Irish Medical School to Canadian Residency?

[notetote1111]

Does anyone have any experiences of securing Canadian residency positions after graduating from an Irish medical school?

Are Irish grads favoured over other IMGs? How difficult is it? Do most grads go to the U.S. instead?


Thanks.

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[notetote1111]

Please anyone??

 

[medgirl20]

From what I've heard from Canadians in my class it is extremely difficult to get a residency in Canada as an IMG most people appear to go to America and then move back to Canada. There was some talk of favouring Canadian IMG's over other IMG's but I'm not sure what happened there.

 

[dirtymac42]

Does anyone have any experiences of securing Canadian residency positions after graduating from an Irish medical school?

Are Irish grads favoured over other IMGs? How difficult is it? Do most grads go to the U.S. instead?


Thanks.

Ok, so I'll try to make this as short as possible....

It IS possible to obtain canadian residencies after going to an Irish medical school. But, you have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident (ie, have one of those photo ID cards). As it stands now, most positions are NOT in ontario, and most are in family medicine. This is because Canada has a different matching system than in the States. In Canada, only canadians can enter the 1st round of the match. The 2nd round is for canadians who didn't match in the first round and for all IMGs. In fact, Health Canada now believes that there are enough positions available to deny Canadians permission to seek US Visas to train there for family medicine.

As for other specialties, you pretty much have to train in the US. This is not a problem from the Canadian standpoint because Canada recognises US training.

The fact of the matter, truthfully, is this: we are talking about the US. They want the best. So, yes, the irish schools will give you a good education and prepare you better than (probably) any other int'l school for the USMLEs. But you still will have to convince program directors in the states that you are better than homegrown talent.... which is more difficult in some specialties than others.... (but, it can be done!)

as far as what canadians did, most go to the US (never returning to Canada), some do return and a small percentage (usually because they've gotten married or something) stay and practise in ireland.

 

[winstonm]

Ok, so I'll try to make this as short as possible....

It IS possible to obtain canadian residencies after going to an Irish medical school. But, you have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident (ie, have one of those photo ID cards). As it stands now, most positions are NOT in ontario, and most are in family medicine. This is because Canada has a different matching system than in the States. In Canada, only canadians can enter the 1st round of the match. The 2nd round is for canadians who didn't match in the first round and for all IMGs. In fact, Health Canada now believes that there are enough positions available to deny Canadians permission to seek US Visas to train there for family medicine.

As for other specialties, you pretty much have to train in the US. This is not a problem from the Canadian standpoint because Canada recognises US training.

The fact of the matter, truthfully, is this: we are talking about the US. They want the best. So, yes, the irish schools will give you a good education and prepare you better than (probably) any other int'l school for the USMLEs. But you still will have to convince program directors in the states that you are better than homegrown talent.... which is more difficult in some specialties than others.... (but, it can be done!)

as far as what canadians did, most go to the US (never returning to Canada), some do return and a small percentage (usually because they've gotten married or something) stay and practise in ireland.

Check www.carms.ca . International grads can't apply for positions in Ont., even in the 2nd round.

 

[notetote1111]

oh...


Does anyone have experience of coming back to Canada after going to Ireland for med school?

 

[notetote1111]

Oh...

Anyone have experience of coming back to Canada after Irish medical school?

 

[CircleTheDrain]

Ontario has a limited program for IMG's check out this web site!

http://www.oimgc.utoronto.ca/

Hope it helps!

 

[notetote1111]

Do IMGs include US grads? US grads who are Cdn citizens?

 

[Rico]

YES. IMGs are IMGs no matter what.

( I am Canadian 2 ) if I go abroad, I will be IMG.
Rico

 

[r3boot]

I've heard of reseve spots for kuwaiti/UAE students in canadian residency programs.

If I have kuwaiti citizenship, am living in ireland and am not applying from kuwait will that give me better chances ? Or am I considered an IMG ?

 

[Rico]

You are IMG if you graduate from NON-US or CANADIAN med-schools. and you can only sit for residency if you are Canadian Citizen or Landed immigrant...

