Brazilian Med Schools

[Skye04]

Can anybody tell me anything about med school in Brazil? Or direct me to a website that has some information (english or spanish, or I could try to stumble thru portuguese)? I did a search on this site and came up with nada.

Thanks

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[DOit]

Each Brazilian medical school has its own entrance exam. Medical Schools funded by the federal government are 100% FREE. However, I would say it almost impossible for foreigners to be accepted to any of these schools. If you pass their entrance exam you are in- no GPA, no secondary, no LOR, no interviews, no EC?nothing really matters, but performing better than the other applicants n the entrance exam. The University of Sao Paulo, Brazil?s most prestigious university, has its entrance exam sometime in December. There are usually 150 people competing for each spot. The entrance exam is in reality two exams. The first exam is a multiple choice exam that will test basic knowledge of Portuguese, Math, biology, physics, chemistry, geography, English, and history. If you get a 60% or higher in this exam, you qualify to take a second exam. The first exam eliminates a lot of applicants. After the first exam, there are probably 10 people competing for each spot. The second exam is an essay exam on biology and chemistry only. There are about 15 questions and you must show how you arrived at your answer. Public schools are VERY competitive because they are free, and they get a lot of money from the government so they have the best instructors and facilities. Private medical schools are competitive, but not nearly as much. The tuition is about $US500 per month. Each school has its own entrance exam, but their entrance exam is only one exam instead of two. Each question n the Physics, Math, Geography, History, Portuguese, and English sections are worth one point, and each question n the Bio and Chemistry sections are worth two points. Again, if you do better in the exam than the other applicants, you are in! No interviews, no secondary, etc? Also, you do not need an undergraduate degree because med schools is 6 years and not 4. bahttp://www.usp.br/fm/estagio/index.htm or http://www.uol.com.br/vestibuol/links/universidades.htm try these sites.

 

[Skye04]

DOit, thanks for your informative reply. I was aware that Brazilian med schools are quite competitive -- I have a friend from Brazil who went to Bolivia for med school because it is so difficult to get into a school in Brazil. However he told me that there is some sort of program for accepting foreigners in Brazil, and as they have a quota for foreigners it is very much NOT competitive. Do you know anything about these types of programs? I am also interested in the quality of medical education in Brazil as compared to the US or Europe, as well as how the curriculum or teaching methods might differ.

 

[DOit]

Brazilians who are not accepted to medical school in Brazil go to school in Bolivia or Colombia. A lot of students transfer back to private schools in Brazil. Most private schools will take transfer students, but in order to transfer you must take an exam, each school has its own exam, I guess just to make sure you can keep up with the other students. You can actually transfer to a public school, but it is a LONG process, and unless one has political connections, it probably won?t happen. I doubt there are any medical schools that will accept foreigner students without taking their entrance exam. But I know for sure, most med school, even the most prestigious one will accept foreign students for clinical rotations. Most public medical schools have partnership programs with American med schools. I would say medical education in Brazil is very good, but just like here in the US, it will vary greatly. Public schools have the best programs because they receive money from the government, and the government owns the hospital with the best reputation where students from the public institutions do their clinicals at. I know for sure that the University of Sao Paulo has one the best med schools in Latin America. They often receive Ivy League visiting instructors. They own the leading cancer hospital in Latin America as well. http://www.usp.br/fm/grad-posgrad/graduacao/gradecurricular2003.pdf You may get a general idea of what the curriculum looks like.