Thread: After about 2 months in Oradea, this is what I've seen so far

Firstly that the poor reputation of the university may have been deserved in the past, but things definitely appear to be improving. The 5th and 6th year students all say we (the 1st years) have it much better than they did. I can say our professors teach and if you don't pay attention or waste their time then they will not like you.

Some people have had midterms and they were pretty easy for the most part. I think to be honest most people can pass the exams without studying as much as they should. But a lot of people failed their exams last year. The days of getting a degree without going to class are over- some effort must be made, and as the reputation of the university improves, the requirements and expectations will increase. Asking questions is appreciated. You'd be amazed how many people don't know the basics - go to class on time, come prepared (at least somewhat), don't be disruptive in class, etc.

The University is fully accredited and any rumors of it being closed are false. The Dean explicitly says he wants to improve the reputation of the University, although his focus is on the Romanian section- he wants Romanian grads to not be stigmatized for studying in Oradea as opposed to Cluj or Bucharest.

Cost of living can vary between 200 euros - 500+ euros/month depending on what you are after. If you live alone on the edge of the city in a studio apartment in an old building and rarely eat out or go for a coffee, then 200 euros/month is OK. Budget 300 euros to have a more comfortable standard of living. Sharing a place you could get by on 250 instead of 300 (or 150 instead of 200). In the winter it might be 25-50 euros more because of the heating, but yearly it should average out. There are heating reductions available for students, but they have to be arranged by the city every year, so next year there might not be any.

Food is kind of expensive if you eat in restaurants. A meal in an ordinary restaurant is normally about 4-5 euros. If you cook all your food at home, you can do 10-15 euros a week and have a pretty decent standard. The little things will add up if you aren't careful. 1 euro for a coffee (at a bar), for example.

The University can be very disorganized and schedules for us changed even until last week. Professors will change, groups will change, rooms will change. Learn to live with it. The university does a reasonable job of getting the information to the students, but the job of the students is to keep cool and go with the flow. On that subject, most of the misinformation, bad information, and lack of information from what I have seen has actually been coming from students, either rumors or not knowing how to get information from the university. It's best to not rely on students for information unless you know someone got their info from a reliable source, or you can confirm with the university. For example, don't not go to a class because someone tells you the course is canceled. I've seen students attempt such things because they think if nobody goes to class, the professor won't show up. In reality, the professor will show up, see that nobody is there, and you'll just have to learn the lesson on your own, because the material will still be on the exam.

One suggestion, don't come too late. We had quite a few students who came in the 3rd or 4th week of October and not only are they struggling to catch up, the University isn't happy about it. So probably it's best to come by October 1st (or whenever classes start), and certainly no later than 2 weeks afterwards, but even that is kind of late. I really recommend being here for the first class, even though things are disorganized. It will help you get used to the system, and getting settled in is easier early on before the classes get difficult.

As far as corruption, I havn't seen it yet. You do have to pay fines if you miss certain classes, and probably some people who prefer to stay home and sleep want to play innocent and talk about bribes or corruption when they have to pay a couple hundred euros to take their exams. That being said, some professors do have rumors circling around them, but the dean takes a personal interest in things like this and actually has been replacing professors who don't meet his expectations.

The city is ok. It's a small city so you will probably see many of the sample people over and over. It depends what you like. I sometimes wish I was in Bucharest where I could go to a different part of town and not recognize anything. And even though Oradea is a small city, it's kind of spread out and even with a tram pass you can need 30-40 minutes to get to campus. There is some racism but not too much from what I've seen & heard, and I think safety wise it's not so bad here. If you go looking for trouble, you will find it, but the 'bad areas' are out of the way and probably you won't wander into them by chance.

Also, there is another person on these forums studying here at Oradea. His name is Chapelier. He's been accused of working for the university because he likes to promote Oradea, but in fact he's just a regular student. I've met him personally and I think his posts on these forums are helpful and very good advice. In fact he helped me decide to come here instead of Bucharest.

If anybody wants to know more, I am here. PM me and I will do my best to answer.

hi in which year you studying?and state exims are easy there?

Originally Posted by waltfw

Firstly that the poor reputation of the university may have been deserved in the past, but things definitely appear to be improving. The 5th and 6th year students all say we (the 1st years) have it much better than they did. I can say our professors teach and if you don't pay attention or waste their time then they will not like you.

Some people have had midterms and they were pretty easy for the most part. I think to be honest most people can pass the exams without studying as much as they should. But a lot of people failed their exams last year. The days of getting a degree without going to class are over- some effort must be made, and as the reputation of the university improves, the requirements and expectations will increase. Asking questions is appreciated. You'd be amazed how many people don't know the basics - go to class on time, come prepared (at least somewhat), don't be disruptive in class, etc.

