November 12, 2026

US & Canadian Med Schools Accepting International Students

Name: Confetto
Brand: Confetto
Price: 149 USD
Availability: InStock

Free, no sign-up to start.

43 US MD schools and 23 DO listings accept international students. See Choose DO, Quebec and Ontario rules, foreign transcripts, and escrow policies.

Practice the med school interview now

Free, no sign-up to start.

Yes, international students can attend U.S. and Canadian medical schools, though seats are scarce. Per the AAMC, 43 U.S. MD schools accepted international applications in 2025 (with 845 accepted and 755 matriculating from 3,404 foreign applicants), while 23 osteopathic program listings accept international students on the AACOM Choose DO Explorer. In Canada, provincial rules reserve nearly all seats for citizens and permanent residents, leaving 5 regular international or study-permit seats across four Quebec faculties plus sponsored contract seats in the 2027 AFMC Admission Requirements guide. Sources: AAMC: Applying to Medical School as an International Applicant, AAMC: Apply to Medical School with the AMCAS Program, AAMC: Fee Assistance Program. Last checked November 12, 2026.

How many US and Canadian medical schools accept international students

Over two-thirds of North American medical schools restrict admission to citizens and permanent residents, so verify eligibility before paying primary fees. Across 158 U.S. MD-granting schools, 43 accepted applications from international applicants in 2025, according to the AAMC's Applying to Medical School as an International Applicant page. From 3,404 foreign U.S. MD applicants in the 2025 cycle (including TMDSAS), 845 were accepted and 755 matriculated. By our calculation from those AAMC figures, 24.82% were accepted, 22.18% enrolled, and 89.35% of accepted international applicants matriculated.

Osteopathic (DO) colleges provide a second U.S. route. Across the United States, 48 accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine educate more than 38,000 future physicians, close to 30 percent of all U.S. medical students, across 75 teaching locations in 36 states (39 private and 9 public). On the AACOM Choose DO Explorer, 23 of those 75 program listings (30.67% by our calculation from Choose DO Explorer) accept international students, 1 reviews them case-by-case, and 51 do not. Canada's 19 faculties of medicine graduate over 2,923 MDs annually, limiting regular international entry to 5 seats in Quebec alongside sponsored contracts.

Confirm which non-citizen category applies to you before building a school list. Admissions offices separate visa-seeking international students, Canadian citizens applying in the United States, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Canadian convention refugees, and foreign-government contract candidates. Programs open to Canadian citizens or DACA holders often bar visa-seeking applicants from other countries.

International medical school availability across US MD, US DO, and Canadian MD pathways
Pathway	Total programs	Open to international students	Primary portal	Where to verify
U.S. MD	158 schools	43 schools (2025 AAMC count)	AMCAS (TMDSAS in TX)	AMCAS Participating Schools tool and school websites
U.S. DO	48 colleges (75 listings)	23 Yes, 1 Case-By-Case	AACOMAS	AACOM Choose DO Explorer and college websites
Canadian MD	19 faculties	4 Quebec faculties (5 regular seats), plus contracts	OMSAS in Ontario, direct portals elsewhere	AFMC Admission Requirements Guide (2027)

Using AAMC tools and AACOM Choose DO to find open schools

Skip third-party lists that lag behind policy shifts and check official association tools directly. For U.S. MD programs, the 2027 AMCAS application page links the 2027 AMCAS Applicant Guide, the AMCAS Medical Schools and Deadlines search tool for participating regular MD programs, and the Choose Your Medical School tool. Cross-check each medical school's admissions website to confirm whether non-citizen eligibility covers F-1 visa seekers or only Canadian citizens and DACA recipients.

Low-income premeds with a U.S.-based home address should also check the AAMC Fee Assistance Program before booking the MCAT or submitting AMCAS, since benefits are not retroactive. Eligibility requires a 2025 total family income at or below 400% of the 2025 national poverty level for your family size, without listing a U.S. citizenship requirement on its summary page, provided you are not accepted to, enrolled in, or graduated from any U.S. MD, DO, or international medical school.

For U.S. DO schools, select Yes under International Students on the free AACOM Choose DO Explorer to filter the 23 open listings and 1 case-by-case listing across all 75 profiles, alongside a separate DACA Consideration filter (15 Yes and 60 No). On the first alphabetical results page, Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine ($80,656 tuition, March 1, 2027 deadline) and Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine ($85,232 tuition, April 1, 2027 deadline) carry the Accepts International Students badge while the other 10 listings do not. U.S.-trained DOs hold full physician practice rights in more than 65 countries, though foreign licensing rules can change over the seven-plus years before you enter practice.

