Hi,
I am delighted to begin my education at Duke University this fall. However, my dream is to become a doctor and the difficulty facing international students is extremely intimidating. If I receive a good MCAT score, have a good GPA and EC’s, is there a chance that I can get admitted to a decent med school?
Here are two articles I found that might help you:
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/medical-school-admissions-doctor/2012/07/16/3-tips-for-international-students-applying-to-us-medical-schools
http://premedusa.blogspot.com/2013/05/medical-schools-admitting-internationals.html
In general, the consensus I got is that it is difficult, but not impossible
Thank you!
Will I be put at an advantage as a Duke graduate or do med schools not care about the name of your institution?
The med schools care that you can prove you have the funds to pay for all of it.
Do you want to practice medicine in the US or your home country?
Very few internationals get admitted to US schools. The private schools will admit a handful each year. But these are schools like Harvard, Yale, Hopkins which are incredibly hard to get into anyway.
@sgopal2 yes, I want to practice medicine in the US
Ok if you want to practice in the US then definitely focus on schools within the US. Some students who don’t get accepted to an american medical school will often go overseas (Carribean, India, Russia, etc) and then come back to do their residency in the US. Just keep in mind that most of the residency slots are favored towards American graduates.
If you don’t get into a US medical school then have a backup plan. You can also consider trying to work for a few years and get a US green card. Once you establish residency it is much easier to get accepted.
Duke has a great pre-med advising program, so take heed of what they tell you. Most of the Duke students take a gap year after graduating before applying to medical school.