Transitioning from Engineering to Med School

Pre-Med & Medical School
6

I just noticed you’re an international student.

It’s extremely difficult for an international student to get accepted into a US med school. Last year fewer than 90 international students matriculated into all US med school combined; 85% of those internationals are Canadians.

The low matriculation rate is due to 3 factors:

  1. only 40 US med schools will consider internationals for admission. There are only about 8-12 that routinely accept more than 1 international student every few years.

  2. International applicants need to be superstars just to get their application read. International applicants are placed in separate pool from domestic applicants and are competing against each other for 1 or 2 positions.

  3. there is little to no funding for internationals to pay for med school. No merit aid, no grants, no loans. Before you will be allowed to enroll, you must placed anywhere from 1-4 years of tuition, fees (and at some schools living expenses) into a US escrow account ($120K-$450K, depending the school) OR present a letter of guaranty from your home country government saying they will support you for 4 years.