Help :)

[lukazo]

Hi everybody! First of all I wish you happy new year and lots of success! Maybe this kind of topic already was posted but because I'm newbie at this forum, couldn't find any

So the problem is that in nearly 2 years, I'll be finishing
Tbilisi State Medical University in Georgia and want to continue my studing in MD/PhD but it's very unlikely to do it here , so I decided to study it abroad (in USA or in Europe), but I don't have enough information about that. So can you guys give me some advice? For example, people who pass USMLE exams, get in residency in US and study for free, so are there any kind of exams or other things like that to get similar residency in MD/PhD in United States?

Thank you for any kind advice preliminarily! any kind and any quantity of advice will be welcomed!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GliaGirl]

So let me make sure I understand: you are going to graduate with your MD/PhD in Georgia (not the state, the country) in a couple of years and want to do a residency in the US?

I really don't know that much about residency, but from what I understand there is no formal "MD/PhD" residency, since residency is designed for medical training. There are residencies that can include a protected research component, but they are rare, and people with an MD (no PhD) also compete for those spots. So what I'm trying to say is there are programs that are essentially an "MD/PhD" residency, but you don't need an MD/PhD to do them (I think... someone correct me if I'm way off base). A full list is available at: <http://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residency>. That's about all that I know about that.

In order to come into the country for graduate training in medicine, you need to pass the USMLE Steps I, II, and III (or the three steps of the Boards) as well as the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language - this is to prove you know English). You must also already posess an unrestricted liscence to practice medicine in Georgia.

Hopefully that was helpful! Good luck!

 

[lukazo]

Thanks GliaGirl, your post was really helpful! and the link you gave me too but I still have a question I know what I've to do if I decide to be clinical physician, I know that I've to pass USMLE for that, but I don't know what I have to do to be physician scientist, I mean to be the one who runs projects and researches in medicine. For instance, what are that guys called who work in biotechnological researches? They are people who have PhD degree, yes? So I wonder how to become a scientist who will have permision to proceed such works. I know a doctor or a physician can also do that, but from do that guys, whos' direct ocupation is doing research, come from? What courses do they take in universities or what do they do to become research scientists? This is what I'm interested in

 

[Neuronix]

I think this thread will be better served in the international forum.

 

[CancerKiller007]

So you want to be a PI (Principal Investigator)?

There will be two routes for you:

1) Finish your residency, and fellowship. Depending upon your research interests and publication record, you may need to do a post doc. This shoudl give you enough chops to apply for a faculty position in an academic institute where you can do your own research. Of course, you can skip post doc if you have very well regarded publication track record (i.e. multiple nature and science pubs).

2) You can skip residency and fellowship and just do the post doc if you plan not to practice medicine. If you have not finished residency etc, you can not practice medicine but can still conduct biomedical research.

Hope this helps...i think the best place to put this question would be in the residency fourm cuz majority of us in here are aspiring MD/PhD students and have little hands on knowledge on this subject.

 

[lukazo]

Thanks CancerKiller007 ! as I said b4 any advice is welcomed but still I want to ask: as you said if I don't want to practice medicine, I can skip residency and fellowship, that's ok, and maybe I'll do it right that way, but I need concrete advice how to do it. For example, if someone is going to be a physician, he/she is adviced to prepare for USMLE, so what should I do to be PI or get MD/PhD degree, can you give me concrete advice (or nearlly concrete ) how to do it? in my country it's very unlikely to be PI or else, so I need information how to do it in US or Europe. so can you (or others) give me any kind of such advice?

 

[Neuronix]

lukazo, international students are generally not considered for American MD/PhD programs. The exceptions are when students are extremely well qualified and did their undergraduate work at a US or sometimes prestigious Canadian institution.

For you I wonder, are you receiving your MD in your current program? If so, you shouldn't need to talk about MD/PhD or medical school in the USA. I am not familiar with what foreign medical graduates must do to practice medicine in the USA.

