http://www.nyu.edu/cas/prehealth/path.htm

Foreign Medical Schools
For individuals who have their hearts set on becoming an MD, but who have been unable to gain acceptance into a US medical school, this may be an option. However, three words immediately spring to mind along with "Foreign Medical School"; they are "delicate," "difficult," and "dangerous." Extreme caution should be exercised here. The reason for this is that usually one's objective is not merely to earn an MD degree (that's easy), but to be able to practice medicine legally in this country. That is far more difficult.
A brief explanation is perhaps appropriate. In order to obtain a license to practice in a given state, you must fulfill three conditions. You must graduate from a medical school acceptable to the licensing board of that state, you must receive passing scores on the United States Medical Licensure Examinations (USMLEs or "Boards"), and you must enter and successfully complete a residency program in the United States. It is the second step, passing the Board exams that is the biggest stumbling block, and this is closely followed by obtaining your residency.

You should bear in mind that most students who are accepted into US medical schools find the entire process of becoming an MD, passing the Board Examinations, and practicing medicine to be extremely demanding and stressful. Irrespective of your talents, you must realistically expect that if you attend a foreign medical school you will have an even more difficult time passing the necessary examinations. You must be realistic in evaluating why you are applying to a foreign medical school in the first place. There are three very common reasons: poor grades in college, poor MCAT scores, or both. It is true, the MCAT is a standardized test and perhaps does not reflect your real abilities as a student or as a future doctor. Unfortunately, however, the Board exams are of the same format, and the best predictor of one's ability to pass the Boards is, sadly, the MCAT. Thus if you have tried valiantly and just have not been able to muster a satisfactory score on the MCAT, beware! A medical education at a foreign school is a very expensive undertaking. It may get you the MD or equivalent degree, but it does not allow you to practice in this country.

What is a "good" score on the MCAT? If you score 30 or above, it is probable that you could study the material necessary and eventually pass the exams. There are preparation courses for this purpose, just as there are for the MCAT. A score of less than 25 on the MCAT suggests that you will have enormous difficulty with the Boards and would be better advised not to take the risk. You are not permitted unlimited attempts at these exams, and they are spaced at infrequent intervals, which means that your debts keep mounting while you keep trying. With MCAT scores between 25 and 30, it is a gamble and depends very much on whether or not you can afford to lose the cost of the undertaking (roughly $200,000 by most estimates).

But, assuming that you have passed either the financial or the academic test of the preceding paragraph and have decided to make the attempt, the question then arises: "Where are the best foreign medical schools?"

In the past, unsuccessful applicants often turned to highly regarded European or Mexican medical schools as an alternative to going to an American school. For a number of reasons, these options are no longer viable ones: the European schools are much stricter about taking foreign students, the quality of the education at the most highly regarded Mexican school appears to have declined substantially, and it is now much more difficult to return to the United States with a foreign degree to practice medicine.

In place of these schools, a number of "offshore" medical schools have sprung up, particularly in the Caribbean. Some of these, particularly those which have been in existence for only a few years, are extremely risky prospects. Before you plan to attend such a school, you MUST make sure that it has a strong, solid program and good connections with enough hospitals in the United States to enable you to enter a suitable residency program. It is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information regarding the quality of these schools. The schools themselves can be very misleading; the AMA has stopped publishing information on the subject because certain schools were deliberately abusing the evaluation system; and anecdotal information from friends who graduated from a foreign school even quite recently may have been true then, but not now. Check with the Prehealth Advising Office before seriously committing yourself.

We rely on information coming to us from various sources, particularly our own students enrolled in the individual schools. There are four foreign schools which we currently suggest to students who are aware of all the above dangers. Although there may be other satisfactory foreign schools for American students, bear in mind that only 27% of the US citizens attending foreign schools pass the USMLEs. For those attending US schools, the pass rate is over 95%.

Suggested foreign programs:
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
123 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel: International +353-1-478 0200
Excellent education, excellent pass rate but exceptionally few US students accepted.
Sackler School of Medicine (Tel Aviv, Israel)
New York State-American Program
17 East 62nd Street
New York, NY 10021
Tel: (212) 688-8811
Excellent pass rate, and accepts a fair number of US students, Hebrew is also taught during the first two years as it is necessary in order to communicate with patients.

Touro College/Technion (Haifa, Israel)
Biomedical Sciences
Bayshore, NY
Tel: (631) 665-1600
This is a five-year program, the first year of which is taught on the Touro College Campus; Hebrew is taught during the first two years as this is required in order to communicate with patients; excellent pass rate, accepts a small number of US students.

