Thread: American Student that wants to go to med school in England or Ireland

So I have a situation. I'm originally from Nepal but was born and raised in the States. During my Junior and Senior year in high school I developed a certain passion for Medicine. I had heard that in England, Austalia, Ireland and some other countries that you could join either a five or six year MBBS program equivalent to that of the MD program in the States(which to my knowledge means going through 4 years of college + 4/5 years of Med School). I really didn't want to study medicine in the states because no. 1 its really expensive to pay all that money for 8/9 long years, no. 2 its just so tedious and thats not all the education that you have pursue to become a good doctor and no. 3 I really wanted to be educated in some place like England or Ireland. My parents brought me back to Nepal and decided that I should take some entrance exams to get into one of the Medical Schools here in South Asia, and here they don't look at you school grades, they just look at your entrance exam and if you've done better than the rest of the people that take the exam you get in. So I'm preparing myself for the upcoming tests.
However, I still did more research about attending a school in England/Ireland. I recently I found out that you needed to take the UKCAT exam which is really hard, sit for an interview with a particular school, and really not that cheap. I don't have the right grades nor was I part of the IB program in the US which closes a lot of doors.
So my querry is there any way that I can still go to these places and pursue my educational dream, can I like take maybe something like a Pre Med Course or an MBBS preparatory course in the UK for like one or two years and apply to another UK MBBS program after that? I would greatly appreciate it if you gave me some solid advice or the names of some particular schools that would allow me to do that. I have decided that money, time that it would take for me to complete the course, and post graduate study will have no basis in my decision. Thanks

Hi sixfeetthree (that's tall!),

I know you've said that money won't come into it (I'm guessing you must have a very rich family) as the fees for you will be the same in the UK as they are in the US -- and you did mention earlier that your number 1 for not wanting to go to the US was the long 8/9 years to repay the fees. It will be just as much, if not more, in the UK or Ireland.

My initial advise to you would be to learn medicine in the place you'd like to practise. Having said that, I'd like to hear more about your story... what is the attraction of the UK/Ireland, do you know anyone here, ever visited etc etc

Good luck!

The best prep course you could do would be to come to the UK and enroll on either a 2 year A-level course or if you think you are up for it a 1 year intense course. There are also premed courses but, if you can do A-levels in 1 year there would be little point as this way you are free to apply to all the schools where as the premed courses are only accepted at a few schools.

Don't fear the UKCAT as it isn't a test of your science knowledge, it's a test of logic and common sense.

Having sat the UKCAT 2 years ago, I would actually compare it to an IQ test.