UK university to US medical school

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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Hello, my daughter is an American student and has received offers from a top UK universities (Oxford, University College London and Exeter) and will be studying Biomedicine (3 year degree.) She would like to go to school in the U.K. for the experience and then return to the U.S. for medical school. If she does a 1-2 post baccalaureate in the U.S. after finishing her bachelors, will it be possible for her to be accepted to a U.S. med school?

And does anyone have advice on best pre-med post baccalaureate programs?

Thank you!!

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Tagging @WayOutWestMom.

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I believe so. Your daughter is a U.S. citizen so she doesn’t face the obstacles that international students face when applying to medical school.

IIRC, she should NOT take any of the required courses for medical school admissions abroad…for most medical schools in the U.S.

@WayOutWestMom can tell the pros and cons of doing a post bacc.

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I think your statement has a contradiction.
How can you get a degree abroad and take so many required classes in the US? Would she take all classes again in the US after graduation? That would be a repeat…Also so many classes are one prerequisite to another with labs so that I am not sure they would fit into 2 years…
It sounds more like creating obstacles for potential medical school instead of helping…

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Maybe NOT major in a STEM field!

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But OP said Biomedicine.
Given initial cost plus cost of 2 more years, time, efforts, and extra obstacles what are the benefits of such route? I bet it would be more than 2 years to take all requirements since they have to be done in sequence. Just think: 2 chem, 2 Org chem, then some biochem, Genetics etc.
I would say 6 semesters minimum. In addition Bio with labs and Physics with labs.
Frankly, if medicine is a goal a probably will not take this route. She would have to be constantly explaining why she did. She is from US and lives in US, and would want to practice in US…Then why is UK?
Medical school is super competitive out of US schools already going overseas with not US system of education just creates barriers.
And in terms of possible… Everything is possible. You can start medical school at 50 if you want. The question is would it be practical?

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It’s going to depend a great deal upon which medical schools she applies to. Each med school will have its own specific policies. There just isn’t a uniform rule.

Some will consider a UK degree (esp from Oxbridge level schools) on a case-by-case basis. Others will accept a foreign degree if and only if it is supplemented with 30+ additional UL science (biology) credits earned in the US. (IOW, a master’s degree equivalent). Others won’t consider the UK degree at all UNLESS the student retakes ALL their pre-reqs in the US as a post bacc.

Your daughter really needs to research this more in depth. I think the MSAR may have this information. But if not, she will need to check the admission webpage of every single medical school she thinks she may want to apply to in the future. Just remember that admission policies can and do change from year to year. What is true now may not be in the future.

Edited to add: Osteopathic med school tend to have more open policies toward foreign degrees. Some will accept them if the grades are reported by an international transcript translations service. However, again, there is no universal policy. It’s all on a case by case basis.

Something else to think about–
Besides the academic issues, there is the expectation that ALL med school applicants have extensive ECs that include US based community service with disadvantaged groups, clinical exposure to the US medical system through volunteering or paid employment US physician shadowing experiences, hands-on laboratory research experience, and have demonstrated leadership skills through their activities.

Also it’s not clear how well (or poorly) LOEs from non-US/non-Canadian letter writers will be received but med school admission committees.

Getting a med school admission in the US is already complicated enough, compounding that with a foreign degree…just makes the med school path so much more complicated and difficult.

Would your D considering attending a US university and doing a year abroad in the UK instead?

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I would never recommend that a US student do their medical education abroad. There is a high risk that they won’t be able to get a US medical residency–which is a requirement to practice medicine anywhere in the US.

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One other problem I forgot to mention is the AMCAS, ACOMAS and TMDSAS (which are centralized application services for US MD/US DO/ Texas med & dental schools, respectively) will NOT accept transcripts from non-US/non-Canadian universities.

This means your daughter’s med school application will be at a dead stop. Med schools do not accept applications except from the centralized application services.

She would need to contact AMCAS/ACOMAS/TMDSAS and ask how she should proceed. She would also need to contact each and every medical school she will apply to individually ahead of submitting her application to ask how the school wants her to proceed.

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Thank you for the feedback.
We live in Europe, and that’s one of the main reasons my D wants to go to the U.K. It’s not too far from home, and her brother is studying near London. We’re trying to find a path that she can get a bachelors in the U.K., then return to the U.S. for a 2 year post-bac, then hopefully on to medical school.

A friend’s daughter studied psychology at St. Andrews in Scotland, came back to the U.S. and did a 2 year post-bac at Colombia, and was accepted at med school in San Fran. I need to find a counselor or someone who can tell us exactly the path. She can change her major from bio-medical if that would help her complete classes that she would receive credit for in the U.S.

As for the required community work, lab work and shadowing experiences. Would she be able to complete this during her 2 year post-bac?

Thank you everyone for brainstorming on this.

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Yes. There are students who weren’t interested in medicine at all who do this.