However, in your latest post, you ask what you would want to do if you want to be a researcher/PI in the USA. This I know a bit more about. The most obvious route is for you to start doing research, especially in the USA if you can find a program or position. Spend at least a year in that research position, hopefully, but not necessarily, working in an area you think you'd like to work in someday.

Then I'd recommend enrolling in a graduate school program (hopefully PhD) in the USA. These are not terribly competitive at many schools and in many fields. With your MD and with the research experience you will get, you will likely obtain a funded position or one in which you will be partially funded but must teach. This assumes you have done well in your prior studies. You probably will have to take the TOEFL, though if your English is at least as good as your posts, you will likely do ok.

Unfortunately this site doesn't have that many straight PhD students. We have a few MD/PhDs and some PhDs who transitioned to MD after completing their PhD. I say this because the requirements for graduate school are going to vary depending on where and what field you choose.

If you did complete a PhD, typically you would move on to a post-doctoral position, and then hopefully to a position in industry or academics. A word of warning, however, on this point. There are too many PhD holders in the USA as it is. Competition for jobs is extremely high. Pressure on principal investigators and on programs to produce is also extremely high. Foreign students are often abused in very long programs and left without a job upon completion. You will be looking at very hard work with very low pay (for USA cost of living) for 10+ years if you proceed down this path.

 

[lukazo]

Happy New Year guys !!! Wish you many, many happiness and lots of success!

Thank you Neuronix very much, for attentiveness and for such a big helpful post First of all, I want to say that I'm not looking for United States directly, I just want to get there, where I can do researches and participate in scientific works, because in my country, as I said before, it's very unlikely to do this kind of things, because here is not enough interest from government to fund or invest in science.... So will it be USA, Canada, Europe or Australia, nothing matters But because in science US is the leading country, I started from it

You know, unfortunately, I'm totaly lost in USA educational system, so if it won't take much from your time, would you be kind to explain it in few words (just in few words ) to me? I would be very, very, thankful !!! After this, your previous post will be much more helpful

 

[Neuronix]

You know, unfortunately, I'm totaly lost in USA educational system, so if it won't take much from your time, would you be kind to explain it in few words (just in few words ) to me? I would be very, very, thankful !!! After this, your previous post will be much more helpful

I'm not sure what you're asking for. But if I read you correctly Wikipedia can answer your question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States

 

[lukazo]

Are people allowed to leave Georgia freely?

yes, they are. government does not forbid leaving the country of course. also we do not have "neo-Soviet strongmen" leader, but still, not better then that

Neuronix, thank you again that was what I was asking for

For you I wonder, are you receiving your MD in your current program?

no, I was told that my diploma is bachelor equivalent, thats why I interested in it and what should I do in this case? sorry for giving you so many questions I just want to be MD/PhD student like you

 

[RussianJoo]

Lukazo, since you already have or will have an MD very shortly all you need to get now is a phd. Do you already know what you're interested in researching? Since you want to do research in the medical field, I would suggest doing research in Medical Genetics, or Biochemistry, you can also do research in Neuroscience. If you have no research experience it will be very hard to get a research assistant job because they expect you to know something already. Did you take organic chemistry, biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry and other advanced chemistry and biology courses? More importantly did you have laboratory classes with those courses? If you did then you should have some skills in a lab and might be able to find some University or College that needs a research assistant, but I personally think that's a waste of time. To be a scientist you just need to get your phd, like said above it's not that competitive to get into a phd program, so you might want to go to the websites of European or American Universities and see what kind of PhD programs they offer, (there are a few thousand of Universities in the USA so you may want to start by picking what state you want to live in or if you want a well known university like Harvard or Yale.) Then see what the requirements are to gain acceptance into that program, there might be some tests you have to take (the GRE is a test Americans take to gain acceptance into Phd programs.) Once you're accepted you'll be working in a lab and taking classes at the same time. Later on you'll start helping the professor teach the lower level science classes and in a few years you'll publish a few papers and work on your dissertation and graduate with a PhD and since you'll already have an MD you'll be an MD/Phd. Then you'll apply to work as an assistant professor or Laboratory assistant and slowly publish more papers gain more knowledge and become a professor or start working for the government like the NIH and just work in a lab. To explain a little better, most research in the US is done in Universities because the government will rarely give private grants to fund research and people themselves don't have enough money to fund their own research, but to do research in a university in the US you have to teach a class or two thus every professor that does research also teaches.

