Hello!
I was recently admitted to some colleges and hope to start this fall as a freshman on the premed track.
I’m an international student so it has been pretty hard to make the final decision.
I was admitted to:
*Baylor University
*Union College
*North Carolina State
*Furman University
*UMass Amherst
*Loyola Chicago
*Centre College
I’ve heard Baylor and Union have a very good reputation for helping students get into med-school. However, I’m a little worried about grade deflation since a high GPA is one of the key factors to get into med school.
Do you have any idea of which might be the best as a pre-med?
Unfortunately, if you are trying to get into a US med school, as an international student, it’s not going to happen unless you are from Canada. @WayOutWestMom can give you the specifics.
And getting admitted is only the first barrier you’ll face.
international students must demonstrate they can pay 100% of their costs to attend a US med school by placing their estimated costs for at least 2 years of tuition & fees into a US escrow account before they are allowed to enrolled.This means you/your family must pay at least US$250,000 up front before starting med school. (And will likely be expected to pay another $250K for the final 2 years of med school.) There is no financial aid (grants, scholarships) for international students and internationals are not eligible for federal student loans (how US students pay for med school).
tl;dr. Take pre-med out of your school choice decision–unless you’re planning to return to your home country to pursue your medical education there.
Can you afford all of these?
Did you get into the Honors program/college at any of these?
What are you like (really into basketball/football/hockey/none of these, really into community service, big city or small town, Protestant or Catholic and if so how important is it to you, or are you an atheist/Jew/Muslim/not really into religion…?)
What would your major be?
Internationals can’t get into US med (MD) schools because US med schools train US doctors. However if you like science&helping others, there may be other paths.
@WayOutWestMom : do internationals have a shot at DO schools or are those off limits, too? What about PA? Nursing?
@MYOS1634 and @Hell00
Some DO programs will consider International students for admission; however, the latest available data from AACOMAS shows there are exactly 0 (zero) international students enrolled in the 38 US osteopathic med schools. (See above)
Again, there is no financial aid available to attend osteopathic med schools which are largely private schools with very limited endowments.
PA programs are just as competitive for admission as medical schools. But 165 PA programs say they will consider internationals for admission. Neither PANCE nor CASPA provide any data on the numbers of internationals enrolled. PA school requires several hundred hours (500 to 2000) of PAID healthcare employment as an admission pre-req–something which an international may find difficult to obtain given the restrictions of a student visa.
Nursing programs may offer a better route to a healthcare career, but I don’t know if international non-residents are eligible for state nursing licenses.
Almost impossible for people who aren’t at least permanent residents (green-card holders) of the US to get into med school here. You are better off planning for a route that includes med school in your home country.
However, if you are interested in medicine, consider nursing. There is a tremendous demand for nurses in the US, so if you were to go to college for nursing here, you could probably get a green card and a license. If you wanted to, you could go on to nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetist, or many other things that nurses can do. And you’d likely be able to obtain citizenship, but you’d have to check with an immigration attorney. You should probably research this before obtaining a visa.
If this interests you, you should ask your admitted schools whether you can move sideways into their nursing programs. Choose the school that will be least expensive for you, since nursing is not a highly competitive school, and unless you are planning on getting a PhD (not a “doctor of nursing”, but an academic PhD in nursing with the goal of doing research and running a school of nursing), the school you went to barely matters at all, once you’re out and working.
If you are a US citizen or permanent resident, then unless money were no object, again, I would probably consider cost. Med school is expensive. You need grades and a high MCAT score. You can get those from almost anywhere, but probably the more selective and respected the school, the better your chance, grades and MCATs being the same.
I said international since I’m not living in the states now, however, I am a U.S citizen. I’m just trying to pick the best one out of these for the pre-med track
Hi! I said international since I’m not living in the states now, however, I am a U.S citizen. I’m just trying to pick the best one out of these for the pre-med track
@aunt_bea@parentologist Hi! I said international since I’m not living in the states now, however, I am a U.S citizen. I’m just trying to pick the best one out of these for the pre-med track
Okay, that changes things greatly.
You’re not an international for med schools if you’re a US citizen living abroad.
Can you answer questions in #4?
Your success as a premed will depend on the best fit; in addition, the best choice tends to be the college where you’re top 25% that is also the least expensive.
Finally, “premed” is not a major, just an intention; what major are you thinking of/were you admitted to?
You wont become a physician if you are looking to take the easy way out. If you can’t cut the coursework, you wont get in. No one wants a physician with mediocre abilities. They will pick that up in the interviews.
The “premed” courses are usually full and competitive. You will want the schools with the strongest courses because they end up making you a better practitioner and candidate for med school. They also prepare you for the upcoming MCAT.
My daughter has put in a lot of hard work. She’s just finishing up her rotations. Her undergrad classes were huge and eventually became smaller as people couldn’t or didn’t have the knack for remembering huge amounts of information.
Least “weedy” would be Centre and Loyola Chicago. There’s attrition due to students who can’t make it or find other interests, but no necessary, deliberate culling.
UMAss and NCSU are huge public universities : they don’t have enough space for all would-be premeds, so weed-out is necessary. There are very large classes and only those who BOTH work very hard and are smarter than 80% in their class have a real shot. A good indication would be if you got into the Honors college at either one. If not, probably not a good choice.
Don’t major in Biology. There are few positions for biology majors (most positions require a Master’s) and an oversupply of them that even before the pandemic the job market couldn’t absorb.
Furman and Baylor are politically conservative; this would matter if you are politically active or if you aren’t into politics.
In addition, Baylor is Baptist and takes faith seriously, with religious requirements (you don’t have to be Baptist but being Christian helps with the requirements). If you’re not serious about your Christian faith, it’s not a good fit, but if you are, then it could be a great choice.
(Be aware that some students mistakenly believe Baylor undergrad is linked to Baylor medical center, whereas it’s 1H30 away and undergrads never set foot there.)
Centre classes would be very rigorous. Loyola classes would be rigorous but the overall expectations would be a notch below.
Baylor is a great choice if you are conservative and a faithful Christian. The competition among premeds there is fierce, but it’s the top college for Baptists so if you are, it’d make sense. And if you’re not religious, it wouldn’t really make a lot of sense to choose Baylor over your other options.
Union is a college known for sciences, especially Engineering. It’s heavily Greek, something I wouldn’t recommend for a Premed since during the Rush/Pledging semester GPAs drop significantly (as per research, especially at fraternities). If you don’t join a fraternity, there won’t be a problem, but you want to see what sort of activities are offered on weekends (free films, outdoors adventures, trips, concerts…?)
There is no “better for premed” in the absolute. The better is what is the best fit for you + where you rank in the top 25% + have the best value. Without costs and without your stats, we cannot advise which ones would be “the best” for you.
All premed programs are difficult. Some are, in addition, very competitive. In general, would-be premeds are more successful in a more collaborative environment. Costs and fit also matter: it’s harder to be high-performing if you’re unhappy.
You would not be an international student at a US university or medical school. You would be a US citizen domestic applicant, though with non-US high school records. You would also not have any state residency for state universities, which could mean that undergraduate study and medical school has fewer lower cost options for you.
