<p>I want to know how fast a person can finish the premed requirements or undergrad studies before medical school.</p>
<p>The requirements are extensive enough that it would almost certainly take at least three years. More to the point, medical schools don’t like students who rush through. So usually four years is the fastest.</p>
<p>The disadvantage of rushing through usually isn’t worth the one year you save.</p>
<p>6 years if you do a BA/MD program.</p>
<p>In Hong Kong, the BA/MD deal’s only 5 years =)</p>
<p>Go to Europe, or South America. No college. You go straight to your med school. 5 or 6 yrs, you are a doc, come back, do 3 yrs residency and that’s it. At 27 rather than 30-33, you are a full blown doctor</p>
<p>residency’s only one year here. So we get to be doctors at 24 =)</p>
<p>Lucky you!!</p>
<p>I know! But I don’t want to stay in Hong Kong. I’ll feel like all of the time and money that my family put into my International schooling would be not as well spent if I don’t go to the States. All my friends will be going overseas anyways.</p>
<p>Yeah, one year residency doesn’t sound like a great idea in my idea personally.Taking a quick peak at wikipedia, I think you are mistaking “intership” for residency. In Hong Kong you can practice as a general practicioner after your intership year (which in the US is usually considered the first year of residency). This used to be the case in the US as well, and may still be so in some states at least. Now I believe the trend is a minimum of 3 years of training before becoming an attending physician. Regardless, being a GP doesn’t mean you can start doing neurosurgery. It means you are a GP and you function in that role. Faster sounds good on paper, but that doesn’t mean its better. Going to a south american school is not a good idea either unless you want to practice there. International medical graduates tend to have a hard time of it when it comes to practicing in the US.</p>
<p>mmmcdowe: I happen to know several South Americans who did the residency in America, for my mom is in the Health Care field. I have to say I am quite impressed with their knowledge in Medicine. They go to school for 5 or even 6 years depending on which school, private or public, they attended. As they come here for their residency, they do very well, and I think is because, as they explain, they study a course at much slower pace over a period of 9 months, and they take their finals in an oral form, rather than multiple choice paper exams. They seelm to know in detail the subjects. Prety impressive.</p>
<p>I never said that no FMGs make it into the US for residency or practice, I said that they tend to have a hard time of it. A few cases of people succeeding does not invalidate my point that the tendancy is to have a harder road ahead of you as a FMG. About 1/3 of residency programs (particularly the top ones in a given specialty), I believe, don’t even look at FMGs. So right there that’s a big hurt in your chances to add to the fact that federally funded residencies are naturally interested in training physicians that plan to stay in the US and can thus sometimes be wary of accepting FMGs over an equally competitive US candidate. Further, most international schools that are actually dedicated to training students from the countries in question tend to be less focused on basic science than US schools. This can make it a chore to study up for the Step 1 even if they find the Step 2/3 very easy with their clinical knowledge. Finally, I was mostly referring to US students going to south american schools, not south americans themselves. Most schools open to US students are not of the same quality nor do they have as high of admissions standards as schools actually meant to train physicians in that country.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree with the education standard stated by you. The entrance examination is less hard than the MCAT, but to stay alive over those 5 or 6 years of training is the issue. Only the toughest make it to the end. I would prefer that path, especially when many schools are free, than having to spend thousands of dollars to realize that is not what I want to do.</p>
<p>Once again, I think you are crossing wires. If you are form a country that has free education in medicine and you can get in, then no one is going to fault you for going. However, if you are NOT a citizen of those countries, chances of you getting a free medical education in a foreign country are pretty much nil as far as I know. As I said before, many of the reputable medical schools in foreign countries DON’T accept foreign applicants for the very reason that they are government funded. Those that do accepted foreign students tend to be for profit institutions. I don’t know about you, but I find something shady about getting my medical education from a corporation. These schools are most certainly not free.</p>
<p>As to your comment about spending thousands of dollars on medical school and then finding out you don’t like, that’s kind of one of the big reasons that, other than a few students that come through via BS/MD, why you have to go to college before applying to US medical schools. A 23 year old (average applicant age) is much more likely to have a good idea of what they want to do than a 17 year old. There are cultural, social, and developmental reasons for this, but suffice it to say medical schools in the US are pretty good at making sure that as few as people end up regretting their decision.</p>
<p>I undrestand you point and thak you for your insight,although I will disagree to a certain extent with your opinion. Maybe a graduate from those countries actually attending as of now the US hospitals will have a learer opinion on the moatter. Anyone out there?</p>
<p>Unlikely, there aren’t many docs on CC. You could find one on SDN, but I’ll tell you now most of the US born docs/residents that went abroad for medical school strongly urge students to stay in the US for medical school. Here’s a website of a successful FMG who also compiled some of the data that’s out there on FMG statistics. <a href=“http://internationaldoc.com/[/url]”>http://internationaldoc.com/</a></p>
<p>If you are an American and you plan on practicing medicine in the US, you should not go abroad for med school to save time or money. Absolutely terrible idea considering how hard it is to come back for residency. 40-50% don’t match at all. Of the ones who do match, they are almost certainly relegated to the lower paying primary care specialities. Any amount of money you save in your schooling (and it’s doubtful whether you’ll even save money by going to a foreign for-profit med school) will quickly dissipate as your colleagues who went US med schools enter specialties paying $100k-200k higher per year. Citing a couple of FMG’s who managed to make it doesn’t prove anything. The NRMP match numbers are out there. The % of IMG’s/FMG’s who match is out there. The % of radiology, dermatology, etc. residents who are IMG/FMG vs. the % of internal med/family med/psychiatry residents who are IMG/FMG is out there. This isn’t even up for debate. </p>
<p>Lastly, and this is just personal opinion, even if you have the opportunity to skip college, don’t do it. Med school will suck the life out of you. Live your life while you can. Whether you end up practicing medicine for 40 years or 44 years, it’ll likely be irrelevant. But, 4 years of college vs. 2 years of college or 0 years of college is HUGE. The experiences and the friends you make in college, you can’t get at any other time in your life.</p>