Another option is to work for pharmaceutical companies inventing new drugs. For this you might need a Phd in Chemical engineering. you'll then apply for a job with pharmaceutical companies and once hired they'll train you and you'll slowly gain more experience and move up the rank in the company.

Also each of these PhD programs will have prerequisite classes, because each class is used as a stepping stone and you build on the knowledge you gained from the previous classes that you took. So if you didn't take certain classes that are requirements before you take the higher level PhD classes you might have to start with those classes and once those are completed start taking the PhD classes. Since you went to med school in Georgia there is a good chance you went straight to med school from high school and thus don't have a bachelor of science degree, so you might have to start by taking those classes first.

I am not sure how things work in Europe but basically after graduating from medical school you want to apply to a PhD program in a university, so pick the Universities you want to go to and check their websites to see what the acceptance requirements are. If you can't find that on the website call the university and talk to someone who can help like an admission coordinator, they will explain to you what you need to do to apply to their schools PhD program.

This is not going to be easy, it's a very long and hard road that you picked for yourself. Good Luck, you'll need it!!

 

[lukazo]

Hello RussianJoo and thanks for your post it was very informative indeed. Thank you once more The fact is that I'm still a student in medical university and of course I took chamistry (various types of them) and biology courses, unfortunately without laboratory classes, they all were out of order during that time as I said above, here, clinical medicine is much more supported, then scientific one, so in universities they accent on clinical knowledge and often ignore research education.

I would suggest doing research in Medical Genetics

Yes, that's what I want exactly. Either Medical Genetics or Immunology.

So to assume, if I want to be a PhD, I got to follow this path: finish university in my country (I'll be given a bachelor degree) -> apply US universities for taking PhD courses (this are standard courses for PhD students, just like rezidency for practical medicine students) -> and then, when I'll graduate, I'll be able to do researches, yes? did I write this path correctly?

 

[RussianJoo]

Yes pretty much that's the process. however in order to get a phd some universities might require you to publish a certain number of research papers or at least have your final thesis published, this is where I find a lot of people running into problems, because they either can't find a good research topic or can't get their experiments to show the data that they want, so this processes isn't as simple as simply taking the proper classes and passing all the tests. You have to have a successful research project and at least one published paper and this can take a few years longer if you have problems with your experiments or simply can't find a topic to research.

If you want to do clinical research you might not need a PhD at all. a lot of the drug trials are done by MDs or some MDs that work as faculty members in medical schools do clinical research on the side. But I believe those people completed a residency program. Cardiologists will do research in cardiology or on medications effecting the heart or certain diseases just to use a quick example. So that cardiologist would have completed an internal medicine residency and then a cardiology fellowship, then they applied for a faculty job at a medical school and started teaching medical students and doing research in their free time. Then you can apply to drug companies to ask them if they have any new cardiology drugs that they need research done on.

To do medical genetics research in the US I think not too many are MDs most are PhDs, medical genetics seems like it's heavily lab based, with locating genes and gene sequencing, or observing what different mutations do to the phenotype. OR there might also be a residency program for medical genetics and you might have to do that. There are a few ways to get to where you want to be. If you want to work more in a lab than with patients then a PhD is more important than an MD and an MD might even not be needed, if you want to work more with patients and less in a lab then an MD is more important than a PhD and a PhD might even not be needed.

Also you might not need to have a bachelor degree if you already have an MD and you've completed the required courses, this will all depend on the university that you apply to. each university has their own admission criteria and requirements.

I do have to say the fact that you didn't do any lab work will hurt you considerably. In the US the lab that comes with the class is just as important if not more important than the class itself. So you will definetly have to either just take those lab classes or a lot of times you can't simply take the lab with out the class and will have to repeat the class and take the lab that goes with it.

