<p>Alright, hello. First of all I'd like to ask if colleges give people with certain ethnicities a harder time to get in? Like can universities be biased by ethnicity in choosing applicants? </p>
<p>Now that that silly question is out of my way I can get down to serious business. I have been studying in a british-system type of school with A Levels and IGCSE's following the Cambridge curriculum and exams. I tried to transfer to an American school but due to issues at home that isn't an option. Will this affect me if I apply to the states? I'll put in my academics below</p>
<p>I have been getting honour roll certificates all throughout high school, I did 8 subjects for my IGCSE's scoring A*s in Biology and English. As in ICT, Maths and Chemistry and Bs in Physics and Business. I am now a junior and I 'dropped' Physics as a school subject, did I doom myself by doing that? Up until recently it never crossed my mind that by dropping physics I might have caused myself issues in my future career as a surgeon. </p>
<p>I have done my SATs and scored 660 in Maths, 620 in Critical Reading and a pathetic 560 on Writing. I will redo them in May after I study properly, I expect to get 1900+, should I work harder and harder to try and score above that or is 1900+ good? I believe if I had been paying more attention during the writing sections of the exam I might have scored 700+. </p>
<p>I will do my AS exams this year, I've chosen Maths, Biology and Chemistry. My school does not provide AP exams so should I study for them on my own and try to do them in a nearby school that does? Or should I just stick to the A Levels. Also, if I do AP exams in Bio, Chem, Stats and Calc, is this enough to exempt me from a year of university?</p>
<p>Finally I am absolutely clueless about what to do after high school. I need information about pre med to begin with. My school does not have a counselor for me to talk to and I'm honestly feeling really ignorant. I've tried relying on the internet but one guy says one thing, another says a different thing. So it's left me confused and lost.</p>
<p>If anyone can help me I'd be really grateful. Thank you for taking the time to read this. :)</p>
<p>not what I meant… More between the lines of will they see my ethnicity and say “yeaaah… no…” just because of my origin? I’ve been subjected to racism a great deal so I’m just checking</p>
<p>As an international student you are at a severe disadvantage where it comes to medical school admission in the US.</p>
<p>Most US medical schools will not even consider international students for admissions. And of those that do only a 4 or 5 offer any financial aid to internationals.</p>
<p>Please read these articles about the difficulties that internationals face when attempting to study medicine in the US.</p>
<p>You should note that last year fewer than 200 international students were admitted to all US medical schools combined. (That number includes MD/PhD students.) </p>
<p>If you wish to study medicine, it’s generally advised that–</p>
<p>1) you study in the country where you eventually wish to practice</p>
<p>2) if you wish to practice in the US, you study medicine in your home country and apply for a US medical residency after you’ve completed your medical degree</p>
<p>Most universities have non-descrimination policies so I doubt that would happen. What easily could happen is “Oh, this kid is international? Can they pay the full tuition? No? REJECT,” since there is no commitment to need-blind admissions for internationals like there is for US citizens.</p>
<p>^ Are you talking about med school admission or college admission?</p>
<p>If you are talking about college admission only:
For some mid-tier private colleges (e.g., some LAC), it could be even an advantage, as compared to some US students who need a lot of FA before they can attend the same school. Education is still a business. Money talks.</p>
<p>For public colleges, it is another story. It is just not politically desirable or even viable to admit many (if any) international students when the families of these students do not pay taxes.</p>
<p>For med school admission, I think internationals are still at a great disadvantage. I think there are more med school student admission slots from public med schools. The public med schools are by and large for in-state residents, not even for out-of-state residents – let alone internationals. Actually, sometimes many non-top, non-research-heavy med school do not accept any internationals at all, while some research heavy one could open up a couple of slots for those internationals who could be willing to labor in the research lab like those PhD students even though they may be in a MD (or MD/PhD) program – I notice that in one year at a research heavy med school, several of the graduates from their MD or MD/PhD program even did not participate in the match for residency programs, meaning that they did not plan to be practicing doctors in their future plan.</p>
<p>A problem for internationals is there are not too many of these kinds of med schools which still admit some international students. Most mid-tier ones just say no to these students.</p>
<p>I was talking about University admissions. I was going for private universities/med schools only. So basically as an international student, things would be difficult… but not impossible? ;o</p>
<p>In the US, medical school is a professional graduate degree program. Unlike most countries, in the US, you will first need to complete a 4 year baccalaurate degree before you can apply to medical school.</p>
<p>So you first need to get accepted into a undergraduate program, complete it, do well in your coursework, take the MCAT exam and then apply for medical school.</p>
<p>~~~~~~</p>
<p>For undergraduate, being able to finance 100% of your costs will help you in admissions.</p>
<p>For medical school, being able to pay 100% of your costs will NOT help you get admitted, but if admitted it will allow you to attend.</p>
For the majority of med schools, it is impossible.
