I’m 17 and may be moving to Brasil for a couple years, but am set on becoming a doctor.
It’s unrealistic to consider Brasilian schools at this point, because of my limited Portuguese, but if I use an online college, will it kill my chances for getting into med school when I come back to the US? They are already really competitive to begin with, and as far as I’ve heard, online college has the connotation of being really bad..
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#1 by James W Taylor II at July 4th, 2009
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That’s up to an AdCom.
I used to be on an AdCom, so I will give you my thoughts. However, do realize this is purely hypothetical, and as such a different AdCom rep could disagree with me. Further, my AdCom experience is with science, but not medicine. Hence, there might be some ignorance involved on my part, but a lot less than most of the people who answer your post.
The first major consideration is: did you meet the premedical requirements? Keep in mind, the premedical requirements state you HAVE to have 1 year of each of: general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology. Each of these courses MUST have the corresponding laboratory. If you don’t have these classes through a standard university, no medical school would consider you. Period. Further you need writing intensive classes. Some online degrees might offer such writing intensive classes, but my hunch is that most do not.
After that obstacle, there is no reason why a medical school would not consider you. However, you are a disadvantage. Medical school is highly competitive, as you noted. You have something to make you stand out: a brilliant essay, a great MCAT, an outstanding resume, etc. In your case, it isn’t your degree, per se. However, if you get really stellar grades and an even more stellar MCAT, an AdCom can’t discredit your degree as it produced a candidate who did well on the MCAT… so your degree won’t necessarily be held against you. Yet if your MCAT score is mediocre or even merely slightly above average, you have problems. I would think that without stellar MCATs AND at least good grades, most medical schools would consider you a risk and would choose a similar candidate with standard schooling.
So, the short answer is yes. A medical school would accept you under the right circumstances. Though I can’t emphasize enough you will be disadvantaged and will have to do better on the MCAT and have a higher GPA to get the same consideration an inferior coapplicant would need. Also, don’t forget to take actual science classes from a standard, tangible university.
#2 by J at July 4th, 2009
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Your best course would be to check with an university before leaving for Brazil. If a university has a complete degree program and credits it on your transcript as an equivalent to an in-class course, then a medical school MAY accept it. If you go this route, it may be better that you postpone taking the pre-req courses until you return to the US since half of the requirements are for labs and you can’t do a lab online.
If you were to attend a Brazillian school (and there may be schools that teach in English) you will still be considered a foreign-educated applicant. As such, you would be required to attend one year at a US university before being eligible to apply to a medical school.
But there may be US accredited schools in Brazil. Presumably you are moving as a result of a parent’s job. His/her employer should make this information available. If not, the US Embassy will be have it. I attended a US accredited school when I lived in Panama and had no difficulty having the credits accepted when I returned to the US.