But I will add another question. Are you prepared to pay the costs of college in the UK, then a post bacc, then medical school? Medical school will likely cost over $100,000 a year by the time this student completes a bachelors and post bacc…and medical schools really give precious little aid beside loans loans and more loans.

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Is there an option to get to medical school in UK and then take all required exams in the US (equivalent to medical school exams) and get to residency in the US?
I know a few foreign students who did it.
It is harder but “smarter” way. Student doesn’t need to pay for American medical school or retake/take any classes.
If students from all over the world do it I do not see reason why that would be impossible from the UK.

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@WayOutWestMom your thoughts about this option…for an American citizen? We also know one doctor who did this. But she worried a lot about residency match (she DID match, but was very worried she wouldn’t). Also, this student had already completed a bachelors degree in the U.S.

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I know several with no BS from the US. Pretty much grew and study overseas but had green card or citizenship in the US.

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Did they do their bachelors overseas then applied to U.S. medical school?

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Correction. They did medical school overseas and then apply for residency in the US after taking exams equivalent to medical school ones(take exams in the US)! No medical school in the US.
No any education in the US.

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Nope!

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There are formal post bacc program that can help your daughter do this. However, they are expensive. Tuition >$60K/year for post bacc.

Some formal post-bacc programs will offer structured community service and/or clinical exposure opportunities. Most do not.

For your daughter, I would recommend she consider a post-bacc that has a linkage. Linkage is an agreement between the post-bacc program and one or more medical schools where the top students in the program (typically the top 25%) are guaranteed an interview with the associated medical school. This allows the student to skip a gap year between completing the program and starting med school.

Off the top of my head, linkage programs are offered at University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Georgetown, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins , Scripps College, Goucher College… However, some or all of them are exclusively for students who are career-changers who have not taken most or all of their med school pre-reqs.

AMCAS maintains a database of post-bacc programs. Here’s a link — Postbac

Be aware that post-baccs are often money-makers for university bio departments and the quality of the programs varies dramatically. Caveat emptor!

Another option would be for your daughter to enroll in a Special Master’s Program. (SMP). A SMP is like an audition for medical school. It’s a program that mimics the intensity and depth of the first year of medical school. The best SMPs are hosted by medical schools. At the these SMPs, student will take some/all of their classes with current med students. SMP students who perform well (finish in the top 10-25% of the class) will be granted an interview for admission to med school.

A SMP will not offer community service, research or clinical exposure activities–the student is expected to have completed those before beginning the program. SMP programs require a MCAT score for admission.

Will your daughter consider osteopathic medical schools (DO) or just allopathic ones (MD) ones?

In the US the admission rate to medical school is between 35-40%. Does your daughter have back up plan in case she attends a post bacc and doesn’t not get a US medical school admission?

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Is there any possibility that your daughter could attend medical school in Europe?
International medical grads do have a pathway to obtain a US medical residency position through the ECFMG. This organization verifies international medical education and manages the paperwork required for international medical grads wishing to apply for US medical residencies. (They also manage it for other countries as well. When my daughter who completed her med school & residency in the US moved to Australia, she had to use the ECFMG to verify her credential for the Australian National Medical Board before they would consider her for physician positions.)

The pathway would be this:

  1. complete med school in the EU or UK
  2. study for, take and pass the USMLE exams (Steps 1, Step 2 CK, Step CS at a minimum. She can take Step 3 during her intern year if she wishes-- which is what most US physicians-in-training do-- or take it before applying for residency which will make her a stronger candidate in the eyes of residency program directors,)
  3. do one or more visiting rotations at US hospital to get US clinical experience. Also to get LORs from her US supervising physicians needed for a strong residency application. Students may apply for visiting student positions through VSAS (Visiting Student Application Service)
  4. have her education, test scores, and US citizenship status verified by the ECFMG
  5. apply for residency positions via the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP)
  6. attend any interview offered by residency programs
  7. submit a ranked list of program preferences
  8. match or scramble into an open position during SOAP

Except for steps 1 and 4, everything else is identical to what US med students do.

The match rate for US-IMGs was 67% last year.

US-IMGs match predominately in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, pathology and emergency medicine.

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Yep, I was referring to your part 2. But I was not familiar with so many details.

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One more option–

The Atlantic Bridge Program Is for US and Canadian students. These are 4 or 6 year programs (4 years if doing post baccalaureate entry or 6 year of doing direct entry from high school) that provide a medical education at 6 Irish medical schools. (Including University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland).

Although AB grads are considered IMGs, the program is structured to help students return to do residency in the US or Canada. Because Ireland is member of the EU, a medical degree from Ireland allows graduates to continue their medical training in all EU countries plus the UK as well.

Something like this might provide more options to your daughter–including remaining in Europe post graduation to pursue her medical career.

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I need to look into this. I’m not sure she wants to be in the U.K. that long.