For the minority of med schools, it is a very steep uphill battle but not impossible.</p>
<p>At one 2nd look event (for admitted students) at a med school, DS met an international and chatted with him. He had an UG degree not in US, but he had done many years of research at Stanford (we do not know whether he had ever received any academic, non-professional degree while he was “working” there.) He was likely admitted because that particular research-heavy med school could make use of his excellent research capability/experience</p>
<p>Okay… would things like community service and charity work help me? I plan on getting 2500+ hours of community service done while I’m doing my 4 years of uni… not because of what it might do to help me but because I want to help people in any way I can… So if it helps me get into med school or not I’ll do it but just checking</p>
<p>It will be hard to go to med school for a foreigner in US but not impossible. Fewer people choose to go due to the sheer expense of going to medical school.</p>
<p>I met an Asian couple of years ago who had just completed his PhD and was moving on to med school in the same state college in the midwest.</p>
<p>Residencies tend to be a problem since they require a work visa. Many residency programs simply ignore a foreign national’s application.</p>
<p>*Alright, hello. First of all I’d like to ask if colleges give people with certain ethnicities a harder time to get in? Like can universities be biased by ethnicity in choosing applicants? *</p>
<p>I doubt that there is a school in the US that says, “oh, he’s from THAT country. We don’t like students from THAT country. Yuck!” No. US colleges are very open-minded and want diversity.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, if you’re from China or India or another country that sends a LOT of students to the US, then you might not get admitted because others from your country have more desirable profiles. You’re competing against those from your own country for admittance.</p>
For the diversity reason. No college wants to be perceived as having too many students with the same background.
To a less extent, there is a chance that this (“competing against those with the similar profile”) may be applicable to applicants who are not even international. The college (more so for med schools) just value diversity.</p>
<p>The thing is, DFuzz, is the places where you’d volunteer (hospitals and the like) may not be set up to have volunteers working on those holidays or 7days/week. You need to understand it’s not just your availability that matters, but also that of the people who supervise you. </p>
<p>Many volunteer locations may also cap the number of hours per week they’ll allow a volunteer to work. (For a number of reasons, including the need to fair to all volunteers and allow other students opportunities at locations near to the college; and insurance and liability issues w/r/t volunteers.)</p>
<p>And you’ll need to factor in travel time to and from your service location which can add another 1-2 hours to the time you need to allow for volunteer service each day.</p>
<p>All in all I think you’re underestimating the difficulties you’ll face trying to accomplish the numbers of hours you think you’ll have.</p>
<p>I see where you’re coming from and it makes sense. Thanks for explaining it to me, WayOut. I guess I’ll reduce the hours IDK I’m just so passionate about helping people and am not given the opportunity to do so often here, it’s why I wanted to be a surgeon in the first place. Thank you all so much for the help :)</p>
<p>Note that pretty much every profession out there “helps people.” The maintenance guy at my apartment sure helps me out when he fixes my sink of my AC (things I certainly could not do!); my dad helps folks out when he works on their stock portfolios; my sister helps people design their homes (she’s an interior designer); the social workers I volunteer with routinely help their clients find resources they need; the list goes on and on and on and on.</p>
<p>Certainly, aspiring to be a surgeon is an admirable goal. And of course, surgeons provide services that few others can provide. But just know that you need to have a much more sophisticated answer to the “Why medicine?” question than “I like to help people.” Motivation to serve others is definitely necessary, yet far from sufficient, to becoming a doctor.</p>
IDK I’m just so passionate about helping people and am not given the opportunity to do so often here, it’s why I wanted to be a surgeon in the first place. Thank you all so much for the help :)</p>