Since you listed Baylor Medical as one of your schools of interest and talk about a biology major–which is typical pre-med major, I wanted to let you know that it is extremely difficult for international students to be accepted into a US medical school.
The barriers are twofold:
- Only 45 US medical schools say they will consider international students for admission. In practice only a handful of med schools accept more than 1 or 2 international students every 4-5 years. Those schools that accept international are also among the most competitive medical schools in the US.
International applicants to medical school need to have higher MCAT scores and higher GPAs than do domestic applicants. International applicants are sequestered in a separate application pool and compete only against other internationals for a extremely limited number of seats.
Last year at all US medical combined only a combined total of 129 international students matriculated. Approx. 85% of those were Canadian students.
- International students must demonstrate that they fund 100% of the cost of their US medical education because there is little to no financial aid available for international students. Proof of ability to pay requires either a letter of guarantee to pay your full COA from your home country government or placing into an escrow account at a US bank the cost of 4 years of tuition and fees. (Some medical schools also require living expense be deposited into escrow because medical student are not allowed to work during med school.) Those costs range from $200,000 to $500,000,