help please!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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.

how can I be sure of wanting / not wanting medicine in only a few days?
to those of you who’ve made your decision
what were some decisive factors?

2

To most HS graduates, it is hard to determine what profession they want to be when they apply for a college and a lot of pre-med change their mind half way through the program. To your specific question, I can offer the followings:

  1. If you can afford Yale without the scholarship, then take the scholarship with med school in mind, in case you don't like it then drop the scholarship and go on with your own target.
  2. If you cannot afford Yale without the scholarship, I'd suggest to get another less restrictive scholarship.
  3. You have to know that there are no scholarships or financial aids in the US if an international wants to study medicine in a US med school. If you cannot afford US med school, you need to get a local scholarship from your own country.
3

<<<
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,


[QUOTE=""]

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???

Where is that stat? And is that for US MD med schools? or does that include DO or int’l med schools?

Also…that would only deal with those who actually apply…not the many who started as premeds as freshmen.

4

Would your parents know if you were premed at Yale? You can major in anything and include the premed prereqs. My son was Chemical Engineering and pretty much all of the prereqs were already required. If you majors in biology, nearly all of the prereqs would be included.

Seems like you could still go to Yale, quietly include the prereqs…

5

OP–Have you read this from Yale University’s admission webpage?

[Special Note to International Students Intending to Study Medicine](http://admissions.yale.edu/applying-yale-international-student#med)

No where does the Yale Office of Career Strategy say that 80% of its international pre-meds get accepted into medical school. That data simply doe not exist.

According to AAMC’s data, over 1600 international applicants applied to US medical schools in 2015-16, only 140 of those student matriculated. Most of those were Canadian citizens.

[Applicants to U.S. Medical Schools by State of Legal Residence, 2006-2007 through 2015-2016 9/u]
[url=https://www.aamc.org/download/321462/data/factstablea4.pdf]Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by State of Legal Residence, 2005-2007 through 2015-1016](https://www.aamc.org/download/321460/data/factstablea3.pdf)

Truthfully if you want to become a physician, you best opportunity is probably in your home country.

6

Yes I have, and I am totally aware of the odds.
The statistic is from this PDF ( similar ones exist for
Different years)

http://ocs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/med_school_stats.pdf
If you open it you could see the special statistic about intls, however when I think
About it it makes sense that 9 applying is such a small number and probably a lot changed out of convenience like @mom2collegekids said.
And out of the 9 who stuck with it and went through the odds, only 7 made it.
So this isnot anything to rely on?

7

I would like to know more about those 7 accepted. Were those Canadians? Were those students who were soon getting green cards? Were they undocumented immigrants who’ve lived in the US for most of their lives? How many did Yale accept?

Also…I wonder how many int’ls were simply told, “dont’ apply unless you are prepared to put 1-4 years of tuition in equity”. That would discourage a whole bunch.

One thing I found interesting was the lowish number of Class of 2012 applicants…66. I vaguely remember a Yale grad posting here saying that Yale doesn’t weed much and that most of the freshmen premeds end up applying to med school.

8

Very interesting stats for Yale applicants. That site also has recent years stats => 2012 66, 2013 67, 2014 62, 2015 75. I’d say either Yale did a pretty good job “controlling” its appliant pool, or there are not that many Yale pre-med to begin with. Based on AAMC report, average-sized schools have about 100-200 applicants each year, with CA schools having the highest (600-700 from UCLA, UCSD, UCB). I think Cornell being the largest Ivy school has about 200 appliants per year.

9

<<<
That site also has recent years stats => 2012 66, 2013 67, 2014 62, 2015 75.

I’d say either Yale did a pretty good job “controlling” its appliant pool, or there are not that many Yale pre-med to begin with.
<<<

Oh, I’m confident that many Yale frosh are premed.

I think Yale has about 1400 freshman. If only 20% were premed, that would be 280 premeds.

I would guess that Yale is controlling its applicant pool thru advising. Doesn’t matter if you’re from Yale, if you’re an unhooked traditional applicant with a >3.5 GPA, your chances at a MD school aren’t great. Maybe Yale is steering those to other career paths quickly…or if they insist on remaining premed, steering them towards DO or int’l med schools.

With Yale’s great FA, it could influence its poor-performing frosh/soph premeds to change paths by simply explaining that FA would end after the 4th (or maybe 5th) year, so change gears now.

10

I think all private colleges “manage” their number of med school applicants through various methods: weeding, committee letters, advising. Yale is no different.

Yale’s CDS shows it has 586 international undergrad students. Based on the last 5 years of OCS reports, it produces about 5-7 international med school applicants each year. (2015-16 class was anomalously high) Typically 3-5 get accepted. While the percentage of accepted international applicants is high (ranging from 63% to 83% over the past 5 years), the raw number of international med applicants is quite low. Very low when compared to the relatively large number of international undergrads.

BTW, I looked at the maps showing where Yale grads matriculate for med school --they include Canadian medical schools. So at least some of the “international” grads going to med school are Canadian nationals returning home for med school.

11

I assume you meant <3.5, right? I 100% agree with your statement about unhooked sub 3.5GPAs, even from Yale, being in a very bad situation. Greater than 3.5 on the other hand is in a better situation.

12

I take a closer look on how Yale reports its stats, obviously those 60+ applicants are the current-year appliants while the alumni pool is in the 100+ range, which means its pre-health committee would “strongly advise” those with lesser stats to take a gap year or two, and they will be counted as alumni rather than current-year applicants. Nothing wrong with the gap year strategy, in fact it strengthens the weaker applicant while the school gets the added benefit of higher success rate with stronger pool.

13

^ This " I take a closer look on how Yale reports its stats, obviously those 60+ applicants are the current-year applicants while the alumni pool is in the 100+ range, which means it’s pre-health committee would “strongly advise " those with lesser stats to take a gap year or two”. On point @Andorvw

14

<<<
nt pool thru advising. Doesn’t matter if you’re from Yale, if you’re an unhooked traditional applicant with a >3.5 GPA
<<<<

Ack! I just saw that! should be < 3.5

edit…now I see that Iwannabebrown saw it too. lol