The University is fully accredited and any rumors of it being closed are false. The Dean explicitly says he wants to improve the reputation of the University, although his focus is on the Romanian section- he wants Romanian grads to not be stigmatized for studying in Oradea as opposed to Cluj or Bucharest.

Cost of living can vary between 200 euros - 500+ euros/month depending on what you are after. If you live alone on the edge of the city in a studio apartment in an old building and rarely eat out or go for a coffee, then 200 euros/month is OK. Budget 300 euros to have a more comfortable standard of living. Sharing a place you could get by on 250 instead of 300 (or 150 instead of 200). In the winter it might be 25-50 euros more because of the heating, but yearly it should average out. There are heating reductions available for students, but they have to be arranged by the city every year, so next year there might not be any.

Food is kind of expensive if you eat in restaurants. A meal in an ordinary restaurant is normally about 4-5 euros. If you cook all your food at home, you can do 10-15 euros a week and have a pretty decent standard. The little things will add up if you aren't careful. 1 euro for a coffee (at a bar), for example.

The University can be very disorganized and schedules for us changed even until last week. Professors will change, groups will change, rooms will change. Learn to live with it. The university does a reasonable job of getting the information to the students, but the job of the students is to keep cool and go with the flow. On that subject, most of the misinformation, bad information, and lack of information from what I have seen has actually been coming from students, either rumors or not knowing how to get information from the university. It's best to not rely on students for information unless you know someone got their info from a reliable source, or you can confirm with the university. For example, don't not go to a class because someone tells you the course is canceled. I've seen students attempt such things because they think if nobody goes to class, the professor won't show up. In reality, the professor will show up, see that nobody is there, and you'll just have to learn the lesson on your own, because the material will still be on the exam.

One suggestion, don't come too late. We had quite a few students who came in the 3rd or 4th week of October and not only are they struggling to catch up, the University isn't happy about it. So probably it's best to come by October 1st (or whenever classes start), and certainly no later than 2 weeks afterwards, but even that is kind of late. I really recommend being here for the first class, even though things are disorganized. It will help you get used to the system, and getting settled in is easier early on before the classes get difficult.

As far as corruption, I havn't seen it yet. You do have to pay fines if you miss certain classes, and probably some people who prefer to stay home and sleep want to play innocent and talk about bribes or corruption when they have to pay a couple hundred euros to take their exams. That being said, some professors do have rumors circling around them, but the dean takes a personal interest in things like this and actually has been replacing professors who don't meet his expectations.

The city is ok. It's a small city so you will probably see many of the sample people over and over. It depends what you like. I sometimes wish I was in Bucharest where I could go to a different part of town and not recognize anything. And even though Oradea is a small city, it's kind of spread out and even with a tram pass you can need 30-40 minutes to get to campus. There is some racism but not too much from what I've seen & heard, and I think safety wise it's not so bad here. If you go looking for trouble, you will find it, but the 'bad areas' are out of the way and probably you won't wander into them by chance.

Also, there is another person on these forums studying here at Oradea. His name is Chapelier. He's been accused of working for the university because he likes to promote Oradea, but in fact he's just a regular student. I've met him personally and I think his posts on these forums are helpful and very good advice. In fact he helped me decide to come here instead of Bucharest.

If anybody wants to know more, I am here. PM me and I will do my best to answer.

n ice
thankyou.......

Originally Posted by muskscent

Waltfw Thank you so much for the enlightening write up. I guess it has done a lot in making probably shift my preference towards Romania, and Oradea particularly. Hope i do get in, and look forward to one day meeting you.

good question helpful............

Originally Posted by rana_77

Thanks waltfw for sharing your experience with everyone, i've found it especially useful in making my mind up about applying to oradea.

I'd be grateful if someone could tell me the term dates for romanian uni's e.g. When would one break up for xmas holidays and for how long?
.

thanks for information.......

Originally Posted by waltfw

Hi muskscent and nebuleuse.

To answer the questions to the best of my ability:


Yes, for a couple of reasons. The first being that the curriculum (and foreign curriculum in general) do not mirror what is tested on the USMLE. Even if the topics are the same, the method of presentation, the specific information taught, and so on, is not the same as the USMLE expects you to know. The second is that the standard of instruction is fairly low- the student can make up for this but they will have to do a lot of outside reading and so on. We have some US citizens here, I know of one who took USMLE Step 1 last year (during his 6th year), and failed, but he was close to passing. As for the rest, we're all in the first few years, and it's best to wait until year 4 to start taking the USMLE.

It depends. However if you want to operate you will need a surgical specialty and this will take 5+ years.

