Foreign Coursework
State law requires that academic work taken at foreign colleges, universities or preparatory schools shall be excluded from the calculation of the grade point average for students seeking admission to graduate or post-baccalaureate professional school.
TMDSAS does include courses from foreign schools that appear as transfer credit on the transcript of an accredited US college or university ONLY IF individual specific course credit is granted by the US school. Lump sum credit with no specific course and hour identification is not accepted.
Copies of transcripts or other credentials from foreign schools MUST be provided to TMDSAS in order to distribute to the medical schools where they are evaluated based on criteria established by the Admissions Committee at the respective school. Consideration of coursework from schools outside the US or Canada requires an evaluation by a certified educational credentials evaluation service. Courses taken at a Canadian university are not included in the overall GPA calculated by TMDSAS but are evaluated at the respective TMDSAS schools.
International Students
Applicants who are not US citizens or permanent residents of the US and/or have earned degrees at foreign institutions can be eligible for admission provided they meet the following requirements:
- Completed at least 90 undergraduate credit hours at an accredited US or Canadian college or university. Transfer credit from a school outside the US or Canada will apply to this requirement if individual courses appear on the transcript of an accredited US or Canadian college or university - lump sum credit is not allowed.
- Required coursework must be taken at a regionally accredited US or Canadian college or university. Transfer credit from a school outside the US or Canada will not apply to the required courses.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas requires the following:
- It is recommended that undergraduate coursework be completed at or credited through a regionally accredited US or Canadian college or university.
- At least 45 semester hours, including all pre-med prerequisites must have a grade assigned by an accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university.
- Exceptions to this policy are made only for foreign applicants who are applying to the combined MD/PhD Program.
Foreign Transcripts
Course work taken at foreign institutions must be evaluated for US equivalence by one of the following evaluation services and an official copy must be sent from the service directly to TMDSAS. Your application will not be complete without an official evaluation. Transfer credit appearing on US institution transcripts or other foreign evaluations will not be accepted as a trancript. You should contact one of the following:
World Education Services, Inc
P.O. Box 5087
New York, NY 10274-5087
(212) 966-6311
http://www.wes.org
Josef Silny & Associates, Inc
International Educational Consultants
7101 SW 102 Avenue
Miami, FL 33173
(305) 273-1616
http://www.jsilny.com/
Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc
P.O. Box 514070
Milwaukee, WI 53203-3470
(414) 289-3400
http://www.ece.org
International Education Research Foundation, Inc.
Post Office Box 3665
Culver City, CA 90231-3665
Phone: (310) 258-9451
http://www.ierf.org
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
Foreign Education Credential Services
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 520
Washington, DC 20036-1135
(202) 296-3359
http://www.aacrao.org/credential/individual.htm