<p>Is it possible for a student to finish their undergrad in Canada and then apply for med schools in the states? How difficult is this path? I assume the typical 'you need high gpa' type of responses will come up :P</p>
<p>US and Canadian undergraduate degrees are pretty much treated as identical, in my understanding, because the same accrediting body (LCME) accredits all MD-granting schools in both countries. What will be a bigger issue is your citizenship status–are you a US citizen or US permanent resident?</p>
<p>Haha, I’m actually neither; I’m a Canadian PR. But is it not possible for me to become a US PR as I study?</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of becoming a US permanent resident during medical school; you need to become one before you apply to have any real shot at US medical schools. It’s pretty difficult to become a US permanent resident; [url=<a href=“http://www.upenn.edu/oip/isss/permanent]here[/url”>http://www.upenn.edu/oip/isss/permanent]here[/url</a>] is a UPenn site that explains the criteria for becoming one.</p>
<p>My advice would be to go for Canadian citizenship. I’m not sure how difficult a process this is, but I think it’s your best bet. Many US schools will accept Canadian citizens far more easily than they will citizens of other countries who don’t have US green cards, and you will still have Canadian medical schools to apply to as well.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how McGill’s pre-med is?</p>
<p>Does a difference exist between being a PR and a Citizen when you consider being accepted into a US school? Will they not accept PR’s and only accept Citizens of Canada?</p>
<p>And no I would not know anything about McGill’s pre-med but I assume Canadian universities are similar in difficulty.</p>
<p>Hmm. That’s a good question. I’m not actually sure whether that’s true or not; it was something I just inferred from reading schools’ policies. My intuition tells me it is so, but perhaps you could call a few schools that accept Canadian residents (full list: [NAAHP:</a> Medical School Admission Policies Towards Non-U.S. Citizens](<a href=“Home - NAAHP”>Home - NAAHP)) and ask them how they treat Canadian permanent residents without American or Canadian citizenship.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your help Tufts 
I’ll look into the site and hopefully get the answers I long for xD</p>
<p>Why not apply for med school in the Province where you are a PR? Don’t they usually allow & prefer residents of their province?</p>
<p>Also, if you are a PR, would attending med school in the states risk your PR status?</p>
<p>The competition in Canada for spots in med school are tough not because the schools are better, but because there are only around 13 med schools in the whole country as opposed to the vast number in the States.</p>
<p>And I would not mind giving up my PR status in my current province (BC) if I can become a PR in whichever state the university I get accepted to is in.</p>
<p>Do most US medical schools frown upon meeting their biology pre-requisites with AP Biology?</p>
<p>Most US medical schools do not frown upon it. They do not accept it!</p>
<p>The ones that do accept it generally say “we strongly prefer you to take an equivalent number of upper level credits in the same discipline if you wish to use AP credits.”</p>
<p>Are you hoping to leave Canada and immigrate to the US? I don’t even know if they will allow that. Why not go for UBC? It’s a great school.</p>
<p>… they don’t allow it?
And I would like to go for UBC but the competition is extreme; not saying that the school in States are easier to get into, but only applying to Canadian schools would be silly if I can also apply to the States.</p>
<p>I meant, I don’t know if you can get into a school in the US and thereby automatically gain a green card. The whole green card thing (PR) is complex and I am pretty sure that attending college in the US will NOT get you a green card. When I said ‘allow’ that’s what I meant…allow you to become a PR based on attending med school</p>
<p>Attending college is the US is NOT a route to gaining a green card. In fact, an education visa requires you to leave after your educational program is finished.</p>
<p>I think there are only 4 basic paths to US permanent residency: 1) child or spouse of US citizen; 2) immigration lottery; 3) having an employer sponsor your application in a area of critical manpower shortage;and 4) asylum.</p>
<p>^What exactly do you mean by immigration lottery? Lol</p>
<p>^ In case you do not know it: There is really an immigration lottery. But I heard only citizens from the countries which have relatively few immigrants to US are eligible to participate in this lottery. The purpose is to diversify the pool of immigrants.</p>
<p>In some years, the (undergraduate) business school of a flagship state university chose to use the combination of merits and lottery to admit their students. They intentionally set the admission standard lower so that they can have a larger pool of potentially admitted students. Then, they use a lottery system to randomly select its incoming class from this pool.</p>
<p>In other words, they do not believe those who are good academically will be good leaders in the business in the future. For example, if everything is merit based on (academically-related) numbers, they may exclude many potential business leaders from an area where they really need somebody who may develop business there.</p>
<p>Medical school admissions may also have some elements of this, idk. That is the reason why some medical schools like to recruit students from a certain under-served areas. They do not believe those from the wealthy suburbans (who may have good numbers) will go to these areas to serve these poor no matter how these applicants spin it in their personal statements in contrary. I heard that there may be too many doctors in the desirable cities where there are more patients who are capable of paying the bills, but too few in those areas where most patients are too poor to pay.</p>
<p>The process is confusing and difficult.</p>
<p>Here’s the US Citizenship and Immigration Service explanation of the categories for eligibility. NOTE the link “Other Ways To Get A Green Card” on the left hand side of the page.</p>
<p>[USCIS</a> - Green Card Eligibility](<a href=“http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=80f63a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=80f63a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD]USCIS”>http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=80f63a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=80f63a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD)</p>
<p>The lottery is called the “Diversity Immigration Visa Program.”</p>