What are the best European med schools (English speaking)?

[jmdoc007]

Hello, can anyone tell me what the best medical schools (5-6 yr. [i.e. straight out of high-school]) in England, other parts of the UK (English speaking) and Ireland are? Even other non-UK countries if you will, as long as they are English-speaking, or the courses at the university are at least taught in English.

Which schools are known to be kindest to internationals in terms of acceptances? What is the general acceptance rate of internationals applying to UK med school?

And are there any exams I would have to take other than the UKCAT? Is the UKCAT similar to the SAT? If not, how do they differ?

Are there any options such as loans or grants available for financing education there (not from the U.S. nor Canada)?

Do the universities take your high school grades (high school in my country is from 7-13) into account or just your exam results? If they look at you're high school grades, which grades do they look at, or focus more on (e.g. 9-13, 11-13, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for the help. Any answers to the questions above or any other information you find relevant would be greatly appreciated.

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[bambi]

Hello, can anyone tell me what the best medical schools (5-6 yr. [i.e. straight out of high-school]) in England, other parts of the UK (English speaking) and Ireland are? Even other non-UK countries if you will, as long as they are English-speaking, or the courses at the university are at least taught in English.

Which schools are known to be kindest to internationals in terms of acceptances? What is the general acceptance rate of internationals applying to UK med school?

And are there any exams I would have to take other than the UKCAT? Is the UKCAT similar to the SAT? If not, how do they differ?

Are there any options such as loans or grants available for financing education there (not from the U.S. nor Canada)?

Do the universities take your high school grades (high school in my country is from 7-13) into account or just your exam results? If they look at you're high school grades, which grades do they look at, or focus more on (e.g. 9-13, 11-13, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for the help. Any answers to the questions above or any other information you find relevant would be greatly appreciated.

All UK med schools are technically considered equal. The biggest issues are really what type of course do you want and what sort of place do you want to live in. To get a list of all of them go on the UCAS website, then check out each school individually. The websites will all say what grades they require however American high school grades are not enough, they will ask for specific SAT scores. They will also tell you which exams they require, I think a couple of places might still want the BMAT but I'm not sure.

You wont be able to get any UK loans, what we get is fairly minimal anyway.

Plenty of places in Eastern Europe have courses taught in English, look at Charles Faculty something or other in Prague, it is one of the better ones.

 

[jmdoc007]

Thanks for the response. I'm from Jamaica (Caribbean) btw (guess I should've mentioned that in the original post) so I'm not sure whether Jamaican grades will be enough considering we follow the whole British system of education as we were once a colony of them. At one point we even used to do A levels and O levels (Now we take Caribbean based exams- CSEC and CAPE). And some institutions (though not high schools, more like private places) still prepare students for UK based exams such as GCSE.

When you say grades, are u referring to GPA, or are you referring to exam results? Or both?

Can the SAT be taken in place of the UKCAT?

Which UK schools have the highest acceptance rate for internationals?

Thanks again.

 

[bambi]

Thanks for the response. I'm from Jamaica (Caribbean) btw (guess I should've mentioned that in the original post) so I'm not sure whether Jamaican grades will be enough considering we follow the whole British system of education as we were once a colony of them. At one point we even used to do A levels and O levels (Now we take Caribbean based exams- CSEC and CAPE). And some institutions (though not high schools, more like private places) still prepare students for UK based exams such as GCSE.

When you say grades, are u referring to GPA, or are you referring to exam results? Or both?

Can the SAT be taken in place of the UKCAT?

Which UK schools have the highest acceptance rate for internationals?

Thanks again.

A lot of schools will have a list of grades required for applicants from different countries on their websites. If not you will have to email individual schools. If you aren't American they wont ask for SATs, they ask for them from Americans because US high school education isn't equal to that in the UK.

There is pretty much no way of getting out of the UKCAT. I have no idea which school is easiest to get into for internationals but what is expected is lower than for home students.

