Hi lovely people of OPM!!! I am new to this forum. I come from eastern european country of Belarus and hold a Bachelor in Psychology from Russia and starting post bacc premed in America after 8 years of “travel-living” :)) and working hard to get my american citizenship. I seem to be on a right and happy track in my life. Although i have browsed multiple premed articles and forums where a lot of people were saying that people like me have no chance of getting into american med school with foreign undergrad and highly recommended to earn a US bachelor. Well i am not intended to do so:)) i called close to a hundred schools and some schools do not take foreign undergrad indeed but most of them require only sciences and english to be completed in the US:) both DO and MD schools. My premedical advisor though admitted that he do not get whole a lot of students like me…oh well ill give it a try…I want to hear your thoughts on my situation, thank you.Tatsiana
The entire subject of international students, international degrees, and requirements is confusing across schools and even within schools. There was a long thread on this
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
Hi, I am from Russia and I also hold an undergrad from Moscow. You should check with each school but I know in Texas all foreign degrees have to be evaluated by specific agencies mentioned on the website of TMDSAS. In addition they require 90 USA credits. Some states from what I hear require only 30. You can send me a PM if you have any questions .
Poka,
Gulya
Thank you both gonnif and Gala, i have been browsing a lot through threads and topics and i know there are people out there in the same situation but I have not yet run into a single person who actually did get in with foreign undergrad.
I am not getting discouraged though. I am entering Harvard Extension Post Bacc Premed and i have heard amazing things about the knowledge you come out with.It’s not easy to keep a high GPA because a lot of students come from top schools and are very competitive in spirit. I live nearby and it would be silly not to take advantage of the program. I start following a gastroenterologist and a radiology oncologist this coming month and looking for a job in ED department /or as an EMT… lets see whats going to come out of this 
I’ll provide links to two threads for you to browse:
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=7…
I don’t personally know people in our situation who have made it, but there is one user on this forum who is at either PCOM or CCOM. She is no longer active on this forum. Also, if you browse the SDN link, you will see that SDN user “Scottish Chap” was in our situation and was eventually successful. And in a few months, I am sure our own “Redo-it-all” will add to this list. One thing you will see is that most people with foreign undergrads usually have a US-based MS or PhD, followed by post-bacc or pre-req courses done here. If you don’t have a postgrad degree from the US, I suggest you do not stop at the basic pre-reqs but continue with other courses until you have at least 40-50 units or more from the US. Good luck.
Edit: Since you mentioned that you called close to a 100 schools, it would seem that you already have more information than most. If you have anything to share other than what you already posted, please update this thread for everybody’s benefit. And again, good luck.
Dullhead , thank you! I am going to put a list together of the schools I called and their response and post it here. I am already enrolled in post bacc premed starting this september. I think there’s another option to transfer credits from my foreign undergrad in Psychology towards American bachelor in Liberal Arts…A friend of mine told me that I can transfer maximum 60 credits out of my entire degree which is ok …i could fill in the gaps with sciences and English…I am going to look into it myself and post the updates:)
P.S I got a very positive and friendly response from NYU school of medicine… they were very straight forward that they do take foreign undergrad and even gave me the info of the foreign credentials accreditation bureau that they prefer my diploma would be evaluated at…sciences must be taken in the US…i’ll make a list of the rest though:)
Check out Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago - they may also take your international degree. Look in their MD admissions FAQ.
Annette