St. George's University School of Medicine
c/o the North American Correspondent
Medical School Services, Ltd.
1 East Main Street
Bay Shore, NY 11706-9990
Tel: (516) 665-8500
A satisfactory pass rate, and accepts a large number of US students.

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Still skeptical after all these years.
This is it. There are no hidden meanings.WYSIWYG

http://www.internetmedicalschool.homestead.com

http://www.chiropractormds.homestead.com/index.html

This NYU advisement letter contains typical misinformation from most US undergraduate PreHealth Advisor Offices. They're advised by the AMA or LCME to publlish this type of trash to mislead students and discourage many of us from becoming physicians while ignoring the doctor shortages in many US areas. There's one guy in my class who scored 18 total on his MCATs and got a 210 on Step 1. He's also a Dean's list student at Ross. Another guy got 24 on his MCATs, also a Dean's List student, received 239 or 97% on Step 1. My MCAT scores were in the 'danger zone' too, according to this silly article, yet I scored 88% on my Step 1 on the first try. I know lots of Ross, AUC, UAG, SGU people who passed and/or performed well on step 1 despite receiving low MCAT scores.

Yep. I knew I heard this stuff somewhere before.....

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Saba Forum Moderator
Saba University School of Medicine, MSIV
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That is why i never went to any of them in college, yes if one makes some mistakes maybe by taking too much or too little classes than you actually need learn from it cause it will serve you better in a long run than listen to their advices (we all know many of the requirements for the school (med) we want to go, can get that from the school website). So well said guys.

The way I see it is that if these people had any real idea how to get ahead in life, they wouldn't have ended up career counselors!

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BTS4202
St. Christopher's COM
4th Year
http://www.mdparadise.com

"If there really is a God, He has a lot of explaining to do"
- Dennis Leary

Hehe. My advisor in undergrad said I'd NEVER be a doctor. Success is the best revenge. I wonder how he is doing these days? G

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DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

Just to play devil's advocate, there is a lot of scientific evidence that correlates MCAT's and performance on USMLE. And it isn't just the makers of the tests or medical schools. In fact, there have been organizations that have tried to "disprove" the MCAT, so to speak, to no avail. If you want to see the research, PM me.

Everyone that gets low grades/MCATs and has a successful story in a foreign medical school is beating the odds; you are the exceptions, not the rule. Exceptions do not disprove rules, in fact, they only prove them. That's a little like a survivor of pancreatic cancer saying that his doctor is full of pooh pooh because he lived 10 years longer than he was supposed to.

Instead of being all bitter that you didn't go to a US school or your school wasn't listed on their "who's who" of foreign schools, be glad that you beat the system. Move on; you won; let it go. Teratos said it best, success is the best revenge.

The "conspiracy" theory that the AMA is somehow discouraging people from foreign schools doesn’t really make sense. Why would they do that? It's not like US medical schools are hurting for applicants. As you noted there are a shortage of MD's in the US. There are a shortage of graduates for residencies. Besides, all this article says is that going the route of FMG is a beyotch, which it is.

If you got through unscathed, more power to you. You beat the odds.

"the best predictor of one's ability to pass the Boards is, sadly, the MCAT"



Hmmm, I guess all the immigrant non native english speaking MD's that never took mcat that practice today in the usa are aberrations.

this in addition to the thousands of Caribe graduates representing all specialties.


Forget about the conspiracy theory, there IS indeed hidden control silently exercised over medicine

There is indeed a good bit of data on the MCAT correlating with success. No doubt, as October points out, there are certain groups at a disadvantage, but the same groups would be at a disadvantage with the USMLE as well. MCAT prediction would still be true, had they taken it. That is why the pass rate on the USMLE for all IMGs is 50%. Remember, half of foriegn trained, foreign born docs can't pass it.

I know that my grades/MCATs certainly didn't warrant admission to a US school. I'm glad a got a chance at the back door. G

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AUC Class of '99
Bored certified
I may be a jerk, but I'm a Jedi jerk like my father.

Some say I look like Buzz Lightyear....
(They're right)

DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

my question about the article is where they state that it is a gamble if you have an MCAT score between 25-29.

wow..... there are a handful of US schools that have their means right smack in the middle of that. secondly, most if not all DO schools are in that range. i guess its time for the US schools to up the range even higher according to the article

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Internal Medicine
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