<p>Greetings! I am a 17 year old, fresh out of high school, seeking to apply to a pre-medical studies program. I'm aware of a number of international institutions that offer such programs (Royal</a> College of Surgeons in Ireland being one of them), a ~2 year program that does not award a student a bachelor's degree upon conclusion, but which prepares the student for the MCAT and enables the student to enroll at the institution's MD awarding medical school. I don't know about every school out there, so if anyone could name me a few more schools with such pre-med programs I would be grateful :).</p>
<p>I'm concerned about my eligibility to enroll in such programs. I consider myself an inferior candidate for the following reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My academic performance is decent, yet not absolutely brilliant. I got a GPA of about 3.6 on my senior year, whereas other candidates are applying with consistent 4.0s throughout high school. I've done decently in the SATs and decently in the APs, but compared to the ivy league folks posting in these boards who got near perfect SATs and a weighted GPA of 4.4/4.0, I'm afraid my grades look anemic :(.</p></li>
<li><p>I've never participated in any extra-curricular activities in my entire life. While the other candidates passionately spend their time volunteering at hospitals, tutoring orphans, winning Olympic gold medals, starting and operating businesses, and working at charities, I've never done anything worth mentioning. All that has ever been available to me during my high school years was the opportunity to study; I've been rejected by sports teams, I can't legally start and operate a company, nobody joins my clubs, and I've never been allowed to volunteer at hospitals :(.</p></li>
<li><p>Admissions committees require a personal essay expressing my experience, talent, and passion. I regret that I haven't had any worthwhile experiences and that I have absolutely no talent whatsoever. Furthermore, I am a terrible writer; I'm not fully confident in my writing abilities, my SAT essay was horrible, and I messed up all my English essays in High School. I could probably write that becoming a medical student would make be happy, but that obviously defeats the purpose of the essay; it's not what admissions committees are looking for.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm not confident during interviews. Although I appear to smile a lot, I am reluctant to make eye-contact (I am a shy person), and I don't know the best way to approach every single possible question, including several key interview questions such as "Why do you want to enroll in a pre-med program?".</p></li>
<li><p>I can't possibly afford the tuition. Where am I going to find a bank crazy enough to loan a 17 year old $200k - $300k over the course of about a decade? How am I going to pay it all back (especially if the loan carries heavy interest)? I'm aware of no scholarships.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I know my case seems hopeless, and that I should probably consider a different course of study like engineering, but I frankly believe that pursuing a pre-med program will make me happy. I am open to all advice you folks are willing to share to me.</p>
<p>are you an international student? is that why you mention ireland?</p>
<p>if here in usa (which it sounds like with your mention of gpa, aps, ) then there really isnt something called a premed program. You go to whatever college you want, major in whatever you want but make sure you take the required courses for med school</p>
<p>in order to give you an idea of colleges, would need to know what areas you would consider, what your actual act/sat scores are to see if you would qualify for merit aid
financial aid is not an area i am that familiar with, but you may qualify for need aid?</p>
<p>there are a lot of schools that have apps that dont require essays, and most schools dont require interviews unless you are applying for a selective program.</p>
<p>You want to look for the most affordable option available to you if you are considering med school as those costs are extremely high.</p>
<p>if you want to pm me with those details rather than post feel free</p>
<p>Yes, I am an international student who has studied under an American curriculum.</p>
<p>I’m considering the entire United States as an option (if they would offer student visas to Iranian passport holders ;)). </p>
<p>I’ve only scored a 2000 on my SAT I, which I’m ashamed of. Should I consider retaking the test to get a better score if it will open better opportunities for me?</p>
<p>You probably need to be asking this question on a site that is devoted to schools in countries other than the US if you are looking for something similar to that Irish school. If you are looking for something like that in the US be aware it does not work that way here. Medical school, if your intent is to be a doctor, is a graduate school that you go to after college. “Pre-med” programs exist in virtually every college in the US but they are not majors nor medical training. They are advisory programs that anyone who gets into the college can be a part of and you basically get to deal with an adviser who will help you understand what you need to do in college to later get into medical school after college. You can major in college in essentially anything (including for example engineering, English, History, or anything else but many choose a science) and then apply to medical school but admittance to medical school requires you to complete in college certain math, science and writing courses so whatever major you have you just have to make sure you complete the requirements for admission to medical school. Basically to get into medical school after college you will need to complete the required courses, have a high college GPA and a high MCAT score. Otherwise in choosing a US college at which you may join a pre-med program, you choose like others going to college – such as looking at which ones you have a chance to get into, which can you afford considering possible financial aid, which you prefr to attend, where you want the college to be, etc.</p>
<p>So I must complete a 4-year Bachelor’s program while accumulating credits in the required courses (physics, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, mathematics, genetics, whatever)?</p>
<p>Which degree would serve me best? Would an engineering degree be alright? Am I allowed to ‘short-circuit’ out of my major, quitting university after only 2 years without a degree, but with credits on whatever medical schools require?</p>
<p>as an international student your need based aid will be limited if any. No shortcut…you have to have the undergrad degree first. </p>
<p>i would search for any schools that do give any kind of financial aid to internationals… but also try to keep that cost as low as you can…schools will also require proof that you can pay</p>
<p>Yes, you can major in anything in college including engineering and then apply for medical school. The key is high college grades and high MCAT; that renders engineering somewhat of a disadvantage because engineering majors on average very often have lower college GPAs than other college majors. There is no ideal major; it is just a fact that many who apply to medical school major in chemistry or biology and doing so makes it convenient to complete the required courses needed to apply to medical school because most of those courses are also needed for those majors. You cannot quit college after two years in the US and then go to medical school in the US since you need to get a college degree as part of a plan of going to medical school. In other words, one of the requirements is a college degree. There are some US colleges where you can be admitted as a college freshman to a combined college/medical school program where you can major in something like a science but actually start medical school after three years of college and then your medical school courses also count toward completing your college degree. However, those are not at many colleges and admission to them usually requires higher than usual high school stats for the college.</p>
<p>Understand that to be a doctor in the US basically requires four years of college, then four years of medical school and then a residency program where you work as a doctor/trainee in the specialty you choose and that can take up to several more years.</p>
<p>I’m only 17 years old, so how can I afford the $50k+ tuition fees? I’ll have a lot of trouble persuading folks to sponsor someone like me. I wonder how loans would work out - as soon as that MD gets handed to me, I’ll be hit with $1000 weekly payments :(</p>
<p>asmvolatile…there are lots of colleges less than 50K per year…not the ivies, but schools that are just fine for undergrad with plans of med school. while looking see if they have pre-med advisors.
for example, my son’s school is also a med school…excellent premed advisors, strong in sciences/// cost of attendance is 20-24K per year. I checked and it does not have financial aid for international students and requires the following:</p>
<p>If you’ll need a visa to maintain your immigration status while you’re living in the United States, UAB International Scholar and Student Services will be responsible for sending in the required immigration document (Form I-20 or Form DS2019). UAB will send those documents in only after you’ve been admitted to UAB as a degree-seeking student and you’ve submitted the following documents:</p>
<p>an affidavit from your financial sponsor showing their willingness to pay your expenses;
a bank statement (the original or a scanned or faxed copy) from your sponsor’s financial institution showing the balance in your sponsor’s bank account;</p>