 

[jaylily]

So from this I'm getting the feeling that it's easier to do med school in Canada and then move to Europe.

Question for you Canucks doing med school in Europe (Eng, Ire and Scotland mostly)... How does application to med school there differ from applying to med school in Canada?

I desperately want to live in England for a few years and figure med school would be the perfect time!

Thanks!

 

[johnny_blaze]

So from this I'm getting the feeling that it's easier to do med school in Canada and then move to Europe.

Question for you Canucks doing med school in Europe (Eng, Ire and Scotland mostly)... How does application to med school there differ from applying to med school in Canada?

I desperately want to live in England for a few years and figure med school would be the perfect time!

Thanks!

You have to apply through their university application program called UCAS. You may only apply to 4 medical schools though! I don’t know the official UCAS site… do a google search.

However, it is not easy for Canadians/Americans to get into a UK medical school (this does not include the Atlantic bridge program… I personally don’t know much about that). Most schools in the UK have only 15-20 spots reserved for international students and the give preference to students from less developed countries because US/CAN have enough med schools for their own population. I remember phoning some schools in England and they told me not to even bother applying! It’s also important to have a lot of experience in medicine before applying as they favour this above grades.

Hope this helps.

 

[jaylily]

Thanks. It's pretty discouraging, isn't it? I'm a dual British/Canadian citizen, but have yet to set foot on British soil. I'm so into their music scene there and the architecture. It all looks so amazing. Maybe I should just go and work there for the year that I'm waiting to see if any Canadian med schools accept me, or wait until after med school.

Thanks for crushing my dream!

And thanks for the input!

 

[JaneGKT]

So from this I'm getting the feeling that it's easier to do med school in Canada and then move to Europe.

Question for you Canucks doing med school in Europe (Eng, Ire and Scotland mostly)... How does application to med school there differ from applying to med school in Canada?

I desperately want to live in England for a few years and figure med school would be the perfect time!

Thanks!

Hi,

If you check other threads, there are quite a few Canadians studying at UK med schools. I'm currently finishing MBBS-2 at GKT (King's College, U of London). I moved to London in May 2000 after graduating from U of Toronto with a degree in music. I applied to the special foundation course for arts students (successful completion of the foundation course leads to automatic acceptance into the traditional 5-yr MBBS course). I think I'm the first Canadian, though 3 Canadians were accepted into the foundation course the year after me (not sure what happened to them). There are about 40-45 students in the foundation course. If you are getting an undergraduate science degree, there is no reason why you can't try and apply for either the new GEP programme or the traditional 5-yr programme (call first, as certain programmes limit or prohibit international students).

Other than GKT, I think the Canadian-friendly universities are St. George's (U of London), Imperial, Warwick, Nottingham....there are probably others (U of Glasgow, etc.). Unlike Ireland, the UK does not have a special programme for recruiting American and Canadian students.

Entry is very competitive (at GKT, there are about 10 applications for every spot), but it is likely harder to get accepted into a Canadian medical school.

If you have your heart set on practising a specialty in a Canadian urban centre, I would suggest going to a Canadian or US med school. To tell you the truth, the longer I stay here, the more I see myself remaining in the UK.....easier pace of life workwise, green grass, no harsh winters, inexpensive foreign travel.

If you think that you might want to work in the London area following graduation, I would suggest going to a U of London med school because of the new MMC Foundation Programme for training. The London med schools are attached to the London Foundation Schools/London Deanery and I think that there is some sort of points system in place which facilitates placement of U London graduates in the London area for training (I'm not 100% sure about this, so best to check the MMC/London Deanery website). The training programme is being streamlined somewhat with clearer career paths to GP and specialist training....I guess a move in the right direction.

The downside about UK med school is the cost. Even though you are a dual citizen you will likely have to pay international rates because there is a requirement to be UK resident for 3 years prior to starting university. Current tuition is about 12,500 pounds for Yrs 1-2 and about 22,000 pounds for clinical years 3-5.

I can't remember, but I think the UCAS deadline is around October 15th.

Hope this helps.

Jane