Heya, First, I've been reading through this forum, and I've found it very informative. Thank you very much for all of your efforts. I have a situation, and I'll just throw it out (I've seen other posts with similar situations): I'm a 3.7 GPA accounting major (straight 4.0s for the past year and a half with a full time job and full time school, though), and I'm going into my senior year. I decided to take the "plunge" into pre-med, and I'm currently taking a year of physics and chemistry concurrently for the summer. I will then take a year of organic chem and biochem this next school year. Naturally, I'm also trying to figure out what path to take into medicine. I have considered going to a DO school... I would really like an MD school too. Could someone give me a rough guess as to the MCAT score I need? 30? Also, I'd like someone's take on going to medical schools in other countries. I read an interesting article that makes it seem like a perfectly natural idea. What would be the setbacks of this path (obviously, this article is slanted)? Thanks a lot!
First, when you say you are taking "biochem" - are you sure that will meet the 1 year biology requirement for med schools? biochem is different from introductory biology. Make sure you're taking the right classes.
Second, your GPA is very good, especially if you are able to keep your science GPA above 3.6. If you do reasonable well on the MCAT (30 is reasonable, but not great) - you should be fairly competitive, all other things being equal (the quality of your college, recommendations, other personal qualities, etc).
As for the article you referenced - it is definitely biased, and often inaccurate. I am certainly no expert on international medical schools, but my general sense is that if you have not gone to medical school in the US, you will have a much more difficult time getting into a residency, let alone the residency of your choice. I would guess that DO schools would provide you a much better chance at a residency than international medical schools.
I know there are some international medical schools where you'd do some of your clinical rotations in the US - that is obviously better, but I don't know what their match rates are for US residency programs - it'd be an interesting statistic if anyone has it.
Oops, I messed up in writing my post. I meant to say that I was taking bio for the next year, then biochem in the summer. Not all schools require biochem... so if I could get into one without needing it, I would. If I do need it, I was thinking of taking that next summer, followed by some kind of graduate program or something productive for a year off.
I think most schools do not require biochem.
That has been my observation as well - with the notable exception of the one school I most want to go to (that's just my luck). The University of Minnesota requires it...
That doesn't mean I would only want to go to that school, but I'd really like to.