Thanks Amazing A!

That was a very interesting post. We needed info. like that now that some of us are starting to shift our sights toward the 'Internado' and 'Servico Social' being in our future.

insightful as always. i know from living in mexico that the patients, experience, environment, etc are probably ideal for me as far as lifestyle. i am not, however, ready or able to decide if i would want to practice there for an extended period. additionally, i have no idea how to get my high school deploma. damn mexican beauracracy!!

all jokes aside, the extra two years are quite a downside for me, and i will be doing a lot of research and pondering in the next few months in order to make a decision about which program fits my goals and desires.

arg, its late...i sound like an underpaid career counselor!

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"The Dude abides."

as a person who has lived in mexico and trying to weight the pro's and con's of UAG and other schools, tu post es CHINGON!!!! i was turned off to uag when i heard that the 5th path may close, but your detailed account of the internado and servicio social was just the info i needed.

i'm confused about the internado, though. how many hours per week does one work during the internado year? how many weeks/months does it last?

i can't say that i'm leaning back toward uag all of a sudden, but this depiction seemed to bring me back to some of my travels in mexico and latin america. it seems like a great opportunity.

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"The Dude abides."

It depends on what kind of internado you get; usually you work M-F 7am-3pm no matter what and this is where you do your regular rotations(int.med, surgery, ER,etc). Since most hospitals are ABC guardias, it means every third day you are on call/guardia(your guardia is usually different than your daytime rotations; usually there is always people in toco-labor and probably ER or Surgery) for the whole night; it doesnt matter if it's a week day or weekend if you're third day falls on that day you stay the whole night. If it is saturday you enter at 8am and get out at 8am then next day; if it's sunday you enter at 8am and get out at 3pm monday(remember everyday you are working 7-3pm no matter what); if it's friday you entered at 7am and finished work at 3pm but you enter guardia at 3pm but get out at 8am saturday cuz you dont have your usually rotations on weekends. So roughly you are spending about 70-80hrs a week approximately; maybe more. It might not seem like much but staying about 30hrs straight is not fun. If you're unlucky you get in a rare place where it's A-B guardias. If you're lucky you get in a place where there are ABCD guardias and you're only on call every 4th day which is great. INternado is a year long affair and you get 2 weeks off the 1st 6 mths and 2 weeks off the 2nd 6 mths.
Everyone is different so you have to decide whether you can take being in school 4 yrs and working hard labor basically for free for another 2 years. i mean the experience is great and you probably will be a better doctor. But i'm sure some people maybe rather go to caribbean or some other place for 4 years. Everyone has their own personal issues and decisions to make. If you are already in UAG and you have no choice, just make the best of it and try and learn as much as possible; trust me it will be a lot better than school(maybe you won't be able to got out and fun and it wont be as relaxing but it will help you as a doctor in the long run). When i write the big email with all the details i;ll tell you guyz what exactly to expect and what different kind of internados there are and things that are good and things that arent so good.
hope this helps.

Two more years here, no way!! It's better to finish the 4 years here and make a transfer to one of the Puertorrican School's of Medicine. You need to have a good preparation for the Step 2 and staying in México will not help you at all.

that might be an ideal situation; but it's harder said than done. You're not guaranteed to transfer to another school...then what? LIke i said everyone has to make their own decision about what's best for them. If you can transfer and you prefer that, more power to you. All i am trying to do with my posts... is to give information to people who might not have any choice but to do internado and social service ...or people who might not have decided whether to go to UAG and need to know what could be a real possibility for them...spending 6years instead of 4yrs; and what to expect in those 2yrs.
Anywayz if you can transfer more power to you ... I mean that would be great to be in an american institution, make the connections, and have the experience of working in the u.s. which looks good on your residency application.

You have to pay for internado
and social service and
professional exam(examen profesional)...the examen profesional costs like a grand if i remember right
So thatz some more info for people who might have a tight budget...the only thing is in servicio you are not paying rent cuz you live in the place(90% of the time) and in internado some hospitals have living quarters but usually most people try to rent out cuz it's annoying living in your workplace which i'll get into more detail later...

