If you’re a high school student in India and you hope to attend med school to become a physician, you may wonder whether you should attend medical school in the US or India. Admission to medical school in the United States is much more difficult for non-U.S. residents to gain admission. The vast majority of medical schools in the United States indeed require students to either be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

There are a number of hurdles for students in India seeking to gain admission to U.S. medical schools. But it is possible.

But  for those U.S. medical schools that do accept international students, there may be additional requirements. For instance, these applicants may be required to show proof that they can cover the full cost of tuition for the four years of schooling since federal need-based funding is not available to them. And what are these medical schools that offer admission to international applicants (i.e., students in India)? Well, there’s the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Stanford University School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in addition to several others.

It should also be noted that these medical schools don’t admit many international students. Some admit only 2-3 a year, while some admit 1 every 5 years. So competition is tough! It should also be noted that some of these medical schools in the U.S. require applicants to have completed some if not all of their undergraduate education in the United States or Canada. For more specifics, you’d have to check out each of the requirements for the individual medical schools.

And should you decide to attend medical school in India but wish to practice after in the United States, it is feasible but it is certainly quite difficult. You’ll have to take the U.S. Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE) and these exams tend to emphasize science. Science isn’t always a major component of medical school education in countries such as India so it will require quite a bit of new learning. And that’s just the beginning to the difficult process of working as a physician in the United States after attending medical school in India.

To learn more, sign up for a consultation so that we can help you gain admission to the medical school(s) of your choice. And check out our blog on Medical School Rankings.