Pilo asked 2 years ago
Hi! I’d like to ask a question on encoding coursework, mabe from advisors who were foreign transfer students. In the AMCAS Applicant Guide, the following is stated: “List foreign coursework as it appears on the U.S. or Canadian transcript under the foreign institution at which it was attempted. Do not list the coursework twice.”
- From what I’ve understood, if a course I took before transferring (INTLPsych150) was credited as PSYCH101X in U-M, then I should encode it as PSYCH101X under the foreign institution.Is this correct?
- However, what if the course INTLPsych150 was credited as two courses in U-M (let’s say Psych 111 and Psych 230), should I encode it in AMCAS as two separate courses under the foreign institution?
- If a course was not credited in UMICH but is something that I’d like to list so that med schools would be informed of it, can I still list it in the foreign institution under its original course name?
These questions might be too specific, so if you know a person/advisor that I can contact to ask for better guidance, please let me know! 🙂
Lindsay Ma answered 2 years ago
Hi Pilo,
Thank you for your question. We don’t have any foreign transfer students on the current PMH team, so I would like to preface that reaching out to a professional pre-health advisor at the Newnan Advising Center and/or reaching to the application makers at AMCAS (amcas@aamc.org) would ensure you receive accurate answers. Newnan holds wonderfully informative drop-in office hours and offers 1-on-1 appointments. To schedule an appointment, you may email Newnan’s front desk (newnanfrontdesk@umich.edu), and I can assure you that all three advisors are amazing people with deep knowledge on application-related inquiries.
With all that being said, I’ll try my best to respond to your questions.
- Yes, I believe you would list “PSYCH101X” under the foreign institution.
- Yes, I believe you would indicate it as two separate courses. If foreign transfer credits appear on your UofM transcript in a similar way that AP credits from high school do on my transcript, it should be clear that your foreign psych credit was accepted as two UofM classes.
- Probably no, but maybe yes. The transcripts you submit are used for cross checking your AMCAS inputs, so if you list a course in AMCAS that is not in your UofM transcript, it will most likely be removed by the AMCAS editors. Then, you would need to submit a request to add it back in, and I’m not sure whether this would be successful. If you want medical schools to know about a course that did not transfer, it may be easiest to mention it in your secondary essays. Most schools have a secondary essay that says something along the lines of, “Is there anything else you would like us to know…”
Thank you for bringing these questions to our platform. I hope my attempts to answer your questions is helpful, but your situation is definitely unique and therefore calls for special advice that I am not confident we can provide. It is best not to make errors on your primary application to avoid any delays in getting your application verified, so please check with a pre-health advisor at Newnan or contact AMCAS to ensure you feel confident while filling our your primary application.
Best of luck to you, and please come back to PMH if you have any other questions 🙂
Sincerely,
Lindsay (PMH Alumni Consultant)