It’s been a while since i came here but I wanted to share my progress and hopefully give someone ideas/pointers for this journey.
I’ve just completed my first semester as a freshman and it’s definitely been a journey of high’s and lows.
ACADEMICS
This pass semester I took Chem, Phys, Calc, Eng and Bme. My GPA = 3.81.
While my GPA is not bad, I am disappointed because coming down to finals week I got “flustered” and did not handle it well.
From this I now see I will have to manage my time better and incorporate study time into my schedule and some good study habits. I know I will need these skills for medical school so I’m going to start asking for advice on this.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR
Surprisingly I am not doing any athletics of any sort. (I barely even go to the gym xD)
I work part-time 20 hours a week repairing computers. (I really like it. It’s good work, I learn a-lot and it’s good for my resume.)
I am doing Physics research (Condensed Matter) , 2 hours per day, everyday. This is pretty nice too, but I have to spend lots of time reading. I’m the only undergraduate on the research team so it’s necessary to not be lost in the clouds.
I volunteer on an ambulance. I do 12 hours a week.
And finally, I volunteer also at a homeless shelter. There is no time commitment. I just go when I can and I serve food, and help with the clean up.
POSSIBLE CHANGES
I may be getting the opportunity to shadow an Oncologist in the upcoming days. If this happens then when school restarts I will give up volunteering on the ambulance. (I just can’t do everything.)
THINGS I DO FOR MYSELF
I go to a christian club on Tuesdays and church on Sundays and I enjoy playing table tennis with my lab partners.
As for the MCAT I feel like I don’t do well on standardize testings, The SATs last year really stressed me out. As such I think I’m going to start getting materials now and start studying. I figure 2 and a 1/2 years should be enough time to get it right if I start now.
As for medical schools when that time comes I will probably only apply to 5 max. So far I’m looking at Mount Sinai, StonyBrook, Harvard and Brown.
Until you’ve finished the appropriate pre-reqs, you’re really wasting your time studying for the MCAT.
You need to apply smartly. Only apply to med schools where your stats (GPA & MCAT) are at or above the median accepted. Applying to a med school as international where your stats are below average is huge waste of money.
And as an international applicant–5 schools is way too few. You probably need to apply to at least 15-20 to have any reasonable hope of an acceptance.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but based on what I see you have done in your current college and EC you are not going to be very competitive candidate in med school application with the following reasons:
Computer work and physics research are not what med school want to see on your application. They want to see clinical medical experiences directly interact with patients and medical related research. You are doing exactly the opposite. Shadowing with a doctor adds a little weight in your case.
Spend more time work on your Gpa instead of prep for Mcat. Your Gpa is too low to get Any scholarship in med school even if you are US resident, do not even dream of a scholarship as an international applicant, academically you are way behind. If I remember correctly, only about 200 or so internationals are admitted to any US med school every year out of 10s 1000s.
Unless you have already applied for US residency several years ago you will expect to have an escrow setup for the med school, like what you have found out. The best bet to get a medical education is to go back to your own country after your graduation.
As Wowm suggested you need to apply for more than 5 med schools as an international. My D applied for 30, and she is an US citizen.
@milky101 thanks for the update. Are you getting financial aid at your current university? Your biggest roadblock to med school in the US is paying for it. I would focus on that, and continue with your high GPA. You need clinical work too.
Some of them require all four years tuition in an escrow account, some 1 year tuition in an account
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I suspect more and more will demand all four years to be put in escrow. I’ve seen a few int’l med students have to leave after one year. They put all their financial eggs in one basket, showed one year’s funding, and then had no funding for the following years. I don’t know if they thought that a med school would simply give aid after that to keep the student or what. Med schools can’t afford to give seats to folks that really only have funding for one year.
That could be, but such an unlikely scenario. Don’t unemployed in’tls need an American sponsor to get a green card?
I think that some just thought that getting their foot in the door would be enough. However, since schools have been burned by this, I think more will be asking for larger escrow accts.