Philippine Medicine Curriculum

[SACTOBOY]

Just to make clarification that no med school in the Philippines is structured exactly the same way as US or Carribiean med schools. In the US and Carribean clerkship starts in 3rd year which means that you spend the first 2 years of med school doing basic medical sciences then after passing USMLE step 1 (some schools do not require but most schools do) you will now proceed to clinical sciences which is the start of clerkship in affiliated or non-affiliated (if school allows) hospitals. In contrast 3rd year in the Philippines is still in a classroom setting although subjects are now clinical sciences. This means that clerkship starts in 4rth year. Some states like CA requires at least 72 weeks of core clerkship but there are ways around it. You can email Pat from CA board if you want to knows the details on how to remedy this deficiency.
Hope this helps.

[parikhajnavy]

Structured very similarly, but you have to deal with native small talk. English is the teaching medium and the professors are the cream of the crop at most schools. But just casual conversation at the end of the class in tagalog or cebauano in the philippines can get quite annoying.

[Locutusofborg]

I find the foreign language aspect to be one of the upsides of studying abroad. Sure medicine takes most of my time, but in the little free time I have, learning a foreign language and culture has been an upside for me.

Also, its another thing to add to my CV. Sure, speaking Cebuano won't exactly open residency doors for me, but for key hospitals with a large Filipino constituency, that could be a point of consideration.

[SACTOBOY]

The shcool that I am attending at present has special/foreign class...hence- no tagalog allowed in the classroom...this is the advantage if the school has special programs for foreigners...also, we dont do community medicine like the local students do..However like what ive said the content is the same but the structure is not the same as the US curriculum...the third year of medical school in PI comprise of clinical subjects but they are learned in classroom setting and absolutely not the start of clerkship ....

[pr0j3ktm]

sacto, where u goin to school in the pi? im doing my pre-med which is nursing at angeles university..im thinking about fatima.