Hi guys,
As a summary:
1) In US med system, the US- based graduates have much more chance than IMGs (the US MDs who had med education abroad) for residency. If you have your med education and graduate from a non-US school, you will criple your own chance to turn back home and every year this chance is getting more and more limited. But if you have your med education in US, and later go abroad, its always a strong background to keep a door open in US.
2) If you still consider to have med education in Europe, be aware that, always the English programs are more moderate than the native programs of the same schools.
3) Best med programs in English are known to be Jagiellonian/Poland, Charles 1st Faculty/Czezh Republic, Semmelweis/Hungary. They all have California Medical Board approval, but those programs in Italy, dont. Also the former programs are providing good scores in USMLE so that their students can apply for loan in US (this loan question is set every year depending on the success of the graduates of the schools, in USMLE). As for the programs in Italy, to my knowledge, their US students cant have loan. Also by the respect of rotations in US, the former ones are in a better situation (if the Italian programs didnt develop such contacts in US. But regarding that they are so new and limited in quality, it looks unlikely).
4) The former ones offer well-established programs. I dont know Pavia, but Humanitas is offering PBL (Problem Based Learning) method, with which you dont learn the theoreticals in a classical system; instead you have a case and over it you develop the relevant education. So its very much related with personal motivation. Personally this doesnt give me a safety feeling about the education quality. Also all of the profs. are in the native med program of Milan University, not in its English program, Humanitas. In Humanitas, there are only 80 PBL-oriented MDs.
The summary of my research about some of the med schools (mainly their English programs) is here:
http://medical-schools.blogspot.com/
Milan University - English program (Humanitas) :
www.mimed.it
Milan University - Native program :
http://www.unimi.it/ENG/university/31941.htm
Personally Pavia didnt give me a good impression as well, but I base this comment only over its website quality, lack of automated telephone operator etc.. such details.
5) EU is getting in two, and the powerful countries are trying to get themselves out of this turmoil, by leaving the weaker ones outside. The leader, Germany, by taking France on its side, is leading this decision and they plan to be "The Core!" of EU. The weaker ones, which include Italy as well, will take place in perifery and their conditions/benefits etc. will be limited in future, which means less support of The Core (the "de facto EU"). As long as there is no support, I am afraid (this is my personal thought that), like everything, the education systems in the periferic countries as well will take their parts (San Raffaele could turn from the brink of bankruptcy by the support of first Vatikan and later eventually EU).
