<p>whats the big deal with going to latin america if u cant get in america? people seem to look down on it... </p>
<p>what are the disadvantages of it (i know a handful of people who went there, and are now practicing doctors here)</p>
<p>what type of grades do u need to get in there (or do they accept anyone who pays money)</p>
<p>is it smart to go there, or stay here and take postbac courses and try again in america</p>
<p>Many residencies have explicit policies that they will admit FMGs (foreign medical graduates) only if they are actually citizens of the countries in question - that is, if you went to medical school in Grenada, you'd better be a citizen of Grenada.</p>
<p>It's a cop-out, and a shortcut for those students who simply are not qualified for American medical schools. If the AAMC won't take you, my advice is to find another profession.</p>
<p>well i know people who are practicing surgeons (making over 400K a year) who went to caribean medical schools... im only a HS senior, so im not being biased or anything, i just think its incorrect that if u arent qualified for american med schools "to find another profession." </p>
<p>anyone else have perspective on foreign med education</p>
<p>its more of of a honor prestige sorta thing, that you went to school in the US and stuff. Because it's easier to get into carribean med school, its simply looked down upon, that's it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, atleast to me. But then again im a high school senior as well so I don't really know THAT much about it. But from what I understand, its just sorta like bragging rights, of course it may show that you aren't as skilled as some US people, but that is such an over generalization because there are so many cases where that doesn't apply. Anyway Im done rambling, but to close this, I don't see the problem with it if you want to become a doctor. and I wouldn't 'find another profession' just because you cant get in the US, that's just stupid. If you want it, go for it.</p>
<p>I don't mean that it's impossible to be a "successful" doctor, although it would certainly be more difficult. (Things have probably gotten harder over time, too, as more US residencies get frustrated with students who pull this end-run, but I don't have any evidence to support this.)</p>
<p>I mean that the idea troubles me. American medical schools didn't feel you were qualified for their student bodies - which turns out to be the case for more than half of all premeds. I know that if I were a patient - which is the perspective that we, as premeds, are supposed to be taking - I would be bothered by such an idea.</p>
<p>Medical school is not meant to protect your future, or to give you a good or comfortable life. Pulling "offshoring" stunts just for the status and income of being an MD is, in my mind, ethically questionable.</p>
<p>Some docs told me that the carribean actually doesn't do that good of a job in teaching you the material to become to best doc you can be...also their passing rate on the boards are pretty low too compared to those from US med schools...of course if you try hard enough, you can still come out great even from places like Grenada, but a lot of students it seems, just get by in the carribean and then come back not as good as they should be</p>
<p>I'm just sayin what I've heard...i know there are a lot of great docs who got their med school stuff done down there, but I'm pretty sure you want it to be the very last option ever</p>
<p>couldn't you just try european med schools?? also places like pakistan actually does a good job training MD's and its a 5 yr process.</p>
<p>
Passing rates for FMG's are much lower than for AMG's. See the NBME 2005 Annual Report page 43. For first time test takers AMG MD's had a pass rate of 94% while FMG MD's had a pass rate of 68% (For repeaters, 65% vs. 39%).
<a href="http://www.nbme.org/AnnualReport/2005/2005AnnualReport.pdf%5B/url%5D">www.nbme.org/AnnualReport/2005/2005AnnualReport.pdf</a></p>
<p>wow...I'm astonished...for once my comment has been backed up by some1 else...haha</p>
<p>
[quote]
Passing rates for FMG's are much lower than for AMG's. See the NBME 2005 Annual Report page 43. For first time test takers AMG MD's had a pass rate of 94% while FMG MD's had a pass rate of 68% (For repeaters, 65% vs. 39%).
<a href="http://www.nbme.org/AnnualReport/20...nnualReport.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nbme.org/AnnualReport/20...nnualReport.pdf</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think it's actually even worse than this, when it comes to Caribbean schools. I believe that the graduation rate of Caribbean medical schools is significantly lower than that for US medical schools. Hence, what that means is that plenty of students drop out and hence don't even get the chance to take the boards. </p>
<p>
[quote]
couldn't you just try european med schools?? also places like pakistan actually does a good job training MD's and its a 5 yr process.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, the main issue is that you have to have a medical degree that is certified to practice in the US. Only a few foreign med-schools offer such degrees. You can't just get a medical degree from any foreign school and then just expect to come to the US and then just expect to be allowed to practice. Furthermore, foreign med-students are ineligible for many US residencies, meaning that the kind of specialization you can pursue and career you can obtain are constrained. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I mean that the idea troubles me. American medical schools didn't feel you were qualified for their student bodies - which turns out to be the case for more than half of all premeds. I know that if I were a patient - which is the perspective that we, as premeds, are supposed to be taking - I would be bothered by such an idea.</p>
<p>Medical school is not meant to protect your future, or to give you a good or comfortable life. Pulling "offshoring" stunts just for the status and income of being an MD is, in my mind, ethically questionable.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, the AAMC isn't exactly blameless here either. There have been several studies that have demonstrated that the AAMC has deliberately restricted the number of med-school slots available in order to keep doctor salaries high. </p>
<p>What I think med-school adcoms should do is implement a system where applicants are 'matched' with the schools that will take them. Right now, some med-school applicants who would otherwise make for perfect good doctors don't get in anywhere for the simple reason that they just happened to unluckily applied to the schools that have filled their spots with better applicants. They could have gone to med-school had they just applied to the right ones, but how are they supposed to know which ones those are? Instead, all applicants should be placed in one pool and the med-schools should rank all the applicants according to who they want. The applicants themselves also rank the med-schools that they want, and then matching is optimized.</p>
<p>Lest you think this is a radical process, I would say that this is no different from the current matching process that teaching hospitals use to match med-students with residencies. The whole point is to reduce inefficiencies. A guy who isn't good enough to go to UCSF, but is good enough for UCIrvine shouldn't find himself not getting in anywhere just because he didn't apply to UCIrvine. All this does is just increase the anxiety of the process and drive premeds to apply to more and more schools to ensure themselves of getting admitted into at least one, hence driving up application process costs. Wouldn't it be more efficient to have just one unified application pool with which to match, the way that residency matching is done now?</p>