Hello everybody, I have a couple of questions will be happy if you could answer me.
I am currently a foreign high school junior student and didn’t graduate high school because of moves (from country to country), I am a us permenabt resident and want to attend college their instead of my 12th grade or daul enroll just to get community college free. Well I am not sure what to do, I want to go to medical school in the future or podiatric medical school, so I know for sure it is one of these two. What do you think would be a better route;
- Getting a GED in community college (heard 98% of colleges accept GED students) and then apply to undergraduate 4 year college for a pre med.
- Get a GED, apply to two year community college (radiation teraphy major) and then transfer to a 4 year college and do alien health the other two years.
The thing, is that I am not sure, do you have to graduate pre med for medical school (I know for podiatrist you can major anything even art as long as you take the required credits) is it the same for med school?
Also I prefer the radiation therapy route(number 2) because then I can have a good job during grad school so I will be able to pay for it. But on the other side, I heard med school don’t like community colleges, but there are so many med schools in the US, if one school doesn’t take me the other will?
What do you think? Will be glad to hear your opinion!
I don’t know about podiatry schools, but medical schools consider a GED a red flag – which means your med school application will get extra scrutiny when you apply. You will need to provide an explanation for why you have GED and not a high school diploma. (Med schools–and probably pod schools too-- strongly prefer students who have followed a conventional educational path.)
Some medicals school will not accept CC coursework for required pre-req courses like Ochem, biochem. Be sure you inform yourself about which schools will and won’t accept CC credits for pre-reqs.
Having an allied health profession degree (rad tech) will raise another red flag on your application and cause adcomms to question your commitment to medicine as profession. (If you wanted to be a physician, why did you study radiation technology? Why do want to switch from rad tech to medicine/podiatry? ) You will need to have a excellent answer to both of those questions when you apply.
Lastly, it’s absolutely impossible to work during medical or podiatry school. (Exception would be temporary, flexible, jobs like babysitting or tutoring or perhaps a 5 hours/week lab assistant at the med school.) You cannot attend med or podiatry school part-time.
The route for med school is similar to that for podiatry school: graduate from high school, attend college while majoring in any field you like, take all required pre-requisite coursework (pod and med school pre-reqs are NOT identical), take the MCAT, do lots of volunteer work, get plenty of shadowing and clinical volunteer experience, hold leadership positions–then apply.
Thank you very much for the informative answer, I have to get a GED and there is no way I can get a high school diploma (its not my choice), and radiation therapy could be a great job in the summer or in between the pregradute and graduate school and also a good plan B if I won’t get accepted anywhere, cause you can’t really get a job with pre med. But you say med school doesn’t really like CC , so I guess getting a GED and then apply to a 4 year college is the best. Also, how med school will even know I did a GED ? I thought high school doesn’t matter for gradute school, only the pregradute college?
Sorry I have so many questions, I am just the first one to attend college in the US as a foreign gradute in my family, don’t have a counsler, I really appreciate your help.
You’re asked to list the name of the high school you graduated from on your AMCAS application. So it’s a question that you will have to answer. (BTW, lying on your application will get you permanently disbarred from ever gaining an acceptances to med school. Don’t even think about it.)
Not going to happen. No hospital or clinic in its right mind will hire a rad tech for 2 or 3 months. (It takes too long and costs too much to train you on their specific policies and procedures for just a couple of months employment.) They want permanent employees.
I find it hard to believe that if someone graduates from a reputable 4 year college (i.e. anything ranked in the top 200 on USNWR) with a sufficient GPA/MCAT that a med school would consider a GED instead of a normal high school diploma a red flag.
Otherwise I completely agree with everything else.