Med school outside US

[Chess1015]

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I have good grades, about to take my GRE to enter into PA school. However, I just thought of med sch. Thought the PA school is very short, less expensive, and also might get a chance to see my family occasionally. However, the med sch is lengthy and complex, expensive but worth it after completion. So I have decide to go med Sch but not in the US. Please, if anyone can help me out; throw some light on med school outside the US. I'm interested in Russia, Germany, UK and the Caribbean!
Thank you in advance.

 

[RuralPhysician8]

I have good grades, about to take my GRE to enter into PA school. However, I just thought of med sch. Thought the PA school is very short, less expensive, and also might get a chance to see my family occasionally. However, the med sch is lengthy and complex, expensive but worth it after completion. So I have decide to go med Sch but not in the US. Please, if anyone can help me out; throw some light on med school outside the US. I'm interested in Russia, Germany, UK and the Caribbean!
Thank you in advance.

Beware of a medical degree from a Caribbean institution, because of the increasing number of U.S. medical student graduates that will all be applying to the static amount of residencies; in addition, there is also the possibility of many Caribbean schools losing accreditations in the near future. If you like the tropical environment or people, there are great medical schools in Puerto Rico and Hawaii that are much more secure choices. I know little about the Eastern countries.

 

[Chess1015]

Alright... Really appreciate your input. But how is studying in say Russia change the situation of residency? Thanks

 

[Lollygag]

Agreed with the above, I suggest you do some research around the forums and look at some of the responses regarding Caribbean medical schools. I don't want to reiterate all of it because it's been spoken of ad nauseam but to sum it up very quickly for you: it's the worst thing you could possibly do to yourself.

In addition, I'm not sure but I think this also applies to not only Caribbean medical school grad's but also grad's from other countries-- is that it's difficult to match in the U.S. when you didn't attend a U.S. medical school. There's a graph flowing around on SDN (can't find it atm but will post if I do) that shows how within the next 4-5 years, very few non U.S. medical school grad's will be able to match because of increasing competition with residency slots and U.S. grad's will always have preference over someone outside of the U.S. If you are unable to match into residency in the U.S. then you are stuck in an incredible amount of debt and no means of paying it off. It can leave you in a very bad situation.

The bottom line is, you make things very difficult for yourself when you leave the country for medical school, so unless you plan on practicing medicine in Russia or Germany after graduation, then you should avoid attending those schools. Why make things more difficult for yourself?

And just as a side note, I believe that if you plan on attending medical school in a different country, you would need to know that countries language so you would be learning the medical terminology in that countries language. Then you would come to the U.S. and have to relearn that terminology in English. It may be a minor detail but again, it's silly to make things unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

 

[Chess1015]

I can't thank you enough! @Lollygag!

 

[Lollygag]

And it's funny because right after I typed this response, this thread was made in pre-allo http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=995310 asking about how caribbean medical schools will prevent themselves from shutting down because in 2017ish there will no longer be as many residency slots. If you applied now, you will be in that 2017 batch that gets screwed.

 

[Chess1015]

@Lollygag... I just read that thread. That's sad, you know! I guess PA school will my choice after all.