Going to Foreign Medical Schools
Going to medical school outside of the United States is called going to a foreign medical school or international medical school.
Going to foreign medical school has many advantages. For example, tuitions are much cheaper if you go to certain schools. Also, the
thrill of living and studying in a foreign country can be an orgasmic experience.
Another thing to consider is that foreign medical schools admit student straight out of high school. This is especially true in Europe.
A bigger advantage is that there are many beautiful girls in the Caribbean along with white sandy beaches. Caribbean
medical schools comes with a bad stigmata. People often think you are a reject. Who cares what they think as long as you have a blast in medical school and still obtaining the best cultural and educational experiences.
Many new foreign medical schools do not require the MCAT for admissions.
However, there are important issues to consider when looking at
foreign medical schools. First, how is the medical school licensed?
A diploma from some schools is treated as though it came from a
US school, others require that you get certified by the ECFMG.
Still others are not certified at all - which means you will never
be allowed to practice in the US based on that particular diploma.
Be very careful in researching the ECFMG certification status of
the foreign medical school in which you are interested.
Another caveat is that competition for residency positions may
be more difficult. Many residency programs don't accept international
medical graduates, meaning the pool of available residency slots
is smaller than that available to graduates of US medical schools.
Regardless of where you do your medical training, to practice in
the US you will need to pass the USMLE
Step 1, USMLE
Step 2 and USMLE
step 3 exams. It use to be that only foreign medical graduates
had to take the clinical skills portion of USMLE step 2, but starting
in the spring of 2005 everyone taking step 2 must take both the
clinical skills and clinical knowledge portions of step 2.
Foreign Medical Schools