 

[RussianJoo]

Here is a list of hospitals that have a medical genetics residency program. To do research in medical genetics it seems like you might not need a PhD but just need to do this residency and then just apply for a job either with the government or a univerisity, or a private labarotory or pharmacutical company.

http://www0.ama-assn.org/vapp/freida/pgmrslt/1,1239,,00.html




of course having a PhD will help you in both getting a residency and finding a job later on. I explained how to get a PhD above, you basically pick the universities you want to apply to and either look on their website or call the school and ask what the requirements for admission into their Medical Genetics PhD program are. Then fill out the application and wait. Try to pick well known Universities because it's important where you did your training.

 

[lukazo]

Great! thanks, thanks, thanks ! Ok, before asking more questions, I'll first follow the link you posted
happy new year

 

[lukazo]

Ok, I'm back Well, RussianJoo, to say honestly, I still haven't decided for 100% what I want, what I know for sure is that I prefer doing research than work with patients.... but still I'd like to have permission to work either with patients and research. You know, I thougt to do thing like this: I'll prepare for USMLE step exams, pass them hopefully in high scores and get in residency in radiology (diagnostics). in this case I'll have to deal more with other doctors and apparatus, than patients. One guy told me, that after finishing rezidency and become a physician, it's easy then to get even in research, after completing postdoctoral fellowship (am I right?) So in this case, I'll have possibility to do either clinical work and research... is this a reasonable decision? what do you think RussianJoo?

 

[lukazo]

Guys, is anyone here?

 

[RussianJoo]

Ok, I'm back Well, RussianJoo, to say honestly, I still haven't decided for 100% what I want, what I know for sure is that I prefer doing research than work with patients.... but still I'd like to have permission to work either with patients and research. You know, I thougt to do thing like this: I'll prepare for USMLE step exams, pass them hopefully in high scores and get in residency in radiology (diagnostics). in this case I'll have to deal more with other doctors and apparatus, than patients. One guy told me, that after finishing rezidency and become a physician, it's easy then to get even in research, after completing postdoctoral fellowship (am I right?) So in this case, I'll have possibility to do either clinical work and research... is this a reasonable decision? what do you think RussianJoo?

yeah sure you can do that if that's what you want. however just know that very few if any doctors who are in private practice do research. your options will be either working for a pharmaceutical company which is pretty easy to do. or working for a medical school which is much harder to do.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I am a bit confused by this story.

First, lukazo, exactly what degree will you get from your current school? MD? MBBS? BS? Something else? It's not clear from your post if you are in the equivalent of US Medical School or a US College.

Second, if your real love is research, then you don't want to try to do a residency in the US. You want to do a PhD research program, which will give you a 6-8 year focused research experience. As others have mentioned, this is not an easy road to riches -- research is quite competitive and just because you get a PhD doesn't mean that you get to run your own lab. After a PhD, most students do a "post-doc", which is a paid position where you work in someone else's lab and gain additional experience. Most importantly, you mentioned that you don't really want to work with patients. For this reason, clinical training seems a poor choice.

Third, doing a radiology residency is a really bad idea given your story above. First, you mentioned an interest in immunology and genetics, and I fail to see how these two fields are related. You can do research in radiology -- usually physics based research, designing new imaging machines. Someone invented the MRI scanner, for example. Radiology is also a bad idea because it is very, very competitive and the number of international grads who get a rads spot is very, very small.

So, your best option seems to be: finish whatever schooling you are doing in goergia. Whether it's an MD or BS equivalent, you can apply for PhD programs in the US. This will set you on a path towards a research career.

Doing "a little bit of clinical work" while you do research is very difficult, even for US grads.

If you do want to pursue residency in the US, and if you are still in "medical school" in Georgia, then it is vital that you arrange some rotations here in the US as part of your training. By performing in US rotations and gaining some experience and getting some letters of recommendation + doing well on the + USMLE is the best way to get a US residency spot.

