accepted to southwestern med school in philippines

[julioiglesias]

Dear readers,
I have been granted conditional acceptance to the southwestern school of medicine in philippines cebu.
I am excited and I want to know more about this school.
also i want to see if any of you out there are also going to be studying there in this upcoming semester of june 10.

conditional meaning. I still need to submit those dreaded letters of recommendation, police clearance, and nmat which i'll be taking it this april.

I am foreign student with american green card. do you guys think this school is good for me if i decide to one day practice in america?

any advice or insights will be much appreciated. 🙂

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[Medic101]

Where are you from? All school is good as long you can fulfill the reqs for residency... Where do you want to practice?? You have to choose where you want to go do your residency first then revolve around that. That place is really nice... btw, as there foreigners there too but... Im not exactly sure what their program is in there.

 

[julioiglesias]

well i am from united states. but not a citizen yet. i hold a green card.
i plan to practice in united states or abroad. but i like to get residency there.
i hear getting residency in california(which i am from) is tough along with other western states since they require more hours of clinicals than the philipines medschool provide so i hear i have to do more hours

i hear getting the ROAD specilities are tougher with degree in phil but the determining factor is usmle scores and recommendatino from us clinical professors. yadi yadi ya.

it seems that everybody shuns primary care doctors. why is that? isn't internal medicine primary care has a lot of cool subspecialties? they don't get as much as an orthopedic surgeon but who cares. and i am sure surgery is not for everybody.


i don' t really care if i dn't become pediatric neurosurgeon like ben carson of john hopkins or other high profile doctor. if i do well and become one it would be great

but i am sure it would be better than a 50 years old in a 9-5 job with 3 kids in college and all of ur sudden ur boss says you are fired and now the prospect of getting ur job in your 50 is very bad.

at least doctors bloom later but can have a stable job right? even if u get fired you can get hired in many placess since it is in demand right?

i feel that being a doctor opens a lot of opportunities than say a blue collar worker and get to meet interesting people and open doors to many exclusive group of people.

truely smart people know their limits and maximizes on their strength and manages their weakness well.

i know i hear phil grads gets to take usmle later and lose 1 or 2 years before getting a residency. and i know that people compary caribbean vs phil.

but honestly I rather go to philipines and not be in debt and take my time on usmle.
yea i lose some years before i get paid being a doctor so what.
i'll exercise hard and keep healthy so my life expectancy is longer than some obese US doctors so i can practice until i am 100 years old.

 

[tantrum]

Internal Medicine is the gateway to a lot of Subspecialties. Cardiology, Gastroenterology, are examples and there will be shortages of all kinds of specialists in the future.
The only concern in going to a foreign school is that there is a big increase in the number of US medical students without significant increase in the number of residencies. This might not affect you but if you are trying to match around 2018, it will be much tougher.

 

[julioiglesias]

thanks for the heads up.
This is how i see it.

If it was not for Philippines. my chances of being a doctor is 0 percent.
At least by going to the Philppines, I will be get a better chance than a 0 percent of becoming a doctor.

I see the percentage of foreign med graduate into residency. well it is better than 0 percent.

Worst case scenario. I won't practice in USA n get married to a rich/pretty girl from philippines and start practice there or whatever.

or the worst case scenario is that in 2018 there will be a massive tsunami or a cosmos doesn't align properly and we are all facing apocalypse. like
that movie 2011 or seomthing. so not matching to my ROAD residency won't be the first concern.

or by 2018 i finally win the lottery and become a millionaire or become the next best thing since sliced bread or go to las vegas and become a professional gambler.

life is a game of probabilities and the philippines has just given me 1 in 1000 chances of becoming a doctor. better odds than 0 in 1000 chances.

and if i do fail and not finish med well i just gambled with some money that i won't be in bankcruptsy and just will take 1 or 2 years to make it.

 

[RKNY]

bro, u don't know what you're getting into...

What's wrong with being a fifty year old with 3 children working a blue collar job? You act as if you will be better than that. That fifty year old and his family will make up most of your patients when and if you become a doctor.

If you want to practice in the U.S., even with a green card chances are going to be very slim for you to land a residency in the near future with the increase in medical students in the United States and with the new health care bill that is going to pass jobs aren't as guaranteed as you think. Hospitals are closing buddy.

Make sure you know what you're doing and better be prepared to work your ass off the next four years and don't expect that you'll be able to keep yourself "healthy" and that SWU will just hand you that MD degree. Better concentrate on getting through the first year first. Good luck.

 

[julioiglesias]

didn't mean to sound condescending.
nothing is guaranteed
it is a gamble at best.
so what am i supposed to do when faced with challenge?
do or die.
i'll take step at a time.

 

[RKNY]

didn't mean to sound condescending.
nothing is guaranteed
it is a gamble at best.
so what am i supposed to do when faced with challenge?
do or die.
i'll take step at a time.

yea, that's a better way to look at it. You'll definitely be challenged and face a lot of hardships but hopefully for you it will all be worth it in the end. I wish all the best to you.