Instructions for completing the Foreign Medical School Consumer Information Form

Reporting and Disclosure Due Dates:

 Reporting. The Foreign Medical School Consumer Information Form, issued by the Secretary and 

included as Attachment A, should be mailed to the Department by April 30 of each year, starting 

April 30, 2013, accompanied by a certification on letterhead stationery signed by the 

President/CEO/Chancellor, in accordance with the certification instructions included in Attachment

A.

 Disclosure. The institution must also use the Foreign Medical School Consumer Information Form as 

a disclosure form to provide information to prospective U.S. students. The consumer data is to be 

made available to prospective U.S. students by April 30 of each year, starting April 30, 2013. 

Information to Disclose to Prospective U.S. Students

The following is a summary of the information that must be disclosed by a foreign institution for each of its 

approved graduate medical programs. 

 The on-time graduation rate for U.S. students completing the program

 The median and mean Title IV loan debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the program 

 The median and mean private loan debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the program

 The median and mean institutional financing debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the 

program

 The combined median and mean debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the program

Foreign graduate medical institutions are required to report to the Department and disclose to prospective 

U.S. students the consumer information listed above. The institution must include the required information in 

promotional materials it makes available to prospective U.S. students and must display the information on its 

Web site. The Department will also publish this information on a Departmental consumer Web site. The data 

used for the calculations is that for the cohort of American students that earned a degree in the medical 

program in the prior calendar year. The disclosure and reporting data due on April 30, 2013 would include 

information applicable to U.S. students who graduated between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012.

Calculation of Data Elements

Below is some information on each of the data elements included on the reporting and disclosure form.

1) Loan Definitions

For the purposes of the median and mean Title IV loan debt, all loans provided under the Federal 

Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) 

Program are to be included in the calculation of Title IV loan debt.

For the private educational loan median and mean loan debt, the Truth-in-Lending regulations, at 12 

CFR 226.46(b)(5), provide the definition of a private education loan. Examples of private education 
loans include, but are not limited to, loans made expressly for educational expenses by financial 

institutions, credit unions, institutions of higher education or their affiliates, and States and localities.

For the median and mean institutional education loan debt, institutions must include any loan (other 

than a Direct Loan or a loan that would be considered a private education loan), extension of credit, 

payment plan, or other financing mechanism that results in a debt obligation that a student must pay 

to an institution after completing the program and that is outstanding at the time that the student 

completes the program.

For the median and mean combined education loan debt, the combined education loan debt includes 

all loans provided under the FFEL and Direct Loan Programs, private education loans, as defined above, 

and institutional education loan debt, as defined above.

2) On-Time Completion Rate

Normal completion time is defined as the amount of time necessary for a student to complete all 

requirements for the degree or certificate as provided in the institution’s catalog or other promotional 

materials. Note that “normal time” is not 150% of the published time. 

To calculate the on-time completion rate, divide the number of U.S. students who completed the 

program during the most recently completed calendar year within normal time by the total number of 

U.S. students who completed the program in the most recently completed academic year and multiply 

the result by 100. 

Example: During the 2012 calendar year 100 U.S. students completed the program but only 75 of them 

completed in normal time. Divide 75 by 100 to get .75. Then multiply .75 times 100 to get 75. Thus for 

this program, 75% is the “on time completion rate”.

Leaves of absence are to be included when determining whether a student completed a program 

within normal time. For example, if the normal time to compete a Medical Program is 2 years and a 

student took 2.5 years to complete because of a 6 month leave of absence, the student would NOT be 

one that can be included as having completed the Medical Program within normal time when 

calculating the Medical Program’s completion rate. Thus, students who do not complete the Medical 

Program in normal time because of a leave of absence (or any other reason) are to be included in the 

denominator of the completion rate fraction but not in the numerator.

3) Calculating Median Loan Debt

The median is the middle value in a distribution of values, above and below which lie an equal number 

of values. To calculate the median loan debt for a program, an institution would follow these steps.

Step 1: Determine which U.S. students completed the Medical Program in the most recently completed 

award year. 

Step 2: Arrange each student’s debt in ascending order, including students with zero debt.

Step 3: Identify the middle value since the median is the middle value in the distribution of all values. If 

there is an even number of values in the distribution and thus there is no middle value, calculate the 

mean (average) of the two values at the halfway point.
Example A: The following are the loan debt values for nine (9) U.S. students in the 2012 calendar year 

listed in ascending order:

1. $0

2. $0

3. $1000

4. $1750

5. $2343

6. $4709

7. $6881

8. $6881

9. $9995

Since this distribution includes an odd number of values, the median loan debt is $2343 because the 

fifth value is the “middle” number when these debts are ranked in ascending order.

