Risky to do an internship outside North America?

[DPolaris]

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Hey SDN,

I'd love to live in another continent after vet school and do an internship outside of North America, such as perhaps in Australia or somewhere in Asia, and I have family in Europe as well, and was toying with this idea, especially if I don't match to any of the places I ranked in NA.

However, I'm still undetermined if I want to do a residency or not, and I've heard that you might be at a disadvantage if you do an internship outside of NA or at a place outside of the match system because residency programs might not know if the place where you did your internship is actually good/reputable or not (other than programs that don't go through the match of course).

Taking that into consideration, would it be risky to do an internship not in NA? At the same time if for example I don't match at any of the NA internships I ranked and I still would rather do an internship over entering general practice, I'm not sure if I should then go through the scramble, or look into going abroad, especially if going abroad would probably be a lot more exciting too from a cultural perspective as well as seeing diseases, problems, etc. that might be more rare over here in NA. What do you guys think?

Sorry if this topic has been visited multiple times in the past and I just failed in my search! Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[SocialStigma]

If there's even a chance that you may want to pursue a residency in North America, then it would be safer to do a North American internship IMO. I know several people who failed to match to a residency after completing rotating internships at well known, AVMA-accredited schools (RVC and Melbourne). Where they did their internship may not have hurt them, but it probably didn't help their application as much as a North American internship could have.

 

[JaynaAli]

In my opinion it would be a lot smarter to just apply broadly in the US, do internship/residency in the US, and then look into moving abroad once you've passed boards.

 

[Log8]

I've had this same question for a while now. I've also wondered about residencies. I wonder what doing a residency over seas would do to your chances of getting into a residency in the US, or how much it would be worth, etc. For example, I talked to a medical student, and he says (for him) a foreign residency would count, but just maybe not as much (like maybe 60-70%) so you'd still have to end up getting into a residency program, but that doing a residency in your home country would help your chances.

I wonder how true that is for veterinary medicine. Does anyone have any information about that?

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I've also wondered about residencies. I wonder what doing a residency over seas would do to your chances of getting into a residency in the US, or how much it would be worth, etc.

Why would a vet need to worry about "getting into a residency in the US" after doing a residency overseas?

In general, I know there are other places in the world with excellent vet programs and well-respected vets -- the US is not the only top-tier place in the world for veterinary education and other foreign schools have excellent reputations. So one "over seas" location will mean something different than another "over seas" location. I'm pretty sure a Surgeon from Edinburgh or a Radiologist from Queensland would have no trouble getting work in the US; I'm not sure the same could be said for a Surgeon from Mexico or a Radiologist from France (even though both have AVMA-accredited schools)

 

[Log8]

Why would a vet need to worry about "getting into a residency in the US" after doing a residency overseas?

In general, I know there are other places in the world with excellent vet programs and well-respected vets -- the US is not the only top-tier place in the world for veterinary education and other foreign schools have excellent reputations. So one "over seas" location will mean something different than another "over seas" location. I'm pretty sure a Surgeon from Edinburgh or a Radiologist from Queensland would have no trouble getting work in the US; I'm not sure the same could be said for a Surgeon from Mexico or a Radiologist from France (even though both have AVMA-accredited schools)

I don't know, I just would like to know exactly what that experience would do for me. I'm hesitant to think that upon arrival in the US, they'd just be like "hmm yep, residency, check!" you know? But that's a good point about other places

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I just would like to know exactly what that experience would do for me.

Do you mean you wonder "exactly what" the experience of doing a residency overseas would do for you? Well, no one knows exactly, but it can be a good thing to learn from people with different experiences and different routines - it can help teach you to think outside your box of comfortable expectations.