UK undergraduate and US Medical School?

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm a senior in a US high school, and would like to go to college in the UK (edinburgh or King's college london)! My only inhibition is whether or not I will get into medical school in the US (because I've really wanted to be a doctor my whole life). I was wondering whether going to school in the UK makes it harder to pursue a career in medicine in the US later, or if it makes only a slight difference. Has anyone else done this before? What were the results?</p>

<p>Thanks-
Nik</p>

2

<p>There are three huge issues with going to a UK undergrad. </p>

<p>1) Every US and Canadian medical school requires a minimum of 90 credits, including all prerequisites courses, to be taken at an accredited US or Canadian college or university. (UVA says it will consider UK transcripts on a case by case basis, but in reality hasn’t admitted anyone with fewer than 90 US credits in many, many years. There are a handful of osteopathic med schools–maybe 3 or 4–that say they may consider international transcripts on a case by case basis.) </p>

<p>2) AMCAS, the centralized application processor for all (except TX) US allopathic (MD) medical schools, will not verify international transcripts, including those from the UK. TMDSAS (centralized application processor for all TX med schools) will not accept or process international transcripts.
This means your application cannot not be forwarded to any medical school for admission consideration.</p>

<p>3) Med school applicants are expected to have physician shadowing and first hand clinical experience done at US healthcare sites. </p>

<p>~~~~</p>

<p>A second option would be to pursue an MD degree in the UK. However, it extremely difficult for non-EU residents to gain acceptance into either the direct admit MD or the graduate MD programs in the UK.</p>

<p>A UK MD would still need to sit for the USMLE (US Medical Licensing Exam), then complete a US medical residency. (Both are required to practice medicine in the US.) </p>

<p>~~~~~~</p>

<p>A third option would be to complete your undergrad in the UK, return to the US and complete a pre-med post bacc program, then apply to medical school. The post-bacc would take about 2 years full time and you would take/retake all med school pre-reqs in the program.</p>