IlConsigliere
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Greetings all,
I was suggested this forum by a friend who is also interested in Medicine. I am perhaps a blatant non-traditional student (applicant as of yet though). To tell my entire story and background is very long, so I will summarise here to keep it relatively short. However, it might end up being quite long anyway. I am deliberately not giving my name nor too many details for privacy reasons.
I am a male born and raised in California, USA. I will turn 33 this year and am mixed-race (this sounds odd, but will be relevant later). I attended the University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California, USA (not to be confused with UCSF, which only offers postgraduate degrees). I earned a BSc in Biology and a BSc in Mathematics whilst at USF. I messed up really badly in my final (fourth) year because I had done a year abroad at a UK university in my third year, and for some reason the classes that I had taken were worth half the credits of classes at my American university. So I had to take six classes in my final year for both semesters, when the maximum available under normal circumstances was four classes per semester. It completely stressed me out and caused me to end up with a final GPA of 2.86. To give an idea of how messed up I was, in one case it was so bad that I was having a timetable clash where I had to complete a humanities requirement. This class was had the exact same time slot as another biology class, so I barely even attended the humanities class. I got a C- in that class mostly since I attended that class only three times in the entire semester, and one time was just for the final project.
I was annoyed at myself for having a GPA of 2.86. I was especially emotionally devastated in 2011 when I applied to medical schools in the UK and Canada, and got rejected from all my choices from both countries. Honestly, I did not stand a chance given that the places available for non-EU applicants in the UK (when the UK used to be an EU member) was dismal; sometimes just ten places or even less for how many thousands of applicants. Canada were even worse; in one case I applied to a university that had something like only one place for a non-Canadian applicant. Nevertheless, I was extremely sad. I tried to forget about Medicine and applied to postgraduate programmes. Since I had a maths degree, I got accepted to University of Leeds for a MSc in Biotechnology in 2011.
The fact that I had no idea what to do due to my rejections from medical school caused me more stress; I decided that maybe Chemical Engineering was a better option. I accepted the offer at Leeds, but then had to reject it within one month due to internal conflicts in my own head. I got accepted to the University of Manchester in 2012 for an MSc in Chemical Engineering. I studied one semester at the University of Manchester, but had to quit thereafter due to health issues, as well as severe anxiety issues. I returned home to San Francisco in February 2013, again emotionally devastated and feeling like a total failure.
I had absolutely no idea what to do with my life, especially since my dream since I was four years old was to become a doctor. I started to teach myself a bunch of foreign languages en masse, hoping that it would help me with my dream to get out of the USA and move permanently to Europe. I eventually settled on doing a BEng in Chemical Engineering online from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. I messed up again in my final year due to many factors, including the recurring GI problems that sometimes haunt me today but not as much, plus social anxiety problems as the final year was based mostly on a heavily weighted group project. I ended up getting a 2:2 in the BEng Chemical Engineering in 2017.
In 2018, I had another mental breakdown, because I had no idea what to do. My dream was still to become a doctor, but I was haunted by my prior rejections. Medicine was something that I just needed to do. There was nothing else that I wanted to be than to be a doctor. I talked to my parents, and they supported me in my decision to apply again to medical schools.
Due to my autodidactic foreign language learning, I am a fully-functional polyglot with a near-native level in Spanish, advanced level in Portuguese, Italian and Catalan, and varying levels of intermediate in Dutch, Norwegian and French. I decided that I would apply to Italy and perhaps Spain. My Spanish is obviously way better than my Italian, but my Italian I would estimate at around CEFR C1 right now. My Catalan is around C1 as well, so I would not mind going to a Catalan university. However, if I had to pick a European country to emigrate to, I would choose Portugal or Italy, or even maybe France or Norway.
So here I am. Due to various issues, both financial and coronavirus pandemic, my plans have been delayed. Yet, I still continue in full force with my intention to apply again to medical schools after an eleven year hiatus. It simply has been that one thing that I want in my life. I simply want to be a doctor; it is my main life goal. Of the many things that I want to accomplish, this is the one thing that I want to accomplish if I could accomplish nothing else.
If you have reached this far, you must have noticed something. You must be wondering why I have never applied to US medical schools. Without writing pages and pages of why, my reasons are multiple and personal to my own beliefs. I do not want to be a doctor in a country with no universal healthcare. I personally find it sick and reprehensible to have a for-profit healthcare system. Other reasons include the extremely exhorbitant cost of tuition in the USA. I also do not want to practise medicine in an Anglophone country; I want to settle permanently and get citizenship in a non-Anglophone country. I want to practise medicine in Europe, and never return to the USA.
My plans right now are to sit the IMAT for Italian medical schools. It makes me nervous since I had taken the MCAT and the UKCAT back in 2011 for the Canadian and British medical schools respectively. These standardised tests always make me nervous, but if I have to sit those exams, I will do so in order to get into medical school in Europe.
Since 2020 I have been living in rural Wisconsin with my girlfriend. However, in a couple of months we will go back to San Francisco, and from there straight to Europe to whichever medical school I get accepted at.
I am not rich, but not poor; perhaps struggling middle class/lower-middle class, meaning that I would definitely not want to pay over, say, 10.000€ per year for medical school tuition. My income is mostly random remote work, consisting of language translation and creating chess courses (no, I am not yet a grandmaster, but hopefully within this decade I will become one).
Other countries that I am looking at include Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Czechia, Poland and perhaps Netherlands and Norway. I thought that I was too old to even think of applying, but it seems like I am not the only one. I know that this was very long, but I just wanted to share and get feedback and help from the community here. I was wondering what you all think of my situation, and if you have any relatable personal experiences on your own journey.
