Hi. I am new to this forum.

I am second year student thinking of transfering next year.

I am trying to find out about how many SGU people (and/or others) applied for 3rd year transfer admission and to what schools, etc. Any information related to the topic would be nice.

Please help me.

SGU doesn't take transfer students from other schools. You would have to apply to SGU and start from term 1.


Or do you mean you're an SGU student thinking of transferring to a US school? If that's the case, I don't think too many students have done this, and it mostly depends on if there are open spots in the US schools that you're thinking of transferring to. So I would suggest calling up the admissions office of those schools and talking to them.

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no no, i mean from SGU to american school.

talk to Berkleyboy... he transferred to a US school

The Dean of Students office has a list of people who transferred, there GPA/stats, and where they went. Talk to them.

are you an upcoming 2nd year, looking to transfer NEXT year or are you a 2nd year just finishing step I? If the latter, you are a little late- most transfer applications were due at the end of may. If the former, then you have time- since most schools that do take transfers accept apps from jan or feb to may of the year you want to transfer.

First you need to look for schools that will take a foreign transfer- there are precious few now a days and they have to have space- ie, someone from their 2nd year class is not advancing to 3rd. Your best bet is if a school in your state takes foreign transfers, then you have a better chance.

as for how many? it depends like emt said, if there are spaces open at the different schools. in my class 2 people transferred to drexel after 1st year (so they started at drexel in the 2nd year), 3 transferred to drexel, new york med, and mt sinai- there may have been others, but those are the ones i know of- so 5 out of 300?- most of those people had really high gpas (3.7+)and pretty high step I scores (240+), plus good letters of rec.

there have been a number of threads on this do a search. Ross's forum has a sticky on this- its good overall information.

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Here is a piece I wrote for this forum way back in 2002 which has some info on transferring. The link below is still good and has even been updated. I am in Grenada next week and may give an informal chat about this, as well as my experiences in medicine since.

Best,

Matt
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From 7/27/02
Here is some info that I posted to another forum on this subject last July. It's kinda long, but some have found it helpful.

I transferred from SGU to a LCME school in June of 2001 and this stuff changes somewhat every year. You should also check out the folder called Transfer Policy below...

Nina's link is a good find. When I was preparing to apply for transfer, I actually called or emailed just about every program in the States. So definitely check out Transfer Policies Search for 2007-2008 Academic Year | Transfer Policies Reports for the latest updates.

This year (2002), I know of a couple SGU students who have interviewed at George Washington, Vermont & Chicago Med.

Those that got into schools in 2001 (including me) went to the following institutions:
Northeastern Ohio Universities
MCP-Hahnemann
George Washington
SUNY Upstate
Vermont
New York Med
Univ of Miami

Don't believe goofballs like the guy above who said it's impossible. Improbable yes. Impossible no.

I have included the text of a paper that I wrote on the whole process. I hope it helps. Good luck!!

-----------------------------------------------
My Experiences with the Transfer Process-2001

By Matt

Introduction/Disclaimer

One of the toughest things about attending St. George’s University is the never-ending hunt for worthwhile information. Where will I bank while in Grenada? Is studying from Chung better than old exams? How do I get the clinical placement that I want?

Sure, you always have a helpful upperclassman ready to unload a good deal of advice, but often such recommendations seem to be not helpful at best, or detrimental at worst.

In this piece, I hope to describe to you how I was successful in gaining a transfer with advanced standing to an LCME-accredited medical school. But let me also remind you that what may have worked for me and some of my colleagues may not work as well for other students or for those in the future. The best strategy that I might suggest is to get as much info and possible, use a little common sense and go for it from there.

With my disclaimer set out for all to see and consider, let me first describe my motivation for going through the trouble of applying for transfer before covering my preparation and experiences with this grueling process.

Motivation

I never really seriously considered transferring until the end of my fourth term. Until that time I lived with a general disdain for the relentless pursuit of the advanced standing slots that many of my colleagues possessed. Whether out of anger for being turned down by the US schools in the first place, or may be because of some feeling that to strive for transfer would take away from the SGU experience, my eyes would glaze over when friends discussed the matter.

