<p>i'm just curious. i most likely won't go overseas for college anyway, but always wondered which country has the shortest path to the MD.
i know in the US it's something like 12+ years. which country has the shortest?</p>
<p>Even if you got an MD in a foreign country, you couldn’t get licensed in the U.S. without doing 1-2 years of an american residency. Thirty years ago there were 5 year BA/MD programs in this country at Penn State but those types of accelerated programs have ceased to exist. You’ll practice medicine for decades but only have this one opportunity to get a 4 year undergraduate education - what’s the rush?</p>
<p>Personally, I’d like my doctor to be well trained over a good period of time. As for the question, I would assume that poorer countries would have shorter training programs, with their increased disease and death rates, and the lack of technology doctors have at their disposal. Of course, this is a generalization, which cannot be wholly correct.</p>
<p>India has one of the shortest. You start medical school after completing high school. But as a result, these students miss out on a broad liberal arts education.</p>
<p>But then you have to come back, get relicensed and do a residency 3+ years, I’ve heard you have to redo a residency even when you’ve already been practicing in a specialty but I don’t remember where my info comes from. Either way you don’t save that many years and considering that residency programs like applicants from US med schools way better…</p>
<p>I think its Russia. 6 years for MD.</p>
<p>All the Middle Eastern countries have 6 year MD programs. And most European countries.</p>
<p>^Correction: they have 6 year *MBBS<a href=“Bachelor%20of%20Medicine,%20Bachelor%20of%20Surgery”>/i</a>. After the MBBS, med students go to a Foundation Programme, which is further clinical training in a variety of specialties. They then go into further training if they wish to specialize, and obtaining an MD is around as advanced as obtaining an advanced fellowship in the United States.</p>
<p>This is true for the UK, though this generally applies to Europe and, to my knowledge, India as well.</p>
<p>China, 5 years.</p>