As you know, doing only that will not make you eligible to practice medicine in the US.
I see nothing wrong with trying to get into a US university, if you feel that the competition is too rough in Sri Lanka, but frankly, the competition is not likely to be any easier to get into school in the US, as a non-citizen, applying for a BS/MD program. So go ahead and try, but expect to have a difficult time and therefore, you should have a "Plan B".
But there are requirements beyond doing well on your ALs. Some require US citizenship. Some require that you have the funds to finance your education. Most will require you take ACT or SAT and have a certain minimum score. I do not doubt you have the academic credentials, but its these other factors which are just as important to assess. Eligibility for "American College" is not the same as eligibility for a combined degree program which is much more competitive.
Well, yes. The most obvious of which is that you would never be able to work as a physician in your home country. What if you HAD to return - for legal reasons, health reasons, or simply wanted to return? Its not easy being thousands of miles away from home, without a support system and being unable to travel back on a whim's notice.
No, there are no guarantees that you will be able to stay in the US after you finish your training. Unless you become an American citizen during medical school/residency, you will be here on a Visa which will expire at some point and require you to leave, in most cases.
The discrimination is not related to being Muslim or from an Asian country. We have plenty of both here. The discrimination is that when your Visa expires you HAVE to leave unless you have citizenship or PR. Like any other country in the world, you can't just move to the US and stay around (well, you can - as our neighbors to the south demonstrate every day, but not if you want to work as a physician).
I think what's easiest for you is to do your undergraduate medical degree in Sri Lanka or a place acceptable to your country and then come to the US for residency training. This is the "biggest bang for your buck" in terms of relative ease and ability to work in both countries although I am unsure as to whether or not US residency training is acceptable in SL. Granted getting into medical school in SL is difficult, but I think you may underestimate the difficulty in getting into a combined degree program in the US.
I wish you the best of luck.
Did you look into whether some of these 35 BS/MD programs accept internationals? I think the best ones like Rochester REMS and Brown PLME do, but they are ridiculously hard to get into (think 800 applicants for about 10 spots for REMS and 2000 applicants for 50 spots for PLME). The BS/MD programs at state institutions will favor in-state applicants.
I think an easier route would be going to a US university and then applying to medical school here or going to a BS/MD in Sri Lanka. I don't know how competitive getting into medical school in Sri Lanka is but the BS/MD route in the US I feel should be more competitive simply because it's not the traditional pathway.
Thank you winged scapula and schrizto.
I got the point. I think I might have underestimated the competition like you guyz said.
Not that am trying to avoid competition but rather too much of competition means trouble for me. And, that's the problem with Sri Lanka. Most of the students nowadays go abroad to do medicine rather than in Sri Lanka due to competition. Most opt to Russia and our neighbors like Pakistan and Bangladesh & some choose China too. Most of these universities seem to have trouble with reputation and recognition in other place.
All blame should be on our doctors. They want to keep their competition down and they have made the medical education state monopolized even when they know that the state can't serve the demand. They are not even allowing a single private medical college which could save us millions in foreign exchange.
I came across an University in Georgia. It appears extremely cheap and well it's recognized in EU, USA, Sri Lanka, India and Israel (and more I bet, because only EU, Israel and USA were noted in college website.) I was just browsing through the list of medical universities approved in Sri Lanka and found this.
It's not a reputed one but rather recognized. It's state driven. The catch is that we have to apply through representatives & the representative for Sri Lanka is in India & I virtually have no idea how much of a good idea this can be as I don't know anyone who lives there let alone looking for someone who did a medical degree there.
2 year theoretical studies and 1 year preclinical and 3 clinical years giving you a MD.
And, I came across a program by Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. They have a special program where the student does the pre-clinical studies in Dublin and the clinical studies in place like Malaysia or Bahrain and are given a RCSI certificate.
And, someone told me of a private university in Bangladesh. It is affiliated with the state university and offer the state certification. They have a weird application procedure. We have to apply to an agent and we pay the agent travel fare and the agent takes us to Bangladesh and gets us enrolled in that university. Many students I know are taking this route but this sounds like spam and the first batch of students who went there haven't completed their studies yet to have an idea of what the course would be like and how reliable it is.
Are you guyz aware of any such programs? I mean workarounds to get a well recognized certification through an affiliated university with lesser competition and lesser cost.
schrizto, you are from German?
A friend suggested I must give a hit on German(of course that means I should spend next 3 months studying German language) due to the reason that it is a intensive center for R&D which is my prime interest at the moment. And, I read somewhere German universities have slightly lesser competition inconsistent with their global reputation. Any thoughts?
Anyway, thanks a lot all. You are being of great help to me.