Canadian medical schools and the 2026 Ontario mandate

Canada reserves nearly every medical school seat for citizens, permanent residents, and protected refugees in the AFMC Admission Requirements of Canadian Faculties of Medicine for Admission in 2027 (compiled from February 2026 faculty data). Starting in 2026, an Ontario government mandate bars regular non-Canadian admissions at Ontario medical schools, as noted in McMaster University's entry for its 217 seats, while Toronto Metropolitan University reserves at least 95% of its 94 seats for Ontario residents. Ontario's seven schools use OMSAS, charging a $220 CAD base fee plus a university fee for each medical school applied to, with a strict October 1, 2026 (4:30 p.m. ET) deadline, October 21, 2026 MCAT deadline, and May 12, 2027 first-round offers.

Four Quebec faculties offer Canada's 5 regular international or study-permit seats, and all four require French proficiency. McGill University's MD-CM program offers 1 visa seat (its Med-P qualifying year excludes international students) and requires pre-admission French at an intermediate (B2) level for Montreal or advanced (C1) level for Campus Outaouais. Université Laval allocates 1 study-permit seat and interviews 5 study-permit candidates, with deadlines of November 1, 2026 for university applicants and February 15, 2027 for pre-university study-permit applicants. Université de Sherbrooke offers 1 study-visa seat, and Université de Montréal shares 2 international seats between its preparatory year and MD program.

Five other faculties admit foreign nationals only into Above-Quota (supernumerary) seats backed by foreign governments or institutions. Those contracts may require full cost compensation, bar post-MD residency training in Canada, and require returning home to practice. The University of Ottawa restricts its 170 Ministry of Health seats to Canadians and convention refugees while admitting international students solely under its Kuwait partnership, as covered in our University of Ottawa interview guide, and the University of Calgary requires formal institutional or country agreements. Toronto, Dalhousie (169 regular seats), and Western (187 regular seats) also take contract students only, while Memorial ended international entry effective June 1, 2021 across its 110 seats. AFMC cautions that earning an MD outside Canada makes returning to Canada for residency or practice difficult.

Canadian medical school international and contract policies (2027 AFMC Guide)
Faculty or group	Regular visa seats	Eligibility and contract rules	Published CAD fees and deposits
McGill University (MD-CM)	1 visa seat	MD-CM open (Med-P closed), B2 or C1 French required	$69,339 tuition, $3,956 fees, $1,000 deposit ($500 domestic)
Université Laval	1 study-permit seat	5 interviewed, Nov 1, 2026 and Feb 15, 2027 deadlines	$38,698.85 visa or contract tuition, $1,000 deposit ($300 domestic)
Sherbrooke & Montréal	1 (Sherbrooke), 2 (Montréal)	Study-visa seat at Sherbrooke, 2 shared prep/MD seats at Montréal	French-instruction Quebec faculties
Ottawa & Calgary	0 regular seats	Kuwait partnership only (Ottawa), institutional or country agreements (Calgary)	Set by partnership or agreement
Toronto, Dalhousie & Western	0 regular seats	Above-Quota contract seats only (Western contract tuition	$97,350 (Toronto), $88,849 (Dalhousie)
McMaster, Queen's, NOSM, TMU, Memorial, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta & UBC	0 seats	Closed to non-Canadian visa and contract applicants	Not eligible for international admission

AMCAS and AACOMAS foreign transcript and US credit rules

AMCAS and AACOMAS verify foreign transcripts in opposite ways. AMCAS does not accept foreign, translated, or credential-evaluated transcripts and calculates no AMCAS GPA for overseas courses unless an accredited U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian postsecondary institution accepted the credits and lists them on its official transcript, such as an American-sponsored study abroad program. You may still enter unverified foreign courses on AMCAS, and individual MD schools can request foreign transcripts on secondaries.

Because unverified overseas courses generate no AMCAS GPA, North American classroom credits carry heavy weight. On the AAMC international applicant page, a University of North Carolina School of Medicine admissions and residency officer notes that U.S. four-year coursework helps committees evaluate progress across differing curricula, and non-degree students need 30 credit hours or more completed before applying.

AACOMAS requires reporting every postsecondary institution ever attended and having each registrar send official transcripts directly during its May 4, 2026 to April 30, 2027 cycle ($198 for the first college and $60 per additional designation, with $198 fee waivers expiring in 14 days). U.S. transfer-credit entries cannot replace original foreign transcripts, and paper records go to the AACOMAS Transcript Processing Center in Watertown, Massachusetts. For osteopathic benchmarks, 2025 entering DO students averaged a 502.95 MCAT and a 3.62 overall GPA (3.53 science, 3.73 non-science), with standard prerequisites of one year each of biology, physics, and English composition plus two years of chemistry, alongside required criminal background checks.

