Hi everyone,
I am so glad that I discovered this website tonight. I read some of the posts here I somewhat feel encouraged to do pursue what I have been dreaming since I was young. I have been thinking about becoming an MD for years but I have not had a gut to make a decision.
I am 35 years old. I am not a citizen but I am a U.S. permanent resident. I was stupid enough to take something like GED at that time and went to college at the age of 17. My parents did not support me to become a doctor. I did what many kids do when I was in my freshman and sophomore years and my Calculus I and II, Physics I and II with labs, Biology I and II with labs, as Chemistry I and II, with labs, as well as English I and II turned out pretty bad. I only got one A from those classes and the rest were mostly C’s and some B’s. I realized how stupid I was. Then, I turned myself around and graduated with a BS in Material Science (with a 2nd class honor) in 1999. My total GPA was 3.32.
After that, I came to the U.S. and got my MS in Manufacturing Systems in 2003 (GPA of 4.00), and PhD in Business Administration in 2008 (GPA of 3.88). I pretty much supported myself during my seven years of graduate school being a student worker as well as a teaching assistant. In 2007, I started working as Assistant Professor at a university and got promoted to Associate Professor in 2012. Unfortunately, my family issue back home had forced me to give up my job right after my promotion. I have all this time thought about going to medical school over and over.
Now I am back in the U.S. in the bay area and want to start fresh and plan my way to medical school. I am sorry for a lengthy post but I thought I need to provide those pieces of information to get some good advice from you. I think my prerequisites for medical school during undergraduate degree were horrible and, from my own research, medical schools do not care about graduate degree GPA. I know that I am not a good standardized test taker. English is not my first language and I am not sure how that and being a non-citizen would affect me for the admission process.
I appreciate any suggestion and advice from you. Thank you for your kindness in advance.
I think You have really good chance especially in the osteopathic medical school. They look more at you as a person not only at your GPA. Just explain it in your personal statement. I had low GPA from other country too and it was not a problem. You can prove that you are more mature now and your grades are showing it too. You could also repeat some of the science classes because when when you apply they would only take one of your grade - the higher one when calculating your GPA - so it could help.
Being green card holder does not change anything when compared to citizen when applying to med school. Only disadvantage that I see is not being able to get military scholarship or primary care scholarship, because they want you to be citizen. I am also still green card holder and nobody even asked a question.
Good luck. I am sure that more experienced people will give you more good advises.
Hi,
By the way, I aim for an MD program because one day I want to be able to practice in other counties for charity purposes. Is a DO degree recognized in other countries as well?
thank you,
Thank you very much. 
it is recognized in many countries, not all countries give you all privileges though.
Once again. Thank you very much. By the way, Are you in the DO program at Lincoln Memorial University? Couple of students where I taught classes went there too.
How about the chance of getting into an MD program? Do you or anyone have any idea on that? Thank you so much.