Example B: The following are the loan debt values for twelve (12) U.S. students in the 2012 calendar 

year listed in ascending order:

1. $0

2. $0

3. $500

4. $1674

5. $2126

6. $3000

7. $4000

8. $4000

9. $6524

10. $8326

11. $8591

12. $10000

Since this distribution includes an even number of values, to determine the median loan debt for these 

twelve students the institution must calculate the mean of the sixth and seventh values ($3000 + 

$4000 = $7000; $7000 ÷ 2 = $3500). The median loan debt for this cohort of twelve students is $3500. 

When calculating the median Title IV debt and private educational loan debt for a Medical Program’s 

disclosure information, the total amount that each U.S. student received for attendance in the Medical 

Program, without regard to how much went to institutional charges, is to be included. 

For example, a U.S. student may have received a loan totaling $10,000 for attendance in a Medical 

Program where $6,000 went to pay institutional charges and $4,000 was provided to the U.S. student 

to meet other educational expenses (e.g., books and supplies, living expenses). When calculating the 
median loan debt for the disclosures, this U.S. student would be considered to have $10,000 in loan 

debt.

For debt from institutional financing, the amount to be used in the calculation is the amount the U.S. 

student has outstanding upon leaving the program.

4) Calculating Mean Loan Debt

The mean is the average value of a distribution of values. To calculate the mean loan debt for a 

program, an institution would follow these steps.

Step 1: Determine the number of U.S. students who completed the Medical Program in the most 

recently completed award year.

Step 2: Add the amount of each U.S. student’s Title IV debt, private education loan debt, and 

institutional loan debt, including students with zero loan debts. 

Step 3: Divide the total amount of each type of debt determined in Step 2 by the number of U.S. 

students determined in Step 1. 

The outcome from Step 3 is the mean loan debt. 

An institution must include in its disclosures its own calculation of median and mean debt - separately 

showing Title IV debt and other educational debt as well as the combined debt. The loan debt 

information disclosed by institutions should be consistent with the information the institutions report 

to the Department.
Attachment A

To satisfy the annual consumer information reporting requirement, complete the following information and 

submit to the Foreign Schools Participation Division at the following address:

U.S. Department of Education, FSA

Foreign Schools Participation Division

830 First Street NE, Room 73C3

Washington, DC 20202-5402

Foreign Graduate Medical School Consumer Information Reporting Form

DRAFT

Institution name

OPEID

Name of medical program

Length of medical program

Most recently completed calendar year

Number of U.S. students completing medical program on-time in the most 

recently completed calendar year

Number of U.S. students completing medical program in the most recently 

completed calendar year

On-time completion rate for U.S. students completing medical program in 

the most recently completed calendar year

Median Title IV loan debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the 

medical program in the most recently completed calendar year

Median private education loan debt incurred by U.S. students who 

completed the medical program in the most recently completed calendar 

year

Median institutional education loan debt incurred by U.S. students who 

completed the medical program in the most recently completed calendar 

year

Median combined educational loan debt incurred by U.S. students who 

completed the medical program in the most recently completed calendar 

year

Mean Title IV loan debt incurred by U.S. students who completed the 

medical program in the most recently completed calendar year

OMB No.: 1845-XXXX Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX
Mean private education loan debt incurred by U.S. students who completed 

the medical program in the most recently completed calendar year

Mean institutional education loan debt incurred by U.S. students who 

completed the medical program in the most recently completed calendar 

year

Mean combined educational loan debt incurred by U.S. students who 

completed the medical program in the most recently completed calendar 

year

Certification of Information Required on Institution’s Letterhead Stationery 

You must also include a signed certification on your institution’s letterhead that includes the following 

information on the data being provided. Please have the President/CEO/Chancellor or appropriate designee 

review, sign, and date this document:

I hereby certify, to the best of my knowledge and belief that all the information provided on on-time 

completion rates, and mean and median debt for U.S. students is true and correct. I understand that if my 

institution provides false or misleading information, the U.S. Department of Education can take an 

administrative action to end our participation in the U.S. student loan program. 

Signature of President/CEO/Chancellor

_______________________________________________ Date: ______________

Printed Name: _______________________________________________

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such 

collection displays a currently valid OMB control number. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to 

average .43 hours (26 minutes) per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, 

gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. The obligation to respond 

to this collection is required by 34 CFR 668.14(b)(7). Send comments regarding the burden estimate(s) or any other aspect of this 

collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, 

SW, Washington, DC 20210-4537 or e-mail ICDocketMgr@ed.gov and reference OMB Control Number 1845-XXXX. Note: Please do 

not return the completed form to this address.