transferring medical schools

[ktat72]

How does the whole idea of transferring medical schools work? What do medical schools admissions commitees look at if a student from a US medical school wants to transfer to another US medical school? I was just interested about this whole idea of transferring.

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[Diogenes]

As far as I know, transfering is very rare, and only done between 2nd and 3rd year, and even then, many schools won't consider it at all.

 

[Hero]

won't consider accepting you or won't considering letting you transfer? both?

 

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by Hero
won't consider accepting you or won't considering letting you transfer? both?

Uh... nobody can force you to stay -- you can always drop out -- but most schools don't really accept transfers, as far as I've heard. Certainly not in large numbers.

 

[Surfer75]

depend on the vacancy of spots in the class you're trying to get into.. and usually won't fly unless you have some extenuating circumstances...

 

[ktat72]

I was wondering about this because some people have told me that if you want to do your residency at some place but you do not attend medical school at that place, you could always consider transferring to that medical school.

I was also wondering, if you are not that satisfied with medical school you are in but did a one month rotation (like a research month) at the place you were interested in transferring to and did an excellent job on that rotation (earning honors) - do you think the medical school admissions conmittee would look at that?

 

[lilycat]

Transferring is on the rare side in medical school and fairly difficult to do -- very, very different from college. First off, it seems like the majority of U.S. medical schools won't even consider accepting transfer students. Period. Even if they have space in the class you are looking to transfer into. You can check this out for yourself by going to the admissions page for any med school you are interested in -- they usually have an FAQ section, or their transfer policy is outlined somewhere on there. For example, I don't believe that any of the UC's accept transfer students at all.

As for the schools that do accept transfer students, most of them will not consider transfers until third year, into the clinical rotations. For the schools that do consider transfer applicants, they usually are looking for some sort of extenuating circumstance beyond the "I'm just not satisfied at my current school." People who successfully transfer often do so because a spouse is at that school or in that city, a family member is sick and they need to be closer to them, etc. And even for the schools that do consider transfer applicants, you are still looking at competing for a very small handful of open spots in the class.

From the situation you describe in this post, I think you probably did not mean to discuss "transferring" but rather doing away rotations at other medical schools. During your 4th year of medical school, you generally have a few months that you can use to schedule away rotations at other hospitals/schools. Assuming you know what your doing and your clinical skills are solid, it can be a good way to impress physicians and perhaps the residency director at a hospital you wish to apply to for residency. The flip side is that if you do not perform well clinically, or you come off as difficult to work with or something along those lines, you will have probably ruined your chances for a residency at that hospital.

Originally posted by ktat72
I was wondering about this because some people have told me that if you want to do your residency at some place but you do not attend medical school at that place, you could always consider transferring to that medical school.

I was also wondering, if you are not that satisfied with medical school you are in but did a one month rotation (like a research month) at the place you were interested in transferring to and did an excellent job on that rotation (earning honors) - do you think the medical school admissions conmittee would look at that?