possibly in January. Get your applications in early, make clear in your secondaries that you'll be living abroad and will need to schedule interviews in a specific window. Call each admissions office to run the situation by them and ask how to make sure this can be accommodated. You'll need to apply to a pretty tight list of schools, not 20 or 50 as some nutjobs like to do. It's possible that one or two schools won't be willing to accommodate your schedule (Hopkins springs to mind as a school that's seldom willing to accommodate anyone in anything). But if your application is solid, by and large you should be fine. I have several friends who have applied from abroad, and all were able to schedule interviews in a narrow window, and then got into fantastic med schools.

Thanks for the advice!