<p>DS received an unconditional offer from Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. Last month he was admitted to his SCEA school, a top Ivy. So he has to make a decision and is seeking advice. </p>
<p>Background info, DS knows what he wants to do so going staight to a major in a UK college was something that attracted him. He eventually wants to go to medical school or pursue a MD.PHD track.</p>
<p>Both are fantastic schools, and I know he will be happy at both places. Our main question is that if he chooses to spend 3 years in UK and then apply to an US med school, will he be in a disadvantaged position compared to him choosing to attend a top UG program in the US instead? Any experience and or advice? </p>
<p>I would ask this question on the pre-med forum CC has. Many of the folks over there would be able to help with this specific issues. Med schools require so many different hoops to jump through for admission. High GPAs in very specific pre-med required courses which have just been changed with additional courses (chem, o-che, bio, biochem, humanities, physics, some math). New MCAT test, LORs, ECs, volunteering, shadowing, clinical and/or bench research…the list is extensive.</p>
<p>Again try the other forum for additional advice.</p>
<p>This may not apply to a Cambridge NatSci, but most UK undergrad courses would not suffice for entry to US medical schools, since they wouldn’t have taken a wide variety of courses and met the pre-med distribution requirements.</p>
<p>The advantage of a UK school (depth over breadth) would seem to be a disadvantage in this case.</p>
<p>If the idea of studying in the UK appeals to him, I’d encourage it. If he’s anyway deficient, course-wise for US med schools, he can post grad them and I doubt he’ll come up short of med school accepts. He sounds like he’s fully capable of attaining anything he puts his mind to.</p>
<p>Any consideration for the possibility of pursuing med school abroad…including Cambridge?</p>
<p>Just wondering as I’ve known several Americans who went to Europe to pursue undergrad medical degrees and after passing the required exams, went into internship/residencies and became practicing doctors here in the US.</p>
<p>Where does he want to attend Med School / ultimately live? All other things being equal (or even close), I’d suggest studying closer to where he sees himself studying professionally/ settling, simply because any academic & professional connections acquired will likely be geographically focused.</p>
<p>@Kat, thanks for the information. I will pass this advice to my son and ask him to check the course work. Now he is accepted, he will be receiving information in the coming months. He doesn’t have to commit to either school right away so we have ample time to gather more information.</p>
<p>@T26E4, Thanks! Being a CC regular visitor, your words mean a lot. DS decided to apply to a UK school to see where he stands when admission is academic/merit based. Well that was the initial motivation. Last December he went to Cambridge for a test/interview and fell in love with the college. He had great discussions with several professors, and liked the peers he met at the pre-interview dinner. He became excited about the academic environment there. </p>
<p>@Cobrat, He didn’t apply for the Medicine course because he wanted to follow the conventional US medical school track, and to certain extent, because he didn’t have a thorough understanding of the UK med course vs. US med degree so wanted to be safe…</p>
<p>@Expat He (and parents in particular) will want to come back to the US for med school.</p>
<p>These are a few of the stickies in the pre-med forums, actually just a few…there are plenty more. Years of posters/posts acumulating all in 1 spot. Addressing which school for pre-med, what kind of major, requirements and then threads of application year, year by year tracking progress. Step by step and timing of applications, plus another thread for residences!</p>
<p>This forum (pre-med on CC) in conjunction with SDN (Student Doctor Network) guides many successful med school applicants. Cannot underscore this enough. If you want specifics it will help.</p>
<p>I’m no expert, but my understanding is that he’d have to do at least one extra semester after getting his Cambridge degree before he’d be eligible to apply to a US med school. The requirements can vary a bit among schools.</p>
<p>The thing is…is he absolutely certain he wants to be a MD? I think he might end up kicking himself if he turns it down because of the challenges of meeting pre-med requirements and then decides he doesn’t want to be a doctor after all.</p>
<p>Just responding to this bit in post 9 above: “Now he is accepted, he will be receiving information in the coming months.” I’d be very surprised if he receives information before August 14 - which is when A-level results come out and all the students who have been given ‘conditional offers’ find out whether they are in or not. Sounds like your son has been given an ‘unconditional offer’ as he is applying from outside the UK system but no information will be sent out as a matter of course until after Results Day. </p>
