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....well, duhh??! If you want to become a doctor, shouldn't you at least APPLY to med school? For those who want to become doctors, the Ivies can a hugge fraction to med schools.
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<p>No, like I said, the process is expensive and time-consuming, such that only those people who think they have a chance will actually apply. Let's face it. If you have straight C's in your premed coursework, you're not going to apply even if you want to go. Why? Because you know you're not going to get in anywhere. If you score a 10 (total) on your MCAT, you're not going to apply, even if you want to get in. Why? Again, because you know you're not going to get in.</p>
<p>And why are you talking about Ivies? Are you saying that only Ivy people get into med-school, or want to get into med-school? Tell that to those 40% of Berkeley premeds who applied to med-school and didn't get in anywhere. Also you may want to tell that to all those former Berkeley premeds who found out that premed courses were just too hard so they went to study something else. </p>
<p>Bottom line - every school is full of students who tried out premed but then stopped when they found out how hard those courses are. They want to be doctors, but they can't or don't want to do the premed coursework. Then there are plenty of others who do manage to complete the premed coursework... but with bad grades. They know they're not going to get in anywhere, so they don't bother to apply. </p>
<p>I'll put it to you this way. I've always wanted to play for the Red Sox. But does that mean that I should go and try out? No of course not, because I realize that I'm not good enough at baseball to play professionally. If I showed up for a tryout, I would just embarrass myself. So I'm not going to waste my time in trying out. If the Sox were to just hand me a roster spot, of course I would take it. But I am not going to waste a whole day going to a tryout only to be laughed off the field, which I know is what is going to happen. Similarly a guy with straight C's and a bad MCAT score might want to go to med-school, but he is not going to pay the app fee and submit his application only to have it laughed at and tossed away. </p>
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"Bottom line - you should not see foreign medical schools as an 'easy way out'. "</p>
<p>Whatever comments you cited are exactly true also for american grad schools.
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<p>And once again, you've missed the point that doctors need to go to graduate school (medical school), but professions like engineering don't need to go to graduate school. Plenty of engineers enjoy successful careers with just a bachelor's degree. How many practicing doctors out there have never gone to medical school? </p>
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The only barrier to getting a residency is getting a passing grade on the USMLE...
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<p>Yet that's obviously a problem for some people, for as referenced above, some people, particularly those from foreign medical schools, don't get residencies. </p>
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Even if you get the lowest passing score of 75 (10-%ile), you have a decent chance at the community hospitals, if not the university hospitals. ONce you have the degree, you'll be a <em>doctor</em>
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<p>Yeah, you'll be a doctor. But if you don't score highly enough, you'll probably get stuck in a residency you don't really want to be in. Since you keep bringing up Lasik, let's talk about it. Lasik is performed almost always by opthalmologists. It's not like everybody who wants to become an opthalmologist gets to be one. If you don't do well enough, you will not be matched with an opthalmology residency. Like I mentioned before, the matching process is two-way. You rank what you want. And in turn, the training hospitals rank who they want, according to the students' qualifications. If your qualifications are low, then they will rank you low, such that you will probably not match with the more desired spots. And you could potentially end up matching nowhere and getting nothing.</p>