Transfering from FMS/DO-->MD?

[Mones]

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My stats are:
26 and 3.2 from a top 10 liberal arts college. Triple majored in Economics, Bio, and Chem (yes at my school you can triple major). And TONS of ECs, volunteer work, and excellent LORs. Have been doing medical research at the NIH for the last 2 years!

My Question:
My advisors have pretty much made it clear that they don't think I will get into any MD schools with my numbers, but I don't want waste anymore years in application limbo. I am strongly considering my options at DO and FMS programs. Is it possible to transfer from DO or FMS back to American MD schools? If so, what is the application process like and do MCATs and undergrad GPA still 'count'/weigh heavily?

 

[skypilot]

The transfer is possible but very tough. You should count on graduating from the school you matriculate at.

The good news is you can do rotations in the US in the third and fourth years from most foreign medical schools. (especially the highly regarded ones) And you will be in a U.S. medical school for your residency.

As for the DO option, it gets better every year for DO graduates.....their participation in the allopathic match has soared and they hold academic positions at most medical schools. (Hopkins and Harvard included)

 

[WatchingWaiting]

My stats are:
26 and 3.2 from a top 10 liberal arts college. Triple majored in Economics, Bio, and Chem (yes at my school you can triple major). And TONS of ECs, volunteer work, and excellent LORs. Have been doing medical research at the NIH for the last 2 years!

My Question:
My advisors have pretty much made it clear that they don't think I will get into any MD schools with my numbers, but I don't want waste anymore years in application limbo. I am strongly considering my options at DO and FMS programs. Is it possible to transfer from DO or FMS back to American MD schools? If so, what is the application process like and do MCATs and undergrad GPA still 'count'/weigh heavily?

You have absolutely no chance whatsoever of transferring from osteopathic or foreign medical school to allopathic medical school. If you can't get in as a first-year, why on Earth would they take you as a transfer??? If you look at admissions department websites for a decent number of MD schools, you'll see that most don't allow transfers at all, and those that do restrict it to students from LCME-accredited schools (ie: US M.D.) and only if the student has a compelling personal reason (married to someone in the med school, strong connection to a professor in the school of medicine with whom to do research, dying family member near the medical school to transfer into, and the like). You also generally have to have comparable stats to their admitted class.

Some links:

http://info.med.yale.edu/medadmit/new/SApolicies5.html
http://www.kumc.edu/som/transfer.html
http://www.ohsu.edu/som/dean/md/docs/transfer/transfer_application.pdf

 

[skypilot]

The percentage is not 0%. About 10% of the SGU class in Grenada manages to transfer to U.S. medical schools. This is usually after achieving great scores on step one of the USMLE and after spending two years in Grenada.

 

[fullefect1]

You have absolutely no chance whatsoever of transferring from osteopathic or foreign medical school to allopathic medical school. If you can't get in as a first-year, why on Earth would they take you as a transfer??? If you look at admissions department websites for a decent number of MD schools, you'll see that most don't allow transfers at all, and those that do restrict it to students from LCME-accredited schools (ie: US M.D.) and only if the student has a compelling personal reason (married to someone in the med school, strong connection to a professor in the school of medicine with whom to do research, dying family member near the medical school to transfer into, and the like). You also generally have to have comparable stats to their admitted class.

Some links:

http://info.med.yale.edu/medadmit/new/SApolicies5.html
http://www.kumc.edu/som/transfer.html
http://www.ohsu.edu/som/dean/md/docs/transfer/transfer_application.pdf

You are absolutely wrong buddy. You are only speaking for certain schools. There are probably like 10 schools that are do able with the high board scores of course.

 

[stinkycheese]

Someone I know very well transferred from a medical school in Europe to a US MD school during third year. He had board scores in the 250+ range for Step 1 and this was how he was able to be accepted.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

In general, someone with a 3.2 undergrad gpa and a mid 20s MCAT after two attempts with a lower score on the second attempt (see the original poster's recent posting history) is unlikely to be the person who achives a 95th percentile USMLE Step I score and gets one of the very, very rare transfer slots for non-MD students. Also, there is no way in hell that 10 or 20 St. George's University students are getting transfers to US med schools every year. Look at the total number of transfer slots available:

http://services.aamc.org/tsp_reports

When you factor in Ross and the other offshore guys, you'd have to have virtually every one of these potential slots being filled by an offshore student.

 

[Fusion]

Mones, to answer your question, it is possible to transfer into US allopathic schools from both osteopathic medical schools as well as foreign medical schools. There are three MD schools I know for a fact will take transfers from DO schools, and there are a handful of that will take transfers from foreign medical schools accredited by the World Health Organization. However, with this said, it is difficult to transfer into MD schools at all. First, there have to be positions that become available due to attrition (i.e., dropouts). Not many people drop out of medical school. Second, you usually must have a compelling reason to transfer (e.g., spouse relocation, sick parent, etc.), and you must have support from your original school. The foreign schools will support your transfer b/c it actually makes them look better to have some students transfer into US schools. However, unless you have an excellent reason to transfer from a DO school, it would not be looked upon vary favorable at all.

Your numbers are not all that bad. If you were willing to spend two or three years to improve you application (extra coursework, MCAT) and then apply to US MD schools, that would be the best thing to do. Many people have worse stats than you, improve their applications steadily, wait it out patiently, and eventually gain acceptance. If you are eager to start school now, then look into SGU, Ross, and AUC, but not before you seriously consider osteopathic schools.

 

[fullefect1]

In general, someone with a 3.2 undergrad gpa and a mid 20s MCAT after two attempts with a lower score on the second attempt (see the original poster's recent posting history) is unlikely to be the person who achives a 95th percentile USMLE Step I score and gets one of the very, very rare transfer slots for non-MD students. Also, there is no way in hell that 10 or 20 St. George's University students are getting transfers to US med schools every year. Look at the total number of transfer slots available:

http://services.aamc.org/tsp_reports

When you factor in Ross and the other offshore guys, you'd have to have virtually every one of these potential slots being filled by an offshore student.

I did a search with DO and FMG's under the link you sent and it came up with about 50 transfers for the 2003-2004 academic year. Most of these spots were during year 3, which would leave you to believe they are looking at med school grades and USMLE scores.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

I did a search with DO and FMG's under the link you sent and it came up with about 50 transfers for the 2003-2004 academic year. Most of these spots were during year 3, which would leave you to believe they are looking at med school grades and USMLE scores.

That list is not a summary of already completed transfers. It's a service of the AAMC so medical students with an interest in transferring can identify schools that actually consider transfers. There are 20 US medical schools that will consider transfers from osteopathic schools and 18 that will consider international medical students for transfer. These schools collectively offer about 50 theoretical transfer slots (more than half of which are concentrated at Finch, SUNY Upstate, MCP Hannehman, and Northeastern). Not all of the roughly 50 slots offered by those schools will actually get filled, and of those that are filled, not all and perhaps even not many, will be filled by osteopathic or offshore students. Although the latter assumption may not be correct as due to their less than stellar reputations, there are likely not many allopathic students wanting to transfer to these particular med schools.

 

[skypilot]

Also, there is no way in hell that 10 or 20 St. George's University students are getting transfers to US med schools every year. Look at the total number of transfer slots available:

http://services.aamc.org/tsp_reports

It happens every year. A few people drop out of med school and their slots are filled by transfers. Most of the slots are at lesser ranked private schools like Drexel and are from SGU not Ross. Also a school may state that they do not take Osteopathic transfer students but when it comes down to it for an exceptional candidate, they make an exception. That having being said, you should never enter a school with the intention of transferring because it probably aint going to happen.