How are UK med graduates viewed in the USA?

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Dr.One

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Is the UK a good place to go to school in the eyes of the US residency positions people?

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Dr.One said:
Is the UK a good place to go to school in the eyes of the US residency positions people?

As a UK citizen at a UK medical school I was very well received at most places when I looked into US residencies last year (East coast IM residencies). Not many people make the transition however as UK training has so many advantages too as a UK grad.
 
Waiting4Ganong said:
As a UK citizen at a UK medical school I was very well received at most places when I looked into US residencies last year (East coast IM residencies). Not many people make the transition however as UK training has so many advantages too as a UK grad.
Do US residencies prefer or give any additional advantage to individuals with intercalated B.Sc. degree along with MBBS/MBChB as some of the hospital give in UK?
 
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ballaballa said:
Do US residencies prefer or give any additional advantage to individuals with intercalated B.Sc. degree along with MBBS/MBChB as some of the hospital give in UK?

I can't see why not. Individuals with BSc's would be more qualified and it would recognise their greater educational acheivement.
 
waiting4ganong, did you actually get as far as applying for US residencies? I'm interested to hear how this goes / went if you did. Were visa issues a major stumbling block?
 
jane2 said:
waiting4ganong, did you actually get as far as applying for US residencies? I'm interested to hear how this goes / went if you did. Were visa issues a major stumbling block?

I had informal out of season interviews with PDs with a view to joining this years match. Visa issues weren't a problem for me (I have a US visa). While I may or may not have matched at a "top name residency" - I'm sure I would have at least matched at a upper second tier IM residency (from a list posted elsewhere on sdn I'd say these include):

Dartmouth, Brown, UMaryland, Case Western, UC Davis, U Utah, U Minn, U Wisc., Rush, UIC, Kentucky, George Washington, Georgetown, UNew Mexico, UTHouston, UMass, Tufts (?), UCincinatti, Ohio St., USC, U Indiana, Wake Forest, prob. some of the NY programs, I'm very unfamiliar with all of those!
URochester, Montefiore, OHSU, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA-Harbor, Yale Primary Care, Hopkins Bayview.

At the end of the day though I'd rather go to the best in the UK than 2nd tier in the US. I'm sure the above are all fine programs but I thought my options were better served by staying in UK.

Hope this helps.

w4g.

believe it or not the major stumbling block was start dates. As you know the uk system changes year in early Aug while US residencies often start mid-june. Unlikely to be able to go to US immed. after UK graduation b/c of this (b/c you also have to wait for your diploma to get checked over by ecfmg before you can get your certificate and start work..) Even if you were a f1/f2 in uk you'd still have to quit 6-8 weeks early to make the transition to the US.
 
ballaballa said:
Do US residencies prefer or give any additional advantage to individuals with intercalated B.Sc. degree along with MBBS/MBChB as some of the hospital give in UK?

Hi waiting4ganong!

I would seek your thoughts or comments on the relevance of intercalated B.Sc. question.
 
I imagine it wouldn't enough to swing it for you by itself (given 99.9% of US grads will have BSc/BA anyway). Doing a intercalated Msc (2yrs) or PhD (3yrs) will make a bit or a major difference respectively. If you enjoy or think you might enjoy research/science and can get the med school (or somewhere else) to pay you to do one I'd certainly suggest you strongly consider it - it will help open doors for you wherever you go but more importantly it may also make you a better doctor!

The only downside being after a few years of actually using your brain and being respected as a professional it can be hard going back to being a trainee in clinical medicine!

In summary:
1) I wouldn't not to do a BSc - but just don't count on it making a big impact on your chances of residency acceptance.

2) Consider strongly the possibility of doing research between your pre-clinical and clinical years.





ballaballa said:
Hi waiting4ganong!

I would seek your thoughts or comments on the relevance of intercalated B.Sc. question.
 
Surely though if all the US students have a Bsc, not having one is a disadvantage?

From the list you posted, W4G, I'm surprised to hear those are 2nd tier - can you possibly link to the place where the 1st / 2nd tiers are listed? A few of those are Ivy Leagues and I would have assumed they were pretty good...no?

How did you get informal out of season interviews?

I know what you mean about the dates and someone on here previous(maybe even you, but I dont think so!) had said that the best thing to do was start UK training and leave before the end if you get a residency. Does seem a bit weird / annoying though.
 
jane2 said:
Surely though if all the US students have a Bsc, not having one is a disadvantage?

From the list you posted, W4G, I'm surprised to hear those are 2nd tier - can you possibly link to the place where the 1st / 2nd tiers are listed? A few of those are Ivy Leagues and I would have assumed they were pretty good...no?

How did you get informal out of season interviews?

I know what you mean about the dates and someone on here previous(maybe even you, but I dont think so!) had said that the best thing to do was start UK training and leave before the end if you get a residency. Does seem a bit weird / annoying though.

Wasn't me (I hope) saying to just ditch your housejobs to start a US residency. Seems like a unprofessional thing to do (so I hope that wasn't my advice!).

1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd tier is fairly nebulous. The list of 2nd tier was from a thread in the internal medicine forum (I bumped it). I think everyone would agree however that Harvard (MGH, B+W), Hopkins, Stanford, UCSF are all top tier type places. Ivy league often doesn't mean that much in terms of medical reputation. One way to judge places is the level of funding they get from NIH or the papers they push out (and where) but I accept it doesn't follow that these places give the best clinical residency training.

As for getting out of season interviews - personal contacts via research collaborators. I would have still have to have done the regular interviews as well though if I wanted to try to match!

BSc wouldn't hurt an application - my point was just it wouldn't help enough/(?at all) to justify a years work if that was the sole reason for doing it.
 
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