Question about Neurosurgery Please Answer!

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Reshma

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Hello Everyone

I have one question for you. My brother is graduating next month and will be leaving to India for medical school because it only takes 5 years over there and he got very interersted in that he is a good student great sat scores and had good colleges interested in him. After finishing Med school he is interested in Neurosurgery. So my question is is getting residency in the field of neurosurgery hard to get in if you got you degree in another coutry?

I would really appreciate your response that way it can help me and help my brother.

Thank You

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without question being an international medical graduate will make getting into an american residency very difficult. it does happen. this year there were 19 people who are not US seniors that will fill neurosurgery residency positions. however, 96 people interviewed for these 19 positions. that is not people who applied, that is the number that interviewed. undoubtedly there were more than 96 people who applied, and some of those people fill other categories than international medical graduate. the bottom line is that the path from an international school into a competitive US residency is exceptionally difficult. many of the successful applicants spend extra years doing research or working in preliminary positions before they can get a residency position. the years that your brother saves now does not mean that he will be accepted and finish three years earlier. it probably means that he will not get a position or that he will have to spend several years doing additional work before he gets accepted. he needs to realize that the number of highly qualified, motivated students in the US exceeds the number of positions. that many of them will have the same test scores and research that he does when the time comes to apply and that they will be given significant bias. he is NOT saving time by obtaining a degree outside of the US.
 
So, let me just get the story straight. Your brother is a high school senior who could have gone to a 4-year college here in the States, but instead decided to forego that education and experience for 5 years of medical school in India? AND he knows that he wants to apply for neurosurgery when it's all said and done?

If you want to help your brother, and I, for one, REALLY want to help your brother, then please convince him to SSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

College is a part of your education. I'm Indian, and my parents are both doctors trained in India, and my whole family is full of doctors...one thing all of them say is that they wish they went to college to get more of an education. In addition, U.S. neurosurgical programs DO NOT look favorably at foreign medical graduates, nowadays more than ever. GOZAR is right; the FMGs who match into neurosurgery are well-connected, have often completed a neurosurgical residency outside of the U.S., and have extensive publications and research and have scutted themselves out for at least a year or two at the program where they hope to match--and most of them STILL DON'T MATCH!

If your brother is going to India to "save time," or "get ahead," then he will be sorely disappointed. It was a nice thought, but without a doubt it's the WRONG move, especially for neurosurgery. Please smack him and your parents around for me, and get your strategy straight from the start. You guys are making a huge mistake.
 
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So, let me just get the story straight. Your brother is a high school senior who could have gone to a 4-year college here in the States, but instead decided to forego that education and experience for 5 years of medical school in India? AND he knows that he wants to apply for neurosurgery when it's all said and done?

If you want to help your brother, and I, for one, REALLY want to help your brother, then please convince him to SSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

College is a part of your education. I'm Indian, and my parents are both doctors trained in India, and my whole family is full of doctors...one thing all of them say is that they wish they went to college to get more of an education. In addition, U.S. neurosurgical programs DO NOT look favorably at foreign medical graduates, nowadays more than ever. GOZAR is right; the FMGs who match into neurosurgery are well-connected, have often completed a neurosurgical residency outside of the U.S., and have extensive publications and research and have scutted themselves out for at least a year or two at the program where they hope to match--and most of them STILL DON'T MATCH!

If your brother is going to India to "save time," or "get ahead," then he will be sorely disappointed. It was a nice thought, but without a doubt it's the WRONG move, especially for neurosurgery. Please smack him and your parents around for me, and get your strategy straight from the start. You guys are making a huge mistake.

Yeah, he's screwing himself royally.

It's NOT faster. You spend 5 years there compared to 8 here, but take into account the time it'll take to take (and pass) USMLE Step I, Step II CK, Step II CS, Step III. And in many schools in India (from what I hear), clipping along to graduate in 5 years is not guaranteed and it may take an extra year or so. And consider the extra time you'll have to take in getting crucial U.S. clinical experience and to get letters of recommendation. And consider the extra years you would have to invest to get an "in" with a program doing research if you didn't match. And at the end of the day, you'll be considered far far below U.S. applicants, who are already very competitive, and favored as domestic applicants. Basically ALL odds are against him on this. If he were a good candidate and a U.S. citizen, he'd stay in the U.S. and follow the traditional route to become a neurosurgeon in the U.S., rather than trying to take a shortcut based on a naive and mistaken opinion that college in the U.S. is a waste of time and he'd be better off going to a third world country to get a medical degree. But hey, this is Darwinism in medicine in action.
 
agreed with above advice. this is ridiculously stupid. i have a few family friends that have gone this route/are thinking of going this route and they all have one thing in common: lack of understanding of how this works. First of all, you DONT really save any time. 5 yrs indian med school vs 4 yrs (or 3 yrs if you take more credits, AP credits, summer, etc) + 4 yrs med school. However, as an FMG/IMG applying for a categorical neurosurgery spot, it extremely difficult. honestly, you could be the damn brightest person but struggle royally to get a spot in the US.

So, first of all, he may not get a seat right away at the indian med school - for my family friend, this took about 2 yrs, which is just ridiculous. Second, he may end up having to spend a couple years here in the US doing things like pre-residency fellowship or something else to get to know a department, get letters, get US clinical experience. in the end though, it will be a severe uphill battle.

bottom line is that matching in neurosurgery is hard for us american med grads, and its much harder for FMG. for my family friends that went this route, they were pressured from their parents, who knew next to nothing about why going to college to get a BS was actually beneficial prior to pushing their kid into med school. my apologies if this post was too strong, but if he's a solid student who thinks he wants to do something competitive down the line, tell him to stay in the US, enjoy undergrad and if still interested, go to a med school that has a neurosurg department. he wont save time by going to india and in the end, his career will suffer.
 
I agree with the above posts.

He will never get a neurosurgery spot in the US if he decides to go to medical school in India.

Extremely bad idea.
 
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