<p>so i would like to call it a huge problem cause i am a highschool student and it will decide pretty much the next few years of my life.
My parents wish me to go through a medical program from Agha Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan which is an MBBS program.
My whole highschool life i have been planning to apply to various other schools here in the U.S.</p>
<p>Now i asked what was the reason as to why they wish me to go to Agha Khan University and their reason was: "It will be easier on us and you if you go through Agha Khan. After a few years over there you would come to the U.S. as a doctor and we could find a residency for you."</p>
<p>After that i asked "Isn't getting a residency hard?"
They say "Since we are still affiliated with a hospital we can easily get you a residency"</p>
<p>And that was the end of our small convo.</p>
<p>I have thought this through atleast 5-6 times and each time it comes out to go to my dream school: UCSD but then Agha Khan has seriously peaked my interest...</p>
<p>so now i leave it to the CC community to decide what i should do. I haven't talked to anyone else about it either.
I understand that in order to practice medicine in the U.S. i have to take a very challenging test also.</p>
<p>You’re asking a somewhat unconventional question - you can’t expect a response within 16 minutes. </p>
<p>As a US citizen/permanent resident, your best bet is always to go to medical school in the US (MD or DO). Going abroad for med school just puts up a lot of barriers to practicing in the US. You have to take extra tests (an english proficiency test) - you will always be behind US grads for residency spots, so you need to rock Steps 1 and 2 relative to the US grads applying for the same spots in whatever residency you want (and you are basically kept completely out of certain competitive specialties altogether) - you will be unable to get a license in certain states (like California, Texas, and certain others) unless your school is specifically inspected and approved by those states. Pretty much everything works against you as a foreign medical graduate. If you can, go to medical school in the US.</p>
<p>Here’s the list from CA - fortunately for you, Aga Khan is recognized by CA (which means it’s probably recognized by most/all other states, since CA tends to have the most stringent requirements) - however, my previous advice still stands - go to school in the US.</p>
<p>Aga khan is a good medical school, but I disagree with your parents. Even if it were true that they could ensure you got a residency at their hospital, you would still be limited to one hospital and the specialties with residency programs at that hospital. You certainly would have some hope of getting a residency elsewhere if you were well qualified, but much less than if you stayed in the us.</p>
<p>Note this: This year, 22074 positions were offered in the NRMP that guaranteed its applicant a residency with board-eligibility at the end of it. US seniors from MD-granting schools filled 14786 of those positions. Osteopathic students made up another 678 of them. As they graduated from LCME/COCA-accredited schools, they will generally have the first pick of residency spots. That leaves just under 30% of the spots, or 6610 of them, open for non-US seniors to take. You would be competing for those against roughly 23000 other applicants for those spots.</p>
<p>That statistic will only get worse by the time you’re even in a position to apply, which I’m guessing is six years from now. Firstly, many MD-granting schools are increasing their class sizes, and new ones are opening. Osteopathic schools are increasing at a seemingly exponential rate, and while many of them will go into osteopathic residencies, many will also apply through the NRMP and will be picked over students who went to foreign schools, including Agha Khan (which I understand is rather prestigious). And finally, with the current fiscal situation, there is no guarantee that the number of residency spots will increase by any significant amount. In fact, there is a significant chance that the opposite will happen, that funding for residencies might be cut dramatically. If that happens, you’re going to have to (a) practice in Pakistan, (b) attempt to practice in a Commwealth country, or (c) give up medicine entirely.</p>
<p>Being affiliated with a hospital is certainly no guarantee of matching into a residency spot. Don’t let your parents fool you into thinking otherwise. The physician sons and daughters of everyone at Harvard would be training at MGH or Brigham and Women’s if that were the case, and I assure you it isn’t.</p>
<p>And finally, consider whether you want to be studying in Pakistan over the next six years. There is no indication that the country will be settling down politically over the next few years, and while Karachi is far from the borderlands, that doesn’t make it safe by any means. You also won’t have the amenities that you might have become used to here.</p>
<p>I actually have a citizenship from pakistan and one from here. I guess my mind is set on staying here guys. thanks~
but dam, its going to be really challenging to even think of getting into med school in 5 years…</p>
<p>*That leaves just under 30% of the spots, or 6610 of them, open for non-US seniors to take. You would be competing for those against roughly 23000 other applicants for those spots.
