I am transferring from abroad to a university in Ohio for pre-med. I have been accepted in many universities and I don’t know what to chose. And the offers are not the same. 2 Interested me the most for my situation : CSU and OSU.
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cleveland state accepted all my credits from abroad with good tuition and I love the location ( downtown). but the ranking is not good and I don’t know if I will be able to join a high ranked Med school.
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Ohio state is one of the best universities in the usa, they did not accept all my credits.
Ps: I am ready to lose my credits if the high ranked university will increase my chances for a good Med school.
The questions is : do undergraduate school ranking matters for Med school ?
Is CSU (cleveland state ) a good university for pre-med ?
Please help me.
Are you an international student?
UG school ranking is not that important in med school admissions. You can get to med school from any UG college, of course med school admission is very competitive.
Generally, I would say take the less expensive route, but I am not sure if med schools will accept classes taken abroad (even if given credit by the US school). @wayoutwestmom can you help OP?
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Thank you for your answer.
I am a us citizen studying abroad.
I will finish 2years of Med school abroad (undergraduate), then transfer my credits to finish my bachelor degree. (At least 5 semesters in us college)
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I asked some Med schools, they said that the gpa will be calculated from courses taken in the usa. And at least one year of courses in the USA is required.
US medical schools will not accept any college credits taken at universities abroad–unless they are accepted by your US college for credit and appear on your transcript. All your pre-reqs classes for medicine must be completed at an accredited US or Canadian college or university.
More than 1 year of classes will be required to attend med school in the US. Many require a minimum of 60 or 90 credits --depending on the policy of the specific med school–be taken at a US university to be considered for admission.
I suggest that you pay $30 and subscribe to MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements) at AMCAS.
It will answer most of your questions about pre-reqs and undergrad degrees.
BTW, the previous poster is correct–med schools do not really consider the ranking of the undergrad an applicants attends.
However, some undergrads provide more resources for their pre-med students than others. Better advising, more access to research experiences, more opportunities to get involved in pre-med ECs, better Plan B career prospects etc.
Please understand that getting into a US med school is challenging. 60% of those who apply for med school admission every year get rejected at every school they apply to. Every pre-med needs to have Plan B career plan.
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Did you get into the Honors college at CSU?
Are both affordable ?
TOSU is much better in terms or academics and campus environment (although the Euclid to downtown or to university circle area is not bad).
CSU is primarily commuter and used to be open enrollment. The depth and pace of the classes will be quite different from tOSU’s.
However CSU, especially honors, will provide a decent education and opportunities to volunteer in the many hospitals. It would likely be easier to get a high GPA but the alumni network, career center, and general state funding would be less good than at tOSU. This would especially matter if you (like most applicants) don’t get into med school.
What country are you living in? What program, course or major do you read/study, medicine? What classes have you taken so far?
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@WayOutWestMom @MYOS1634
thank you very much for your help !!
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i don’t know what is honors college.
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i am admitted in 7 universities ( OSU, CSU, bowling green, Akron, Findlay …) but
CSU interested me because they accepted 27 credits from my first year transcript, I like their support and their help. They are very professional and helpful- they give me in-state tuition.
(Cleveland clinic, the best hospital in the world is in the area, I don’t know if that will help with the opportunities)
Ps: I think that student life is not good there and it’s difficult to make friends but that is not important.
My uncle said that I have to go the OSU because it’s the best university in Ohio and it will increase my chances for well ranked medical schools. They are very complicated in term of administration processing and they took only 11 credits hours. Without working with me for credits evaluation. No evaluation specialist is available. They give me out of state tuition. So i have to wait the financial aid office for solutions.
(10k$ /35k$)
- i am us citizen, born in cleveland, I lived in Morocco (French high school diploma), then I joined a medical school in Tunisia and I am in my second year.( 2nd undergraduate).
-The 2 first years of my Med school are the full program of health sciences.
( anatomy, physiologie, histologie,biochimie, biophysique…)
I am sure that I want to study Medecine, nothing else. So do you think CSU is a good option ? Gpa will be better? What about other opportunities for the application?
Thank you again and again 
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Your goal should be to get an acceptance to ANY US medical school, not just a “well ranked” one. US medical education is relatively flat–meaning there is very little difference in the educational quality among schools. All US medical schools follow the same standardized curriculum and all US medical students must take and pass the same national standardized exams. (USMLE/COMLEX exams at the end of MS2 and MS3, and NBE exams for every clinical block)
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I think you are underestimating the competitiveness of getting an US med school acceptance. It’s a fact that the vast majority of college pre-meds will never even apply to med school because their GPA/sGPA or MCAT score isn’t good enough. And it’s also a fact that every year over 60% of applicants with good GPAs and good MCAT scores will get no acceptances. This means that no matter how sure you are about wanting to do medicine–you need to be prepared that you will be completely shut out during the application process.
Also the majority of successful med school applicants do not matriculate directly from undergrad to med school, but take 1-3 years after graduation to strengthen their CV by working in healthcare jobs first.
- It’s dangerous to assume that your GPA will automatically be better at CSU. The strongest students tend to cluster in engineering and pre-med classes at any university so the competition for top grades will be fierce no matter which school you attend.
You can be a successful pre-med at CSU just like you can be a successful pre-med at tOSU. It’s up to you to develop the strongest, best application you can.
tOSU likely may provide more opportunities to get involved in research than CSU and probably provides better pre-med advising, but it’s also important not to take on significant debt for undergrad because there’s no guarantee you’ll get into med school and because med school is horrendously expensive (think $78K/year on average) and there is precious little financial aid to pay for med school so you’ll be taking out HUGE loans to pay for it.
