Philippine med schools without bachelors?

[RobertP]

Hello,
I am interested in going to medical school in PI and I have completed high school in the US. I heard there are some accelerated bachelors programs in PI. Does anyone have more info on these programs? How long are they? I heard De La Salle has a 15 month program

Just how strict are the schools when it comes to a bachelors? Could I just ace the NMAT and attend medical school?
Thank you

[mykii]

Hello,
I am interested in going to medical school in PI and I have completed high school in the US. I heard there are some accelerated bachelors programs in PI. Does anyone have more info on these programs? How long are they? I heard De La Salle has a 15 month program

Just how strict are the schools when it comes to a bachelors? Could I just ace the NMAT and attend medical school?
Thank you

I'm an Australian currently studying in the Philippines. I am attending De La Salle University-Manila which is the main campus. I am unsure which course you are talking about exactly, because i havn't heard of such a program personally. There is more than one De La Salle University here so if you could give me more details on the course you are talking about i could give you more first hand info since I'm here :).

Next thing is, yes, you'll need a bachelors. From my experience and inquiries here there is no way to get around this. It doesn't make a difference if it's a bachelors gained internationally or locally, so if you haven't completed your undergraduate yet then perhaps you should look into some of the programs offered here since it will be alot cheaper than doing it abroad.

De La Salle university-Manila works on a trisemestral system, meaning you will be able to complete your undergraduate degree alot faster than any other school here. For example, at UST a Bachelors in Biology will take you 4 years minimum, assuming you pass everything and ace your thesis, Ateneo will take atleast 5 years, and De La Salle will take you a mere 3 years. The trimestral system works to our advantage as foreigners since time is money. La Salle has also been awarded by the Commission on Higher Education as a Center of Excellence in Physics, Chemistry and Biology - Unlike its rival schools. It's quality education earned at a fast rate (3 years) for an affordable price. Something you should definitely consider.

Now if you want to speed your way through even faster, then there is one course for you. It's La Salle's Bachelor of science in Human Biology. You will be at the university for only 2 years, and your third year will be equivalent to your first year of medicine earned at De La Salle's College of Medicine. All in all you will complete your undergraduate AND medical school in 6 years, instead of the traditional 8-9 years. It is the fastest option available in the Philippines. I am currently enrolled in the program and i just completed my first trimester, and i can vouch that its pretty hardcore and fast paced, i'm really learning a lot.


Nmat is required by all medical schools. It isn't too hard from what i've been told by people, just prepare for it and you'll come out with a good nmat score, however only the very competitive medical schools require 90+% NMAT grades, most will settle for anything above 55%-60%+

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I'm here so i can spare you alot of the leg work. :).

Hope i helped.

[RobertP]

La Salle's Bachelor of science in Human Biology....thats the one I was thinking of. Are there any other such 6 year programs in Philippines?

How many students are admitted and how many make it to the 3rd year?

[mykii]

La Salle's Bachelor of science in Human Biology....thats the one I was thinking of. Are there any other such 6 year programs in Philippines?
How many students are admitted and how many make it to the 3rd year?



There are no other 6 year programs. Only other which might compare to it is UP's INTRAMED but that would probably be the hardest course in the hardest school to get into-especially if your a foreigner or are coming from abroad since they prioritize filipino's who live here (it's a public school).I also don't think its 6 years, i believe its 7 or 8.


As for Human Biology, they try and weed out the people who don't really belong there. From what we were told during our orientation the teacher said that the previous batch had only 15/35 students make it to medical school (3rd year) with the others failing or shifting because they can't cope. The batch ahead of me now (2nd year) have still got 35/40 in the class... hopefully they will do better than their predecessors :) as of my class? Well like i said I'm only a freshmen having completed my fist trisem and so far 3~4 students have failed at least 1 subject, i would say that if you fail more than 2 or 3 subjects than there's no way to make up for it before you make it to your third year - so you really have to study hard.

As for the student body. Well they're all very studious, and about 1/4 of my class have received scholarships. Many graduated high school with honors. About 1/2 of the class are currently on the deans list also. But don't let that fool you, not everyone is like that, for example i have none of the above, i just posted that up so you have an idea of what kind of people make it into the program.

About how many people get into it - well that's a tough call. DLSU has 2,000-3,000 freshmen students start every school year, and only 40~45 are accepted into Human biology. Is it hard to get accepted into it? Yes.
There are ways to get into the program still if you don't get accepted such as reconsideration.

The good thing about DLSU-M's Hum-bio program is that you are guaranteed a spot in a medical school.

[samahantayo]

I think that is asking too much, Robert. For a college to admit you immediately into medical program without a bachelors. As has been suggested, the minimum accellerated program would be something similar to DLSU-HS 6 year program. I believe Ateneo started something similar.