Primary application fees and foreign transcript verification rules
Portal	2026-2027 fees	Foreign transcript submission	Overseas GPA verification
AMCAS (U.S. MD)	Varies by school count (FAP waivers for eligible U.S. addresses)	Not accepted by AMCAS (secondaries may request)	Verified only if on an official U.S., Territorial, or Canadian transcript
AACOMAS (U.S. DO)	$198 first school, $60 each additional	Required directly from every foreign registrar attended	Follows AACOMAS Foreign and Overseas transcript instructions
OMSAS (Ontario MD)	$220 CAD base plus a university fee per school	Due to OMSAS by October 1, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET	Non-Canadian visa entry barred starting in 2026

Financial aid, federal loan limits, and escrow requirements

Financing medical school is often steeper than earning an interview. U.S. federal student aid, including Direct Unsubsidized Loans and Direct PLUS Loans, is limited to students meeting federal citizenship and residency criteria, leaving international students reliant on private loans or on institutional loans and scholarships at the subset of medical schools funding non-citizens.

Before issuing student visa sponsorship paperwork, medical schools verify that admitted international students can pay for their education. Some U.S. medical schools require international applicants to prove financial resources for all four years upfront or place the full four-year cost of attendance into an institutional escrow account. Contact both financial aid and admissions staff at every school on your list before applying to confirm escrow deposit rules and institutional aid eligibility.

In Canada, application fee waivers through AFMC and partner programs in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia support domestic Canadian students in financial need rather than foreign visa holders. Admitted international students in Canada pay international or contract tuition, compulsory fees, and seat deposits, and obtain their own student authorization and visa through a Canadian embassy, High Commission, or consulate.

MCAT abroad, CASPer, and language proficiency rules

Show details

All U.S. MD and DO schools and most Canadian faculties (except schools such as the University of Ottawa) require the MCAT, an approximately seven-hour computer exam scored from 472 to 528 across four sections (118 to 132 each). Registration costs $355 USD, or $145 USD with prior AAMC or Canadian AFMC Fee Assistance approval. You can test in the United States, Canada, or international centers, always in English under the exact English name on your MCAT-accepted ID. Releasing MCAT scores to AACOMAS is manual and takes 10 to 12 days via your eight-digit AAMC ID.

Applicants report spoken languages and proficiency levels in AMCAS, while individual campuses set formal language testing rules. In Canada, the University of Manitoba requires non-native English speakers without a waiver to pass an approved English proficiency option, McGill tests French at B2 or C1 before admission, and Dalhousie tests language proficiency for externally funded supernumerary advanced placement candidates.

Check early whether your target schools require AAMC PREview or Acuity Insights' CASPer situational judgment test. Eleven Canadian faculties use CASPer (Memorial, Dalhousie, Laval, Sherbrooke, Montréal, McGill, Queen's, McMaster, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan), while Ottawa replaces CASPer with an asynchronous MMI. CASPer runs 65 to 85 minutes across 11 scenarios: 4 webcam video scenarios (two 1-minute answers each) and 7 typed scenarios (3.5 minutes per pair).

Application checklist for international premeds

Show details

Our team built this six-step timeline checklist from official AAMC, AACOM, and AFMC policies so foreign transcripts, score releases, and seat deposits stay on track.

Two years before matriculation: Meet a prehealth advisor (or connect through the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions), plan at least 30 U.S. credit hours if non-degree, and apply for Fee Assistance before booking the MCAT.
January to April: Build your target list from the AMCAS Medical Schools and Deadlines tool, the 23 open AACOM Choose DO listings, and the 2027 AFMC Guide, then confirm escrow and loan rules with financial aid offices.
May to June: Submit AMCAS and AACOMAS early (AACOMAS opens May 4, 2026), manually release MCAT scores to AACOMAS allowing 10 to 12 days, and order direct transcripts from every foreign registrar attended.
July to October: Return secondaries promptly, submit new grades during AACOMAS Academic Updates (September 1 to October 9, 2026, December 14, 2026 to February 12, 2027, and March 15 to June 11, 2027), and meet OMSAS's October 1, 2026 deadline if eligible.
August to March: Prepare for traditional, panel, and MMI interviews, and meet Université Laval's November 1, 2026 or February 15, 2027 study-permit deadlines if applying in Quebec.
Winter to May 1: Follow AACOMAS deposit deadlines (December 14 if accepted before November 15, 30 days through January 14, and 14 days through April 30), withdraw extra DO holds before May 1 so offers are not rescinded, and file visa paperwork immediately.

