<p>I’m still trying to make a decision about college, and even though I want to attend McGill, I (i.e., my parents) have two concerns about going.</p>
<li><p>I’m a Canadian citizen, but I’m currently living the United States, and we’re in the middle of trying to obtain our permanent residency. The problem is that there is a chance, albeit a rather small chance, that I might be withdrawn from the green card process if I don’t spend enough time in the US or the immigration people might reject my application if they think that I have no intention of coming back (it’s kind of random, like college admissions). The constant flights might arouse suspicion, even though flying would be inevitable since I live in Florida. If I can’t get my green card as a dependent of my parents, I would have to do consular processing by myself, which would be a long, tedious and difficult process (this is according to our lawyer). So, my parents don’t want me to take the chance and lose my green card.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m hoping to take the premed track and go to medical school, which may very well be in the US. However, many med schools here consider “accredited institutions” to only be colleges in the US and not Canada. Not every school does this, obviously, but it can be limiting because these med schools require a year of studies in an American college, which is highly inconvenient and just plain annoying. Also, related to concern #1, should I lose the permanent residency, I would be placed in the international pool, which means that I have next to no chance of being admitted. Obviously, I can also just choose to attend med school in Canada, but I would like to keep my options open. </p></li>
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<p>Do you think these concerns are valid?</p>
<p>I really do want to attend McGill for many reasons, but I’m having problems convincing my parents to let me. Any thoughts/suggestions?</p>
<p>Your(/parents) concerns are definitely valid. I’m not sure about the first question. For the second though, “accredited institutions” include colleges in Canada. I think they’re just more concerned about the fact that many students will not be familiar with English for med school. I’ve contacted and looked at several schools and they recognize McGill. You might want to do the same thing. I even saw on McGill’s website that they have several schools come and recruit med school bound students (well they have fairs or something). However, as for residency, I’m not in the same situation as you, since I’m a US citizen but I had the scare that if I were to choose McGill, I would not be able to come back to America for med school. Should med school be where you want to go after undergrad, then I definitely would make sure that I choose the path that leads to more options. Many schools only accept around 75-125 medical students per year, so you’ll have to apply to a lot of places. If you were put into the international pool, many schools only accept around 1-4 students per year. (You’re probably familiar with those stats) If you were to attend med school in Canada, you have to realize that there are less schools to choose from and it will be harder to come back to America to work (unless you get into the top medical schools in Canada).
As for studying in Canada, how often would you have to fly back and forth? We wouldn’t have many breaks (probably summer and then 2 weeks winter, 1 week “spring” break), so I would only imagine you’d have three trips max to and from Canada a year, which isn’t too bad. Also, you have a 4 month summer. Would you be coming back to the US for all of that? Do you think it’ll improve your chances at all if you were to work or take classes in the US during that time? I’m not too familiar with the process, but I’m just trying to offer suggestions.</p>