It’s no secret that getting into medical school is hard. Thousands of people may apply to be in a first-year class that only has 175 seats. What can be even harder, though, is switching from one medical school to another once you’ve enrolled.
“It’s very difficult to transfer for a number of reasons,” says Liza Thompson, who works with people nationwide on getting into medical school. “There’s not much attrition in medical school, so there just aren’t many spaces available.” Another stumbling block for students is the curriculum. Its rigid setup leaves a very small window for students to transfer.
“There’s really only one acceptable time frame during which people transfer, and that’s usually between the second and third years,” she says. The third year is often when students begin their clinical rotations, which involve hands-on training in a medical facility for a few weeks each. The first two years usually involve more classroom-based learning.
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But the curriculum can really vary from school to school, says Stephen Ray Mitchell, dean for medical education at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Not every school will wait until the third year to introduce clinical aspects to the curriculum, for example.
“Even in those first two years, the way schools have organized the content differs,” he says.
The number of students transferring between U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education has been decreasing. Georgetown has not had a transfer student in the last three years, Mitchell says, and many other schools could say the same. During the 2013-2014 school year, 98 students transferred, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. For the 2012-2013 school year there were 121. The year before that, there were 162.
Transferring is a challenging process, which makes it critical for prospective medical students to target schools that will meet most, if not all, of their needs. The few students who are able to successfully transfer usually have a few traits in common and follow some important steps, experts say.
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Students must have a compelling reason to want to change schools. “Let’s say you don’t like the school where you’re enrolled. That’s not a good enough reason,” says Thompson.
A few years ago an M.D.-Ph.D. student transferred into the medical school at University of Colorado–Denver after his mentor was recruited to work at the university, says Maureen Garrity, the medical school’s associate dean of student life. But generally the school, which is part of the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, does not accept transfers, like many others.
Other compelling reasons don’t have to overlap with career goals. “Most of the compelling reasons are personal,” Garrity says. A student may need to care for an ill family member who’s located near the school, she says. Or, a student may have child care responsibilities or want to be closer to a spouse.
Whether a student wants to transfer to a private or state school can sometimes make a difference. Some say students may have a better chance at transferring if they want to go to a school in their home state.
“State schools often feel more sort of loyalty to residents,” says Nathan Smith, assistant dean for students and admissions at the University of Alabama–Birmingham School of Medicine.
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To get the transfer process started, students should first speak with their dean of student affairs. The support of their dean is usually a required part of the transfer process, experts say, because the dean speaks with the dean at the student’s new school to secure the transfer. Students should also make sure the school they want to attend has a spot for them, and they are in good standing with their current institution.
Because some medical schools follow a pass-fail grading system and others don’t, evaluating a student’s academic performance may not always be easy.
“Some people would say that your best argument to be considered at all for a transfer is to use external measures of good performance,” says Mitchell from Georgetown. “If you have a national U.S. medical licensing exam step one score that’s very high, that says to them regardless of the curriculum you have done well by national standards.” This step of the medical licensing exam is often taken by students after completing their preclinical years.
While some schools will require students to submit other criteria — such as references, school transcripts and a reason they want to transfer — there isn’t much students can do to present themselves as an especially strong applicant, says Smith from University of Alabama–Birmingham.
“If they would not have been accepted at the time of admissions to our school it is most likely that they would not be considered for transfer,” he says.
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Navigate Transferring From One Medical School to Another originally appeared on usnews.com
Clarification 01/08/15: This article has been updated to clarify the location of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
