<p>I am an international freshman at a reputed U.S. Liberal Arts College. I really want to study medicine and I planning of doing pre-med. But, from what Ive heard, US medical schools rarely accept any international students in the medical programs, and even if they accept few (which is a very rare case), there is no financial aid and/or loan for the international students what so ever. Arent there any other options available to the internationals?</p>
<p>What you’re saying is pretty much true.</p>
<p>Here’s a somewhat dated (2009) list of admission policies towards internationals.</p>
<p>[NAAHP:</a> Medical School Admission Policies Towards Non-U.S. Citizens](<a href=“Home - NAAHP”>Home - NAAHP)</p>
<p>There are some schools (mostly private) that do accept internationals; there are maybe 2 or 3 US med schools that offer grant aid and/or private loans to internationals. (Of course these are the most competitive med schools in the US for admission.)</p>
<p>Your only other option would be to attend a medical school outside the US, take the USMLEs and enter the residency match program. Your odds of getting a US residency aren’t terrific, but they’re better than your odds of gaining admission to a US med school. (Right now about 1/3 of FMGs place in the residency match; however, as the 14 new US medical school open over the next 3-8 years, it’s likely the number of slots available for FMGs is going to drop since the number of US med school grads will increase while the number of residency slots won’t increase.)</p>
<p>Here’s the website of the agency that handles licensing of foreign medical graduates:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ecfmg.org/[/url]”>http://www.ecfmg.org/</a></p>
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I suspect that not all internationals are created equal. These few med schools may prefer internationals from some countries (e.g., Canada) than others. Also, I guess these few med schools which accept internationals mostly want these students to involve in the medicine research while they are there, more than want to train them to be practicing doctors only. But this is only my speculation. (Sometimes you would see some med school students do not choose to participate in the residency match programs at all because they do not intend to be a practicing doctor after they have been trained to be be medical scientists at one of these few top med schools for 4 years. DS was at a 2nd look at one med school where he ran into an incoming student there who is apparently accepted because the school wants him to be a researcher there – He even did not graduate from an UG college here, still spoke “broken English” with an heavy accent but had a long list of research accomplishment at some very top foreign and US GRADUATE schools in the past. He could be a competent colleague of those fulltime postdoocs or junior professors doing research at med schools when he is in the MD program there. This is likely a top 25 med school.)</p>
<p>mcat2 is correct— geography can make a difference. Some medical schools (especially in states that border Canada) look at Canadian resident differently than all other internationals and accept them preferentially over other international applicants. U Hawaii considers Pacific Rim students separately from other international applicants.</p>
<p>I suspect that MSTP programs are more open-minded about accepting internationals because the MSTP program is not funded by the school or the state, but by the NSF and its principal purpose is to produce scientists, not physicians.</p>