 

[lukazo]

Hello aProgDirector and thank you for your post, it's very important for me to get advices from people who are experienced and know more about this topic than me, so thank you once again

First I want to mention that the diploma I'll receive here is equivalent to bachelor degree.

if your real love is research, then you don't want to try to do a residency in the US. You want to do a PhD research program, which will give you a 6-8 year focused research experience. As others have mentioned, this is not an easy road to riches -- research is quite competitive and just because you get a PhD doesn't mean that you get to run your own lab.

yes, I really do love doing such things! You're right, now I know that it's the right way, but I just want to add that runing my own lab is not my goal; all I want is to participate in various interesting research projects in medicine, and as I understood it correctly, owning PhD degree and doing postdoctoral fellowship, are the ones, that will help me to achieve the aim, rather than residency and clinical training, yes?

All right, now I've got such a question: for example, when student passes USMLE step exams and envolves in residency, he/she studies for free, and even has salary. I'm interested, is it similar in PhD case? or to say in a different way, does government or university pay the tuition fee?

 

[RussianJoo]

All right, now I've got such a question: for example, when student passes USMLE step exams and envolves in residency, he/she studies for free, and even has salary. I'm interested, is it similar in PhD case? or to say in a different way, does government or university pay the tuition fee?

I think you're getting things mixed up. After you pass the USMLE and become a resident you're a Doctor, you have patients that you'll be treating and you'll be working as a doctor. Sure there will be some lectures given to you and you'll still have to take tests so that you can become board certified and gain other certifications but you do everything a normal doctor does you're just still in training. Because you work as a doctor the hospital pays you money, 3rd and 4th year medical students in the US work in hospitals too. They sometimes have the same responsibilities as residents, however because they're not doctors (haven't graduated from medical school) they don't have certain rights and can't treat their patients on their own thus they don't get paid. There's no residency for PhD's, once you're a PhD you're a Phd. So the job you'll have will pay and train you at the same time. In the world of science and medicine and probably any other profession you learn something new every day, so you're being trained or taught everyday, the difference between getting paid and not getting paid for your training is if you already have the degrees and certifications or if you're still in school. Doctors in the US even after residency have to attend a certain number of lectures and seminars to remain board certified. Treatment plans change constantly and they have to know the latest treatments, so they never stop being a student and never stop learning even though they've been a doctor for 20 years or more. Residents are no longer in school, they graduated from medical school and are doctors, that's why they're getting paid. So their not really studying for free because they should already know everything, they're simply practicing their skills to become better at them. I hope this makes sense.

 

[lukazo]

Hi RussianJoo. Always found your posts helpful Thanks. When I re-read my previous question, found that it was stupidly asked I just wanted to know whether PhD tuition is free in US. You know, in my country, if student passes entrance examinations with high scores, his further studying at university is granted by government. This was the thing that made me doubtful whether it was same or not when applying PhD courses (studying, not working as PhD) in US. So as I got it, it's not the same yeah?

And one more question: If studying is not free, is it possible to find grants, scholarships or other funding to pay the tuition fee? are there any programs (governmental or private) that help international students this way? and what about loans fot international students? is it easy to get one? But as I was told above, PhD holders are not that category of employees, who find jobs easily or to say in a different way: how do students fund their studying? So do you have any idea about this?

 

[RussianJoo]

Some universities might offer scholarships to those that are exceptionally smart, I wouldn't know I am not one of them. While doing your PhD you can work as a teaching assistant, or a tutor for the classes that the professor you do research with teaches. You can work as an assistant for a laboratory class, for example if you're in school to get a Phd in medical genetics, you can be a TA or a teaching assistant for undergraduate genetics classes, and can help teach in those labs that go with those classes.

Some professors might need someone to help them make solutions or to help clean beakers or help running western blots or other experiments that don't require a PhD and for that they might pay you. Lastly you can always work as a waiter or bartender, many students do that as well.

