Photo by Anthony DeCarlo
Rachel Jaber Chehayeb wanted to stay in the U.S. to attend medical school after graduating from Yale College, but she knew it would be difficult. As a Lebanese citizen, she would have to navigate visa requirements and loans without nearby family or a ready support network. “I only knew of one person who had done it,” said Chehayeb, a first-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine. “There was not a community of international medical students.”
The typical and less complicated path, said Chehayeb, is for international students to attend medical schools in their home countries and come to the U.S. for their residencies. In fact, international students account for fewer than 3% of applicants to U.S. medical schools and just .5% of enrollees. Less than one-third of U.S. medical schools (49 total) even accept international students.