 

[jmdoc007]

People always say it's easier for international students to get in than home students but is it really true? I mean, with an average of 25 international students accepted per school that doesn't sound very easy to get into. Maybe if 30 applied but 25 were accepted then you could say it's easier, but I presume that the number of applicants is more 500+ or maybe even in the thousands, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

And if all universities in the UK are basically equal, why is it that people mainly only talk about the University College of London, Imperial college, etc. Strangely enough, I don't even here them talk about Oxbridge, why is that?

Oh and are UCL, King's College, and Imperial a part of the same university/organization or something? I've even heard stories of graduating from Imperial college however receiving a degree from King's college (just an example, not sure if it was this exact combo of schools).

 

[bambi]

People always say it's easier for international students to get in than home students but is it really true? I mean, with an average of 25 international students accepted per school that doesn't sound very easy to get into. Maybe if 30 applied but 25 were accepted then you could say it's easier, but I presume that the number of applicants is more 500+ or maybe even in the thousands, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

And if all universities in the UK are basically equal, why is it that people mainly only talk about the University College of London, Imperial college, etc. Strangely enough, I don't even here them talk about Oxbridge, why is that?

There are nothing like that number of foreign applicants. It is much easier.

It is because those unis are in London which is the only city most foreigners know. Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham and Manchester are probably the most talked about non-London ones. All of them are ranked very highly in world league tables if that sort of thing bothers you, higher than about half of the London schools.

 

[jmdoc007]

Ohh, I see, thanks. So do these universities look at your high school grades, or just your exam results?

 

[bambi]

Ohh, I see, thanks. So do these universities look at your high school grades, or just your exam results?

Like I said, it will either be on the school websites or you can email them. In the UK our coursework grades are combined with exam grades to give an overall grade so everything counts.

 

[jmdoc007]

Oh, thank you. The only problem is when I go to check on school's websites they don't really have a separate section for international qualifications, or anything that speaks about the acceptance rate of internationals, or the number of internationals that apply/accepted. Thanks for all the help though. You say school grades come together with exam grades so give you a final grade, so is it like for example in chem you do labs, which are grades and then contribute to (for example) 40% of your final grade? Because if that's so, then it would be similar to our system, which hopefully means that it could be used as a substitute. Thanks for the help.

 

[bambi]

Oh, thank you. The only problem is when I go to check on school's websites they don't really have a separate section for international qualifications, or anything that speaks about the acceptance rate of internationals, or the number of internationals that apply/accepted. Thanks for all the help though. You say school grades come together with exam grades so give you a final grade, so is it like for example in chem you do labs, which are grades and then contribute to (for example) 40% of your final grade? Because if that's so, then it would be similar to our system, which hopefully means that it could be used as a substitute. Thanks for the help.

Not all schools will have a list of foreign qualifications they accept. You will have to email some/most. I think BSMS has a list but I'm not sure.

School was 8 years ago for me but at GCSE you did a sort of lab type project and a write up for coursework in the sciences and then had the final exam. At A level it was similar except I think there was more of everything so a bunch of lab stuff, then a project. Then there were several exams, 4-5 I think for each of the sciences. For non-science subjects there would be a few written pieces for coursework plus the exams. I think at both levels though coursework wasn't worth much in comparison to exams. I think at A level it counted as 1 unit out of 6 with the exams being the other 5. So you get 6 marks and they are added together, as in the actual number of marks, then the final mark of the 6 added together would fall into a particular grade boundary and that would be your grade. So, if you got 5 As but they were all really low As and then got 1 mid B you would end up with a B.

 

[jmdoc007]

So approximately how many internationals apply to UK schools anyway?

And do all UK schools cost £20,000-£30,000 per year?

 

[bambi]

So approximately how many internationals apply to UK schools anyway?

And do all UK schools cost £20,000-£30,000 per year?

Look it up or email them. Any information like this is just as easily available to you as it is me.