help please!

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hello, I’m an international student who has already accepted an offer from yale for the class of 2020

Last week I received a full scholarship to the best local university to do pre-med( it follows a typical american-style medical program: pre-med, medschool…), and I have only a few days to reply.

I still am not utterly sure I want to do medicine, though it is something I love and am passionate about. I also have a strong study ethic and have no problem with the length/difficulty of the journey.

when I was accepted to Yale, I did my research and found statistics specific to Yale that 80% of international students who do pre-med at Yale do get into medical school, which is a very good chance compared to the 10 percent national acceptance rate of internationals students to do med-schools abroad.
It was a risk I was willing to take, funding would be a problem but if I do get into medschool investing in myself through loans Id pay back eventually didnot seem too big of a deal.

also, pre-med here is 3 years as opposed to 4 as I dont need to do freshman.

Also, i am aware that a huge percentile who go in to college as pre-med end up switching so I didnot really consider very seriously what happens if I find out medicine is my true calling.

Now, after receiving this scholarship, my parents have forbid me to go to Yale if i want to do medicine, as here it is cheaper, shorter in time and guaranteed, and I can do my residency abroad so it would make no difference, a longer route to the same goal. they said if I want to do anything else, I should do it at Yale.

I totally agree with them on that point, but the following points keep me thinking:

-what if I find out I do not want to do medicine during my first or second year at home? A yale education is soooo much better that anything I would get at home, where all courses of study are specific, college is purely “go to class and come back home and study”, and the whole experience is far less mind-opening than a Yale education would be. The opportunities here are less, my personal and academic development would be less, professors are no where as accomplished, research at an undergrad level is unheard of here. If I go to Yale I would be the first in 2 years to represent my country there, and it is totally affordable because of their aid.
it would only be about an 8K difference per year between what Id pay here at home for dorms and living expenses.
I understand that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and for someone from my background and environment, I am very lucky to have been accepted

  • if I go to Yale and choose to do something else due to convenience ( and obviously because it appeals to me as well), I do not want to work all my life thinking that I sacrificed what I really want to do for a more engaging, fun and better academic education and undergraduate experience. I do not want to feel regret every time I pass by a hospital or go to a doctor's appointment.

If anyone has any advice or can help me put things in perspective, or if you see any flaws in the argument you can point out, please feel free to do so.

to make things worse, I am currently in a whole month of official exams and always have my thoughts clouded with no time to think. This is a life decision and the first real decision I’ve ever made.

I have been thinking about what I to major in for 2 years now, and because my interests are so diverse and I do well in all subjects at school, I never was able to decide. medicine was always a top consideration though. personally i find it greedy wanting the best of both worlds. I really do not know what to do.

2

You misunderstand how American medical schools work.

“80% of international students who do pre-med at Yale do get into medical school, which is a very good chance compared to the 10 percent national acceptance rate of internationals students to do med-schools abroad.
It was a risk I was willing to take, funding would be a problem but if I do get into medschool investing in myself through loans Id pay back eventually did not seem too big of a deal.”

There are very, very few spots in American medical schools for international students. That 80% statistic is meaningless, because probably very, very few international Yale grads apply to American med schools in the first place – and I suspect most that get in are probably in PhD programs offered through medical schools, not MD programs.

Second, as an international student you won’t get any loans in the US. In fact, for med schools, you have to show that you have the money in a bank account to pay for all 4 years of medical school. So something like $250,000. And some schools require that you DEPOSIT THE WHOLE AMOUNT in a special account from which they withdraw your tuition.

So getting into and paying for an American medical school is extremely difficult.

If you think you may want to be a doctor, make decisions based on which option is likely to get you into medical school IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY or in some other country. But betting on the US isn’t advisable given the realities.

3

You say that you have the option to complete an American-style medical education at home. Would you be able to attend medical school in your own country with an undergraduate degree from Yale? That may give you the best of both worlds. (And your parents wouldn’t need to know that you’re working on your pre-med requirements at Yale, since you’ll be completing a regular major in addition. Odds are that you’ll change your mind about medical school by the time you graduate anyway.)

I do agree with your parents that planning for medical school in the US is an extraordinarily bad idea. Let’s start with the most basic question: Would you be able to finance it? You mentioned loans - where would you get those loans from? You wouldn’t get a 6-digit loan from an American source. Would you be able to get it from a bank in your home country?

If you are truly undecided, consider a gap year. Yale would most certainly let you defer your offer of admission for a year. Find out what it’s like to be a doctor and see if the day-to-day life lines up with the career you envision. Many physicians in the US are spending more time doing paperwork than seeing patients. Is that the job you are imagining? If you want to be a doctor in the US, keep in mind that you will most likely be practicing a primary care specialty in a less-than-glamerous setting. (A majority of foreign medical graduates match into family or internal medicine for their residency. To continue practicing medicine after your residency, you’d either need a job that sponsors a work visa, which in practice pay a fair bit less than competitive wages, or you can petition for a green card via national interest waiver if you commit to working in a medically underserved community, like a prison clinic or remote rural areas.)

4

I’d go with Yale. Explore subjects, get involved in classes, pursue a major. As an undergrad, you could study neuroscience, work on medical resarch in labs, for instance. You’d have access to myriad possibilities. (For an international student’s perspective, check out the tumbler of FrenchYalie.) If you find that medicine is your true calling, complete premed requirements. Look into the process to start med school at the American-style med school you got into - surely, completing the premed requirements at Yale would be as good as completing them “in-house”? Obviously, leave that out from the discussion for now - you think you really know you want medicine, but as most sophomores will attest, you’ll change your mind once you encounter all the incredible subjects and fields you can explore in college.
I don’t think a Yale degree can hinder you in any way (understatement).
It opens doors you don’t even know exist.