
Originally Posted by
devildoc8404
I cannot speak for all Bulgarian medical universities, but I would imagine that most are fairly similar.
At MU-Sofia you graduate with honors if you are above 5.5 on a 6.0 scale. You receive a nice little certificate in addition to your diploma, which looks good for applications and looks very good on your CV -- which is what future employers will look at when they are deciding whether or not to hire you. Also, at least at MU-Sofia, you get to graduate first, since honors graduates receive their diplomas before everyone else. That might seem like no big deal but it is a super looooooong ceremony and it was nice to be able to get out of there a little bit early.
And yes, holy hell, your GPA matters. I guess it depends just a little bit on where you are applying for work -- there are certainly third world countries who will take anyone, but most people want more than 75 bucks a month salary. Think about it, if you are an attending physician and you have two equally-credentialed applicants and one has a 5.75 and the other one has a 3.50 on the transcript, who are you going to pick? You only get one CV, and having a Bulgarian medical school on it is already not exactly a highlight in most cases, so you need to get as much other good stuff on there as possible to make yourself look strong on paper... and then you need to be able to back that up.
Increase your employability by making double-damn sure you are eligible to work in the countries where you want to apply (immigration-wise). Speak the language(s) of that country really well. Score high on their board exams, if they have any. Get loads of clinical experience -- this is frequently a serious issue at Bulgarian programs, especially in the English groups. I know people who had great grades and all of that, but they had next-to-no hands-on clinical experience and could not pass a clinical interview involving a simulated patient, so they were not hired. That sucks. Do not let that happen to you. Know how to draw blood, suture, properly assist in surgery, and complete a full physical exam (et-freaking-cetera), and practice these skills extensively. Again, in my experience this is sorely lacking for English program students in BG schools. If you are not getting this experience in rotations (and you likely will not in many of them) then you need to go in on your own time, and I mean evenings, late afternoons, or weekends, and show the attendings that you are serious about wanting to learn it.
Doing the minimum at a Balkan medical school will get you graduated... and that is about it. I know plenty of people (too many) who graduated with medical degrees and are NOT working as physicians. It is usually quite easy to get into Balkan schools, but you pay for it as it is a hell of a lot harder to get out as a well-qualified physician. YES, it matters how well you do. YES, it matters how much you learn. YES, it matters that you prepare for board exams and clinical exams that you might not end up needing where you end up working. Because remember - if everything goes your way - you are going to be a doctor, and you are going to be treating patients, and they are real people with real freaking diseases and you have a responsibility to be both compassionate and competent.
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