He’s not disclosing or doesn’t know, so it’s rather difficult to offer advice.
@goldenmaster , just wanted to offer you a couple of words of encouragement and echo a couple of sentiments on this thread. First, if you were able to negotiate your way through college admissions solely on the advice of College Confidential, you are my hero. That is amazing and awesome, and commendable. I love the way you coached your teachers to write recommendations for you. Bravo! Your will and your ingenuity will take you far in life.
Secondly, if you want to study in America, will your school support a school year/semester/summer abroad? I know is not as great as getting a degree here, but it is the next best thing, and way less expensive. Let us know if that is a possibility.
If you and your parents are not seeing eye-to-eye when it comes to paying for an undergraduate education, as wonderful a big brother you are, it won’t help you little brother much. All the elite schools you have been aiming for are need only based. No merit aid. So, he will be faced with the same dilemma. You indicated your parents did not want to pay for your education. Elite American college tuition is unreasonably expensive.
But, I do have one suggestion–that would basically take a major miracle for him–but will offer anyway. Ask him if he would be interested in applying for the Andover Kemper scholoardship? Andover is a boading school in America, and offers a one year all-expense paid scholarship to a German high school student for a year. This would give him the chance to study abroad. You and he could look on www. andover.edu and see if it would be something that interests him at all. St. Paul’s School also offers a German scholarship.
Back to you, as expensive as an American undergraduate education is, Medical School is worse, i.e. more expensive.
So, if you have already been admitted into the 7 year medical school track in Bavaria, why don’t you continue and then look into summer internships with large German multinationals that might offer employment after you finish your degree? Could you work for a German corporation like Merck or Roche or Bayer? Then, maybe your work/education could be leveraged for a transfer to the US?
Best of luck and again, the only thing you were missing was being out of sync with your parents and knowing the selective schools are somewhat like a lottery. Hang in there!
OP, this is getting too confusing and too many opinions. You need to start with some google type research. Quick and as thorough as you can. I googled “residency foreign medical graduate.” One related keyword related to residency is “match.”
Yes, an intl can get to a US med school, but it depends. Yes, an intl can get a residency, but it depends. You need to look into med school admissons for intl colege grads. And the residency opportunity details. Here’s one link http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/international-medical-graduates/practicing-medicine.page? Maybe this http://www.aafp.org/medical-school-residency/residency/apply/img.html
And this http://www.ecfmg.org/news/2015/03/27/img-performance-in-the-2015-match/ Fewer intl grads get matched, but they can be.
Your 33 was not the problem. Germany offers a highly competitive applicant pool. You now need to pick up the pieces you can. Med school here may also offer little financial aid, so in many ways, “Plan B” makes sense. It means going with your wisest alternative, having some plan based on that. Best wishes.
Thanks everybody for your answers
@MYOS1634 I will probably get an Abitur of 1,0, which means guaranteed admission to the universities I have mentioned (so no waiting on a spot or so). And I grew up bilingually, so English is in fact my native language (next to German). Also I am not a first gen; my parents did go to uni, but not in the US.
I won’t qualify for much fa and yes, I knew that ivys don’t offer merit scholarships. The thing is, my parents did say they would be able to pay for college; however, they would only do that for a college where they think it is worth (HYPS etc.). If I didn’t get into them, then German universities it is.
I am not even sure if I want to become a practicing doctor; I am actually leaning towards research (cancer, AIDS, etc.). Does anyone know whether a residency is still needed in that case?
How are your parents deciding what is “worth it”? For your path, no American undergrad may be worth the cost since you may end up applying to an (American) PhD program after getting your German MD.
You need to get into an MPST or MD/PHD program and it’s virtually impossible from abroad because undergrads don’t do research. If that’s your goal, hen you’re better off with an Honors College with research opportunities starting your first year.
You can of course become an expert after your graduate from Geman med school and then join a team in the US after some time proving yourself, but we’re talking 15-20 years from now and by that point, you’ll likely have a family in Germany so the goal probably won’t matter to you.
Just to avoid confusion, you said “no one’s attended a college in the US”, right?
Obviously if your parents have a 4-year or Master’s degree from Germany it’s taken into account, but not the same as if you had a 4year degree from the US; “training” or Fachhochschüle degrees don’t count at the universities where you applied. But I understand that you’re not “first gen”.
Congratulaions on the 1 for Abitur!! Awesome 
@MYOS1634, why can’t he go for a PhD program after the German MD or come to the US after post-doc (assuming that Germany also has something like a MD-PhD program)?
@goldenmaster , yes you absolutely need a residency if you want to have an MD degree and do research in academia or in business. Again, being bilingual you will have many opportunities. There are tons of positions for MDs in American in business–not just pharma. In the tech world, many players want to have a medical/health strategy. There are many openings if you would consider a blended career of a physician counseling in an IT company.
And, by the way, give yourself some permission to change your mind or be more flexible. Maybe some other career path may catch your fancy in the future.
And, thanks for clarifying that your parents only think attending a HYPS-like school is worth the cost of tuition for them. That is very helpful for this thread.
PHD or Post Doc in the US is a great idea!
An issue is that US PHD’s presume research experience, and it’s not easy to get (if not downright impossible) in Germany, not because there’s none (of course not), but because paths are very fixed and those involved are doctoral students and, to a certain extent, Master students (Master2 students all do, although not always significant/meaningful.) It’s a handicap that’s hard to bypass. A Medical student may be able to do research in his/her last years, I don’t know, but I have heard complaints about how comparimentalized the training is, so that you’re not supposed to be both MD and PHD. MD going on to PHD certainly happens, but I don’t know the process, as it doesn’t seem pre-planned like in the US. If it does exist, all the better for the OP, but OP will need to look it up.
