Studying medicine in the USA from the UK

It it possible to study medicine in the USA after completing A-levels in the UK. I am really hoping to work in the USA as a doctor but I have heard it’s really difficult when you study medicine in the UK as you have the take the USMLEE and employers also look down on International medical graduates. So how is it possible to study there( if possible on a scholarship) because I heard a lot of USA medical schools do not also take international al students. Person typos

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Hi, I've moved your thread to the studying in North America forum. The medicine forum is for questions about studying medicine in the UK :smile:

You can't apply to medical degrees in the US as a school leaver, medicine is a graduate degree in the US. You need to do a first undergraduate degree (in the US or otherwise), while also meeting certain requirements. You don't take the USMLE before you apply to medical school, you take it in medical school (towards the end). The US medical school admissions test is the MCAT.

US medical schools certainly do take international students. Rich ones who can pay for the $50k a year tuition fees. There is little to no funding for a medical degree as an international student in the US. You first need to work on getting an undergraduate degree, then figure out how to pay for the medical degree. There's also other hurdles involved if you ultimately are aiming to work in the US as a doctor.

Frankly it's cheaper to do your medical degree in the UK - getting into a residency programme in the US is still going to be difficult and you'll be limited to less competitive programmes (e.g. family medicine, psychiatry or similar) in typically less desirable (e.g. more rural or otherwise crappy) regions both due to general competition and also due to the requirements to get sponsored for a working visa (where the employer needs to demonstrate there are no qualified Americans they could have given the job to. Which will never be the case for competitive things like surgical specialties, anaesthesiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology etc).

So it's probably a non-starter anyway, but at least if you do your medical degree in the UK to start with a) you won't be personally out of pocket for a quarter of a million dollars for it, and b) you can still either continue your career as a doctor in the UK, try and get into a residency in the US, and/or try and move to train and work in other countries anyway (e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand...).