*</p>
<p>And…maybe you can further expound on this…are some of those spots also taken by previously specialty-trained MDs for new-training or more extensive training?</p>
<p>I know a Pediatrician who went back and re-trained as an allergist (she felt it would be more “family friendly”). </p>
<p>I know a navy pathologist who (years later) got sent back to be trained as a cytopathologist. If I remember correctly, he was sent to USC for this. </p>
<p>I know a few army doctors who were “sent back” to re-train for specialties that the army needed. Their new training wasn’t some 1 year quickie deal…they were sent back for the full multi-year training deal. </p>
<p>I know these are just a few, but if this stuff happens, then that might also reduce the number of available spots. </p>
<p>Or, maybe these spots come under some other heading and don’t take away from the mentioned residency spots.</p>
<p>Aren’t most IMGs restricted to primary care residency programs (the ones who do manage to get into residency programs)? I don’t think a lot of them have a good chance of getting into the competitive residency programs like derm, radiology, cardio, plastics. unfortunately primary care docs are not as well compensated as most specialists.</p>
<p>Mom2ck - yes there are some physicians who have go back through training for various reasons. I know of an ER doc who decided to go back for a pediatrics residency then a peds critical care fellowship. </p>
<p>Colleges - they are not restricted per se. But when there’s more applicants than spots available, the programs have the advantage and it’s ‘safer’ to pick a US applicant. That doesn’t mean exceptional IMG’s can’t garner a position, but the types of IMG’s that do make it are likely already well established, published physicians in their own countries.</p>
<p>That said, for fellowship positions (like in cardiology), there is a greater chance for an IMG to make it. Come into a lower quality internal medicine program, really put it into gear, get some exceptional letters of rec, and a little bit of luck in who people know around the country, and they can garner a spot.</p>
<p>Alright so i talked to my dad again and he told me that the last thousands of spots available are handled by ‘waves’. the first wave accounts of people who were raised in the U.S. and graduated from the U.S. and then are accepted here. i would be accounted in the first ‘wave’. the other waves had to do with where they were raised/citizenship/greencard/visa/etc.</p>
<p>True in the sense that id rather be a us fmg than a non us fmg applying for those last thousand or so spots (which tend to be either low quality or in unfavorable areas). However, you are still fighting over the scraps in terms of residencies, not top programs and competitive fields for the most part. Plus, there are lots more people in the first wave than there are spots. Id rather be in the true" first wave", meaning a us citizen coming from a us school being considered for the many more thousands of good residency positions.</p>
<p>When I looked into this a few years ago, UC Davis’s residency program specifically had a policy declaring that they only accepted U.S. medical students or students who had gone to school in their home country (e.g. grew up in India, went to high school in India, and then went to medical school in India without ever living in the US). I mentioned this to a few physicians, who all nodded as if to say, “Of course! Although it’s a little odd that they say it so explicitly.”</p>
<p>Of course, American-born-attending-foreign-schools students have a language advantage which might benefit them on USMLE’s and whatnot, thus improving their chances.</p>
There are many things you need to do but really can not say it explicitly. Look at what troubles U. of Mich and its law school got into when they said too much about their admission policy a few years. A fatal mistake they made was they actually put a number on it. (e.g., belonging to a particular ethnic group is worth how many points.) UT Law school once got into troubles also. It became a big headache for UT for many years.</p>
<p>It is a fact that many patients in many “unprivileged” areas hesitate to see a doctor whose upbringing, and yes, his/her ethnic group, is very different from theirs. (if you happen to have some chances to meet these people who are arguable quite narrow-minded, you would know it. Heck, one of DS’s elementary school teachers might be one like this.)</p>
<p>One data point: A few years ago, one particular reason why an applicant got into a medical school is that he was brought up overseas in his early years and had been a translator for poor immigrants for at least 8 years (that is, he had been very close to his ethnic group) since he was in US. The medical school really valued his background. This is one example of “life experience” bonus points, idk.</p>