<p>Of course, August 14 is long after the deadline for decisions for US acceptances. As you say he has made contact with his future professors at Cambridge, he could email them to start the discussion now. Perhaps he can post on the pre-med Board and ask whether anyone has entered med school in the US from the UK system and what that entailed. But he absolutely cannot wait to receive information from the University/College.</p>
<p>If your son wants to attend a US medical school, then attending a UK university will complicate his reaching his goal. Most US medical schools require a minimum of 60-90 credits from an accredited US or Canadian college in order to be considered for admission. Those credits must include all his science pre-reqs (gen chem, ochem, biochem, biology, physics). This is because AMCAS (the centralized application clearinghouse for medical schools) will not verify transcripts from non-US/non-Canadian colleges.</p>
<p>There are a few US medical schools that will consider applicants with foreign degrees-- Harvard, UVA. There may be 2 or 3 others.</p>
<p>His other option would be to stay in the UK and enter medical training there, but in order to practice in the US, your son would need to return to the US and enter into a US medical residency program. (Required to practice medicine in the US.) The problem with this course is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for FMGs (foreign medical graduates) to obtain US residencies. </p>
<p>My son is a JUnior and contemplating applying to Cambridge for physics in case he doesn’t make it to MIT or Caltech. Any thoughts on an undergrad in Physics at Cambridge ? he wants to pursue MS/PhD and work in the US after that.</p>
<p>Thanks WOWM!! Was hoping you would post here…I knew there were limitations/obstacles to gaining admittance to a US med school without those units from a US/CANADIAN undergrad but did not remember it was the verification from AMCAS. AMCAS…another hoop to jump through.</p>
<p>Another would be the lack of decent pre-med advising, since admission to med school here in the US isn’t just about the numbers, CGPA, science/math GPA and MCAT. Those get you “Not rejected” outright, computer software program weeding. After that its all the extras, as I mentioned in my other post. </p>
<p>I do not know if I would encourage someone who was seriously considering a US med school to pursue a UK school ESPECIALLY with very nice other options. The journey to and through med school is a difficult and LONG one, and with the unit requirement from AMCAS and the pre-med requirements why make it so much more difficult?</p>
<p>Again over on the pre-med forum there are many posters who have done the pre-med route and those in med school and beyond who can speak to this.</p>
<p>kat is correct. There are many unspoken expectations for med school applicants (e.g. shadowing practicing US physicians and performing extensive clinical volunteering in US healthcare settings) that need to be considered when deciding on what university to attend.</p>
<p>And it’s not just that AMCAS won’t verify foreign transcripts, but also that the basic admission requirements as listed on the admission sites of individual medical schools and in MSAR state a required number of minimum credits for admission consideration.</p>
<p>Medicine is an undergraduate course at Cambridge.</p>
<p>I think it would be rather difficult to complete the array of courses required for medical school within the framework of an undergraduate degree at Cambridge . . . can’t think offhand of any subject that would permit this. I think that med schools generally do not want students to have only the AP courses in subject areas that are required for admission. I think it would be difficult to meet the requirements in English (writing, literature) and the humanities, while studying science in a British university.</p>
<p>So, if your son is committed to going to medical school, I would recommend staying in the US.</p>
<p>In terms of the educational quality of the universities, I do not think that you can easily beat Cambridge, anywhere in the US. However, it just doesn’t work well for med school.</p>
<p>Another feature to consider is the difference in styles of letters of recommendation in the US vs. the UK. A letter from a British professor that says that a student is “really quite good” probably means that the professor puts the student in the same general category that would cause an American professor to describe the student as "excellent, top of the class . . . " There are not so many schools that are sufficiently familiar with the style of British recommendations to make this work out well.</p>
<p>I would like to add that I find the Harvard recommendation for at least one year of college or university “training” in the US or Canada to be both arrogant and laughable, in the context of a Cambridge undergrad program.</p>