Your government might even offer scholarships for you to go to the US to study, in hopes that you'll comeback to your home country and will work there to further your countries scientific and medical advances. There are a lot of different scholarships and jobs available in a big university and most of those jobs will give preference to the students.

Also from what I have seen with friends and from my experience taking graduate level biology and biochemistry courses as an undergrad, is that PhD programs aren't that hard. The profs treat you like one of their own i.e. a professor you address them by their first name, eat lunch with them, and they kind of expect you to know something and so don't pick on you and ask you a million questions. when they assign a reading they assume you did your homework and then just talk about the reading, at least that's how it was at my school. I found PhD level classes to be much much easier than undergraduate courses and I did much better in them, sure there will be some classes that are hard but for the most part you just have to spend a lot of time working in your lab and trying to get your research published, so you should have time to find a job somewhere while in school.

as for work once you have your PhD that depends on how good you are and how many papers you published while doing your PhD, also depends where you got your PhD from. The economy right now sucks so it's going to be very hard to find a job for anyone. but on average I would say PhD's make a lot less then MDs who work in private practice. So don't expect to be rich if you're a PhD unless you discover something or write books about something. Also I don't know what kind of demand there is for PhD.

hope this helps.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

First I want to mention that the diploma I'll receive here is equivalent to bachelor degree.

You can only take the USMLE and do a residency after completing medical school first. If your degree is not an MD, MBBS, or other equivalent of an MD, then you cannot take the USMLE's.

...runing my own lab is not my goal; all I want is to participate in various interesting research projects in medicine, and as I understood it correctly, owning PhD degree and doing postdoctoral fellowship, are the ones, that will help me to achieve the aim, rather than residency and clinical training, yes?

Not really. If all you want to do is work in someone else's lab, you can do that (theoretically) with just a Bachelor's, especially if you've had some lab background. You can be a research assistant. It's not a glamorous job -- you just do what your boss tells you to do, and you don't get to design your own experiements (mostly). And it doesn't pay terribly well.

 

[lukazo]

Thank you in advance guys

You can only take the USMLE and do a residency after completing medical school first. If your degree is not an MD, MBBS, or other equivalent of an MD, then you cannot take the USMLE's.

All clear now In your previous post you said:

If you do want to pursue residency in the US, and if you are still in "medical school" in Georgia, then it is vital that you arrange some rotations here in the US as part of your training.

aProgDirector, can you describe in few words what are this rotations and how are they organized ? do you mean exchange programs?

RussianJoo, (1) are you PhD degree holder? you mentioned your experience in PhD programs... (2) If so, can you describe the everyday PhD student life further more? It's very interesting for me (3) and to sum up: to say troughly MD is a physician and PhD is one who does research, yes? RussianJoo, aProgDirector, you both mentioned that PhD's don't earn much, so here's the question: (4) what is their average income monthly or annually?

 

[RussianJoo]

Thank you in advance guys
All clear now In your previous post you said:
aProgDirector, can you describe in few words what are this rotations and how are they organized ? do you mean exchange programs?

RussianJoo, (1) are you PhD degree holder? you mentioned your experience in PhD programs... (2) If so, can you describe the everyday PhD student life further more? It's very interesting for me (3) and to sum up: to say troughly MD is a physician and PhD is one who does research, yes? RussianJoo, aProgDirector, you both mentioned that PhD's don't earn much, so here's the question: (4) what is their average income monthly or annually?

no i am in medical school not a phd. i had friends who were getting their phd's. typical day would be go to class in the morning, teach a lab class in the afternoon or work in your own lab in the afternoon. till maybe 5pm then go home study, grade some exams if you're a TA for a class. yes you're correct md's are physicians but there are some that teach in medical school, and some that do research, but that's a small percent of MDs, most work as physicians because that's why they wanted to be MDs in the first place or because they make a lot more money that way. And as a PhD you can only teach and do research.

here's a link for the average income for a clinical research scientist.
http://www.cbsalary.com/national-sa...ist&cty=&sid=&kw=Scientists&jn=&edu=&tid=9263

this website says the average salary is $90,000 per year.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

aProgDirector, can you describe in few words what are this rotations and how are they organized ? do you mean exchange programs?

