Pre-Med Admission/ Foreign Student/ What should I do?

WayOutWestMom
Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:24:42 +0000

Are you a US citizen of green card holder?

If you aren’t, then you need to know that’s is extremely difficult for international students to gain admission to a US medical school. Fewer than 200 are admitted annually to all US med schools combined. Those who are admitted are mostly Canadian citizens/permanent residents.

There are 2 reasons for this: 1) more US schools will consider Canadians for admission than internationals from other countries; and 2) the Canadian government offers student loans to their citizens attending US medical schools.

The latter is important because there is almost zero financial aid available to internationals attending med school. (Internationals are ineligible for federal student loans–which is how most US students finance their medical education.) Many school will ask you to place 1-4 years worth of tuition and living expenses ($180K-$350K for the total cost for 4 years of med school) in a escrow account prior to being allowed to matriculate.

If you want to become a physician, you might be better served by studying medicine in your home country (the path is shorter than in the US since you can enter directly after high school) and then sitting for the US Medical Licensing Exams and entering the US residency match program. (A US medical residency is required to practice medicine in the US.)

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