International Applicants Planning to Apply to Medical SchooL in the US Including DACA Student Information

Attending medical school in the US as an international student is incredibly difficult. Only about 50 allopathic US medical schools will even consider international applicants. In 2019, 1890 international students applied to US medical schools: 325 were accepted and 272 matriculated. To research what schools accept international students, check out the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements) and select the ‘international’ check box on the left. They do have a guest account option or you can purchase a 1 or 2 year subscription. Besides getting in, another major consideration for international applicants is how to finance the 4 year degree. Many schools require international students to put 4 years of medical school expenses in escrow in order to be considered. But don’t let this discourage you from ruling out the US medical school option totally. Read on and learn about the ways you can either attend medical school in the US or apply for a US residency as an international student.

When you scroll down the list of US medical schools that even consider international applicants, the matriculated number of students is quite low. MSAR will tell us how many applied and how many matriculated, but it does not tell you how many got accepted. Take the following numbers as examples. According to 2021/22 MSAR:

  • Boston University: 628 international students applied, 51 interviewed and 2 matriculated

  • Emory: 626 international students applied, 45 interviewed and 10 matriculated

  • Georgetown: 774 international students applied, 66 interviewed and 8 matriculated

  • St. Louis: 462 international students applied, 67 interviewed and 13 matriculated

F1 Doctors, co-founded by a Princeton alum, connects international students with mentors to help in application process to medical school. (F1 is the name of the student visa that an international student will need to study in the US.) They also maintain an excellent spreadsheet called Medical Schools and Their Financial Aid Policies.

How about being a DO?

  • Can I use my DO degree to practice medicine overseas? For people interested in learning more about the portability of the DO degree overseas, please reference this article.

  • To see a list of DO schools that accept International applicants, click here.

  • Click here for list of 50 countries where DO’s have practice rights. Scroll down to the FAQ.

GW’s Unique Option

George Washington University MD Program for International Medicine was developed “in response to the great international demand for graduates of U.S. medical schools.” George Washington Univesity has developed an international MD progam “specifically designed to prepare international students for medical practice and leadership in their home countries”, according to their website. Students must have completed their premedical courses and degree at a US or Canadian university and plan to pracice medicine abroad. Applicants must be financially sponsored by their Government Embassy or by a home country health institution and have employment contracts.

Émigré Physicians Program (EPP)

The NY Institute of Technology offers the unique Émigré Physicians Program (EPP) at their Old Westbury, N.Y campus for 25 students. NYITCOM provides an opportunity to retrain foreign born, foreign educated medical degree recipients who are US citizens so they can practice in the US. Students must hold a US citizenship, but completed their medical degree abroad.

How About Residency?

If you are an international student, consider attending medical school in your home country or abroad then apply for residency in the US. If you attended a US school as an undergraduate, you do not have an edge when applying to a US medical school. Although the residency path is also challenging, it provides more opportunity than the US medical school path.

Why is residency a viable option for international medical school graduates? The US does not graduate enough medical school students to fill all of the available medical residency seats. So they need to fill the remaining seats with international medical school graduates (IMG). IMGs include anyone who went to medical school outside the US including US citizens and non-US passport holders. It’s not as much about the citizenship you hold, but where you graduated from medical school. In 2021, there were over 35,194 first year residency spots (PGY-1) and just under 27,000 +/- US medical school graduates (DO and MD). The remaining 7,500 +/- seats went to IMGs. If you attended medical school in the Caribbean, you are an IMG. If you attended medical school in Australia, you are an IMG. It’s still a tough, uphill battle to gain a residency seat in the US for an IMG but your chances are still better than the acceptance rate for international students applying to US medical schools.

In order to match to a US residency, IMGs need to apply for special paperwork. Read more about the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification process here. Please refer to updates to ECFMG accreditation requirements staring in 2024.

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To get a better picture, let’s look at the data. In 2021 residency match, there were 35,194 first year residency positions (PGY-1) available (there are second year residency spots but this article is not addressing those positions) and 13,238 IMGs applied. Of the 13,238 IMGs, 7,508 were successful in obtaining a US residency.

Of the 7,508 successful IMGs, 3,152 were US citizens (match rate of 59.5%) and 4,356 were non-US citizens (match rate of 54.8%). Compare this to students who attended US medical schools with a match rate of 94%. For more specifics, refer to the following:


ARTICLES

Through F-1 Doctors, Yale’s doctors in training make it easier for international students to attend U.S. medical schools (April 29, 2021)

Getting into U.S. medical schools wasn’t easy for them. Now international students are smoothing the path for others (August 3, 2020)

Article by Joni Krapec, M.A., International Students and Medical Education: Options and Obstacles. This article outlines the major challenges facing international students who wish to matriculate to a US medical school. Although the article was written in +/- 2012, many of the same challenges still face international students today, mainly financial.

Yes We Can: International students help their compatriots study medicine in the US. (From Medicine@Brown)

‘It’s Tough to Get Out’: How Caribbean Medical Schools Fail Their Students, NYTimes, October 2021

RESOURCES

The Health Professions Advising office at Princeton University has a good summary page for premeds who are international students and want to apply to medical school in the US.

Primary ECFMG webpage with links to resources, procedures, charts

AAMC page on Applying to Medical School as an International Applicant.

F1 Doctors, co-founded by a Princeton alum, connects international students with mentors to help in application process to medical school. (F1 is the name of the student visa that an international student will need to study in the US.)

F1 Doctors maintains an excellent spreadsheet called Medical Schools and Their Financial Aid Policies

Table A-4: Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by State of Legal Residence, 2011-2012 through 2020-2021

Match a Resident database may help you find what residency programs are welcoming to IMGs

Scholarship info article:  30 Medical School Scholarships for International Students In USA 2022

Article on highlighting 20 Global health programs in the US



DACA STUDENT INFORMATION

For DACA students, it may be challenging to apply to medical school in the US as only certain schools will entertain a DACA application (38 schools as of April 2023), but Pomoma College created a great list of schools that welcome medical school applications from DACA students so check it out. The AAMC Summary of DACA policies per school (updated for entry in 2023) is an excellent resource plus from MSAR data.