US Green Card Holder graduating with a foreign degree

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

bampandaboo

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
24
Reaction score
5
Done

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
The difficulty is not that schools will not understand the grading system but that, if I recall correctly, most schools require a degree (undergraduate or graduate) earned at a US or Canadian school.

I have seen med school applicants do a PhD or MS plus the pre-med requirements in order to qualify for med school.

There are many foreign medical graduates (FMG also known as IMG International Medical Graduates) from the Philipines who are practicing medicine in the US. It is hard to get a residency (although it might be easier if you have a green card).

There is no "easy" way to do what it is you want to do and every path has risks. Keep in mind that only half of all medical school applicants in the US get an admission offer and that is not counting those who take the MCAT and then choose not to apply.

Do consider coming to the US and getting an advance practice degree in nursing. More and more primary care in the US will be delivered by advance practice nurses (cue the howls of horror from the AMA) so you might want to consider that path which would be very straight forward for you.
 
We're in the exact same situation (except for college major and institution, plus I graduated last April already; hello fellow Pinoy!), and here's something from the AMCAS Instruction Book regarding our foreign coursework:

Independent Attendance, Transferred
Courses attempted independently at a foreign institution must be listed if the credit has been transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution using a credit hour system convertible to semester hours.
• Include the foreign institution and the U.S. or Canadian institution accepting transfer credit in your list of colleges attended.
• Request a transcript exception for the foreign institution. Indicate the U.S. or Canadian institution on whose transcript these transfer credits will appear.
• List foreign course work under the foreign institution at which it was attempted.
• If transfer credits are not assigned to individual courses, subdivide the credit hour total as appropriate and assign credit hours to each course.
• If the U.S. or Canadian institution awarding transfer credit provides letter grades (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) and credit hours convertible to semester hours for each course on their transcript or on an official letter attached to their transcript:
o Enter all required course data.
o AMCAS will include this course work in AMCAS GPAs, regardless of
institutional policies.
• If the U.S. or Canadian institution does NOT provide letter grades other than Pass/Fail:
o Indicate "Pass/Fail" as the Course Type and provide all other required
course data, entering the transcript grade exactly as it appears on
your official transcript.
o AMCAS will NOT include this course work in AMCAS GPAs; however,
AMCAS will include this course work in cumulative Pass/Fail - Pass and
Pass/Fail - Fail credit hour totals.

Independent Attendance, Not Transferred

Courses (other than M.D. course work) attempted independently at a foreign institution are not required to be listed if credit has NOT been transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution EXCEPT to meet medical school prerequisites unduplicated by other listed course work. If you include this course work on your application:
• Include the foreign institution in your list of colleges attended.
• Request a transcript exception for the foreign institution.
• Do not send foreign transcripts or certificates to AMCAS.
• Provide all required course data except credit hours attempted and AMCAS grades.

AMCAS does not accept transcripts from international evaluation services.
The course work will NOT be verified by AMCAS and will NOT be included in your AMCAS GPAs.

Although foreign transcripts are never required for the primary (AMCAS) application, individual medical schools can request the transcripts to complete secondary applications. Therefore, you should check with your intended medical schools about their requirements and, if necessary,
request your foreign transcripts as soon as possible.

So yeah unless you have your credits from UST transferred to a school here your Philippine GPA won't matter in the application. Given our situation it would take more than 2 years before actually applying to med school, with residency issues in most state schools. That's why I can't start on my pre-reqs yet, I'm still considered out of state because I've only been here a couple of months.) You can go the post-bacc route I guess, but that's super expensive.

Most of the med schools I am interested in suggested pursuing a second bachelor's rather than a post-bacc to strengthen my application, but then again that may be because I wasn't a science major in the Philippines. The admissions officers I talked to all said the same thing: "It's like you're starting from scratch because none, except maybe some general education courses, will be credited anyways."

Only you can say if taking the risks was worth it in the end. As for me, I'm doing it because I don't wanna live my life forever asking "What if?". If you wanna talk some more feel free to PM me.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Unless you want to get a degree in the US, the best course of action for you would be to finish your MBBS in Phillipines and take the USMLEs and apply for residency here.

If you decide to get a degree here.. u'll probably spend only a couple of years here before med school. Both ways will probably take approximately the same time since u'll probably spend a year or two in taking the USMLEs after u graduate in the phillipines.
 
