First and foremost, I want to apologize for hijacking the thread. That being said, I do not fully agree with what Goober posted. In short, I'm not sure if getting into med school is a lot harder in the US, but I do not think that it is a lot harder to get into med school in other countries. Similar to American students, students in other countries can still become a doctor if they're dedicated enough, since many of the foreign med schools available to American students are also available to them. They might have a hard time going back to practice in their own country, but they will become a doctor nonetheless. It would be a decision they will have to make, and that will depend on how dedicated they are. Also, quite a few of my friends end up going to med schools at these other countries (Asia and Europe) after not being able to get into a US med school. Finally, the "test" that students at these foreign countries need to take is actually a public exam everyone needs to take to graduate from high school and get into college, regardless of their major. What department (i.e. Arts & Sciences, Medicine, Law, etc.) and what school they get into will depend on how well they do on this "test" as well as what they choose to do. The whole system is actually quite similar to our residency match system, except that the only selection criteria they have is your grade from that test. Many quote that you usually need to be at the top 1-2% to go into medicine. That is not necessarily true, because not everyone in the top 1-2% wants to do medicine. From what I heard about some Asian countries, the cutoff is more in the 5-10% range (depending on the country), which means you still need to do well. This might still sound insanely competitive, but if you think about it, this percentage range (5-10%, or 1-2%) is based on EVERYONE in the country graduating from HIGH SCHOOL that year. In contrast, in the US, when we take the MCAT, we are competing against college students choosing to go to med school (a much smaller group, who usually have already done well in COLLEGE). People who score in the 50th percentile range on the MCAT very likely would have been in the top 5-15% if they were being compared to everyone graduating from high school in the US (remember that MANY high school graduates don't go to college.) Basically, what I'm saying is, the statistics might sound scary in the foreign countries when compared to the US, but in reality, it is not if you look at the whole picture, since high school graduation, college admission, and good-ol' pre-med weed-out courses have already excluded a very large number of less-qualified students from taking the MCAT and applying.
The most difficult part about the US med school admission system is that you have to excel in multiple areas, while students at these foreign countries just need to focus 100% of their attention and energy into doing well on a set of public exam. "Well-roundedness" is often what's missing from many med students at the foreign countries (from personal observation.) Maybe that's one reason why the US produces more researchers and leaders in medical fields than other countries.
