Hello everybody,
I am completely new to this forum and found it through the podcast. I wanted to become a physician ever since I can remember and have worked towards this goal for many years. Due to family circumstances I was unable to attend med school and became a physical therapist instead. I was born and raised in Germany and our system is slightly different than the one in the US. 10 years ago I relocated to the US and continued to study here receiving a B.S. in Kinesiology and the Doctor of Physical Therapy. I am currently working as a DPT in a specialty clinic within a multidisciplinary team at the same university that I would like to attend med school at. I am providing clinical care and I am heavily involved in research.The physicians on our team are faculty members and they actually planted the seed telling me that it is never too late to follow your dreams. My grades were very good with a GPA of 3.8 for my bachelor and 3.7 for my doctorate. The Science classes were the easiest classes for me as my heart as always leaned towards this direction.
My question now is actually regarding my schooling from Germany. It is not transferable between the 2 systems, yet my undergrad university has given me a lot of credits for many classes I would have needed to take. Thus, my transcripts show a lot of CR on them. Will I be required to provide information on my German coursework? I am worried, because the system is so different that they would not even be able to supply transcripts.
In addition, the grading system is so different that I am scarred if the medical school would want to see my grades it could negatively impact my GPA. Secondly, I was wondering that, considering having received a lot of credits, would it be beneficial to take the basic science classes again? I have never taken organic chemistry or biochemistry in the US.
Lastly, I know that the undergrad coursework is most important, but would my doctorate fall into consideration as well, especially since it is within the healthcare field?
Welcome!
For information regarding entering your international coursework, check out the AMCAS application manual.
https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fastly.net/production/media/filer_public/c0/f8/c0f8833d-a302-46c7-b726-1b153dbac6de/2017_amcas_instruction_manual-_final.pdf
All the courses you’ve taken for both your BS and DPT will factor in to your overall GPA for AMCAS.
I don’t know enough about the foreign coursework to give you a good answer, but I would strongly suggest getting in touch with a med school admissions officer and ask them directly how those credits would be handled.
Good luck!
@LeMaVo82 wrote:
My question now is actually regarding my schooling from Germany. It is not transferable between the 2 systems, yet my undergrad university has given me a lot of credits for many classes I would have needed to take. Thus, my transcripts show a lot of CR on them. Will I be required to provide information on my German coursework? I am worried, because the system is so different that they would not even be able to supply transcripts.
In addition, the grading system is so different that I am scarred if the medical school would want to see my grades it could negatively impact my GPA. Secondly, I was wondering that, considering having received a lot of credits, would it be beneficial to take the basic science classes again? I have never taken organic chemistry or biochemistry in the US.
Lastly, I know that the undergrad coursework is most important, but would my doctorate fall into consideration as well, especially since it is within the healthcare field?
EDIT: I guess AMCAS no longer accepts WES evaluations, per DocGray’s link. For some reason my memory says they used to accept them a while ago, but did not factor them into the GPA. They just listed it there and let the med school decide what to do with the info. Now they don’t accept them at all, but I would not be surprised if individual med schools accepted them.
EDIT EDIT: It’s AACOMAS that used to accept/require the evaluation, not AMCAS. Now even AACOMAS has no mention of evaluations. Sorry about that.
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This is my understanding (also a foreign grad, only did my MS here, now doing all pre-reqs here via postbacc)
- If your transcripts show CR but no grade points, they will not factor into your US gpa.
- You might be required to provide German coursework. If you don’t have transcripts, they might accept notarized copies of your personal copy (not 100% on this)
- You might be required to submit an evaluation of your German coursework. Josef Silny & Associates and WES are the two AMCAS accepted ones I believe. Those organizations should evaluate your coursework fairly. I received many 35/100 scores during my undergrad. WES correctly identified these as C. They also correctly identified a 43/100 as C+, and a 59/100 as B+ and anything greater than a 65 as an A. Here in the US, a 35 does not register on the letter grade scale.
- Whether it is beneficial to take pre-reqs here is up to you, depending on how recent your BS/DPT are, whether you need courses for LORs, etc.
- I don’t think graduate level coursework is considered in the gpa evaluation of a candidate. Only undergrad coursework, including postbacc. But it should count for clinical experience hours, though.
Graduate GPA is calculated, but it is separated from the uGPA.
@Kennymac wrote:
Graduate GPA is calculated, but it is separated from the uGPA.
You are right. I did not write that well. What I meant is that it is not given nearly as much weight as uGrad gpa.