But as I began to consider the barriers that institutionalized American medicine has constructed to protect itself from competition, I realized that many of my career goals might be hampered by such a snotty attitude. I knew that I wanted a residency in my home state of California. In the Golden State, our medical board has enabled programs to discriminate against IMGs by constructing the infamous “California Letter,” a topic worthy of its own article in SGU Rounds. I was also very interested in keeping my options open in terms of pursuing a career at an academic institution. Unfortunately, many of these positions are unavailable to IMGs. Finally, I wanted to have some flexibility in terms of choosing a residency in the same city where my fiancé might someday find her own academic position. This is not to say that I could not have met my goals with a degree from SGUSOM, but it would have been tougher for me to have my cake and eat it too.

So my overall motivation was to remove as many hassles as I could and enable myself to stand on my record and not some stereotype of what others may think. Whether this will work remains to be seen…

Preparation

I had no clue as to how to approach my goal of applying for transfer. Sure, you have to fill out applications. But there is a lot of work that goes into actually applying, so I decided to get to work as early as I could considering my lost time.

My first task was to figure out which schools would send an application and which would likely be interested in taking a Californian student from St. George’s University. Other students mentioned certain universities that had or had not taken students in the past and there was a somewhat outdated list of successful transferees outside the Dean of Students’ office in Grenada. Friends had also applied after their first year to several schools. I decided to start from scratch and contact every US school and elicit their response to my query. I first searched all of the websites that were linked via the AAMC master list of US medical schools (www.aamc.org/meded/medschls). Many schools had websites at their admissions departments that described their policy for transfers with advanced standing.

I sent emails to the others that were vague or did not have any online info on the topic. This was a very time-consuming task. It was also an eye-opener, as some school officials were very professional in responses to my emails and others were downright nasty (I was ALWAYS polite when dealing with school officials and sent everyone thank you emails even if they were rude. Remember, admission officials all will have a say in your application, so be courteous and articulate when speaking with them or writing them emails or letters). Sometimes the schools that did have openings would not offer applications to out of state residents. I was further limited by the fact that none of the medical schools in California would take transfers from non-LCME accredited institutions.

I found several schools that stated, either on their sites or via emails, that they would accept applications from international medical students. They were: George Washington, Wisconsin*, MCP-Hahnemann, Columbia, New York Med, Vermont, SUNY Upstate, Buffalo, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson, Temple, Medical College of Georgia*, Chicago Med, Indiana* and Missouri*. Of these, the ones with an * would only send applications to residents of that state. Vermont would only take transfers into their second year, which meant I would have to repeat a year since I was heading into M3. Both GWU and MCP also had spots for both M2 and M3 years.

During this time period, I also started to acquire information on how to send transcripts from SGU and my undergraduate institutions, MCAT scores, USMLE scores, and from whom I would ask for letters of recommendation (LORs). Most schools that I applied to required 2 or 3 LORs from basic science faculty and one deans letter, the latter being a document basically stating that you are welcome back and have no actions against you at SGUSOM. A few even wanted LORs from undergraduate faculty. Getting all of these incidentals in order is even more time-consuming than figuring out which schools will send you applications, so give yourself plenty of time in preparing them.

I started six months in advance and sent materials even before I received the application packages from the prospective schools. Also, many of the forms needed to request such materials are now available online, so I didn’t waste any time waiting for snail mail back and forth. Check the registrar’s office webpages from your undergraduate institutions for more information.

I also figured out a little trick that saved me some more hassles in the end. I asked my undergraduate schools to send me a number of sealed official transcripts in a big envelope. That way, I could dole out transcripts to each school that I applied to and would not have to worry about whether they arrived on time…..they arrived in the same envelope as my application.

Choosing the people who would write your LORs is a topic worthy of some mention. You basically want it all-bigwigs at the school who can also describe personal anecdotes of how wonderful a person your are. I was lucky to have some good professional/personal relationships with faculty at SGU that extended beyond the confines of the lecture hall and I believe this helped my applications quite a bit. Remember too that many of the students from SGU that you will be competing against will also have asked the very same people as you for LORs. Personal descriptions will therefore look better than standard form letters.

Becoming involved in university activities is one way to interact with professors in a non-butt kissing manner. I tutored for DES, immunology and epidemiology, co-led a histology laser session, took part in orientation and became a resident assistant. All of these helped me to get to know the people who might someday write on my behalf. I didn’t do these things to pad my CV, but because they were a lot of fun.

I also asked for each LOR in person when possible. I even flew back to Grenada from St. Vincent in order to do so. With the number of students in each term at St. George’s it is sometimes difficult for each professor to remember you by name. A face is much easier at times.

