Nri

[harkkam]

I am an NRI, but I cant stomach the 5.5 years in India. I live in the US right now but I dont want to leave the culture and my home and have to live in India.

I really dont know what to do.

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[uhoh!]

So?

 

[dockdock]

I honestly do not understand this post.

Please elaborate if you'd like some actual responses.

 

[dggopal]

haha man..... all i gotta say is .... no pain no game.... have you checked how long it takes in america....

 

[kapil_MD]

I am an NRI, but I cant stomach the 5.5 years in India. I live in the US right now but I dont want to leave the culture and my home and have to live in India.

I really dont know what to do.

Why are you unable to go to med school in the USA?

DONT go to india for med school, if you want to come back to USA, you'll regret it. Work hard here and get admission.

 

[vipster]

I am an NRI, but I cant stomach the 5.5 years in India. I live in the US right now but I dont want to leave the culture and my home and have to live in India.

I really dont know what to do.

Oh my God, you poor baby. God forbid you would have to leave your "home & culture" and go to India to become a doctor. Instead of calling yourself a NRI you should be calling yourself a NI (non-Indian). I'm glad you haven't forgotten your roots--good luck getting into an American med school, you ABCD

 

[LuckMC11]

Oh my God, you poor baby. God forbid you would have to leave your "home & culture" and go to India to become a doctor. Instead of calling yourself a NRI you should be calling yourself a NI (non-Indian). I'm glad you haven't forgotten your roots--good luck getting into an American med school, you ABCD

haha

 

[positivity]

I am an NRI, but I cant stomach the 5.5 years in India. I live in the US right now but I dont want to leave the culture and my home and have to live in India.

I really dont know what to do.

Firstly - what culture?
Secondly if you "can't stomach 5.5 years in India" you probably won't make it past your first month as a resident. It's gruelling to say the least. My advice? Stick with live-at-home-and-eat-mummy's-chapatis career plan.
(and I am saying this with your best interests at heart mate)

 

[Jiminy Cricket]

I suggest you go to Dental school in the U.S. or pursue Osteopathic medicine in the U.S.

I think you might like India once you get used to it...there are some differences and others are just your preconceived notions.

Dont expect your classmates to embrace you immediately though...a lot have a great degree of animosity towards NRI's or ABCD's....this is the only thing I can think of that might affect you. You are bound to get f'ed up a few times just because you are an Indian-American....but this could happen to u in the U.S. if u were unlucky enough to get a ruthless IMG senior resident as well.

people are people though...u'll find friends and haters. keep an open mind though...dont go to India with a stuck up attitude.....try and absorb as much of your heritage as you can there and appreciate the complexities of India's health care challenges.

As to the previous poster...well, i think u are an idiot. He is Indian by race and Indo-American in culture. If you cant comprehend that, you should not be a doctor in the U.S. or India.

before you guys all hate on me or this guy, you should comprehend that by coming to the U.S. or U.K. or wherever...your children are going to face the same challenges as he or I faced growing up with a different culture at home and outside of home. I suggest you work on understanding people in a non-judgemental fashion instead of spewing out animosity....this guy is your kid in 30 years....remember that.

 

[positivity]

As to the previous poster...well, i think u are an idiot. He is Indian by race and Indo-American in culture. If you cant comprehend that, you should not be a doctor in the U.S. or India.

before you guys all hate on me or this guy, you should comprehend that by coming to the U.S. or U.K. or wherever...your children are going to face the same challenges as he or I faced growing up with a different culture at home and outside of home. I suggest you work on understanding people in a non-judgemental fashion instead of spewing out animosity....this guy is your kid in 30 years....remember that.

He's not my kid in 30 years time, he's me 6 years ago (well except probably that I had longer hair) Maybe that's why I'm being unduly harsh. I sucked it up and made it, and believe me a few years ago you'd have been hard put to find someone more princessy than me. But some quality time with a million mosquitos, food poisoning and 100 degree winters soon cured me! You can't go to India with this attitude like 'oh no, how will i make it, eww dirty!' cos then you really won't make it. You gotta grit your teeth, roll up your pants, step around the cow dung and say 'hell yeah I'm gonna kick some butt'

I came away from med school in India with some amazing unique experiences. I gained a deeper understanding of the diversity and depth of Indian cultures, and more importantly I got a taste of the altruism involved in certain types of medicine that doesn't involve buckets of money, fancy equipment or even the latest drugs. It's about getting on a ricketty old bus and traveling 2 hours in the heat and dust and flies to conduct a free geriatric clinic in a dirt poor village. If that's the kind of thing that can make all the other crappy little botherations worth it, then go ahead, get those shots, buy some Off!, load up on the loperamide and hop on that plane.

And Jiminy Cricket - your scathing commentary on my intelligence and ability to be a doctor - that really hurt. In fact, my chief res just told me that because of my inability to comprehend the existence of Indo-American culture he is thinking if letting me go. Dammit! I knew that some day my capability as a physician would boil down to this!
.

