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Hello!
This is my first thread on SDN, so I'm nervous... Please do bear with me
I'm an American soon-to-be 29 year old living in Riga, Latvia. I decided relatively recently that I'd like to become a doctor, which was a radical 180 from my lifelong aversion to the study of science.
Needless to say, I'd need to do a postbac of some kind, MCAT, etc. I keep ping ponging between looking into that path, and thinking that, odds against IMGs notwithstanding, maybe I ought to stick do a 6-year medical degree in this neck of the woods.
It might make sense to attend Riga Stradins University here in Latvia. My wife is Latvian, and I've been here more than 2 years already, well underway with learning the language(s), etc. Conceivably, by the time I got to the clinical years I'd be proficient enough to communicate with patients etc. The thing is, they hardly ever have Americans in their program, and although it's on the Med Board of CA approved list, I don't think that the English program necessarily is (in fact, it seems none of the well-known Baltic schools' English programs are). I'd love to be able to get a better sense of whether this school makes the grade in any appreciable way. Whether it'd be wiser to capitalize on my foothold over here in E. Europe, and chance it 6 or so years (!) down the line with whatever the then-residency match situation will be, or swim very much upstream and try to go the American postbac route.
I apologize for the longish post! My situation is a bit unusual I suppose, so I'm having a hard time getting much good info or advice and would be very, very grateful to anyone out there who'd care to weigh in!
Greetings,
LVUS
This is my first thread on SDN, so I'm nervous... Please do bear with me
I'm an American soon-to-be 29 year old living in Riga, Latvia. I decided relatively recently that I'd like to become a doctor, which was a radical 180 from my lifelong aversion to the study of science.
Needless to say, I'd need to do a postbac of some kind, MCAT, etc. I keep ping ponging between looking into that path, and thinking that, odds against IMGs notwithstanding, maybe I ought to stick do a 6-year medical degree in this neck of the woods.
It might make sense to attend Riga Stradins University here in Latvia. My wife is Latvian, and I've been here more than 2 years already, well underway with learning the language(s), etc. Conceivably, by the time I got to the clinical years I'd be proficient enough to communicate with patients etc. The thing is, they hardly ever have Americans in their program, and although it's on the Med Board of CA approved list, I don't think that the English program necessarily is (in fact, it seems none of the well-known Baltic schools' English programs are). I'd love to be able to get a better sense of whether this school makes the grade in any appreciable way. Whether it'd be wiser to capitalize on my foothold over here in E. Europe, and chance it 6 or so years (!) down the line with whatever the then-residency match situation will be, or swim very much upstream and try to go the American postbac route.
I apologize for the longish post! My situation is a bit unusual I suppose, so I'm having a hard time getting much good info or advice and would be very, very grateful to anyone out there who'd care to weigh in!
Greetings,
LVUS
