i recently met a female who was moving to finland to attend college there. she was born in finland but was raised all her life here in the US. She told me how her parents were living there for the past couple of years and how education is pretty cheap and is free to actual citizens. she told me medical schools in Europe were cheap and even free if you were a citizen.
Medical school is not 'free' per se. Tuition fees are indeed very low but this comes at a high cost.
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Large classrooms: Europeans medical programs are often considered competitions. Due to the socialist nature of much of the educational system here, to select candidates on entry is considered discrimination. As a result, almost all of the people who apply get a place in the first year. You are then subjected to a form of
numerus clausus whereby a fixed number of places is available in the second year and you are competing for one of these spots. In some countries, such as France, pass rates can be as low as 10% (which means the other 90% have to find alternative careers);
- Expect little to no clinical exposure until well into your Masters stage (fourth year and above). This may seem OK but I genuinely find that medical students are expected to have a thorough understanding of theory and too much focus is placed on it;
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Six years instead of four: Medicine in Europe is usually six years (unless you attend a specific graduate-entry medical program). If you already have a degree, I would take this into consideration.
i was honestly pretty shocked when i learned about this. i heard of college being free in Europe but i didn’t actually think Americans were actually leaving the United states to actually go to school there.
Non-EU students are usually excluded from admissions unless specified by the nation. A good example is Switzerland where non-Swiss citizens or residents are usually not allowed to enrol on the BMed program.
my question is, which medical schools in Europe accept American students, and also do americans that graduate there actually have opportunities to stay and live in the country. I never cared for being super rich, I would be happy making just enough to live a comfortable life. I also don't want to live in a country where patients have to deal with expensive hospital bills. I really hate the fact there isn't free health care in America.
You are asking a very complex question that requires a detailed answer. I will try and keep it short.
Firstly, no healthcare is 'free'. Americans love to assume that Europe is some post-racial and capitalist utopia where money is not important. Healthcare is cheap and affordable but with costs rising so are the pressures on the medical system. Insurance companies (be they private or public) are forcing doctors to rush patients and encourage sick people to find cheaper alternatives (e.g. go abroad and pay out-of-pocket). Doctors and nurses are often over-worked with little to no pay increases. Strikes are common and burnouts are amongst the highest of any profession (at least in similarly competitive fields you are well compensated). Healthcare is expensive and with an ageing population and with very high levels of immigration, European hospitals are suffering in many cases.
All this to say that please don't have a rosy-eyed view of the medical systems in Europe. Do you reserach before coming here to work as a doctor. You'll find that it's not as utopian as many media outlets in the U.S. like to portray.
Secondly, you're lying if you think money is not important. When you're working 100 hours a week or on call for 24 hours with little to no rest and all you're paid is 2,000 Euros a months (of which 20%-30% goes to taxation), you'll re-think the 'I don't care about money' attitude.
With the moral lecture complete, your best bet in terms of getting into medical school is probably Italy or the U.K. I'm assuming you don't speak any European language fluently (believe me, saying
Bonjour, comment ça va does not quite do it), and the medical programs in these two countries is in English. In Italy, you will be required to learn Italian during the six years (and they will support you with this). As for whether you can work here afterwards, that will entirely depend on the political environment during your time here. Understand that immigration laws vary from country to country, even if the EU is supposedly 'one beast'.
On a final note, please do some in-depth research before committing to coming here. You'll be very surprised by just how different Europe is to what you may think. Studying here is tough and it requires a very different mindset. Working here is equally challenging, especially with the level of cost-cutting going on in our medical systems.