How international status matters in healthcare and residency interviews

Whether you are applying to medical, dental, physician assistant (PA), pharmacy, or nursing school, or matching into residency, your international background shapes interview conversations once your academics clear screening. Medical school interview invitations go out from late summer or early fall through spring, with interviews held most commonly from August to February across one-on-one conversations, three-to-four-evaluator panels, and MMIs of 6 to 10 timed stations lasting 5 to 10 minutes each. See how stations are scored in our guide to MMI practice questions with answers.

Admissions committees and residency program directors already see your citizenship and visa status in your file. In live stations and panels, their questions center on four practical themes: why you want to train and care for patients in their health system, how overseas degrees or clinical roles translate to North American team-based care, how clearly you communicate across cultural and language differences, and what support network sustains you far from home.

Practicing out loud under a timer exposes where foreign-context explanations run too long for a 5-to-10-minute MMI station or panel interview. To rehearse personal motivation questions and timed scenarios with realistic follow-ups and rubric feedback, Confetto offers AI mock interviews for medical, dental, PA, pharmacy, nursing, and residency applicants across MMI, panel, and traditional formats. Start your free week.

Why this health system: Pair one observation from your home country's care model with one North American clinical or community experience, without disparaging either country.
Context in one line: Explain unfamiliar foreign degrees, grading scales, or hospital volunteer roles in 15 seconds or less so interviewers focus on your actions and judgment.
Realistic career plans: Keep specialty and post-graduation training goals aligned with your visa or contract rules.

Practice question

You completed part of your education outside the United States before finishing prerequisites here. Why do you want to train in the U.S. healthcare system, and how has seeing two systems shaped your view of patient care?

See an example answer

I moved to the United States three years ago to complete my upper-level biology and chemistry courses, and volunteering at a community clinic near campus convinced me to train here. Growing up in Bogota, I watched my grandmother visit one neighborhood doctor who knew our whole family, yet wait four months whenever she needed a hospital scan. When I became a Spanish-English patient navigator at our university hospital clinic, I saw the reverse problem. Advanced imaging sat down the hall, but uninsured and Spanish-speaking patients often missed follow-up care because scheduling and billing felt impossible to untangle alone. Seeing both systems taught me never to take either continuity or diagnostic access for granted. I want to train here because academic medical centers pair team-based primary care with health-access research, and I want to care for multilingual families who get lost in administrative steps. Living in two countries trained me to check what a patient actually understands before ending a visit. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

It answers both parts of the question without disparaging either country, anchors motivation in a specific U.S. clinic role, and ties bilingual experience directly to patient communication.

Frequently asked questions

How many US medical schools accept international students?

According to the AAMC, 43 U.S. MD-granting medical schools accepted applications from international applicants in 2025, with 845 accepted and 755 matriculating out of 3,404 foreign applicants. On the AACOM Choose DO Explorer, 23 osteopathic program listings accept international students and 1 considers them case-by-case out of 75 listings.

Does AMCAS verify foreign transcripts?

No, AMCAS does not accept foreign, translated, or evaluated transcripts or calculate an AMCAS GPA for overseas courses unless the credits were accepted by an accredited U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian postsecondary institution and appear on its official transcript. By contrast, AACOMAS requires official transcripts directly from every institution attended, including foreign universities.

What is the medical school escrow requirement?

Because visa-holding international students generally do not qualify for U.S. federal student loans, some U.S. medical schools require proving four years of funding upfront or depositing all four years of costs into an institutional escrow account. Policies vary by campus, so confirm requirements directly with each school's financial aid and admissions staff before applying.

Can international students go to medical school in Canada?

In the 2027 AFMC guide, only four Quebec faculties offer regular international or study-permit seats (5 seats total: 1 at McGill MD-CM, 1 at Université Laval, 1 at Université de Sherbrooke, and 2 shared between the preparatory year and MD at Université de Montréal), and all require French proficiency. Ontario barred non-Canadian admissions starting in 2026, while Ottawa, Calgary, Toronto, Dalhousie, and Western restrict foreign entry to partnership or Above-Quota contract seats.

How many US credits do international premeds need, and can I take the MCAT abroad?

Each school sets its own credit policy, though a UNC admissions officer on the AAMC site notes that non-degree students taking U.S. four-year prerequisites need 30 credit hours or more completed before applying. You can take the MCAT at international test centers ($355 USD standard fee), always in English and registered under the exact English name on your accepted ID.