<p>1.) A blind MCAT score’s not particularly indicative. If you got less than five or so on any of your subsections, I might be inclined to agree with you.</p>
<p>More than nine on all of them, and you’re being ridiculous. Anything in between, and there’s no way to know which side of the fence you’ll ultimately end up in.</p>
<p>2.) It’s certainly possible that your GPA is low enough that there’s no chance of you getting into medical school. But there’s no way to know that one way or the other based on what you’ve told us so far.</p>
<p>what about foreign medical schools? such as ross? i mean, i know you might not be able to do a residency at the mayo clinic from there, but is it still a good last resort, a foreign medical school?</p>
<p>As backup options go, DO, NP, or PA are probably better options than a Caribbean MD.</p>
<p>DO’s are officially equivalent to MD’s. While there is of course some MD-snobbery, they are fully licensed physicians who are eligible to do MD residencies.</p>
<p>They have better success rates in matching into those MD residencies and, unlike the Caribbean, have their own residencies to serve as a backup as well.</p>
<p>NP’s and PA’s do not have the same independence as a physician, but it’s pretty close in the right situations. They are permitted to practice medicine in their own practice; how much MD-oversight is required is not clear to me. Their jobs pay very well and offer shorter hours than an MD. Essentially, they serve as front-line family practice physicians, which is about what you could hope to do from the Caribbean anyway.</p>
<p>For a future career, the ceiling is lower – a hypothetical Caribbean kid with a 270 on the USMLE could match into surgery, for example, which no NP could ever do – but the floor is so much higher that NP/PA is a much better option on balance.</p>
<p>just to add a little to BDM’s post, my parents are currently trying to get me to quit college and go to poland for medical school. So ive been hearing the whole slew of phenomenal cases where FMG’s have placed into surgery or UROLOGY! In reality, this is really really rare, and after talking to many family friends who have gone to the Caribbeans, they ALL have advised me to try and apply for DO school before resorting to foreign schools.</p>
<p>how do you guys feel—meaning give me some advice please— about finishing a pre-med undergraduate degree (I’ll major in either public policy, international relations or behavioral neuroscience) in three years and applying to med school? how do med schools view this?</p>
<p>It’s just that my parents are forcing to go to a certain school (Lehigh if anyone cares) and I know that I am not gonna enjoy it like I should traditionally enjoy my college years. So, assuming I do good there (3.5+ GPA, 30+ MCAT, research, ec’s, community service), would med schools look at it as a bad thing or good thing?</p>
<p>How do you know you’re not going to enjoy it?</p>
<p>In general, I think that it’s not directly viewed as a bad thing, but it puts you at a disadvantage because you’ll be applying with an academic record only 2 years in length - not the 3 (or more) that other applicants will have. That means you have significantly less amount of time to accomplish all the things you need to do - and some things like campus leadership are hard to earn as a underclassman. </p>
<p>So it’s not that the med schools are going to look at you and say “only three years…what’s going on here”, but they might see your that your accomplishments aren’t as numerous simply from having less time.</p>
<p>Well, I’d put it slightly more negatively than that. They’ll only see your grades from your first two years, which means that all the other candidates are providing 50% more academic information than you are. That means that you’re much less of a “sure thing” than the other candidates, and schools will preferentially admit one of them, who is more likely to continue his track record since he’s held up his track record over a longer period of time.</p>
<p>well I was only looking at it as an option bcuz I want to pursue a MD/MPH program which would be (at least) one year longer than traditional med school. I was basically thinking the same thing you guys have mentioned. </p>
<p>I figured that I would just give it a shot, and if I get into a med school, that’s amazingly awesome, and if I don’t, I’ll stay another year at Lehigh, pursue a double major, do more research, etc and apply again next year, no harm done (maybe even good done bcuz I’ll be familiar with the process). </p>
<p>Oh, another question: assuming I take the 3-year route, would suggest taking the MCAT summer after freshmen year or during sophmore year? I thought I would take it after freshmen year and then if I needed to, again sophmore year. </p>
<p>Applying once and being rejected can significantly damage your chances at that medical school when you “actually” apply. It’s the first thing every medical school will ask: Have we rejected you before?</p>
<p>Not that it’s impossible. Only that it’s about as intelligent as planning to take the MCAT twice.</p>
<p>And there’s no way you can fit in the coursework in one year. This is another disadvantage of applying early. You either have to take the MCATs without enough coursework preparation, or you have to take them late enough to stall your application, which further harms your chances.</p>
<p>grandted that I wouldn’t be able to fit all the pre-med requirements into one year, but shouldn’t I be able to fit all the pre-MCAT courses in one year? I recall somewhere one of you veterans said that physics wasn’t necessary if one has a background from highschool and that the second semester of bio (evolution, ecology, etc) wasn’t necessary either. So basically all I would need to take b4 the MCAT would be two chems, two orgos, and one bio (perhaps a biochem or physiology too)…plus I would obviously be studying for the test on my own (probably taking a course in the summer too)</p>
<p>I must disagree with the above statement that it is better to be a NP or PA, than an FMG. A foreign medical grad is a doctor. There are plenty of FMGs who are radiologists, surgeons in addition to medical specialists. A PA is just that. They are physician assistants. They are not doctors and are not trained to be one. I am not an FMG, but know plenty of people who went to Ross, Guad, Italy, Israel. I also know PAs and NPs who have gone to medical school (US and non-US), because they were tired of being told what to do by physicians.
I agree that DO school is better than a foreign school but
if you want to go into primary care or a less popular residency, and are a US citizen, an accredited non-US school is a viable option.</p>
<p>You’re certainly correct that FMG’s (now IMG’s) have a higher possible career ceiling than either an NP or a PA, as I readily concede here:
</p>
<p>The problem is that if you’re in the 35% of FMG’s who don’t pass step I, or in the 50% who don’t match – I don’t know how those fractions interact, so don’t try to draw any conclusions from the combination of them – then you’ve just spent either $120 or $240K and now you have no career options whatsoever.</p>
<p>The odds are poor enough, and the floor low enough, that those seeking a career in medicine should pursue NP and PA degrees rather than an IMG MD.</p>
<p>how about studying for MCATS? is it a waste of time to start to buy textbooks and review basic concepts and take practice tests, etcthe summer going into your freshman year of college ?</p>
<p>im deciding to take another bio course in my sophomore year by pushing back a core course. I can either take genetics or microbiology. Which do you think is more important and useful for the MCATs?</p>