I was suggested this forum by a friend who is also interested in Medicine. I am perhaps a blatant non-traditional student (applicant as of yet though). To tell my entire story and background is very long, so I will summarise here to keep it relatively short. However, it might end up being quite long anyway. I am deliberately not giving my name nor too many details for privacy reasons.
I am a male born and raised in California, USA. I will turn 33 this year and am mixed-race (this sounds odd, but will be relevant later). I attended the University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California, USA (not to be confused with UCSF, which only offers postgraduate degrees). I earned a BSc in Biology and a BSc in Mathematics whilst at USF. I messed up really badly in my final (fourth) year because I had done a year abroad at a UK university in my third year, and for some reason the classes that I had taken were worth half the credits of classes at my American university. So I had to take six classes in my final year for both semesters, when the maximum available under normal circumstances was four classes per semester. It completely stressed me out and caused me to end up with a final GPA of 2.86. To give an idea of how messed up I was, in one case it was so bad that I was having a timetable clash where I had to complete a humanities requirement. This class was had the exact same time slot as another biology class, so I barely even attended the humanities class. I got a C- in that class mostly since I attended that class only three times in the entire semester, and one time was just for the final project.
I was annoyed at myself for having a GPA of 2.86. I was especially emotionally devastated in 2011 when I applied to medical schools in the UK and Canada, and got rejected from all my choices from both countries. Honestly, I did not stand a chance given that the places available for non-EU applicants in the UK (when the UK used to be an EU member) was dismal; sometimes just ten places or even less for how many thousands of applicants. Canada were even worse; in one case I applied to a university that had something like only one place for a non-Canadian applicant. Nevertheless, I was extremely sad. I tried to forget about Medicine and applied to postgraduate programmes. Since I had a maths degree, I got accepted to University of Leeds for a MSc in Biotechnology in 2011.
The fact that I had no idea what to do due to my rejections from medical school caused me more stress; I decided that maybe Chemical Engineering was a better option. I accepted the offer at Leeds, but then had to reject it within one month due to internal conflicts in my own head. I got accepted to the University of Manchester in 2012 for an MSc in Chemical Engineering. I studied one semester at the University of Manchester, but had to quit thereafter due to health issues, as well as severe anxiety issues. I returned home to San Francisco in February 2013, again emotionally devastated and feeling like a total failure.
I had absolutely no idea what to do with my life, especially since my dream since I was four years old was to become a doctor. I started to teach myself a bunch of foreign languages en masse, hoping that it would help me with my dream to get out of the USA and move permanently to Europe. I eventually settled on doing a BEng in Chemical Engineering online from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. I messed up again in my final year due to many factors, including the recurring GI problems that sometimes haunt me today but not as much, plus social anxiety problems as the final year was based mostly on a heavily weighted group project. I ended up getting a 2:2 in the BEng Chemical Engineering in 2017.
In 2018, I had another mental breakdown, because I had no idea what to do. My dream was still to become a doctor, but I was haunted by my prior rejections. Medicine was something that I just needed to do. There was nothing else that I wanted to be than to be a doctor. I talked to my parents, and they supported me in my decision to apply again to medical schools.
Due to my autodidactic foreign language learning, I am a fully-functional polyglot with a near-native level in Spanish, advanced level in Portuguese, Italian and Catalan, and varying levels of intermediate in Dutch, Norwegian and French. I decided that I would apply to Italy and perhaps Spain. My Spanish is obviously way better than my Italian, but my Italian I would estimate at around CEFR C1 right now. My Catalan is around C1 as well, so I would not mind going to a Catalan university. However, if I had to pick a European country to emigrate to, I would choose Portugal or Italy, or even maybe France or Norway.
So here I am. Due to various issues, both financial and coronavirus pandemic, my plans have been delayed. Yet, I still continue in full force with my intention to apply again to medical schools after an eleven year hiatus. It simply has been that one thing that I want in my life. I simply want to be a doctor; it is my main life goal. Of the many things that I want to accomplish, this is the one thing that I want to accomplish if I could accomplish nothing else.
If you have reached this far, you must have noticed something. You must be wondering why I have never applied to US medical schools. Without writing pages and pages of why, my reasons are multiple and personal to my own beliefs. I do not want to be a doctor in a country with no universal healthcare. I personally find it sick and reprehensible to have a for-profit healthcare system. Other reasons include the extremely exhorbitant cost of tuition in the USA. I also do not want to practise medicine in an Anglophone country; I want to settle permanently and get citizenship in a non-Anglophone country. I want to practise medicine in Europe, and never return to the USA.
My plans right now are to sit the IMAT for Italian medical schools. It makes me nervous since I had taken the MCAT and the UKCAT back in 2011 for the Canadian and British medical schools respectively. These standardised tests always make me nervous, but if I have to sit those exams, I will do so in order to get into medical school in Europe.
Since 2020 I have been living in rural Wisconsin with my girlfriend. However, in a couple of months we will go back to San Francisco, and from there straight to Europe to whichever medical school I get accepted at.
I am not rich, but not poor; perhaps struggling middle class/lower-middle class, meaning that I would definitely not want to pay over, say, 10.000€ per year for medical school tuition. My income is mostly random remote work, consisting of language translation and creating chess courses (no, I am not yet a grandmaster, but hopefully within this decade I will become one).
Other countries that I am looking at include Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Czechia, Poland and perhaps Netherlands and Norway. I thought that I was too old to even think of applying, but it seems like I am not the only one. I know that this was very long, but I just wanted to share and get feedback and help from the community here. I was wondering what you all think of my situation, and if you have any relatable personal experiences on your own journey.
