Going to School Overseas bad or good

[ucf561boy]

I'm new to this board , so bare with me guys , quick question Im thinking of going overseas to attend med school , I have a few friends who did this same exact thing the school is in Africa , the system is different then the states u are not required to have an Undergrad degree to enter med school , right after highschool you apply to college , medical, engineering, law and etc
i was a student at a state university here , I recently left last semester and was thinking of going with this plan and takign friends advice, they came back and all they are required to do is take the board exams and achieve a good score and suprsingly all 4 of my friends did pretty well 85%-95% on step 1 and they took 2 and will wait for residency soon
1 advantage of going to school overseas is age you will get done earlier then here in most cases and secondly its cheaper in comparison to here so you can definitely avoid those student loans
I was a biology major i left in the middle of my second year , everything was going ok untill I hit chem , I left with a 2.6 GPA so I was like screw it. I wanto to start over , your opinions are much appreciated please thanks

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[futureboy]

Finish your bachelors degree.

 

[Flopotomist]

There are a myriad of problems with gonig overseas... here are a few of them:

1. Getting into residency is difficult if not impossible from these "no degree required" schools.

2. The harsh reality is that if you can't perform now, what makes you think that you will magically be able to perform when it comes time to take the boards?

3. If you DON'T pass the boards, you will be stuck with a significant amount of debt, and have no way to pay it back.

4. Like all things in life, if there was a cheaper, faster, easier way to do something with no consequences - we would all be going that route. The fact that the overwhelming majority are not going this route is a good indication that there is something wrong with your plan.

 

[Blade28]

I agree with the above post.

If you've only gone through two years of undergrad you still have plenty of time to bring your GPA up, in addition to studying for the MCAT. You also have the option of post-bac work if necessary.

Best of luck.

 

[Law2Doc]

all 4 of my friends did pretty well 85%-95% on step 1 and they took 2 and will wait for residency soon

If your friends did not complete college and are graduates of an unaccredited med school in a third world nation, they very well could be "waiting" for a US residency forever. One or two may get really lucky, but if so, they beat the odds, which are hugely stacked against them, and probably had a "hook" you will be unable to duplicate -- you don't want to look at a few exceptions as examples of where you will be. (That's sort of like saying Bill Gates dropped out of college and became a billionaire, so I'm going to too).

The truth of the matter is, if you want to practice in the US, you are best off if you attend med school in the US. 94% of all US allo med school grads match, but there are literally many thousands of people from other routes who don't get residencies each year. And this is expected to get worse as the ranks of US med schools are increasing without a commensurate increase in US residency slots -- ie we are in the process of squeezing out some of the offshore crowd -- making it harder to come in via this route.

Most people look at these offshore options as "second chances" if folks have finished college, made great efforts to get their GPAs and MCATs acceptable, but still come up short. And for a small percentage who survive the absurdly huge attrition and beat the odds on the Step exams, this may be the ticket to a less competitive residency in a less desirable part of the US. But you don't look at this as a first choice, or a faster route or an easy shortcut. It is long and hard and the odds are stacked against you if you go this route. Whereas in US schools, you pretty much will end up in a US residency statistically.

 

[princekc]

I'm new to this board , so bare with me guys , quick question Im thinking of going overseas to attend med school , I have a few friends who did this same exact thing the school is in Africa , the system is different then the states u are not required to have an Undergrad degree to enter med school , right after highschool you apply to college , medical, engineering, law and etc
i was a student at a state university here , I recently left last semester and was thinking of going with this plan and takign friends advice, they came back and all they are required to do is take the board exams and achieve a good score and suprsingly all 4 of my friends did pretty well 85%-95% on step 1 and they took 2 and will wait for residency soon
1 advantage of going to school overseas is age you will get done earlier then here in most cases and secondly its cheaper in comparison to here so you can definitely avoid those student loans
I was a biology major i left in the middle of my second year , everything was going ok untill I hit chem , I left with a 2.6 GPA so I was like screw it. I wanto to start over , your opinions are much appreciated please thanks

....I'll suggest that you follow the advised given thus far. I originally immigrated >10yrs ago from w/Africa. The medicine/medical sch training (Africa as a content) there is of low standard. My advise are: improved your GPA, take the MCAT and apply or do a SMP. If you still can't get in U.S med sch (MD/DO), then you may consider the Caribbean. Good luck.