Transferring from Med school to Med school?

I think it happens very rarely, only if a school has just lost a student recently. You should have a really good reason, more than, "I don't like my current school." I think you'd need to do it before 3rd year. I guess you could contact your prospective new school, but be careful with it - who you tell, etc.

 

I remember reading on a couple of top tier med applications that they don't accept transfer students whatsoever. But they're probably many lower tier med schools that do them on occasions.

 

It's much rarer than undegrad, usually has to happen after completion of Step 1 after 2d year (as not all med schools' courses line up), the target school has to have a spot due to someone else leaving, and you usually need a compelling reason (spouse transfer, family emergency requiring you to be closer to home, etc). This is not something you bank on being able to do when picking med schools, because in a significant percentage of cases you cannot.

 

I agree with all that has been posted, except I'll add that its a little more common than people think (although you do have to have a compelling reason) and I've seen it done between M1 and M2, as well as M2 and M3.

JFMD

 

It is more likely that you could be taken as a student in residence. Where you remain a student of your original medical school and graduate from that school, but you finish your actual training at the second school. This happens when you have a compelling reason to attend the second school e.g. a professor you want to do research with, spouse needs to be near second school, etc. Usually you must have completed two years at the first school and be in good academic standing. I have a friend who did this, she said the process wasn't too bad, you just have to file some paperwork with both schools.

 

I think if there is an opening you can transfer after 2 years for clinical clerkships since the first 2 years may differ in the schools. but even this is difficult and you have to check for curriculum compatibility as well as for mode of evaluation compatibility.

 

It's usually allowed only after the 2nd year, and it's called a "transfer w/ advanced standing". The higher tier schools are a little more restrictive, but it really varies from school to school. For example at University of Chicago they accept 1 transfer a year and the spot is reserved for students who are married to a faculty member. On the other hand, Rosalind Franklin in Chicago, will accept anyone including foreign students (most school's only take AMGs). As mentioned before, there has to be a space open which means another student in their program would have to have dropped out. Given the low attrition rates at med schools, this doesn't happen often. Check each school's admissions website for specifics.

 

I had a friend transfer from UW to Washington St. Louis but she had rocked the MCAT and her husband was accepted to Law school in St. Louis so I think that really helped. She was definitely an exception though.

 

While it all gets looked at, I doubt the MCAT is particularly relevant at that stage since you will have had 2 years of med school grades to look at, and will have taken Step 1 already in most cases before being able to transfer. The key questions tend to be whether the target school has an opening and whether you have a compelling reason (such as a spouse in an affiliated school) for the transfer. Most places take up to 1-2 people after second year, depending on attrition.

If you know you want to end up at a certain school, your odds of getting there are much much much much better getting in initially than transferring there later. So do not bank on this as a side route to a target school.

 

This depends on whether the schools curriculums match up -- which is somewhat rare these days. Some schools are systems based, others not. Some give micro or pharm in different years, some shuffle things around to make room for PBL, etc. So you could theoretically transfer yourself into huge gaps in your education, which is why most schools simply have a blanket rule that transfers cannot happen until after second year.

 

So is the general consensus that transfering is pretty rare and hard to accomplish? Here's my situation. My boyfriend (don't flame me because we aren't engaged or married, we would be engaged if it wasn't for a very long story involving orthodox indian muslim parents who think you shouldn't get married until after med school) will be starting at our state med school (top 30 school) this fall. I am applying (2007-2008 cycle) for a non-traditional MD/PhD program which is not offered at this school and it has been my dream for years to go outside of my home state for med school. Currently, we do plan on getting engaged within a couple of years and married right after he finishes med school, but obviously we would prefer not to do the long distance thing. It would be wonderful if he could transfer after his M2 to where I am which would mean only one year apart. I understand this would mean getting married next year but I think we could convince his parents to break tradition in this instance. Do you think there is any chance we could make this happen?

 

There's a chance, but not a high odds one. It depends on things outside your control, like the school having a spot. And schools tend to be leery of working to help out folks who are not yet engaged (as too many of the boyfriend-girlfriend relationships go bad under the stresses of med school). So sure it's a possibility, but I wouldn't bank on it.

 

We would definately either be engaged or married if he was applying to transfer. The thing is that the only reason we aren't engaged now is to appease his parents, but that would go out the window if I end up somewhere else for med school. We are trying to make them feel as comfortable as possible about our relationship because I am neither indian nor muslim. However, we willing to put our relationship in jeopardy by doing the long-distance thing for 3 years just to make them happy (ultimately this is our lives not theirs).

 

My suggestion is try and find programs that meet your respective needs in the same or a nearby city/state, and not bank on a transfer. You can try for it, but just don't get your hopes too high.