Studying Abroad for Pre-Medicine

Pre-Med & Medical School Foreign Medical Education
1

Hi, guys!

I’m a senior in the United States and have been accessing this website a lot as I’ve been applying to colleges. However, lately, I’ve been considering going abroad to Romania or Bulgaria to study medicine. The pros of this are the fact that the tuition is actually affordable and pretty cheap and that by 6 years, I will actually be a doctor (hopefully!). In the United States, however, if I go on to study pre-med, I’d have to take pre-med classes for the first four years and only after that would I find out whether or not I even got accepted as a medical student. And I know that a lot of people argue that you can shorten those primary four years with summer classes or the credits I should get from my high school years but ultimately, I still feel as though it’s too long of a process.

Anyway, getting back to the point (sorry, I tend to ramble at times), there are also some HUGE risks with studying abroad. First off, I know someone who studied medicine in Pakistan and then moved to the states and while he may be practicing medicine, he’s only allowed to work for a few hours and not as many as he hopes too. Additionally, I heard of a couple who studied in the Caribbean together and while the wife found a job after a few months, her husband still hasn’t found one from what I’ve heard. And then also, a friend of a friend who studied in Romania is having a tough time finding a job in Europe, not even the United States which would make more sense with the USMLE requirements and all! So with that, I am utterly confused and am hoping to get your advice on what to do and hopefully, speaking to people who have actually done this whole study abroad in Europe thing. Anyway, I guess the actual question is what advice do you guys have on this matter?

Thanks!

2

If you want to be a doctor in the US but also want to experience life abroad, go to college in the US and do a semester or year abroad. Then also go to medical school in the US. Undergrad courses abroad would have to be repeated to be acceptable for US medical school, and doing medical school abroad increases your chances of failing to become a physician by over 1100%.

3

Med school prereqs must be taken at a US or Canadian university.

Some graduates of overseas medical schools end up getting master’s degrees in the US and are physician’s assistants.

4

I don’t want my physician to be someone with a halfa$$ education looking for shortcuts through my medical care.
We pay A LOT of money for our medical coverage for our family. The process is long for a reason.

5

I used to have a client who was a practicing doctor in Pakistan. She ended up doing nails in the US. This is just one anecdotal story, but I think the general consensus is that it is MUCH more difficult to become licensed and employed in the US with a foreign education, even one from UK, which is probably more highly regarded than Romania.

My daughter would like to do the same thing, but it is just unrealistic if you want to end up practicing medicine in the US. Even taking undergrad outside of US and Canada doesn’t really work. Brown probably has the best idea if you want the experience.

6

I wrote:

One such person is a physician’s assistant in my doctor’s office.