I’m currently in my first year of a B.A degree in the UK, and I’m looking at preparing to apply to US Medical Schools. Most of the best schools have requirements for college-level Science courses, which due to the non liberal-arts style of a UK degree, I won’t be able to complete. Is there any way to rectify this without taking a gamble and trying to get into a Post-Bacc Pre-Med program after my graduation, and before applying to Med School?
The answer is no.
Medical school admission requirements are pretty inflexible. If you don’t have the requisite bio, chem, math, physics, English, etc. coursework, you won’t be considered. End of story.
You have an additional problem as well. AMCAS (central clearinghouse for allopathic med school admissions) will not verify degrees from colleges outside the US and Canada. (Except for a very limited list of US schools overseas. See: https://services.aamc.org/AMCAS2_2010/WebApp/Help/WebHelp/ForeignCoursework.htm)
If AMCAS is unable to verify your degree/transcript, your application won’t be forwarded to any US med school for admission consideration. IOW, your application is DOA.
Every US medical school specifically require a minimum number of credits (typically 90) be completed at an accredited US or Canadian college or university. Please consult the admissions pages of specific medical schools for details.
Thank you for your response!
From this it looks like I’ll have to do an MD over here and then re-evaluate and hope to emigrate afterwards.
From my research, there appears to be some leeway with Stanford (they accept degrees from USA, Canada or UK, and they have recommendations rather than requirements), so I’ll aim for finding a way to fulfil their recommendations, and then pray for a miracle whilst realistically researching doing my MD in the UK instead.
Thank you again for taking the time to help me WayOutWestMom; I really appreciate it!
Stanford, Duke, Pritzker and a few other schools have adopted what is called competency-based admission standards. While these schools no longer require specific coursework, they do require demonstrated mastery of certain material through alternative course pathways (substituting upper level coursework for intro level) and/or long-term dedicated laboratory research in a particular subject areas (such as biochemistry, molecular biology or genetics).
Besides Stanford, UVA and Georgetown will also consider UK degrees for admission on a case-by-case basis.
You need to know that as a non-US citizen, your chances for admission to a US medical school are quite poor to start with–even if you do hold a US degree.
Additionally all US med schools will require you to demonstrate that you can afford to pay for your medical education by usually placing 1-4 years worth of tuition & fees (and in some cases living expenses) in an escrow account before matriculation. (To pay for US education, you’ll need approx $300+K.) There is little to no financial aid available to international students for medical school.
To learn about the pathway to apply for US medical residency (required if you want to practice medicine in the US), see: http://www.ecfmg.org
The number of non-US citizen, UK-trained physicians who successful match into a US residency is quite small. Only 34, according to most recent data. (See Chart 14)