Help with school list (international student)

[mynameistoolong]

Hi guys, I need help with my school list. I have 3.75/39/3 years of research, no publications (1 excellent and 2 ok's, according to Neuronix's guidelines). I wouldn't worry too much if not for the fact that I'm international; according to MSAR there were 13 internationals who got into MSTP last year

My list is quite top-heavy right now; should I add more safeties? Should I drop a few schools? I'm applying MSTP wherever I'm eligible and MD wherever I'm not.

MSTP:
AECOM
Baylor
Boston (not MSTP)
Columbia
Cornell Tri-I
Emory
Harvard
Mayo
Minnesota
Northwestern
Pittsburgh
Pritzker
Sinai
U Penn
UT Southwestern
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Wash U St Louis

MD:
Case
Dartmouth (not sure about this—their research doesn't come off as very strong but the class is usually >10% international!)
Duke
Hopkins
Stanford
UCLA
UCSF (but hasn't enrolled a single international in many years )
Yale

Thank you!

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[red doctober]

Are you a permanent resident (green-card holder)?

 

[mynameistoolong]

Unfortunately no. That's why I'm posting

 

[K31]

I'd add more non-MSTP schools if you are committed to MD/PhD. They shouldn't have the restrictions on their funding that NIH funding brings (even though the majority of funding for MSTPs doesn't come from the grant either).

 

[mynameistoolong]

Unfortunately there are not many more choices for me.. I checked all the MD/PhD programs that claim they accept internationals, and found out that only three of them accepted one international each in the past 2 years (MCW, Penn State, and Jefferson).

The rest that claim they do (Med Univ S Carolina, RWJMS, Rosalind Franklin, SUNY Upstate, Stony Brook, UC Davis, Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri-Columbia) haven't actually enrolled internationals in the past two years.

I might apply to MCW (which is also MSTP) and/or Penn State (non-MSTP) as well, but I don't have much choice beyond that...

 

[K31]

I'm not sure how much the fact that a school hasn't enrolled an international student in the last couple of years actually means. There just aren't that many of you guys applying. I'm from a program that definitely accepts internationals, and I'm not sure they have matriculated one in the last 2 years.

 

[gutonc]

You're thinking about this wrong. The only number you have is the numerator, i.e., how many international students matriculated in an arbitrary time X. You have no idea how many applied, were offered interviews, were invited for 2nd looks or received acceptances, all of which would be reasonable numbers to use as the denominator. If the denominator is 0, it doesn't matter what the numerator is in the equation.

This is something you'll run into for residency and fellowship applications too. The only data you'll ever have is how many people from your school matched at program X in specialty Y...nothing else. That kind of data is essentially useless to you so stop paying attention to it.

If they say they accept international students, take them at their word and apply. Trying to game the system is only going to hurt you.

 

[mynameistoolong]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I might add MCW, Penn State, UC Davis, and Connecticut. That will bring my list to 30 schools... Anywhere I shouldn't bother applying maybe?

 

[mlkl]

do you consider DO/PhD? Program at MSU accepts internationals!

 

[Fencer]

This year is particularly hard as MSTPs are suffering from cuts on the number of NIH funded T32 slots forcing to cut new enrollment and/or use more of their endowments/institutional funds. International students generally speaking are funded via the latter during MD years and R01s from the PIs during PhD years. Non-MSTPs and MSTPs compete for these endowments/institutional funds with other strategic needs in the instituion such as bridge funding and making-up for NIH sequestration cuts.

For several reasons, I tracked the AMCAS reports for admissions. I believe that the AAMC schools (i.e. US MD schools) are enrolling around 627 MD/PhD students in 2013, a few more than last year. See: https://www.aamc.org/download/321542/data/2012factstable32.pdf However, several MSTPs seem to have cut enrollment. It seems that 10 MSTPs had classes of 6 or less, and 5 MSTPs of 5 or less. On the other side of the coin, I counted 97 schools enrolling MD/PhD students out of 136 schools (but only 110 report MD/PhD students in census)..

The bottomline for the question posed, you must apply very widely as each school might have a slightly different micro-environment.

 

[mynameistoolong]

do you consider DO/PhD? Program at MSU accepts internationals!

This year is particularly hard as MSTPs are suffering from cuts on the number of NIH funded T32 slots forcing to cut new enrollment and/or use more of their endowments/institutional funds. International students generally speaking are funded via the latter during MD years and R01s from the PIs during PhD years. Non-MSTPs and MSTPs compete for these endowments/institutional funds with other strategic needs in the instituion such as bridge funding and making-up for NIH sequestration cuts.

For several reasons, I tracked the AMCAS reports for admissions. I believe that the AAMC schools (i.e. US MD schools) are enrolling around 627 MD/PhD students in 2013, a few more than last year. See: https://www.aamc.org/download/321542/data/2012factstable32.pdf However, several MSTPs seem to have cut enrollment. It seems that 10 MSTPs had classes of 6 or less, and 5 MSTPs of 5 or less. On the other side of the coin, I counted 97 schools enrolling MD/PhD students out of 136 schools (but only 110 report MD/PhD students in census)..

The bottomline for the question posed, you must apply very widely as each school might have a slightly different micro-environment.

Hi guys, thanks for all the answers! I've actually already (almost) finished secondaries by now, so DO/PhD isn't really an option anymore unless I am forced to be a reapplicant.

I applied to most MD/PhD programs that state that they accept internationals according to this form (https://www.aamc.org/students/download/62760/data/). It turned out Mayo changed their policy this year to 'No', and the info about Davis is wrong (should be a 'No').

I did attempt to apply very widely by applying to all but 10 programs that state 'Yes', but after 20+ secondaries I'm pretty burned out at this point. Already rejected by Pritzker and CCLCM, 'interview waitlist'-ed by Davis MD, and got II from Yale MD. Just hoping for the best right now!

Edit: Got paranoid; added Jefferson and (possibly) Upstate if I get a positive reply to my email about whether non-Canadian internationals are eligible.

 

[mlkl]

I've never seen this list, great source thanks! It seems like a lot of schools do accept internationals but I assume they require undergrad in US? I'm an international too but no experience in US

 

[mynameistoolong]

I've never seen this list, great source thanks! It seems like a lot of schools do accept internationals but I assume they require undergrad in US? I'm an international too but no experience in US

Yeah, to be safe at most schools you need at least 90 credits of classes in the US. Some require as little as a year. I personally did my undergrad here.

 

[mlkl]

right I'll need to do some course work here before I apply for the next cycle apparently good luck, with your stats I really think that u deserve it!

 

[pinguadelie]

I have 3.75/39/3 years of research, no publications (1 excellent and 2 ok's, according to Neuronix's guidelines)

@Neuronix, would you happen to know what guidelines he is talking about? Sorry about necro'ing a dead thread

 

[Neuronix]

My old sticky thread

What are my chances? Read before asking. [Updated 2019]

Hey everyone, To help demystify this process, I want to address the frequently asked admissions question about what does it take to get into a program. The standard disclaimer applies. We're anonymous Internet guys and we don't know you personally. You may look great on paper but not get in for...

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