International applicant - What are my chances?

[Vennela]

I am a non-traditional candidate and planning to apply for year 2013. I am an international and am here on a work visa (came to US on student visa).
I'm currently a University researcher and teacher at a US state university. I've not yet registered for MCAT.

Academic:
I have a Ph.D from US (food safety), M.S from India (biotech), B.S from India (chemistry, botany, zoology majors) and I also will have a graduate certificate in statistics from US (same university where I work) in May.
Overall GPA: Ph.D - 3.89, statistics certificate - 3.7, M.S (73.3%, no GPA info, was top ranker in the department within my university), B.S (73.3%, no GPA info, was top ranker in my college). Please, note i have never taken physics classes as they were not required in my Bachelor's program.
MCAT : Not yet taken!

Service/volunteering:

India:
~200 hours of social service during bachelor's in India (It included volunteering in a medical camp for 7 days in an Indian village, similar volunteer activities, have a national Social Service certificate from Indian government.
US:
~3 hours/month volunteering in a church in US providing home-cooked food to homeless and disabled since Jan 2011.
~held a 4 hr workshop for middle school students in spring 2010 to possibly help them interested in STEM areas, also involved as a
~mentored high school students during summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010 in their 6 week research experience in our university
~help in a project where our project members would go out to tribal colleges in the US state where I live to demonstrate the importance of contibuing education in STEM area

Leadership:
I am currently the acting secretary for a branch of ASM (American Society for Microbiology) (Year 2012-2013)
Also, secretary of my university chapter of another scientific organization (Year 2012-2013)
Editorial board member and reviewer of an international food safety journal, and reviewer for couple more food related journals

Research experience:

~My M.S thesis in India (research for just 1 semester) was on vaccine production
~Then I got selected in Ph.D program (got a national level scholarship - CSIR-UGC JRF) in India and worked as junior research fellow for 18 months before I moved to US (no publications)
~Did my Ph.D in Food safety in US and did a 8-month post doc in another university before coming back to my current university (same place where i got my Ph.D) to work as university researcher and teacher. While I worked I also did a part-time M.S course work in applied statistics in my university but just changed it to get a graduate certificate in statistics recently (I felt really bad doing that).
~I have published 3 journal articles, 1 book chapter and submitted 3 more manuscripts in reputed journals within last 2 months
~I also presented 16 oral and poster presentations so far in US in various organizations.
So what are my chances? Is it too late for me to prepare for MCAT and give it sometime in July? I just gathered few books to study for the exam. When should I have my AMCAS ready? Before MCAT or after? Also, AMCAS does not accept my foreign degree but will aceept my US Ph.D, so am planning to submit my B.S and M.S education evaulation done through WES to AMCAS. Will that work? how many schools should I apply to?

Thanks a ton
Vennela

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[Jamie561]

How do you plan to pay for medical school without federal student loans?

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[Vennela]

I am planning to save upto 50K (I am married and my spouse will save his income and we will just spend my share of income this year) by the time i formally get accepted and rest I may have to get private bank loans. I might seek some financial help from my parents too. I know it seems impossible financially but I want to handle the initial hurdles first. My current priority is to achieve good MCAT score and manage few good interviews and possibly get accepted in some schools.

But do you think its impossible for me to get into one? Can you shed some light?

Also, I applied for a non-degree program in my school (they would not officially let me take undergrad courses as I was a grad student in the school, so had to apply at undergrad level). That way I can finish my Physics pre-req. Hopefully, the hurdle of not having any physics coursework in the past will be resolved soon. I really wish to be a physician and I think I will do well in med school if I do get accepted. But, I may not be forseeing few things the right way and hence I am asking for an opinion on SDN. What do you think?

 

[Catalystik]

I suggest you do a Search using the search term International in the What are my Chances forum and read about the challenges faced by others in your position.

Then read through these two threads:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=584858
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=677617 (just got an acceptance)

 

[Jamie561]

I am planning to save upto 50K (I am married and my spouse will save his income and we will just spend my share of income this year) by the time i formally get accepted and rest I may have to get private bank loans. I might seek some financial help from my parents too. I know it seems impossible financially but I want to handle the initial hurdles first. My current priority is to achieve good MCAT score and manage few good interviews and possibly get accepted in some schools.