I would also question the credibility of any school that would do such a thing. In addition, you will need to explain yourself to you potential employer especially when you apply for your residency why a school would do such a thing:confused:

Also, there is nothing wrong asking members of this forum such questions but as I have been telling folks in this forum, for questions that require you to make critical decisions, my best advice is to contact the school directly. There are some schools who are hard to get to respond by email - but if your question is important enough then you can always call them by phone.

I am speaking from experience.:-smiley7

[mykii]

I think that is asking too much, Robert. For a college to admit you immediately into medical program without a bachelors. As has been suggested, the minimum accellerated program would be something similar to DLSU-HS 6 year program. I believe Ateneo started something similar.

I would also question the credibility of any school that would do such a thing. In addition, you will need to explain yourself to you potential employer especially when you apply for your residency why a school would do such a thing:confused:

Also, there is nothing wrong asking members of this forum such questions but as I have been telling folks in this forum, for questions that require you to make critical decisions, my best advice is to contact the school directly. There are some schools who are hard to get to respond by email - but if your question is important enough then you can always call them by phone.

I am speaking from experience.:-smiley7

Yup I agree whole heartedly about contacting the schools directly, and about ateneo, there is no way there course is anywhere close to 6 years from undergraduate to MD.

Ateneo's med school is 5 years alone. Their ** Life science undergraduate course is 4 years, and they do not reserve you a spot in their graduate med school upon graduating. Furthermore, Ateneo's ** Biology is 5 years. Atleast that was their offerings for their this school year 2009-2010.

In years to come Ateneo may prove to be a good med school (i'm sure it will be) but for a foreigner to attend any school which is under 10 years old would be pushing sh*t up hill - as there would be a mountain of paperwork being asked of you when you finish your degree should you go abroad. In terms of locality (if you're a filipino citizen) and intend to practice in the Philippines then i see no problem with it.

[RobertP]

How difficult is it for a foreigner to get into the 6 year program? Mykii what is the typical day like in terms of hours? How many days of the week is school
Thank you

[mykii]

How difficult is it for a foreigner to get into the 6 year program? Mykii what is the typical day like in terms of hours? How many days of the week is school
Thank you

As a foreigner you will have no special treatment in being accepted, you will have to compete on the same level with the local applicants. So if you want to be accepted straight off from word go, you would have to be one of the top 40 scorers on the DLSU entrance exam who applied for human biology as their first choice. If people however who did pass in the top 40 decide to go to other schools (which happens alot), then there slots will open up. You can then apply for reconsideration (if you failed or were waitlisted) to try and gain entry into any open slots or try transferring (if you passed another course) into human biology if there are slots available before the school year starts. But trust me, its doable, about 1/4th of my class transferred in or was reconsidered because people vacated their slots by going to different schools. If you're living abroad the best thing might be to fly out, take the entrance exam, and wait for the results to be published online and sum up your options from there.

Average school day depends on you're schedule. Last semester i was at school 8am - 4:10pm Monday to thursday, and 11am-2pm on fridays. As of this semester i have classes 8am - 5:30pm monday to thursday and have my fridays free, so i have a longer weekend to study and relax. Everyday you will have a break ranging from 40minutes to 2 hours in length.

If you want to know about the major science subjects offered i can give you a full list, since you won't find that information on any other website.

[RobertP]

DLSU entrance exam who applied for human biology

How difficult is the exam? thanks

[mykii]

How difficult is the exam? thanks

The exam is 4-5 hours long. 400-500 multiple choice questions. There's a section for English, Math, Science and 'Critical thinking', as well as two essays (one in english, one in tagalog).

Math: Just highschool algebra/trigonometry/geometry/statistics/logarithms

Science: Highschool biology/chemistry/physics - mostly biology and chemistry though.

English: uh... i dunno lol, if you came from an english speaking country you'll probably breeze through it.

Critical thinking: I think it's like arranging patterns in the correct order and predicting what pattern would come next. That kind of thing.

Essays: Just answer normally, if you can't speak taglog like me then just write on your filipino essay paper "I'm an international applicant, i cannot speak tagalog" and you'll be fine.

There are no taglog questions, everything is in english apart from the filipino essay.

Overall difficulty? Hm i don't know. I found it somewhat tough as i didn't really prepare for it. If you have a good solid high school education - irrelevant of your grades - you should be able to cope with it, just do your best. I found it challenging yet i still passed in the top percentile (if you pass in the top x% they'll send you notification with your acceptance letter).

The first wave of entrance examinations are starting this October. I suggest if you're planning to enroll for next school year (starting june) you should probably decide you're plan and contact the school otherwise you might need to wait another year to apply.

EDIT: I'm not sure about this, but they might have an entrance exam during march/april for late applicants, but i'm not 100% on this. In any case, if u took the entrance exam then it would be quite hard to get into hum-bio. Bright side is if you get wait listed or don't make it you can always apply for reconsideration to see if there's any free spots after the entrance exams are complete. This usually happens around April 20 i think.