To obtain a US medical license you must perform a residency in the US. At this point I will probably do specialization in Romania but I will return to the US for 2 years to do a residency there and get my US medical license- it's a good thing to have.

It will be extremely difficult to get a surgical residency. Even if you are one of those people who is gifted and can make up for the deficiencies of this system on your own time, the fact that your degree will be from a less well known country is going to hurt your chances. Surgery isn't easy in the first place. Coming from a well recognized foreign country makes it much more difficult. Emergency medicine is potentially an option, and general surgery might be within your reach (with extremely high scores and US clinical experience during your summers), but orthopedic for example is going to be a very slim chance.

Extremely. You will need a notarized contract as evidence of your residency (for the police), and normally there is a 1-month security deposit for the landlord. Some landlords try to overcharge you and promise things and not deliver, but for the most part it's pretty ok. If you rush into things you'll get ripped off anywhere, so just take your time and do your research and nobody will take advantage of you.

I only know of one guy so far who tried to do the USMLE - he took Step 1 in his 6th year and failed it, but he was close to passing and probably will finish the exam eventually. Whether he gets a residency, I don't know. I'm sure he can find something, but frankly coming from Romania limits your options. If you want to practice in Europe, then it's probably OK, as we have so many European students in Romania, and it's been that way for years and years.

I do believe that with proper preparation and the right motivation, you can get a residency in the US, but surgery is going to be extremely difficult, I can't emphasize that enough. US standards are just too strict and the politics means that even with high USMLE scores and rotations in the US, if your diploma has Romania on it, a lot of residencies just aren't interested. If you still want to study in Eastern Europe, I have heard good things about Poland and Hungary, there are some competitive residencies awarded to some grads from there in past years.

thanks good info.......

Originally Posted by devildoc8404

I am not studying in Romania, but I am across the Danube in Bulgaria... I may be able to add some additional clarifying information.

One of my goal would be to practice medicine in the usa (Californiaaaa ). Before, I'm thinking about following the medical studies at Oradea :

Unfortunately, this would be impossible if you study at an English-language program in Romania. None of the English programs in Romania (or Bulgaria, or Serbia, etc.) are approved by the California Medical Board. ONLY the Romanian-language programs are approved, and believe me, the CMB knows the difference. The only English-language programs in Europe that are CMB-approved are found in the UK (obviously), Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary... and not every English program in the latter three countries is approved. I believe that every native-language program (French schools in France, German schools in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.) is CMB approved.

Is the usmle difficult to obtain when you study at the university of Oradea and how is it going (in wich year do you start the first steps etc...)?

In general, if you are studying in E-Eu, you will have covered the necessary materials for USMLE Step One by the 4th year of study. However, as waltfw pointed out, there are distinct differences in presentation here, so it is not an easy undertaking. The USMLE is a challenging exam, especially for those who do not have English as their native language.

What is the exact specialization to be an emergency room doctor in the USA and how many time of residency does it take ?

Emergency Medicine in the USA is a three year (or, in some academic centers, four year) residency after graduation from medical school. It is quite competitive right now, and not easy for foreign medical graduates to be matched into a position. You need high scores on the USMLE Step One and Step Two CK, as well as a passing score on the Step Two CS (which is only offered in the US), and you need these passing scores to be on the first attempt. Even this is no guarantee, however, as you will also need letters of recommendation from EM physicians in the US, which you can only receive by doing a clinical elective there during a vacation period.

_Do you think that by following my studies in Romania, I could easily become an intern and then an emergency room doctor (or any other specialization) in the USA or would it be very difficult because of the way that recognizition of diplomas work and because of my european nationality (visa...)?

No. It is not easy to become a physician in the USA, especially in Emergency Medicine. Recognition of the diploma from Romania is only one challenge (because it is not recognized in California and about 10 other states). You would also need to convince a residency program to provide you with a training visa, which costs them a lot of money and effort, unless you have a green card or US citizenship. It is far more likely for a foreign graduate to match into Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, or Psychiatry, and even that is not exactly a piece of cake.

_ Do you know some students who, after their 6 years at oradea, did not find any interessant residency outside Romania (they wanted to go in ireland, uk or usa and they did not get it, they were obliged to pursue in romania to obtain their spe)?

There are literally thousands of foreign medical graduates who do not match into a residency in the US every year. This is not specific to Romania, these unmatched physicians come from all over the world.

I hope that helps, and I am honestly not trying to rain on your parade. It's just the way things are... even those of us who are US citizens studying abroad are finding it harder and harder to match in the USA. There are a lot of new medical schools opening in the USA right now, and these students will always get matched into a residency before someone who graduated overseas.

Good luck!

hello, is there any one who is studiying at the moment in oradia medical universty. if yes kindly pm me or reply to this message. thank you in advance

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