Entering a medical school in the United States for international students who do not have a U.S. permanent resident visa (a green card) can be quite difficult. Many medical schools will not accept international students. Why? They recognize that your tuition does not cover the expense of training a doctor. They are investing in you. Their fear, often based on past experience, is that you could lose your funding midway through your training and their investment would then be lost. Please note: Other health care programs are more open to international students than are medical schools, but it can still be difficult to gain acceptance.
Scholarships for medical training are rare and most American students fund their medical training with U.S. government loans, which are only available to U.S. citizens. Schools that do accept international students differ in their policies. Some schools mean only Canadian students when they say international. Others schools expect you to have two–four years of tuition (between $40,000-$200,000) in an account before you will be allowed to enroll. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, in 2003 only 82 of the 559 international applicants actually enrolled in a U.S. medical school program (this means 82 of the 16,538 new medical students in that year were international).