I have always wondered how to get the crap I collected in Mexico back to the states.

With one year partially living in a hospital and one year living on premises. I can slowly get my stuff back over several vacations.

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Thank you for your posts. I think this is the type of posts we need to have to help the students. I have friends that had the same experience that you had and others that got their internado in Guadalajara and ss in the US. In the past(up to 2004) they use to give international students a full point in their gpa to compete with the Latin students during the internado selection process. is it still the case?

Keep up the posts because your experience is very valuable to the current and prospective students. I honestly wish we can stay objective with our posts so we can help current and prospectice students make their decisions about the future. My main point is a 1st semester students should not say that the UAG is a waste of time when they have been in Guad for only 3 mos. You have done 6 years of medical school in Mexico with the last 2 being a very demand time in your life. This expericence will help you tremendously when you return to the US.

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Moderator - UAG Forum

Thanks. Yeah I just remember that when i decided to come back to school and do internado and servicio..i was pretty much at a loss. i had some buddies that had done internado and servicio and they tried to direct me but i think they had special situations and were allowed to stay in GDL; so a lot of what they said and told me to do, didn't apply to me. So I was basically on my own trying to figure out what to do ..who to talk to,etc. And i would hear all these rumors like you can go back to the u.s. for internado or servicio can be done in the u.s. but when i talked to Dr. villalobos he said No, and advised me not to try and do that; to just stay in mexico(so probably there is a way to do ss or internado in the us but it seems like a hard thing to do). Things like that....so i am trying to give back to the people so hopefully they do the same to the younger guyz..cuz it sucked going back and not knowing anyone anymore and not even having the correct info...or knowing what i really was getting into.
About the Gpa From what i know... it didn't seem like they did that for me. Since i was out of school for more than 2 years after i graduated..i was not allowed to take usmle or apply for 5th pathway. to come back i had to take an examen global which is basically a mini examen profesional. Also, when i was at the sorteo for internado i was on what was called the segunda lista because of this. This means if you are not from that semester they and you take a break they put you on the second list with everyone else like you and all of you on the second list pick after the 1st list students. AFter internado when i was at servicio sorteo they integrated me into the first list but it didnt seem that they changed my grades ...So I didnt see it happen but it doesnt mean for the people who go straight after 4 years they dont do it; just in my case(which is kind of wierd anyway) they left it as is ...I think it's better to think that they won't change it and everyone just work a little harder in their classes(easier said than done i know - i guess less time at the antros on friday nights ) If the school can get different spots for the international group that would be ideal but i kind of think that they wont do that;
Also i saw in some of the other threads people are asking where you can do internado and servicio in Mexico...
They usually have spots in Jalisco..all over it, Sinaloa about 5-10(mazatlan, culiacan,etc), sonora, Mexico City, Michoacan..basically all over ..but most are in Jalisco. Also, tijuana and baja california norte usually dont have spots and if they do it's like 1 or 2 spots. I was hoping for that place when i went to internado, being from CAli, but it didnt work out that way. The servicio spots are basically the same thing but they are usually in wierder places so buy a map of mexico when you go to do the sorteo for servicio and when they publish the list get a copy and look exactly where the spots are. Thats what i did and with one of my companeras from internado; we went through them and basically found which spots were near big cities, which ones could only be gotten to by brechas(dirt roads), etc.. The reason i'm telling you guys this is cuz one of my buddies that was 6 mths ahead of me in internado ended up picking a place called Zacatongo( i dont know how that's spelt) cuz it looked like it was close to puerto vallarta and guadalajara (inbetween) and it turned out it was on a brecha and really like 3 hrs further than he thought...so he was depressed in the beginnning but he ended up liking the place...so be careful it might look like or sound like it's near GDL but you better look on the map and make sure and see if highways pass it or you have to go on brecha or via airplane or whatever...