US med school admission for the non-american

[jwl2523]

Hey, I’m an international student who will be attending University of Virginia as a freshman starting from this fall… and I’ve been thinking of pursuing a premed track, but without a US citizenship or permanent residence, I have now become aware of the difficulties. []

But I really do want to get into a US med school, and I hereby ask if it is at all possible… after all, there are quite some med schools that do say they accept foreign nationals, although mostly top tier. And I’ve received my high school education in canada, and will obviously be doing all my undergraduate studies in the US, which will hopefully help?
If I were to attain a good gpa / mcat score (close to a 4.0gpa / 33+ mcat), is there any chance I can get in to a decent US med school? [^]

[y82benji]

You should also post this on the “Ask Admissions Consultants” thread (be careful to use “Reply to Topic” instead of “New Topic”).

You are correct in suggesting that it is a little more difficult for international students to get into American medical schools, but by earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia you will help yourself out a lot. If you earn a 4.0 GPA with a 33 on the MCATs you’ll get into medical school somewhere as long as the rest of your application pans out. Obviously, though, you’ll just want to keep yourself as competitive as possible (and one or two B’s won’t doom you, so don’t stress yourself to death if you just can’t get an A in that one class). Don’t forget that med school admissions is not just about numbers either. While really great numbers can put you ahead of the pack and really weak numbers can get you eliminated from consideration, anywhere in between you really need to have a strong set of personal experiences (volunteering, clinical experience, research, leadership, etc.)

UVA is a good school and big enough to have a strong advising program. Make good use of it. Here’s the website you should take a look at: http://www.virginia.edu/career/grad/premed.html

[jwl2523]

Thanks for your tips (both about my possibilities and the “reply to topic” instead of “new topic”)… I posted the same thread now on the consultants section, and hopefully I can get more assistance but thank you for your help

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