FYI, Cleveland Clinic is associated with/part of Case Western Reserve University and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. CWRU has tons of pre-meds so you will be competing with them for volunteer slots at Cleveland Clinic. You may have more luck looking for volunteer positions at smaller, less well known hospitals in Cleveland.
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Thank you very much for your help. You said everything. I don’t know how to thank you.
You are very helpful!!
Since you have a baccalauréat, you can get lots of credit for general education at both colleges: Literature, Philosophy, Calculus, Geography should all get you some credit, just like IB scores get you credit.
(French patterned systems/bac = IB, except…French, and
the scale is slightly different, 7=16, 6=14, 5=12, 4=10, 3=8).
Honors college = special classes, special advisers, special opportunities, often special dorm.
DO apply. Deadline is Jan 15.
If admitted to Honors, it’ll make for a better comparison between tOSu and CSU.
Can your family afford to pay for tOSu or would they need to take on a loan?
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Would those knowledgeable about US medical residencies be able to comment on how difficult it is for the OP is to get a US medical residency if they stay at the medical school in Tunisia and finish there?
@WayOutWestMom
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I would advice Why not just finish your medical education where you currently are and then write your USMLE exams for residencies…
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Thank you very much for the information. I will ask my CSU advisor about the honors program! I didn’t knew that before.
I did not receive the award package yet.
Anyway I have to take loans.
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Medical school in Tunisia is very very difficult and long. Even if the acceptance rate is 5%, the first diploma is after 9years of Med school.
And there is no credits system: if you want to validate a year you should successfully get 100% of the program of the year (655 hours) to pass for the next year, otherwise you loose one year as if you done nothing.
The « 9 » years Of medical school are finished generally after 10 to 14 years.
Me, as an American, it’s not a good option. Because o have to come back to USA. And it’s very risky, long and hard.
@WayOutWestMom is absolutely correct:
The road is difficult, expensive and VERY, VERY competitive. What will you do if you don’t get in? It happened to a number of my daughter’s friends who had wonderful backgrounds. There just are too many excellent students and not enough spaces.
Also, you’ll be in school for quite a while in the US.
With Covid-the game plan has changed. Rules, structures and procedures have changed and impacted how the hospitals now operate and will continue to operate. My daughter (still a student) has been working her hospital shifts during this Covid season. Emotionally, the staffs are spent and overworked and you have to be able to work in this environment.
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I can understand that an American would rather be in the US than in Tunisia. In addition, you’ve got an advantage over American students in that you already studied some of the material.
Based on your reply and the fact you’d need loans, my advice is to pick CSU. You’ll have to be among the top 3-5 in your year to compete with the CWRU students but Cleveland clinics do make space for the best CSU students.
But you MUST get into the Honors college (and get the scholarship) in order to increase your odds, because it offers individualized advising, which you’ll need. Ask if with the honors college you’d be allowed to take graduate level courses your junior/senior years.
You will need to take the honors version of English composition, Speech/communication, psychology, and sociology. A course in American Studies would also likely help. All of these would help give you the necessary background for thr MCAT and are mandatory for med schools (except American Studies).
My advice also is to pick a major such as biochemistry with a minor in something like data science or CS. NOT biology. Your current background should have taught you some advanced chemistry so that biochem should be a logical major.
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It sounds as if medical school in Tunisia is a direct admit program for high school grads.
I’m sure you know that US medical education follows a quite different model. You need a baccalaureate degree (BS or BA) from a US or Canadian college, followed by 4 years of of medical school, followed by 3-10 years (or more) of medical residency and fellowship before you will be able to practice medicine independently in the US.
So medicine in the US is a very long program too.
You will get paid during residency & fellowship training, but your salary is way, way, way below minimum wage. (My older daughter’s nanny makes more money working 40 hours/week than my medical resident younger daughter does working 80-120 hours week.)
And right now in the US, newly trained residency graduates are having great difficulty finding jobs. Hospitals are experiencing enormous financial difficulties due to the Covid pandemic and are responding by firing and furloughing physicians and not hiring any new staff.
Out of D2’s med school friends, only 1 has a job offer this year. He is a Stanford University trained pediatrician and will be working in an under-resourced public clinic for special needs indigent and low income children–a job he got only because his med school mentor is retiring and recommended him as his replacement. The rest of her friends have applied to fellowships in order to stay out the uncertain job market. D2 will finished her 4 year residency next year–and she has already committed to applying for fellowship because of the poor job market.
The physician job market isn’t expected to recover quickly.
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https://www.nrmp.org/2020-press-release-thousands-resident-physician-applicants-celebrate-nrmp-match-results/
Per the 2020 NRMP Match press release–
The number of U.S. citizen international medical school students and graduates (IMGs) who submitted program choices was 5,167, an increase of 87 over 2019; 61 percent (3,154) matched to PGY-1 positions, representing the highest match rate since 1991.
To be eligible for NRMP Match, graduates of foreign medical schools must:
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graduate from medical school that is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools as meeting ECFMG eligibility requirements.
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take and pass USMLE Step 1; Step 2CK; and Step 2CS.
Realistically, IMGs (whether US citizens or non-citizens) need US clinical experience to have the best chance for matching since most US residency Program Directors expect applicants to have at least 1 LOR from a US clinical supervisor.
IMGs can apply for away/audition rotations at US hospitals through VSLO.
https://students-residents.aamc.org/attending-medical-school/article/visiting-student-learning-opportunities/
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Thank you for the advice.
I will take the bio-chemistry as a major or health sciences I think.
I speak perfectly French and Arabic.
Do you think I should take French or Arabic for minor?