With each request, I gave my referees a list of my accomplishments while at SGU, with those items in bold that were directly related to my interactions with them. If I received an “A” in their class and tutored other students in the course for DES, they would know about it and when specifically it happened. This enabled them to conduct their background checks in a more directed fashion. I also included a picture of me in my request letters so that when my LORs were finally composed several months later, there would be one more reminder of who was asking for the letter.

You obviously also need to have good grades and an acceptable board score. It doesn’t take a 3.97 and a 256 on Step I (I am proof of that!!), but those figures would certainly help! Since I am more of a hard-worker than a natural genius, I went for the “Beat the Mean” approach. You should be OK to apply if you are beating the means in your classes and on the boards.

Application

In the end, I decided to apply to four schools. I would have papered every school that would have sent me an application, but my budget would not allow such an expenditure. The sad fact is that each school cost me over one-hundred dollars just to send a completed application by the time you figured in MCATs, USMLEs, transcripts, etc. But it was an opportunity cost that I was willing to take.

In terms of making a good sell of yourself, the application is very important. I practiced what I would include by making photocopies of the applications and filling out several copies before I would fill in the original. I tortured my fiancé by asking her to double-check everything that I had written. And I can’t remember just how many drafts of the personal statements were composed before the final touches were added-at least four or five for each school. I also wanted to give the admissions committees a picture of me from my career before medical school and so I included a copy of my CV and my journal articles, even if they said that would accept only the completed application materials. Interestingly, each person that interviewed me had copies of the CV and my papers.

I also want to point out that I made sure that my applications were in as soon as the schools would accept them. I know of one amazing student that hampered his chances at matriculation by sending his applications in towards the end of the application period. By the time he had submitted his materials, one of the schools that he applied to had already started offering interviews.

Interviewing

I was asked to interview at three of the four schools that I applied to: Northeastern Ohio (NEOUCOM), MCP-Hahnemann and Vermont. The interviews ranged from a short tour and interview at MCP-Hahnemann to a three-day interview/clinical skills assessment/preceptorship at NEOUCOM.

The interviews were also rather costly and I was required to reimburse NEOUCOM for the cost of the three-day interview, an outlay of $600 on top of airfare, hotel stays and the rental car. Luckily, I was able to schedule both the NEOUCOM and MCP interviews during the same week, so that I could make the trek from California and minimize the time that I took off from my junior clerkship in internal medicine at Highland Hospital.

Within a little over a week after interviewing, NEOUCOM offered me a seat in their M3 class. I liked what I saw during the interview and it really seemed that the school made a great effort in choosing their candidates. Every person that I spoke with was familiar with my background and they had actually read my application and personal statement. The faculty members were interesting and asked good questions, and the clinical skills assessment/preceptorship was a wonderful experience. I actually felt as if I had learned some medicine during my time there. My interview at MCP-Hahnemann was anything but a good experience….but others that I talked to enjoyed their interview there.

My interview at Vermont was scheduled a month after those at MCP & NEOUCOM and so I cancelled it after I was accepted at Northeastern Ohio. Even though Vermont is an excellent school, I was unwilling to repeat a year when I already acquired a M3 spot. I also withdrew my application at MCP, as I wanted to forget Philadelphia as soon as possible.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this article might help some of you who plan to pursue transfer openings

In the end I spent just under $2000 to prepare my applications, apply, interview and secure my advanced standing seat. Had I not gained entry, there was nothing more that I could have done and I probably would have walked away from future attempts to transfer. I did gain a seat with a lot of preparation, a good deal of determination to follow through and a hell of a lot of luck.

I think that there were roughly ten or twelve of us SGUSOM students that were successful in transferring this year. I believe this was more than the previous year’s tally. There are so many more good students that did not transfer for whatever reason.

It’s kind of a poopshoot really, as you never know how many US students will flunk out or take time off each year, thus opening slots for us to jump in. Many of my fellow students had much stronger credentials than me.

I don’t think that students should attend SGU with the sole hope of transferring to a US school. If it happens, then great. If not then that’s great too. We are also so very lucky to have been given the chance to pursue our aspirations by this wonderful university. I will personally never forget the gamble that St. George’s University took on me in offering a spot back in the fall of 1998. Hopefully someday I can earn an honorary degree from SGUSOM for promoting the ideals described in its mission statement.

Good luck!!

Hey I remember reading that link about a year before I transferred back in 2004.....great stuff really helped.

ribosome/matt, I appreciate the post very much....everything has worked out great, thanks a lot!

Berk