International Medical Schools

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This course gives students advice who are considering attending medical school outside of the US.

Objective: Learn whether it's worth it to study outside of the US.

Some applicants who don’t get accepted into U.S. medical schools will consider going to a med school outside the U.S. with hopes of either getting a transfer or residency in the U.S. Unfortunately for these people, less than half of those who go to med school in another country ever practice medicine in the U.S.

Because of the low attrition rates of U.S. med schools, it’s very hard to get a transfer into one. Students from other med schools in the U.S. will get first choice at those few slots. Med schools in Australia, Canada, and Great Britain have the most similar programs to U.S. schools, so students from those schools will have the next-best chance at a transfer into the U.S. Med schools in the Caribbean or Mexico will try to lure U.S. students and accept almost all of them, but those students will rarely get a transfer to a U.S. school.

It’s much easier for a student at an international med school to get a residency in the U.S. than a transfer. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll probably get only the leftover residencies that none of the U.S. students want. That means you’ll likely have to accept a residency in a less-than-desirable rural area. And the competitive residencies such as radiology and surgery are almost certainly out of the question.

If you don’t get accepted into any U.S. med schools, you’re better off waiting a year and applying again than going abroad. Use the extra time to get extra work experience, academic credentials, or references. Consider med school abroad only as a last resort. Schools in places like Mexico or the Caribbean that try to attract students from the U.S. often offer poor training and facilities. In the unlikely event that you earn a transfer to the U.S. from one of these schools, you’ll probably need to repeat some of your course work.

On a final note, we’ve been contacted by Caribbean students who were forced to drop out due to illness so they could come back to the U.S. for treatment. Doesn’t it seem odd that some of these foreign medical schools aren’t capable of taking care of their own students?