Just hoping to hear the best strategy to get into med school in the US :D
I'll repost some previously posted helpful advice from 5/18/08:
You'll basically find the following types of medical school 1. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S. with those credits to include chemistry, biology, physics, organic chemistry, and sometimes English. These schools are most common. Sometimes completion of the prerequisite courses alone with satisfy the Admissions Committee and they'll let you slide if you have a M.S. or a Ph.D. (with a decent GPA) from the U.S.
2. Those that want an entire U.S. undergraduate degree earned from scratch (Mayo Clinic springs to mind). These schools are uncommon.
3. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S., and the credits can be a mix of graduate school credits and one or two scattered prerequisites. If you look hard enough, you'll find a handful of these schools. This is the route that I took, but keep in mind that no two applicants look the same and so conditions will vary.
4. Those that want 60-90 credits completed in the U.S. and they won't make you do the prerequisites over. These medical schools are VERY hard to find, and usually a political connection at the school makes this possible.

If you want to bypass studying for a U.S. undergraduate degree, some colleges will allow you to roll several years of foreign undergraduate credits on a 'pass' basis into a an accelerated U.S. undergraduate degree, and you may only get away with taking the prerequisites over 18 months. Find BlueMirage on SDN. This is what he did, and he successfully gained admission, too.

In all of the above cases, a professional evaluated transcript of the foreign credits will generally be expected. AMCAS will not verify those grades, but several medical schools will add them to your file.

All of the above information also assumes that the applicant has a green card or U.S. citizenship; without that, the level of difficulty in securing admission for each of the above cases should be multiplied several fold.

A U.S. Ph.D. - even with a nice GPA - does not carry a whole lot of clout with U.S. medical schools. This is from first-hand experience. Neither do prerequisite courses earned overseas - even if it's from a 'prestigious' school. This is also from first-hand experience. Publications do help for some of the private, research-oriented medical schools but, again, you really have to look as close to a U.S. applicant as possible.
I'll add to this that there are a few schools that only require 30 credit hours earned in the US or Canada, like Yale and possibly at least one California school.
 
Thanks for the replies

Honestly, I do not mind taking the pre-requisites for med school in the US but definitely I do not want to take another undergraduate/BS degree. I would rather take up a master's degree if I have to go through that again then take my prereq's with it. How long would MPH+pre-requisites take if I take the full load? :)

I'll probably be staying in California since we already have a house there for around 8 years already. Any recommended universities around? I don't mind going to the East coast around New Jersey since I have relatives there too.

I am sure that I do want to be a doctor. I know it's going to be hell a lot of expensive but that's really how it is I guess :rolleyes:

@aahhron
Hmm actually the closer the number is to 1.00, the higher it is. Unfortunately, Nursing in UST is extremely difficult O_O
 
Thanks for the replies

Honestly, I do not mind taking the pre-requisites for med school in the US but definitely I do not want to take another undergraduate/BS degree. I would rather take up a master's degree if I have to go through that again then take my prereq's with it. How long would MPH+pre-requisites take if I take the full load? :)

I'll probably be staying in California since we already have a house there for around 8 years already. Any recommended universities around? I don't mind going to the East coast around New Jersey since I have relatives there too.

I am sure that I do want to be a doctor. I know it's going to be hell a lot of expensive but that's really how it is I guess :rolleyes:

@aahhron
Hmm actually the closer the number is to 1.00, the higher it is. Unfortunately, Nursing in UST is extremely difficult O_O

There is no overlap between a MPH and the med school pre-reqs. An MPH generally takes 2 years if you don't already have a doctoral degree or aren't enrollled in one concurrently.
 
How's your gpa 1.73 if the highest is 1.00?

To be more specific, I'm guessing it is similar to the German system where a 1 is absolute top A equivalent. 2 would be considered a B-ish, 3= C and so on to whatever the worst is. I know in Germany you can have .5s and what not inbetween as well. Also, there a 1 translated to a very high A...not just any ol' A.
 
How long will it take to finish med pre-reqs?

Can I take them while taking up another M.S. degree? Like add extra courses? :)

Also, how can I prepare to take up med pre-reqs if ever I decide to take them next year? Is that even possible?

I'm graduating from BS Nursing March of next year
 
How long will it take to finish med pre-reqs?

Can I take them while taking up another M.S. degree? Like add extra courses? :)

Also, how can I prepare to take up med pre-reqs if ever I decide to take them next year? Is that even possible?

I'm graduating from BS Nursing March of next year

The typical premed prereq:

1 year Bio + lab
1 year General Chemistry + lab
1 year Physics + lab
1 year Organic Chemistry + lab
Some schools may require 1 year of math, 1 year of English also, a semester of biochemistry also.

People generally do all that in 2 years and chances are you won't have much time to also do an MS course. Trust me when I say that's a lot of work already. You really are, it seems, underestimating the extent of work coming your way.
 
Nope I'm not underestimating I just want to know my options :p
 
Top