<p>Hello!
I just moved from Romania in the USA a few months ago. I just started junior year in high school here and I discovered I have a problem.
I really want to go to medical school. But in order to do that everyone told me I need to take Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I went to the Guidance Officer to plan my schedule. He put me into English 2, English 3, US History 1 (all these three because they are mandatory in order for me to graduate), French 3,
AP Chemistry and EMA Honors. I talked to him about getting another science and he said there is no space left and he told me that I can have Biology or Physics in senior year, but not both.
In Romania I used to have 18 subjects in a year that included Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
As a little background, in my country eight graders are given a pretty challenging test at the end of middle school. After that, the results are combined with
your average grade of 4 years ( it’s similar to a GPA) and then, based on your final grade you can apply to high school.
I got into the best school country-wide.
I started school in US and realized that I am not doing the right thing so I decided to go talk to my Guidance Counselour.
She replaced my AP Chemistry with Biology Honors because I told her that I want to major in Molecular Biology but she said there is no way she can put me in all three sciences these 2 years.
I talked to a friend of my parents who is a principal in a high school nearby mine, and he told me that is really important for
me to get these classes because colleges won’t really look that much into my work from Romania.
I also talked to another family, who’s child is my grade and has the same ambition as mine. When I told them my situation
they too said that this is an issue.
I now discovered that I have two choises.
One is to find a high school that will allow me to take an online class (because my current high school doesn’t), maybe
in English 2 or US History…
The other is to leave USA and go back to my country to finish high school there, which is a pretty hard decision considering how hard my parents worked in order for us to get here.
My main questions are:
If I finish high school here will the colleges view me as an foreigner or as an American student?
( I asked my counselor this and she couldn’t answer)
If I finish high school in my country what are the odds for me to get into an American university if I take my Toefl, Internationall Baccaulareate, SAT?
Does anyone have any other solution or advise to this problem?</p>
<p>Thank you very much and sorry for the long post :)</p>
<p>If you aren’t, then you need to know that’s is extremely difficult for international students to gain admission to a US medical school. Fewer than 200 are admitted annually to all US med schools combined. Those who are admitted are mostly Canadian citizens/permanent residents. </p>
<p>There are 2 reasons for this: 1) more US schools will consider Canadians for admission than internationals from other countries; and 2) the Canadian government offers student loans to their citizens attending US medical schools.</p>
<p>The latter is important because there is almost zero financial aid available to internationals attending med school. (Internationals are ineligible for federal student loans–which is how most US students finance their medical education.) Many school will ask you to place 1-4 years worth of tuition and living expenses ($180K-$350K for the total cost for 4 years of med school) in a escrow account prior to being allowed to matriculate.</p>
<p>If you want to become a physician, you might be better served by studying medicine in your home country (the path is shorter than in the US since you can enter directly after high school) and then sitting for the US Medical Licensing Exams and entering the US residency match program. (A US medical residency is required to practice medicine in the US.) </p>
<p>1° it’s better to take AP Chem than to take Honors Bio. You should try to take as many AP classes as you can. </p>
<p>2° check with your GC to see whether you would be allowed to treat this year as 10th, taking English 2 + whatever science classes, then next year as 11th, and then senior year. The fact you have to take English 2 and 3 the same year would indicate this plan is more reasonable anyway.
You will NOT be penalized for this and in fact you will be helped by it by having 2 full years of American HS by the time you apply to college.</p>
<p>3° if you’re a permanent resident, you’ll be treated like an American citizen. If you’re not, then things get much harder and depend on your status and what state you live in. Some colleges and States consider that if you graduate from a US HS you would be treated as “in state”. Others don’t.</p>
<p>4° I don’t think you should leave the US and your family to live alone in Romania at present.</p>
<p>5° Colleges would admit you based on your overall record. While it’s best to have all three of Physics, Bio, and Chem, it’s more important to have as many AP classes are you can, including AP English Language. I assume you should be able to take AP French (or another foreign language, since I assume you studied two). Feench 3 should be ridiculously easy for you. </p>
<p>6° You can also apply to a boarding school, presenting your admission results from Romania. However, only the top ones have financial aid for non residents. </p>
<p>Can you tell us
the state you’re in, and your status
your exact junior schedule, indicating whether any of these classes are “honors”. (Does your Guidance counselor understand you were taking the equivalent of a full IB program at a school equivalent to Stuyvesant or New Trier)?
whether your GC might agree on placing you in the 10th grade so that you can take the English sequence in order</p>
<p>But back to your original question—you can try enrolling at your local community college–you may be able to take some of your coursework online thru them. However, be aware that community college classes count as college credits when it comes to admission for college and for medical school in the US. </p>
<p>There are also online programs that offer regular and AP high school classes.</p>
<p>Thank you very much!
Yes, I am a permanent resident. I have a green card and SSN. I currently live in New Jersey.
My schedule is: US History 1, Biology Honors, Elementary Mathematics Analysis Honors, English 2 & 3, French 3.
I don’t think she will agree. I tried talking to her about SAT’s and college and she said it’s too soon to talk about that.</p>
<p>I am not certain that completing sciences in high school is what gets you into medical school. You are overly concerned about what you must complete in high school.</p>
<p>OP, I think you’re losing sight of the forest for the trees. In other words, you’re losing sight of big picture (getting into med school) among the details (high school (hs) course selection). Med schools will not really care about your hs performance. They will however really care about your college performance. I think a hs student should take the hardest possible courses he/she can take AND do well in. Among other reasons, I think it’s important for hs to begin or continue to push themselves, it helps develop time management skills, and it potentially ends up giving them more choices college wise if they have a stronger hs record. Look at hs as a building step for college, not as med school prep. Good luck. </p>
<p>Are you concerned that you won’t have the right classes to get into undergrad? If so, that is your only concern now. Don’t yet worry about med school.</p>
<p>are you on track to get into a university? If not, then find out if you can fill in any holes this summer at a CC…but do your best since those will count for med school admissions.</p>
<p>I was an international ug science foreign student in the US and now I am looking into studying medicine in romania .
If you are 100% sure you want to be a doctor and you have family back home you could finish high school there and apply as romanian. It will be faster and cheaper.
I am an EU student, for us its not that hard to get into the english programs, as we pay tuition…
Have you volunteered in hospitals etc? How good are you in science? </p>