Brothers and sisters studying medicine in the United States

As an international student currently studying in the United States, I once dreamed of entering medical school. Now I have recognized the fact and decisively given up on changing careers. . I should be able to tell you about the medical education system in the United States.

American medical schools only recruit undergraduate graduates who have completed their undergraduate studies in the United States. In other words, it is impossible for all students who are currently studying in universities in China to enter American medical schools to continue clinical studies. . It's just impossible to be a doctor in the United States. So you still have a chance. Coming directly to the United States for undergraduate study after high school is the only way to study medicine.

I was originally planning to study medicine, but later I changed my major because I was unable to be admitted to medical school after graduation because of my status as an international student. (I don’t know what your status will be after coming to the United States? If you are an ordinary international student (non-immigrant), you will have an F1 visa, which is the same as my situation.) American medical schools theoretically do not admit F1 students. )

About what kind of system it is: There is no medical department at the undergraduate level, and the medical school is the School of Medical Doctors (MD). You can graduate with any major as an undergraduate, then take the MCAT when you graduate, and then apply for medical school. Generally, children who want to study medicine major in biology or chemistry. Medical school is very expensive and there are no scholarships. However, all medical students in the United States have student loans from banks, and banks are happy to lend money to medical students because they don’t have to worry about paying it back in the future. (Actually, a very small number of medical schools also admit F1 international students who have completed their undergraduate studies in the United States, but they clearly state that they do not provide loans. This is another reason why I changed my major.) After entering medical school, I studied theory in the first two years, and at the same time Take the theoretical license test, and then start a long residency period depending on your main field of study. Resident doctors are intern doctors who live in the hospital. . . The best representative of hardship.

The time required for residency varies depending on the specialty, and generally takes 3-5 years to complete. This way you can take the clinical license exam.

There are more than 7,000 universities in the United States, but only 130 medical schools. Even if only a very small number of undergraduates have the courage to apply to medical school, medical school places are always in short supply. So basically medical school is the most competitive graduate school. Calculated in this way, starting from the four years of undergraduate study with no contact with medical-related knowledge, the ideal situation for medical students is that they can graduate from school in 4+2+4=10 years.

But this is only the most ideal situation. First of all, not many people can directly apply for medical school after graduating from undergraduate degree. There are only 130 schools in total, and they can enroll more than 10,000 people every year at most. The MACT exam can be said to be the most painful and difficult of all graduate entrance exams in the United States. (In ascending order of difficulty, they are GRE (General Professional Graduate School), GMAT (Business School), LSAT (Law School), and MCAT (Medical School)) Moreover, there are students who have graduated before and have to compete with you even if they haven’t applied yet. Therefore, many people are extremely excited after applying to 20 schools and only receiving one admission. The second cut is two years of extremely intense, high-intensity and high-pressure theoretical study, which many people cannot complete within two years. The third part is about residents. It is the same as when I applied. There are few hospitals and only a few positions. Even residents, a poor labor force that is almost subsidized, have to look for it in every possible way to find a hospital that accepts them. Every year, a large number of graduate students cannot find residency positions and wait for the next year to apply. As a result, the competition for freshmen in the next year will be even greater, creating a vicious cycle in the long run.

If any link is slightly delayed, it will not be something that can be read in 10 years.

Some people here often say that studying medicine in the United States only takes 10 years after graduation.

So this is why Americans respect doctors so much. Why is a doctor called a doctor? Because as long as he is a doctor, he is a doctor, so he directly uses doctor as the noun for "doctor".

This is why even if the economy is extremely depressed, the income of doctors is still very stable. Sometimes, more than half of the top 10 income earners in the United States are occupied by doctors from various disciplines.

This is why medical schools do not recruit graduates whose undergraduate degrees are not in the United States, even if American undergraduate graduates do not have any relevant knowledge in the medical profession. They just don’t recognize foreign medical education.

This is why medical schools do not even admit international students who have completed their undergraduate studies in the United States, because they will not accept a foreigner who may return to China at any time after completing his studies without a guarantee of permanent residence in the United States. Provide resources to train doctors for foreign countries.

In the final analysis, it is still the tacit truth among international students: If you want to go to the United States, don’t study medicine.

This is not something you can achieve by working hard and getting a good GPA 4.0. It is a matter of identity. It is a very sad reason, but there are some things in this world that cannot be achieved without hard work. (Of course, this is all based on the premise that you have a student visa. If you are an immigrant or can get a green card or even a citizen before applying for medical school, that is another matter. If this is the case, then apply There are no obstacles, the difficulty is all I mentioned above.

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Although it may be a shock, I think as an international student who came to the United States to study medicine with exactly the same enthusiasm as you, I have the best say. Just telling you all the truth.

As for which universities have better medical programs, just check the rankings of medical schools online. But those rankings are all for graduate schools, and like I said, there are no undergraduates with medical majors.

In addition, I heard some time ago that UCSF (University of California, San Francisco, a branch of the University of California system dedicated to medical school) has begun to recruit some international students from the undergraduate level to participate in some of their undergraduate and master's programs. The project finally got MD. (Only with an MD can you become a doctor) So it’s not completely impossible. If you really want to study medicine, you can check their official website. There may be other similar schools, but the chances are very slim.

If you don’t understand anything, you can continue to ask me.