Post-Bacc for US citizen with foreign degree?

[Quelthezar]

First, to be clear, I am a US citizen. I have chosen to get my undergraduate degree abroad.

Currently I am a second year student at the University of St Andrews, studying physics.

Right now I believe I have two routes to get to medical school:

1. Transfer as soon as possible to a US institution, get little to no transfer credit for the courses I have taken, and spend four years getting a degree with all the prerequisites for med school completed.

2. Finish the last two years of my degree at St Andrews, then apply for a postbaccalaureate program in the US and get my prerequisites done in the US, except for any English classes, depending on the program, in possibly three years.


What I would love to know is whether there will be a problem with the second option, which is what I'm leaning towards right now. Will med schools have a problem with the foreign undergraduate degree?

Should I just cut my losses and go to a US institution? I have found several different opinions in the forums, both for and against. I would love to hear what people have to say about this specific situation.

Thank you in advance!

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[DrMidlife]

You'll probably find some folks on med school admissions committees who haven't heard of St. Andrews, but in general, it's about as well known as Oxford.

Stay put. Take advantage. Live it up.

Send some inquiries to the formal postbacs like Goucher, Bryn Mawr, Scripps, Bennington, and see if they have any experience with US-born grads of UK schools. I'd be surprised if you're not in good shape to do a single year of the prereqs, and if your grades are good, you could get into a postbac with linkage.

Take advantage of being where you can see full blown single payer socialized medicine. Get into an NHS facility as a volunteer if you can, and get yourself educated about fact vs. fiction. (Hint: nothing, absolutely nothing, coming from a political party mouthpiece reflects what you need to know as a physician.) But it's required to be exposed to the US healthcare system in a clinical setting if you want to go to a US med school, so try to get volunteering lined up for summers or any breaks you're in the US.

Don't worry. You picked a great school.

Best of luck to you.

 

[ddsdesire]

I sort of disagree. I was going the D.D.S. route and encountered a similar situation, as I am a U.S. citizen and did my undergrad in Canada. Many dental schools had issues with my university’s credit system (I was awarded only 3 credits per science prerequisite instead of 4, even though I took all of the labs). Some dental schools also had a problem with me taking my prereqs in Canada and wanted me to retake all of them in the U.S.

So I looked into relatively prestigious post-bacc programs in the U.S. that would allow me to retake all of the prereqs. I wanted to go that route because my first choice dental school required that prereqs be taken in the U.S. Unfortunately, none of these post-baccs would accept me because I had already taken the courses once. Of course it may be different in your case since they were taken overseas.

I think you should consult with the medical schools where you hope to matriculate. They may all have different policies regarding prereqs taken abroad (the foreign degree is not so much an issue) and may grant you credit differently than University of St. Andrews. I wouldn't say that you should cut your losses and return to the U.S., it's just something you should be aware of and consider when looking into a post-bacc.

 

[Quelthezar]

To be clear about prerequisites, I think I should mention that the Scottish educational system lets you specialise for your degree.

What I mean by this is that when I decided to get a degree in Physics at St Andrews, I take physics courses and I take math courses, but that is all. I cannot take any other classes. (Without exceptional reason.)

One of the reasons I am thinking a post-bacc program is because I haven't taken the required courses for med school except for physics. I am planning on emailing whomever I can about my situation at several of the formal post-bacc programs to see how they would deal with it, and I will certainly ask whether my physics degree at St Andrews would disqualify me from the program. I am hoping that since I haven't take the majority of the prerequisites, and since it isn't even in North America, they will not have a problem with my degree.


I hope this clears my situation up a little bit, and I hope that might affect your thoughts, ddsdesire.

Thank you for your responses, both of you! I really do appreciate your opinions.

 

[ddsdesire]

That certainly does affect my thoughts. If you have only taken one of the prerequisites, then I do not see you having any trouble getting into a formal U.S. career changer post-bacc. It is still a good idea to consult with someone at each of the post-bacc programs to make sure.

Good luck to you!

 

[DrMidlife]

Formal postbacs are only one option. You can take more undergrad in numerous ways.

 

[Quelthezar]

I am intrigued. I thought that a post-bacc would be the first option coming out of St Andrews.

I believe the best case would be getting into a post-bacc with a linkage to a good medical school so I can skip the glide year, but even without the linkage, I thought the formal post-bacc would be the best idea.

Is this ignorance speaking? I only found out about post-bacc programs a couple of days ago, so I could be missing out on many options.

What would you recommend? Are there truly more options than the two I listed above? (Options that would be helpful for getting into medical school . . .)