ok please bear with me.. im a Highschool junior who really wants to become a doctor. iv thought long and hard about this and i wouldnt do anything as a job for the rest of my life besides being a doctor and helping people. im confused though. my family is in a tough situation. my mom is very sick and my dad cant work since he has to take care of her. my dad made some bad business decisions throughout his life and as a result, his credit was ruined. my question is: should i go to medschool in pakistan/ europe or stay here for the tradition 8 year route. the medschools im looking into are the ones who offer a MBBS degree within 5 or 6 years of study. i dont know which route i should take. should i save my family $120k and go to pakistan to do med school, in the process, save 3 years? or do the traditional route and spend $150k and 8 years here in the US. my end goal is to get residency here in the US and practice here. time is very valuable to me. i want to be a doctor but i dont want to be in school till 28 or 27 when i can go to paki and get my degree by 24. i know that going to college here and doing med school in US makes it easier to get residency but is it worth the extra $120k and 3 years? keep in mind that the med school in paki has a combined 5 year program which i can attend right after high school. it will cost me about $70k for tuition for 5 years in pakistan or do it here and spend about ~$180k on college and med school combined. like i said before, im sure i want to be a doctor, but just confused on which route to take. thank you for taking the time to read all this and any response will be much appreciated. have a wonderful day!
confused.....!
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Smurfette
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If you want to practice in the US, do med school in the US. It is very difficult to find a residency training spot (especially in a competitive specialty) if you are not a US grad, and odds are that this will become even more difficult in the future. In other words, there's no guarantee that you will be able to get a training spot in the US (needed to practice medicine in the US) if you do med school in Pakistan.
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Agree with Smurfette. We take a relatively few foreign trained doctors into residencies here, and that number is decreasing annually as US enrollment is growing faster than residency slots. And even if you were exceptionally fortunate you'd still probably lose multiple years following med school doing externships (you wont have had US equivalent clerkships), research years (if you dont initially match), and possibly 1-2 dead end prelim years before you'd be on track to actually get training here. The couple of people i know who went abroad to "save a few years" actually ended up losing years at the other end having to do things to get US residencies to consider them. And you'd be limited to noncompetitive residencies to boot because you didn't have the US med school pedigree.
No matter how you slice it the years are going to probably be a wash, and you'd maybe save a little money now going abroad but you'd limit your career prospects and potentially lose lots more money later. Bad bad bad bad idea. If your goal is to practice in the US, there are no good short cuts. Just take out the necessary loans and go to school in the US. You won't be losing the time you'd think, and the additional cost is going to be recouped from much better opportunities down the road.
No matter how you slice it the years are going to probably be a wash, and you'd maybe save a little money now going abroad but you'd limit your career prospects and potentially lose lots more money later. Bad bad bad bad idea. If your goal is to practice in the US, there are no good short cuts. Just take out the necessary loans and go to school in the US. You won't be losing the time you'd think, and the additional cost is going to be recouped from much better opportunities down the road.
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If you want to be a doctor in pakistan, go to pakistan med school. If you want to be a US doctor, then go to a US medical school. Something you may want to keep in mind is if your family is in a tough situation, bring more debt in may not be the best idea.
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Well, unless he goes through private lenders who need co-signers, student loans won't be family debt, it will be his personal debt. Or more precisely an investment in personal capital/himself, which if he works hard he'll hopefully be able to pay off during a successful career. If he can go to cheaper/ state school and uses predominantly federal and state student loans it shouldn't burden his family much worse than they've got it now. Alternatively he could put off school and help out at home -- either caring for his mother so his father can work or vice versa -- college/med school will always be there, and the life experiences would make for better essays (ie turn life's lemons into lemonade). Becoming a doctor quick shouldn't be the goal. In life, the journey is the whole point, not the destination.
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It's a risk I wouldn't recommend. As people have said here, the competition for residencies have increased over the past few years. It's changed a lot over the past 20 years or so. That idea of coming overseas to practice in the US isn't what it used to be.
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What are your HS stats? GPA? SAT? If they are high enough, gun for free money, AKA scholarships. Or be like those ever envied geniuses who get into Stanford/Harvard/etc that make sure you get no debt.
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