 

[Jiminy Cricket]

positivity, you should have just said what you said in your latest post in your first post....the guy would've found it a lot more helpful than the chapati line...lol......still havent heard from vipster.

i agree with you though, if u do go to India for med schl, dont be like "eww dirty."

i had a few volunteer experiences there, but would like to do more after I become a doctor. there is a lot you can learn without the beaurocratic legal bs found in the U.S. and i would have to say, i met a lot of really GREAT doctors who were very humble and cared a lot about helping their communities.

i think attending a med schl in India might be a very exciting opportunity....either way, like positivity was hinting at...u just need to learn you ****....that's what matters...and u'll be so deep in studying you wont have time to think about mosquitos.

 

[dggopal]

haha... i agree with positivity on this one... I'm in third year of med school in india now and i came straight outta highschool in Los Angeles and I can tell you that for a fact that if you arent determined to make it from the start then you will prolly drop out of the program in India ur first year.
Its gruelling and the change in environment is a lot to take in... I'm not just talking bout the mosquitos and the cow dung... im talking bout the formality of greating ur teachers by standing up when they walk in the room and reffering to them as sir... Im talkin about the whole change in teaching strategy... Im talking about goin to college on saturdays TOO.
I can tell you man its rough to stick with it here. and you say 5.5 years... Thas if you pass everything in your first attempt.... I'm not saying its impossible... but its pretty tough when you are an NRI... takes some time to get the hang of india's exam style...its prolly more like 6 or 6.5 years
My advice to you buddy... seriously consider what you are willing to do to be a doc... how much do you want it? cuz you will pay all the money up front and judgin from the price the seats went for last year you will pay around 100k for the course and thats non refundable... thats a pretty penny to waste if you decide to go home after a year....
But hey if you man up and decide to dick it out whatever comes and however long it takes... if you have decided that i will be a doc no matter what happens... then come to india.
If you got any other questions then pm man and ill help you out...

 

[UKPharmGirl]

All i can say is WOW. I've been to India and love it to bits...but to deal with such a huge change in the education system would have been too much for me to hack. So i'm still at home...maybe i'll move to india once i have my degree...who knows...

 

[premedgeek]

It would be a huge change in education system. No more objective multiple guess exams. It will be mostly free-response, graded subjectively. If you appear as*swipe to your professor, he will give you fewer points, even though you had everything right.

On average, it is much harder to pass from Indian medical school than US medical school. You have to be willing to work hard and loose your comfortable US life style.

 

[Northerner]

Firstly - what culture?

Please tell me you're not saying America has no culture, or less culture than India.

 

[UKPharmGirl]

It would be a huge change in education system. No more objective multiple guess exams. It will be mostly free-response, graded subjectively. If you appear as*swipe to your professor, he will give you fewer points, even though you had everything right.

On average, it is much harder to pass from Indian medical school than US medical school. You have to be willing to work hard and loose your comfortable US life style.

I just gotta admire those that can do it. Give yourself a pat on the back coz u deserve it!

 

[somemaybedoc]

I am an NRI, but I cant stomach the 5.5 years in India. I live in the US right now but I dont want to leave the culture and my home and have to live in India.

I really dont know what to do.

I've read your posts elsewhere on SDN and you have no interest in practicing in India. You want to practice stateside, with your primary motivation being salary. To which I say, you might not be unhappy, but please don't be incompetent. The other thing that you have professed in the past is that you simply do not want to spend the time it takes to go through the US system. Going to India is not going to be a shortcut, just getting licensed here will take time. Furthermore you will have difficulty getting into residencies for high paying low work specialties that your goals neccesitate.

In short there is no easy way to becoming a physician, if you want this life, you'll have to suck it up and do the work.

To those of you that ragged on the OP for not wanting to live in India, I have to completely disagree with your take. I have an Indian background that is part of me and I love to visit, but the fact is I was born to Indian origin parents who spent the vast majority of their lives in the US, I grew up in the US, I went to US schools, and I learned to live in the US.

Culture is not genetic, I have elements of Indian culture in my life, but for the most part my culture is a product of my environment. It is not unreasonable to me to be reluctant to abandon one's own culture and move to another country; it would take great opportunity unavailable to me in the US for me to do so. I have tremendous opportunity here and although my culture may not be as old as that of Indian born Indians, it is acceptable to me and in some ways preferable to aspects that culture, for example I would most likely not be happy under a system of educational formality in which discussion was minimal as I believe discussion trains students in effective real world thinking that goes beyond regurgitation.

In short although we may have similar ethnic backgrounds we are not the same and we needn't have the same preferences and lifestyles.

 

[UKPharmGirl]

You can't go to India with this attitude like 'oh no, how will i make it, eww dirty!' cos then you really won't make it. You gotta grit your teeth, roll up your pants, step around the cow dung and say 'hell yeah I'm gonna kick some butt'
.

I agree completely on this. I mean you have to be down-to-earth and NOT act like you're better than them. If you say things like 'Ewww that's disgusting there's no way I'm doing that' then you will be seen as a snobby NRI. If you behave like you've always been there, and make the most of what you get, then they will accept you and actually really love you for it.

I haven't studied there but all the times I've been back, this is what I've learnt. You have to believe in your heart that you are one of them, these are your real roots (for indians).

Imagine if you are in the UK and then a US student (or vice versa for anyone in the US), comes over and acts like they are superior, because they come from US/UK. You'd probably think what an 'dingus!' but if they were down-to-earth and treating you as an equal, then you'd think 'What a nice guy/girl'. Correect me if i'm wrong...it's just something I've observed.