Studying medicine in the Us funding and entry

Hi , I’m a student currently in year 12 going into year 13 , I would like to study medicine and currently reside in the UK. I would like to ask from those who moved from UK to US , how do you fund it ? (Certainly not everyone is that rich ? ) , all I hear is that either you need to be super rich or super smart to get funded for or helped in some way ? but surely everyone that has made this move aren’t all extraordinary smart or super rich ? Surely there must be some help given for people that come from disadvantaged backgrounds ?

Basically yes. If you aren't a US citizen then you do need to be super rich, super smart, or super good at a sport which also brings in good money in the US (and the sports that are popular in the UK usually aren't over there so your best bets are like, track and field or swimming). You need either a) to have ~$40k+ per year (bear in mind US degrees are 4 years long by default like Scottish ones as well) or b) apply to those colleges which aim to meet all demonstrated financial need and are ideally need blind in admissions or c) get a competitive scholarship (which probably means going to a college which is not that academically strong; apart from UCLA/Berkley/Stanford most colleges strong in sport aren't well known for their academics). Need based scholarships exist but, are mostly for US citizens and green card holders. There is very, very little money available for international students. There is also a great deal of competition for those anyway.

Also as above, in the US medicine is only available as a graduate degree for those with an undergraduate degree already. Medical degrees there are also 4 years long, and usually are even more expensive than undergrad degrees there, with even less money. So take all the issues from above and multiply them by 2.

You could do your undergrad in the UK then aim for an MD in the US but unfortunately also it's essentially impossible to meet US pre-med requirements with just a UK undergrad degree. You usually can't take all the required courses (I think the only two places where you can do the full sequence of first year bio/chem/physics and then second year sequence in organic chemistry and also take biochemistry are Cambridge NatSci and maybe Southampton NatSci) in the first place. Although some medical schools don't require them, all US medical schools require you have studied science classes in an accredited US college for at least 1 year. Thus you would need to pursue some kind of masters or postbacc programme in the US for at least a year to tick that box. And masters degrees (and postbacc premed schemes) are usually two years long in the US and again, are expensive and there is even less funding than for undergrad or medical degrees.

To be blunt, it's not realistic unless you have some connection to the US already you can leverage e.g. you are a US expat living in the UK, you have US family you might be able to stay with and try and get citizenship while staying there and maybe starting your studies at a community college there before transferring to a 4 year college, or you marry a US citizen and follow the same route as staying with family. Even for US students there is fairly limited financial aid, and the terms are much less favourable than the UK SLC loans from SFE etc. Also out of state or private college tuition is comparable to international student tuition fees (although if you were a citizen you could get some funding) so you would probably be limited to the same colleges as above for UK students, or your in-state colleges (which are usually not that strong academically except the UCs in California and some exceptions in the midwest, and the UCs are enormously oversubscribed, especially Berkeley and UCLA).

The US university system is even more ****ed up than the UK one essentially so is really not something to aim for...and I'm saying that as a US citizen that spent a long time thinking about studying there. Unless you are extremely lucky or extremely privileged, it does not favour anyone, US citizens or international students alike.

wow... thats so rigged and messed up , looks barely possible , thank you for taking your time to respond by the way i appreciate it. seems like i aint going to the US then for study, better off in the UK 😂

Yeah unfortunately it's extremely tough to navigate uni in the US as a US citizen and if you're not then it just becomes even harder :/

dang , makes me feel grateful for the help students get in the UK , what a shame though i need a change of scenery😣