Best non-US medical schools for competitive US Applicants

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sthomas19

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Depending on the result of tonight's election, I might be leaving the country for the next 4-8 years. For a competitive applicant who intends to complete their undergrad and med school years abroad, and then return to complete their residency in the US, which foreign medical schools rank most highly? I'm not interested in hearing about how much better it is to stay here (I'm already painfully aware), I only want to know which foreign schools are most highly regarded by US residency programs.

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You will find great med school all over the world. But I guess you would be best served in the UK or Ireland (if you get in) because of the high reputation and English language. Hope this helps


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Canadian medical schools will be most highly regarded because of competitiveness of entry and similarity to the US curriculum. Following that would be British medical schools with the big names leading and then followed by schools in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

All options are very expensive and hurt you in terms of getting back to the states. If you are a very competitive applicant (GPA 3.8+, MCAT 34+) you can consider UofT, McGill, McMaster and Dalhousie in Canada as these schools take international students. Otherwise consider the UK, schools like Cambridge and Oxford will turn heads, Imperial, UCL and Edinburgh are also well regarded. Otherwise, most other medical schools in the UK will probably get a similar reaction.

Ireland and Australia have some very good schools but tend to be lower on the competitiveness scale for American students as they tend to take a lot of international students, often for financial reasons.

You will however find that reputation is not very important even to American PDs. Sure an applicant from a prestigious school may turn heads but it would come down to your tangible stats, like your Step 1 score, LORs and CV that really determine your chances. No one will pay much heed to a school's reputation since it has very little role in who you are as a person.
 
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