<p>Maria, do not be disheartened by the naysayers. As you know, your chances at Harvard (or MIT, Stanford and Yale for that matter) aren't good. But, if you can work on your SAT and raise the score, your chances will improve. However, even excellent students only have a tiny chance of getting in. </p>
<p>Please remember that those schools accept like 10% of applicants. And the many of those applicants are pre-determined. They are the children of dignitaries (world leaders, Fortune 500 company CEOs, celebrities etc...), children of major alumni (those who give millions of $$$ to the university), child stars (Brook Shields, Natalie Portman, Olsen Sisters, Fred Savage etc...), super talents (Olympians, world class musicians etc...), Under Represented Minorities (US citizens of African, Latino or Native American ancestry) and academic super-stars (perfect students who score 100% on every test they have ever taken!). Those applicants have like a 40%-60% chance of getting in. The rest of the applicants, like yourself, have like a 1%-3% chance of getting in. In short, there are very few spots remaining that go to the general population and the odds are not good. MIT does favor female applicants, so to keep that in mind.</p>
<p>So, if you really have your heart set on studying in the US, do apply to schools like Johns Hopkins, Duke, Michigan and Wisconsin to name a few. Those schools are still very selective, especiall Duke, but they are more realistic.</p>
<p>With regards to your question about whether or not attending a particular university in the US would help you in your quest to get into a US Medical School, the answer is not really. I know very few international students who applied to Medical Schools in the US and all of them were rejected. The classic example I use is one of my better friends. She majored in Biochemistry at Johns Hopkins. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA (4 years of straight As at Johns Hopkins is impressive) and scored a 12.4 on her MCAT (most students who enroll into top medical schools have MCAT scores in the 11-12 range) and she was rejected by all the medical schools she applied to, and some of thoem weren't even that selective.</p>
<p>Medicine is the only graduate program that does not accept international students. Roughly a third of MBA students and close to half of the graduate Engineering students are internationals. About 10% of Law schools are international. So internationals are certainly welcome to apply to all other graduate programs...but Medicine is the exception.</p>
<p>Finally, most universities look at your best SAT score. Some will even combine your highest verbal and highest math, even if they were from separate sittings!</p>