In the US, medical school is 4 years long. At most medical schools, these are structured as follows:

1. First year - basic sciences, healthy -- Biochem, Anatomy, Physiology, etc.
2. Second year - basic sciences, disease -- Histology, Pathology, Pathophysiology, etc.
3. Third year - core clerkships -- rotations in hospitals in the major fields of medicine -- Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Family Practice, OB/GYN, Psych, and others.
4. Fourth year -- electives -- additional clinical rotations, usually at the student's choice.

Most US medical schools allow international medical students to rotate on their clinical services during their final year of training. You would work with a US physician, seeing patients, ordering tests, and learning medicine. It's usually "free" -- in that you don't need to pay tuition to the medical school -- however the cost of living here is high and some programs have fees for this, not to mention the travel costs. Once you graduate from medical school, you will NOT be able to do this any longer, and it can only be done in your final year. If you do well, you'd get a letter of recommendation from a US physician describing your performance, which will really open doors for US training.

If you are not in medical school (something that I still don't understand completely) then none of this is possible.

 

[dragonfly99]

ladakolu
It sounds like you are still confused.

I agree with aprogramdirector.

It sounds like you are in what would be equal to college in the US. Here we go for 4 years after high school and we get a degree called BA or BS. After that a person can either go to medical school (4 years), go to an MD/PhD program (7-9 years or so), or go to a PhD program (5-7 years or so) or a master's degree.

From what you are saying, it sounds to me like you should try for a PhD in the US, or at least a master's degree. Pretty much all the PhD students I know in science (in biology, chemistry, pharmacology, immunology, etc.) pay no tuition and they get paid to go to school. They get paid enough to live on, although you can't live in a super fancy neighborhood, etc. You should be able to look things up online to see what the PhD students are currently paid. They call it a "stipend" instead of a salary or paycheck, but pretty much they are getting paid to study and do research. To get a PhD in the US you will need to take the GRE exam and you will have to turn in your college grades/transcripts. All the good PhD programs do not require the students to pay tuition - if someone wants you to pay tuition and they don't want to pay you the stipend, RUN away. If it is a good program they will guarantee you funding for the entire program, provided you do well while you are there.

The only people who can take the USMLE are people who completed college + medical school, or college plus an MD/PhD program. Also foreign physicians who completed medical school in their country, including clinical rotations helping take care of patients in a hospital, can take the USMLE and try for a residency in the USA, but a lot of them don't get in. They have to pass through certifications by the ECFMG and they have to do very well on the USMLE test. Also as aprogramdirector mentions, usually you need to have completed some visiting student rotations in the USA while you were a medical student. If you get a residency it is not like being in school. You will work hard all day, maybe with an hour or two of lecture/teaching per day maximum, and you will work probably about 80 hours a week in the hospital. You do get paid as a resident because it is a job, not really school, though you are still learning. You are basically expected to take care of patients in the hospital, and although you have some help/supervision mostly you need to know what to do and be ready to take care of sick patients when you start residency. That is why you cannot come straight from college/undergraduate school - you must have 4 years of medical school.

I do not think doing a radiology residency will get you where you want to go, and it also sounds like you would not be eligible to take the USMLE anyway. How many years have you been in medical school? Are you in medical school? How many months have you done clinical rotations in a hospital.
Also, to get into a radiology residency in the US as a non US citizen would be very very hard if not impossible. Even a lot of US students who try cannot get in, and for foreign graduates it is even harder. It does not sound like you want to be a radiologist anyway. If you want to do immunology research you want to be either an internal medicine doctor (MD), MD/PhD or a PhD (or maybe master's degree).

 

[anuka]

Hi Lukazo

If u've already decided to do USMLE, I can send you by e-mail great book uncovering all secrets how to start studying/wich books to select and etc...

actually I'm preparing 4 usmle at this moment, I'm IMG from Tbilisi like u.

If u have any qs dont hesitate
good luck