What are my chances as an International Student ?

[Bunsen]

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Hi there,

I'm wondering what my chances are as an International Student.

cGPA: 3.87
sGPA: 3.77
MCAT: 35

ECs:
~50 hours volunteer work in home country
~50 hours volunteer work in America at a physician (shadowing actually)
~ 9 months Ronald McDonalds house
~Board member for pre-med assoc.
~20 hour of work oncampus
~One semester of research
and a few other volunteer activities.

Can anybody tell me what medical schools are accepting international applications ? I know a lot of private universities do, but it's very competive. Can anybody give me some advice ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mobius1985]

Scroll down on this post to the school selector0910.xls link, then move lateral to the last column (HR) and you will see the percentage of international students accepted by every US med school: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527971

Your numbers look competitive, but some of the extracurriculars are not. American students, with whom you'd be compteting, will have up to hundreds of hours of clinical exposure (face to face contact with sick people) via jobs or volunteerism. You have only 50 hours of shadowing. Most international students who've posted here have several years of research experience, while you have one semester. A leadership experience, is expected. Hopefully your description of your board position would demonstrate exactly how you've been a leader in that position (Hint: sitting in a chair listening to a meeting and voting once in awhile, doesn't show leadership). What's good is that you do mention some other volunteerism to show your altruistic side, ie Ronald McDonald House activity. You did not specify your volunteer work in your home country, but hopefully, it fits in that category, as a nine-month experience alone isn't very substantial. I'd suggest you start to volunteer in a hospital or clinic situation, as it would help satisfy both the clinical exposure as well as the humanitarian interest expectations.

You have some work to do to become competitive at a US med school, but this is not an unsurmountable problem, as you already have great numbers.

 

[Bunsen]

Thanks for your response!

I have to say it was 50 hour a month volunteer work at my home country for about three years. First I established a talking group for teenagers who were having problems and for those who wanted to talk about it with teenagers. We talked about bullying, abuse, being gay, and so on. I did that for three years for about 10 hours month (let's say 3 hours a week). Second year I did also some volunteer work for the homeless for about 25 hours a month (7 hours a week). And that same year I started a project for people who were dealing with auticism. I was the assistant of a psychologist and a doctor. I did 15 hours a month doing this for about two years.

Now I have shadowed a physician for about 50 hours, but I'll go during Christmas for two weeks to India to give people in that country a unforgetable Christmas.

Research is maybe a problem, I've only done one semester of research.

Some other ECs which may be good are:

-Marathon runner (ran the NYC marathon this year for the third time)
-Playing piano (2 hours of lesson a week)
-Can speak fluently English (obviously), Dutch, German, French, Spanish, little bit Italian and Russian and am busy learning Croatian.

 

[Mobius1985]

Your altruistic side will definitely shine on an application. Your language abilities will help you stand out.

You displayed leadership by establishing the teen group.

If you worked directly with autistic people, it would count as clinical experience. If you primarily worked with family members, it would not, but it's still humanistic service. Depending on how you interacted with the doctor, it might be like shadowing, too. You will need contact information for all the experiences you list, in case adcomms (admissions committees) want to check it out.

 

[Bunsen]

Does it actually matter as an international student while you're enrolled in a state university ?

 

[Mobius1985]

I don't understand the question.

 

[Bunsen]

Well, I'm enrolled at the South Dakota State University and my pre-med advisor told me it could be a problem for me gaining acceptance, because ''top-tier'' universities wouldn't even look at internationals when they haven't been enrolled in a ''top-tier'' university. So now my question: is he right, or is he just talking bull**** ?

 

[Rzarecta]

Well, I'm enrolled at the South Dakota State University and my pre-med advisor told me it could be a problem for me gaining acceptance, because ''top-tier'' universities wouldn't even look at internationals when they haven't been enrolled in a ''top-tier'' university. So now my question: is he right, or is he just talking bull**** ?

To be honest, the "best premed advisors" in the country are probably on this forum, not some person with a miscellaneous degree who probably only deals with SD state residents applying to only one med school. Good luck.

 

[dragonfly99]

Your premed advisor at your school might have limited experience with dealing with medical school applicants. I'm not sure how many there are from your school?

Do you really speak that many languages? That is impressive if you do.

I think it will be important for you to get letters of recommendation from some of the people who supervised you on your more important extracurricular/volunteer activities. I think you should pick out one or two medically-related volunteer activities and really concentrate on those. It could be volunteering in a hospital, working more with Ronald McDonald House, etc. Ideally it would be something where you have direct contact with doctors and patients.

Your MCAT score and GPA are good. Just keep up the GPA.

You need to research which private medical schools in the US take a fair number of international students, since I'm not sure the state U in S. Dakota will be receptive to your application. You might want to phone them to see if they even consider applications from folks who aren't permanent residents.

One option if you really want in would be try for MD/PhD programs...I think that some might take you easier than an MD program would, given that they are funded more like PhD programs and don't have to care about citizenship (at least some of the programs). However, in that regard your lack of research experience would hurt your application somewhat. I don't think a lot of research experience is necessary to get into a straight MD program, though.

 

[mezmerized7]

I would encourage you to improve your research experience. That is the only area lacking. When you do this, think seriously about applying to MD/PhD programs. If you get into these, you will not have to worry about funding, even as an int'l student. If you get into MD programs, funding can be difficult to obtain, unless you are rich and well-off.

Good luck.