<p>Well so I was just wondering if it's possible to study abroad (through your college) if you plan on becoming a doctor? What I mean by abroad is like in Europe for a semester. It doesn't sound possible but I wonder....
Thoughts, answers anyone?</p>
<p>Yes. It's possible.</p>
<p>I don't see the issue here. My friend finished her prereqs in two years. Took the MCAT in the summer after her sophomore year. Asked for rec letters before she left for Spain in the second semester of her junior year. Came back to the US in May and was all ready to apply in June.</p>
<p>I did Physics I and Orgo I while studying abroad in London. NYU has their own site in the city, though, so the curriculum is more or less the same - lab, recitation, etc. I guess that if you're studying abroad in another university, then you might run into trouble.</p>
<p>Definitely possible, but it takes some careful planning. I went abroad in my junior year, but in freshman year (second semester) I was already planning my schedule around the assumption that I was going to be accepted into the program and that I would be going. It also meant that I had to take three lab courses the same semester (and it was worth it, but it was difficult).</p>
<p>ginnyvere:</p>
<p>My D is facing a similar situation to yours. She is currently a freshman at MIT and has a unique opportunity to spend junior year at Cambridge University. She will have met all premed requirements by the end of sophomore year and would take the MCATs before going abroad. An issue of concern is that any grades from Cambridge University would not be included in her MIT GPA and transcript and therefore the med schools will only see 3 semesters of grades (MIT has P/F first semester). She would hate to give up the opportunity but does not want to seriously jeopardize her applications. There is obviously the option of delaying the med school application process by another year, but since she may be looking at MD/PhD programs she is not very eager to make her studies even longer. </p>
<p>How did the med schools you applied to view your year abroad? Does an international experience provide any advantage at all or is just an extra hassle?</p>
<p>Oxford grades will count towards medical school admissions</p>
<p>I was only abroad for a semester (my apologies for wording my above post strangely), and it was in a program through my university, so I didn't have any problems with getting any credits to count. But, for what it's worth, AMCAS asks that you have transcripts sent from everywhere you've studied, so she'll probably have to get a transcript from Oxford or something like that. So the grades there should be taken into account on her applications (at least I think so).</p>
<p>And I have no idea how medical schools view my study abroad, but it was in no way an extra hassle. I wouldn't give it up for anything.</p>
<p>I know theres some schools like UMD that "sponsor" all students to go study abroad their freshman year? It was something like that.....how many times can you study abroad?</p>
<p>Don't do it more than one year if you're intending to apply to graduate school. That's just weird.</p>
<p>If studying abroad during the academic year is a stretch, another option is to go during the summer. Several of my classmates went abroad for language immersion or research programs this past summer and had a great experience.</p>