Any study involving direct patient contact/care, such as a residency program, will require certification by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

Foreign medical graduates who are interested in medical research or in teaching the basic medical sciences may want to consider getting a master's or doctoral degree in a nonclinical medical science, such as microbiology, anatomy, biomedical science, or many others.

A master's degree in public health, health administration, or hospital administration may meet the needs of students whose career goals include policy-making or administrative aspects of health care.

Listings of U.S. university and college programs for these fields can be found on websites such as www.petersons.com or www.gradschools.com as well as on some professional associations’ websites. Admissions requirements will be similar to those for other graduate programs. For more information on this process, see the EducationUSA Iran site section on U.S. graduate study.

The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) maintains general statistics related to U.S. medical education, including on the number of international and U.S. applicants to, enrollments at, and graduates from U.S. medical schools. This information can be found on their Web site in various tables at http://www.aamc.org/data/start.htm.

Figures on enrollment and graduation for international students from particular M.D. programs are included in tables on “Enrollment and Graduates Data;” “by Gender, Race and Ethnicity,” in a column toward the right-hand side of the table. Admission to M.D. programs is very competitive and many schools only enroll students from within their state or region.

According to the AAMC, "successful applicants from other countries will ordinarily have completed several years of their undergraduate course work in the United States."
No data appears to be available about the specific colleges that international students attended who were later accepted to medical school. Students may want to consider attending an undergraduate program at an institution that also has a medical school (one that admits international students, of course). That can provide some limited advantage in gaining admission to that particular school.

Some institutions even offer a joint bachelor’s-M.D. program, assuring medical school admission to undergraduate students who meet particular academic criteria. (High academic achievement will always be essential for medical school admission, whatever undergraduate institution the student chooses.)

Students planning to eventually enter M.D. programs may major in any field at the undergraduate level; however, they will need to be sure to take a strong core of courses in science areas and should check the specific admissions requirements of medical schools in which they are interested.

Tuition rates for M.D. programs can be found at the American Association of Medical Colleges site at https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/.These figures do not include the cost of books and materials, administrative fees, housing and meals, insurance, transportation, or other expenses. Unfortunately, U.S. medical schools do not generally offer any financial aid for their M.D. students.

Individuals who have already completed an M.D. or other first professional medical degree and who are participating in a graduate medical residency, however, will typically receive a stipend from the U.S. residency program that they are attending to help with living costs, rather than having to pay tuition. This reflects the fact that residencies are work-learning experiences.

international medical graduates who went through the full ECFMG certification process and participated in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) were selected for U.S. residencies in the 2009 NRMP Match. Programs consider far more than USMLE scores, looking at past grades, English language proficiency, recommendations, interview performance, how well the applicant matches particular program needs.

Visa issuance is, as always, at the discretion of the consular officer. Applicants will need to get a visa both when they travel to take the USMLE Step 2 CS examination, which is only offered in the United States, as well as when they are entering the program to which they have been accepted. They can improve their chances for receiving a visa by going into their visa interview prepared to discuss and document their study plans, their ability to cover expenses, their ties to their country and plans to return home.  See the EducationUSA Iran section on visas for more information on the visa application process.