But do you think its impossible for me to get into one? Can you shed some light?

Also, I applied for a non-degree program in my school (they would not officially let me take undergrad courses as I was a grad student in the school, so had to apply at undergrad level). That way I can finish my Physics pre-req. Hopefully, the hurdle of not having any physics coursework in the past will be resolved soon. I really wish to be a physician and I think I will do well in med school if I do get accepted. But, I may not be forseeing few things the right way and hence I am asking for an opinion on SDN. What do you think?

You need 90 semester units of UG coursework in the US. Peruse the threads Catalystik linked.

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[notbobtrustme]

Without a green card, it will be exceedingly difficult to gain admission to medical school. At most medical schools, a work/school visa (H1b/F-1) is not acceptable.

 

[Vennela]

I sincerely thank you all for your helpful suggestions and comments. I appreciate it.

Catalystik – http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=584858


http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=677617 (just got an acceptance)

Those are really helpful links and I can relate very well to those applicants. Once again thank you.

Jamie561 – "You need 90 semester units of UGcoursework in the US. Peruse the threads Catalystik linked."

Yes, I agree that 90 US UG course credits are needed, however my US grad level coursework (139 in total – 107 during Ph.D and 32 during stat grad certification) might come in handy when the Adcoms look atmy application. I also have 8 course credits of UG calculus, pre-req for my mathematical statistics courses. So, if I finish my physics pre-req this year,I might have a good chance.

Notbobtrustme – "Without a green card, itwill be exceedingly difficult to gain admission to medical school. At most medical schools, a work/school visa (H1b/F-1) is not acceptable."

I do agree that not having GC might be a real obstacle, but looking at other non-traditional international applicants, I believe I can overcome that problem, as long as everything else in my application looks good. Also, I am targeting those schools that do accept international applicants. I know the probability is extremely low for an applicant like me, but, looking at past acceptances, I feel very confident that I might stand a chance. Also, my friend got accepted in NY dental school recently and the school did all the F1 paperwork needed. I know that dental schools are different from med schools, but I guess I might just end up targeting only few schools in US that accept internationals. Also, my husband'semployer is processing his green card paperwork and we may get our green card few years from now (I know it may not help me right now, but it could be helpful in future).

I am not planning to take any undergrad level chemistry or biology classes in US as I have already done a lot of course work in those disciplines, including biochemistry, food chemistry, microbiology, genomics,bioinformatics, immunology, genetics, cellular and molecular biology, organic chemistry and physical chemistry. Do you think that is a good idea?

I thank you all once again and I would love to hear more suggestions and/or concerns.

 

[Catalystik]

I would love to hear more suggestions and/or concerns.

You don't seem to have any US-based clinical experience (working directly with sick people) and physician shadowing (observing a physician interact with patients). Med schools will expect you to have tested medicine as a career through various experiences so you know what you're getting yourself into.

I suggest you check the website of each school you intend to target regarding the issue of prerequisites. If it isn't crystal clear that they will accept your overseas credits or grad level US coursework, call and confirm the fact.

 

[Vennela]

I plan on definitely doing some shadowing and clinical work. I have a physician friend working in a local hospital and i'll seek his help and hopefully get into those activities ASAP. As of now, yes, i do not have any physician shadowing experience/clinical experience and I am working on those two right now. Also, my father is a phsyician and I do understand a few things in medical career (ofcourse, I have a lot to learn). I did my 8 months of post doc in a US medical university, though was mostly involved in lab based research.
And yes, i will try to contact as many schools as possible to see if they would shed some light about pre-req and grad coursework. Thanks, once again

 

[blizzah]

Without a green card, it will be exceedingly difficult to gain admission to medical school. At most medical schools, a work/school visa (H1b/F-1) is not acceptable.

Plenty of Canadians, even without a work visa, are accepted in the US every year.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Plenty of Canadians, even without a work visa, are accepted in the US every year.

Canada is a different beast than every other country.

 

[Vennela]

Yes, Canadians are accepted in many schools, however, some schools are hard to get into if the applicant is not from North America (again, this information I got is from whatever I read so far online).