Transferring 3rd year medical school

[nope80]

Hi,

I'm trying to learn more about the transfer process for 3rd year - I am in a difficult situation trying to coordinate where I live with my husband's job location and would really like to transfer for3rd and 4th year. What is the main criteria - grades or board scores? Does anyone know if they get step 1 scores in time to make a decision about the transfer? I don't have honors in any of my first year classes but am really desperate to be able to transfer...any advice would be appreciated!!

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[rg2000]

I had a friend who just when through the transfer process and I actually looked into tranferring as well. The transfer protocol is different for every program but typically all you need to do is fill out an application, get a few letters of rec and, if you have a good reason for transferring, most school won't have a problem with it . Married couple accomodation is a frequent occurrance in med school and I think most schools would be very understanding. Make sure you get your application in early and follow up on it. The only problem that I've heard is you usually don't hear if you are accepted until just before 3rd year starts because most programs don't know if they are going to have room to accomodate new students. As far as Step1 scores, I doubt most programs would require you have the scores back by the time you start but your future at the school my be contingent on you passing. The only other piece of advise I have is from a meeting I had with an administrator at my school back when I was considering to transfer. He told me that if you are trying to get into a competitive residency, transferring schools may weaken your application in the minds of some residency directors (i.e. they may question your loyalty to their residency program). However, if you do well in school, have decent board scores, and have a reasonable excuse for transferring you should have nothing to worry about. Hope this helps. Good luck

 

[Law2Doc]

The transfer protocol is different for every program but typically all you need to do is fill out an application, get a few letters of rec and, if you have a good reason for transferring, most school won't have a problem with it . Married couple accomodation is a frequent occurrance in med school and I think most schools would be very understanding.

Bear in mind that at most schools they will accept 1 or 2 transferees, there has to be a spot available, and there are likely other folks with similar reasons trying to transfer into any school, so there is competition. Transferring in med school is a pretty rare occurrence. So I think it's less an issue of schools being "understanding" or "havign a problem with it", and more an issue of whether your target school has spots and how you stack up against the others who want in.

 

[WelshWhale]

Is being a resident of the state you want to transfer to (a state school) a good reason? Family and tuition seem like pretty good reasons to want to transfer, no?

Interested.

 

[Law2Doc]

Is being a resident of the state you want to transfer to (a state school) a good reason? Family and tuition seem like pretty good reasons to want to transfer, no?

Interested.

Not really. They will take the position that you should have thought of that before. Seriously, very few schools take transfers for reasons unrelated to transfer of a spouse of family health issues, and even then, there has to be a spot open, and your home school has to back your transfer, and you have to still beat out whatever competition for the couple of spots that may exist.

 

[lyn2006]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I wouldn't count on finding a transfer spot. Two of my friends tried to transfer between 2nd and 3rd year, both because their husbands got jobs/were going to school in another city, and neither were accepted into the local medical schools. Both had excellent pre-clinical grades (mostly honors).

Some schools told them they didn't accept transfers, some said they'd have to wait and see if a spot opened up (none did), and some said they could apply for the first year class- meaning they'd have to repeat their first 2 years of medical school. In the end, they are still here while their husbands are a plane-ride away.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Hi,

I'm trying to learn more about the transfer process for 3rd year - I am in a difficult situation trying to coordinate where I live with my husband's job location and would really like to transfer for3rd and 4th year. What is the main criteria - grades or board scores? Does anyone know if they get step 1 scores in time to make a decision about the transfer? I don't have honors in any of my first year classes but am really desperate to be able to transfer...any advice would be appreciated!!

Agree with previous poster. Actually, spouse's employment is one of the very, very few legitimate reasons for requesting a transfer. Every school is different, but I think the vast majority of schools are like mine - the only time you can transfer is between 2nd and 3rd years - you must have passing grades, a Dean's letter giving his/her blessing to your transfer request, and you must have passed Step 1. Then there has to be an available spot. Even though any medical school class has a few fatalities (so to speak), there are usually repeaters (often personal circumstances rather than academic performance) waiting to take those empty seats. My class wound up with 2 empty seats but they were immediately filled with two charming French medical exchange students. Any school has a process for filling a completely vacant seat but, from my experience - a vacant seat is an extremely rare event.