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Perhaps it is because US Medical schools, whether state or private, are funded in one way or another by US taxpayers.
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<p>Yet it's interesting that that doesn't seem to stop other graduate programs from admitting plenty of foreigners. For example, many of the top US science, math, and engineering PhD programs consist of majority foreigners. </p>
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The medical school issue is in part what has been mentioned, but I think is probably more likely due to the cutthroat nature of medical school admissions in general. Most schools are admitting less than 10% of their total applicant pool. Last year only 45% of applicants nationwide matriculated, a number that is going to go down even further this year as applications shot up. One of the biggest advantages in med school admissions is being an in-state resident applying to a state public school. That may increase your "odds" from 10% to 25% which is big. However, as an International - you don't get that benefit anywhere. Throw in unfamiliarity with the rigor of universities abroad and it's hard for medical schools to know what they are getting in a student.
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<p>While I don't know the data, I think it would be an interesting exercise to look at those international students who attended US undergraduate programs and may have established state residency through a visa or green card or other such means, but are still not US citizens. Would they still have to survive tougher admissions because they are still technically 'foreigners', even though they have the same undergraduate education and the same state residency perks as other applicants do? After all, this student is still highly likely to finish med school/residency, and then return to his home country. </p>
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In general, US medical schools have an obligation to train the next generation of doctors to provide medical care in the US. Admitting large numbers of foreign students, who often will return to their home countries to practice medicine, is contrary to meeting that obligation.
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In the scheme of things, most American universities are selective with internationals anyways. Med school is cutthroat in America, but when you add in the fact that you're an international, it gets bloody.</p>
<p>And I agree with above, these are American schools, primarily for Americans.
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<p>See above. Again, I ask, what about those "landed" immigrants who come for a period of time before going home? I know a number of Asian families who immigrated here a while ago, but are now all planning to go back to take advantage of economic opportunities back home. Their children went to US colleges. Some of them even went to US high schools. But they're still not US citizens. Some of them don't WANT to become US citizens because they don't want to give up home country citizenship, as some countries (notably China and Japan) do not recognize dual citizenship. </p>
<p>Heck, even US citizenship does not bar people from leaving to return to their country of ethnicity. Specifically regarding this thread, I know some Asian-American doctors who have moved back to Asia to work. For example, the growing trend of medical outsourcing is being led by Indian-American doctors who have moved back to India to start outsourcing businesses (i.e. outsourced Xray analysis), but still retain their US medical licenses. </p>
<p>Hence, med-schools might argue that they should admit fewer Asian-Americans simply because they are likely to take their medical training back to Asia with them, despite the fact that these Asian-Americans are fully-fledged US citizens. It would be a racist thing to do, but it would also be logical. After all, nothing stops any US citizen from becoming trained as a doctor and then immediately moving to another country. And of course the ones who are most likely to do that are those citizens who are recent immigrants (i.e. in the first or second generation), and especially the ones who come from burgeoning economies (i.e. Asia). Think of it this way. What's the difference between a US med school admitting a guy straight out of a college in India (let's say IIT) who then goes back to India, and admitting an Indian-American (who holds US citizenship), and who ALSO ends up going back to India? Either way, the guy ends up not providing care to Americans. </p>
<p>I'm not saying that I know the answer to this. I am just positing this as an interesting question.</p>