Wow, what a thread! I'm a Romanian-American in my 4th year of school at Carol Davila in Bucharest, the English Program. I was fully aware of the "stigma" foreign grads have upon returning to the US, but decided to study abroad anyway for a variety of personal reasons, including family, roots, and saving LOTS of money.
Corruption? yes, there is a certain amount of corruption. Not nearly as much as is proported, especially by those who do NOT live here. The English program in Bucharest is excellent. As compared to my brother who finished at Tulane and as compared to mahy friends in Med School in the USA, I do not feel at al shortchanged or inadequately trained. In fact, the 6 year program here is very intense and includes rotations and courses which American students do not. The US training is more practical, that I will grant, whereas here we study much more theory (details and facts). Another great thing about studying in Romania is the clinical contact; we have access to patients 24/7, as much as we want, free to poke an dprod them, as it is our medical student god given right!
You learn so, so much this way.
We have excellent professors, the young, english-speaking generation who are fresh and lively and very dedicated, we are given the best hospital in Bucharest to train in, our group is small (only 11 in 4th year) and so all of med school so far has been like a private tutorial. Students in the States do not have such one on one training as we do here.
I have never paid for an exam or had anyone suggest to me such a thing, nor have any of my classmates. It is true that I am top of the class, but we all study hard and are justly rewarded come exam time.
The downside is endless bureaucratic crap and strange loopy administration that drives you insane, mad, and crazy. But Bucharest is beautiful the training is done with care and competence, and for those of us of Romanian ancestry, its a wonderful way to learn about our heritage.
I would also reccommend the University of Cluj, but NOT Timisoara, Oradea, Constanta or anyplace else. They are poorly reputed within Romania itself.
Romania is making an active and constant effort to offer good training to physicians, to improve its educational and governmental system. It has produced many excellent doctors and researchers! It is not comparable to Belgrade by any means. This is a country with a reputable medical history and very proud of it
example: the first woman neurosurgeon in the world was a Romanian (still alive and well at age 80+)!
Its sometimes iritating to be subject to the quick and uninformed predjudice of especially Americans (I am a proud American myself, dont get me wrong) when it comes to far off countries. There are smart people and there is good stuff going on in other places as well, not only in the States.
Any questions, feel free to email. I'm here for 2 more years befor eheading back home to the US for residency. Yes, it is posible to pass the STEPS and match into a residency at home in the US. All you need to do is love medicine and know medicine.
