<p>Hello
I'm an international student and I was lucky enough to be accepted to stanford university for undergraduate program and a few more medical schools in UK (st andrews, bristol, and birmingham) as well as imperial college london for biomedical program. I would love to go to stanford but I know it's really competitive for an international student to get accepted into ANY medical school in USA. So, what do you guys think? Should I go to stanford pre med or just straight to uk medical schools? Thanks :)</p>
<p>It’s incredibly difficult for an international student to get a place to do medicine too, so congratulations. </p>
<p>With regards to whether you should do a UK or US degree, then I would say that
- if you go to the UK, then you’re into medical school, no more applications needed. This is not to my knowledge the case with Stanford.
- you’ll be able to avoid all the general education requirements that US universities require, so you can graduate earlier from a UK university. This will mean that it works out cheaper
- you will need to work out where you want to work after you graduate, and what you would have to do if you were to qualify in the UK and want to work in the US, and vice versa. </p>
<p>FWIW Bristol is a great city to be a student in - I grew up there and I’m sat in Bristol typing this. Birmingham is also a great city. St Andrews is a tiny and relatively isolated town, and you have to move to Manchester for your clinical years (a large city and the same uni that I study at; I love it), so do be aware of the implications of going to St Andrews.</p>
<p>It’s incredibly difficult for an international student to get a place to do medicine too, so congratulations. </p>
<p>With regards to whether you should do a UK or US degree, then I would say that
- if you go to the UK, then you’re into medical school, no more applications needed. This is not to my knowledge the case with Stanford.
- you’ll be able to avoid all the general education requirements that US universities require, so you can graduate earlier from a UK university. This will mean that it works out cheaper
- you will need to work out where you want to work after you graduate, and what you would have to do if you were to qualify in the UK and want to work in the US, and vice versa. </p>
<p>FWIW Bristol is a great city to be a student in - I grew up there and I’m sat in Bristol typing this. Birmingham is also a great city. St Andrews is a tiny and relatively isolated town, and you have to move to Manchester for your clinical years (a large city and the same uni that I study at; I love it), so do be aware of the implications of going to St Andrews.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply. I’ve been stuck in this lucky dilemma for a while now and no one in my school can give me much advice either.
Right now my top choices are
Stanford pre med vs Bristol medical school. Stanford has been my dream school ever since i found out it has a tree as a mascot when I was 9 years old. hehe. But, doing medicine is also my dream job. If I decide to go to Bristol medical school, how hard is it to specialise in the US? (preferably Stanford hehe. I still can’t get over it)</p>
<p>The first question you need to answer is where do you want to practice medicine once you’ve completed your training?</p>
<p>If you want to practice in the UK or other Commonwealth countries, go to any one of your British schools. If you want to practice in the US, then you should strongly consider attending Stanford. </p>
<p>But please be aware that it’s extremely difficult for an international to gain admission to a US medical school. (Fewer than 175 matriculated last year and that number has been pretty consistently below 150 for the past 10 years.) There is also no or only extremely limited financial aid for international medical students. (This means among other things there are no loans available unless you have a creditworthy US cosigner.) Many schools will require you to deposit 1-4 years of tuition and living expenses into a escrow account into order to enroll. Or provide a letter of guaranty from your home country’s government.</p>
<p>If you study outside the US and later still wish to practice in the US, you can also try this route.</p>
<p>In order to gain a US medical residency slot (what you need to be train in a specialty) , you must take the USMLEs (Step 1, Step 2 CS and CK at a minimum, some residencies will also want Step 3), then enter the US residency Match program.</p>
<p>The process is explained here:</p>
<p>[ECFMG®</a> | Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates](<a href=“http://www.ecfmg.org/]ECFMG®”>http://www.ecfmg.org/)</p>
<p>Your ability to match into competitive specialties will be hindered by a foreign medical degree unless you do some “audition” rotations in US hospitals during your medical training. </p>
<p>There’s also a looming issue w/r/t to the number of slots that will be available to FMGs in the future. In 2015, the US DO and MD match will become a single consolidated match. This will decrease the number of opening availble to FMGs. Another thing that will decrease the number of opening available to FMGS is the 10 new US medical schools have opened in the past 5 years along with plans to open 3-5 more in the next 5 years. Since the number of residency training slots is fixed, FMGs will faced strongly increased competition from domestic medical grads for those slots. It’s estimated that by 2019, US medical grads will fill 100% of the available residency slots.</p>
<p>thank you so much for the reply
you have no idea how much of a difference one advice made :)</p>
<p>So do you think that if I want to practice medicine in the US, I should attend Stanford?</p>
<p>US medical schools will not accept anyone who has not completed at least 2 years of college and all pre medical requirements at an accredited US or Canadian college.</p>
<p>If you want to attend Med school in the US, it’s your only path.</p>
<p>But before you commit yourself to this path, ask yourself these questions:</p>
<p>—Can my family pay for 4 years at a US medical school? </p>
<p>(Remember there is no financial aid at all for internationals. You will need around $250,000 or more for med school in addition to your undergraduate education costs. Talk with your family about this. It’s not something to be done without their input.)</p>
<p>—Am I OK with having to enter my second choice career since it’s extremely unlikely I will get accepted to US medical school?</p>
<p>If you can honestly answer yes to both these, then go to Stanford. If not, take your acceptance to a British medical program and don’t look back.</p>
<p>I am fortunate enough that money isn’t an issue in my case. Honestly, I can’t say I am 100 percent certain that I want to become a doctor. I am fine by the idea of medicine but my parents ardently want me to become one. But, I want to explore different options before applying to medical school. Once again thank you so much for your reply. It really helped me made my decision.</p>
<p>I am fortunate enough that money isn’t an issue in my case. Honestly, I can’t say I am 100 percent certain that I want to become a doctor. I am fine by the idea of medicine but my parents ardently want me to become one. But, I want to explore different options before applying to medical school. Once again thank you so much for your reply. It really helped me made my decision. Stanford University it is :)</p>
<p>^based on this post, stanford sounds like the right choice</p>