Since 1’s are exceedingly rare, OP’s likely to be a top student in his class, so by knowing what to target he’d have a good shot at reaching his goals.
You can start postdoc with an MD degree if research is the ultimate goal. You don’t need a PhD drgree for that. I do have a friend (international originally) that got an MD after PhD but that is for a different career goal.
In my humble opinion, because OP’s parents are willing to pay for a HYPS-type school and it is pretty clear that OP would ultimately like to be in the US either practicing or doing research in medicine, OP should do their best to convince them that UCLA is not that far a cry from elite private schools in terms of prestige. In all likelihood, if OP spends another 7 or 8 years in Germany, they are not going to end up coming to the US because the path in Germany will be even more the one of least resistance. It’s best to make a fresh start as a freshman here and see what happens with respect to med school or biological research down the line. Just my two cents.
IMO, that is a fair chunk of money, but agree that given the OP’s chosen path, making a distinction between Ivies and UCLA doesn’t make a lot of sense.
However, I would choose TUM for free over all the above.
OP, can you defer for a year and keep your place at the universities you were admitted to?
Assuming his/her German spot can be saved for a Gap year, are there any 7 or 8 year med programs (Tulane, Brown, NYU and others, google them) that would make sense for OP to apply to during a Gap year? They are very competitive. Will those allow for a PHD program later? IDK, just wondering. Would OP’s parents pay for Tulane or NYU?
@MYOS1634 My parents did their masters here and in other countries.
The thing with the German universities is: I haven’t even applied as yet (application season starts here in June/July), but, as admission is solely based on academic achievement, I have a guaranteed spot for medicine (assuming I don’t mess up school in the next weeks). For that reason I can also apply next year (or the year after etc.) and be accepted.
Just to clarify: If I stay here and start the medical path at LMU or TUM, I won’t be able to apply to an US PhD programme, due to lack of research?
If I do manage get a PhD in the US, will residency still pose a problem?
Furthermore, going into medical research I will need a PhD and not a MD?
If I start the medical track here there won’t be any possibility to attend an US medical school?
Thanks
Again, try to find the info directly from the sources.
Here’s one example, Emory MD/PHD, a respected program:
“Are international students eligible for an MD/PhD award?
International applicants are welcome to apply. The admissions process at Emory School of Medicine is the same for domestic and international students. If an applicant’s undergraduate degree is from a college outside the United States, the applicant must complete all science course requirements (and English, if English language skills are not strong) at an accredited U.S. or Canadian college before submitting an application to the Emory School of Medicine. All students admitted to the program receive the same financial support. Please visit the Emory School of Medicine Admissions website for more information.”
At this point, that sounds to me like you could do a “post-bacc.” There are a number of unis here that offer that.
And I linked residency info.
(Try to distinguish between “residency” for purposes of living in the US, the visa, versus the resident program toward the MD.)
I also think it’s important to look more into what research opportunities exist at or through LMU. TU may only offer the clinical side of training (I didn’t look deeper.) From what I’ve seen, research doesn’t mean groundbreaking. It means solid, relevant lab experiences. I find it hard to believe you couldn’t accomplish this in Munich, somehow.
When you hunt info, there is a distinction between IMG (international med graduate-- Americans) and FMG (foreign citizens trained in foreign med programs.) You would be the latter, if you do this in Germany.
Also, did we say that you could do the U degree in science and then apply for grad school in sci research here? Yes, you’d need prior research experience, but there are plenty of international kids who find the way, during or after college.
Last note: I don’t want to underestimate the challenges. And it’s now late in the US college cycle to be digging into this. But you have to gather the facts you can, gain the best understanding of how this works. Only then can you see what your options are, know the work involved, and set your path.
Students don’t apply to Tulane’s BS/MD until after being accepted, and hear back in fall of their freshmen year. Besides Brown and NYU, I believe Northwestern, BU, SUNY Stony Brook, Penn State, UAlabama Birmingham, and Drexel all have combined bachelor’s/MD programs.
I just found this list of similar programs; I believe this list excludes Caribbean med school programs, although it’s possible there are some in here that I didn’t see. (http://www.ivyplanners.com/documents/BS-MD-IvyPlanners.pdf)
^ I know someone who went to Tulane a couple of years ago and he knew well before HS graduation but maybe his mom was bragging or they have changed the rules.
“When you hunt info, there is a distinction between IMG (international med graduate-- Americans) and FMG (foreign citizens trained in foreign med programs.) You would be the latter, if you do this in Germany.” @lookingforward, I think the American citizenship would mean the former but OP needs to research this
OP, a friend of the family who is about 40 now went to a top US college, med school (no PhD) and residency and then got a job doing research at NIH. He ended up as an executive at a major pharma in the US where they paid for his MBA.
I would check other MD/PHD programs to see if all require US science courses. Also from what I understand they require exceptional grades because they are mostly free. The one person I know who is attending one had an almost perfect GPA at her HYPSM, did unrelated ECs, worked in a lab all 4 years and the professor went to bat for her.
Ack, good catch. OP needs to look into how IMGs are treated for residency programs. Obviously, lots of US kids train outside the country. Thx.