Medical in Poland

[Nit1985]

Hello!

Since im new to these forums, let me introduce myself. Im a student at Oslo Katedralskole, venerated high school in Norway, who has 1 year left.
I want to pursuit a medical career, but gaining an entrance here in Norway is extremely hard. Besides no matter how hard I work, im only an average student at my school due to the teachers being so demanding overall(lots of competition with elite students).
Therefore I've looked into Poland. Currently these are the medical schools I've found:

Wroclaw - Ive been in contact with Dr. Jedlinska, and hes quite sure that I''ll get an entrance due to "very good grades" according to him. I've also read the history of the school and see that a lot of famous surgeons have worked and been a part of the school.
Is there anyone on the board who has studied/studies here, whom may tell me if their English 6 year program is good?

Szczecin & Bialystok - I've almost been guaranteed an entrance here by those who represent and are affiliated with the schools administration.

Warzsawa - Im currently competing with other applicants for 08/09 entrance, but Im confident I'll be able to pull myself an entrance. But I recently visited ANSA(Norwegian organization for students abroad), and they told me that a lot of the applicants dropped out or failed the 6 year English MD program.

These are the 4 schools Ive been looking at. My questions are very basic:

1. Ive heard rumours about teachers failing you on purpose to gain more money. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? 8-10k euro is a lot of money...

2. If, which Im confident of, I get an entrance at all of the 4 schools, which one would you attend for the 6 year MD program and why?

3. Another rumour, are doctors from EE given overall unfair salary in other countries? Are people very "skeptic" about their MD degrees? And please, NO, Im not studying medicine to become rich...if that was the case I'd rather go do MBA or something...I just wish to gain some knowledge about the overall impression of international students doing their MD in countries such as Poland & Hungary.

Thanks in advance!

[riverhead]

Hi. I study here so I can't compare other schools in the region and I can't tell which one is better. In Szczecin there are lots of Norwegian students. I know a few Norwegians who graduated from PAM - one of them recently started to specialise in neurosurgery in Bergen.
I don't know how it looks like at other medical schools in Poland and Hungary, but at my school PAM I don't think that it's a huge drop out rate. My friend who graduated this year says that six years ago about 24 people began and now 22 graduated from the English program. Only few people had to repeat the year. If somebody learns enough, it's no problem to pass all the exams, and there is also some time for fun :)

[Savior]

Hi Nit,
I am in the 6-year prgm at Warsaw (MUW), I just wanted to tell you that the dropout rate is not high at all, people who drop out are typically the ones that found out medicine wasn’t their thing, or the ones that just don’t want to put in a effort (trust me...u will notice them when u start ur 1st year).

If you are motivated and ready to study there is a great opportunity waiting for you.

q1:
The teachers are not corrupt (i.e. bribes etc.), all ur exams up to 3rd year are written, not oral, so the teachers cant fail u if its not justified. Of course its not all fair’n’sweet, you will be divided into groups, and u will have some semester exams that u must pass in order to be allowed to take the finals, and some of the group teachers are stricter than other when it comes to the grading...but at the end its up to you...and the finals are always fair…since you all do the same exam. Some departments are better organized than others...but so far I haven’t felt any great injustice...there is some cheating going on btw the students, but its liket hat everywhere.

q2:
I chose Warsaw because I didn’t want to go through any affiliates/agents...such as Dr. J, who charge u a hefty amount for nothing...in Scandinavia MUW applicants have to go through SonansInterstudies, but they don’t charge u anything (except for the application fee...don’t remember how much its was 150 euros...or something like that..).

I also chose MUW because it is located in the capital, and that’s always a big plus for some many reasons that I am sure u can figure out .for urself...the only con is that its a little more costly.

Another reason was that MUW was ranked as the nr.1 medical university back then...I think this year its Krakow and MUW was ranked as 2nd.

q3:
Cant answer ur last question since I don’t have any first hand experience yet…and haven’t really cared about it...hope its not true...but it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the deal at the start of ur career.

If u have any other questions feel free to send me a message.