Studying in Poland

[ctkmd2003]

Originally Posted by highlandpoet

hi ctkMD2003
i just wanted to ask you whether poznan, has clinical rotations in the u.s ,
and if any other schools have clinicals in the u.s, i'm studying in ukraine and have a lot of freinds from poland (esp krakow) and they've never heard of this.
and for those people who think that polish schools, are a waste of time, try coming to ukraine or russia, you'll have a field day.
thx

Hilandpoet-

I'll try to shed some light on this subject....

YES. The Poznan University of Medical Sciences (formally known as Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences) does allow students to take electives in the US. Each student is required to complete at least 16 weeks of electives during their 4th year, either during the 1st semester or 2nd semester. Most students actually try to arrange more than 16 weeks of elective coursework in the US, as it is a great opportunity to "shop yourself" to programs that you are interested. More importantly, it is an important exposure to what life will be like in residency.

The University itself does not arrange the elective coursework for students. Each student must apply on their own (which really isn't that bad- contact the program you are interested in doing an elective at, ask if they accept visiting students and if so, get an application sent to you or download it from their website and go from there).

Back to my previous point about doing more than 16 weeks of electives in the US....I ended up doing 20 weeks (5 electives). It is possible to do more than this for the really motivated student. For example, the 3rd year of studies usually finishes at the end of June, so techinically speaking, if one chooses to do their electives during the 1st semester, they would have from July through January to do electives. Collectively that is roughly about 28 weeks or 7 electives.

I've heard that the Akademia Medyczna (Medical Academy) in Lublin & in Katowice, do have affiliations with some hospitals in the US. I'm not completely sure what the requirements are, but I have been told that one needs to successfully pass Step 1 in order to do their 3rd year and 4th in the US. For more info, you might want to contact them directly. Please be aware that Lublin and Katowice are affiliated with HMI, and I don't recommend them to people. HMI is very sketchy.

The bottom line is this... if you want to study in Poland, your best choice is to stay with the top 2 universities: #1 UMS in Poznan or #2 Jagellonian Univ in Krakow.

Sorry to have digressed a bit. I hope I've answered your question(s). Feel free to post any other ?'s. I'll do my best to respond promptly.

Best Regards,
ctkmd2003

[bdoshi6]

Hey ya all there...

There is this new agency....AIM...Alliance Institute of Medicine...that offers six year program in Medical University of Lodz...with last two years guaranteed in US <for the clinical rotations>....Does anyone know about medical university of Lodz?? Hows the place and teachign there?? And how guaranteed is getting clincal rotations in US??? I mean getting clincal rotations depends on Step 1 results or as long as u pass u get it?? need some info...

[Bill Weiss]

I graduated from a foreign med school; some of my classmates had paid tens of thousands of dollars to intermediaries. The students often cursed these intermediaries when we talked about the amount of money they had spent. Here is the question I used to ask these people would you be here if you had not heard of the intermediary? The answer was of course no. So you paid for a service which you otherwise were not capable of performing yourself. No matter how simple it is you could not have done it yourself simply because you lacked the knowledge at the time the service was performed. Now you sit back lash out at the entrepreneur who exploited the situation in a free market system. You too exploited the situation to obtain a medical education which you otherwise would not have been able to obtain in your own country and hence ensure a relatively higher standard of living for you and your family. Did you really expect this fellow to perform this service for free? The price is based on supply and demand.
There will always be sharks as long as there are consumers who do not shop around.


You are right schools should not have to resort to using agents.

[JerryY]

has anyone heard of this medical school? Please tell me some information about it. Thank you