Where can i go study Medicine ?

[pettopo]

Hello ! Alright so here's a brief introduction. I'm a student from France and i'm going to be 21 soon. I studied in a University before but it was a scam ( well the country i was studying in is doing an investigation right now ) Please don't ask me the country / or the uni's name thanks

I don't have the best A-level results ( 3 E's ... ) but great O level results ( All A* except for ICT and Business Communication where i got a B and English got a C ).

My first idea was to go to Russia People's Friendship University ( PFUR ) but then a friend and my sister who lives in russia told me a big NO ! About going to Russia ... The skinheads ... and apparently some black students annoyed them ... ( I'm not racist or anything as I am colored as well ... and 80% of my friends in high school were black ... so yeah no hate ).

I then wanted to go to the phillippines , love the country and my bestfriend is from there. Owns a couple of Hotels in Manila and was even okay to let me stay in one of the rooms for free during my stay there.
I wanted to go to Angeles University Foundation AUF , but I was too late and my agent told me that applications had closed and then recommended Belarus. Alright so he also studied there , and told me it was way easier than going to philippines and that i could pass and earn the degree easily.
For me Belarus , is a big no ! The reason is this , I know some friends who went to that uni. And they hate it ! One left recently , the others have to stay cause they don't have money to go elsewhere and they already had been in it for a year and would be a waste. The only thing they could tell me is this : Only 5 more years to go ... and i hope they go fast cause i want to get out of here.

Okay so now i'm not against any of these countries. I really was excited about Russia ( PFUR ) cause of all the activities they have and I have been checking out the videos on youtube and this uni ... looks awesome. But my familly is kinda worried about my safety there. I am too to say. But then i'm like , hey there are 1000's of foreign students there... Why would i be afraid huh ?

So I wanted to ask you guys , where could i apply to with the qualifications below to do M.D. I'm open to any country who's willing to take me with those qualifications.

Btw if you are from PFUR / or Ryazan Uni , please tell me your experience. Cause i really like those uni's even though from what i read Russia should be the last place i should concider.

Qualifications :

A levels - 3 'E' Passes
O levels - 7 A* , 2 B , 1 C
No TOEFL OR IETSL ( But i have a 'C' in English IGCSE )

As for money , Money is not a problem , don't really care how expensive the Uni is.

Thanks and i Hope you'll be able to help me. I love Valuemd community. Thanks for the great information you are providing.

[bidiboom]

Pettopo hi,

For Russia I share a similar concern with your family: I am from Turkey, a neighbouring country to Russia, and we observe a lot of illigal activities including organ mafia, prostitution etc. Of course Russia developed a lot and they have a lot of awesome stuff, but the culture, state-of-mind is still a problem. I have a very introversive life style, but even I witnessed two organ mafia cases, in one a young boy lost his kidney, in one another a 8-10 year-old a kid lost his life. Believe me they are very very good in stealing ones organs, they have every kind of scenario for every profile and make preparations very well. At short, if you lose your organs or life, its too late to say "I shouldnt come here!". As for the schools, if they want to kill your future and get down your scores, there is nobody to care your rights. If in time things didnt change...

For 4-year programs you will need an MCAT score (by the way, I didnt understand how would you study medicine in Philippines, the schools have only 4-year programs there, if there is any other option please let me know too).

The 6-year programs may serve for your goal. They admit with only high school diploma and an entrance exam. Some may not have an entrance exam as well, but I dont know them. Summaries of some of them are here:
Medical Schools

There is a Romania option as well, I know that there is a serious French student population, a member of ValueMD, chapelier, may help you much more thna me at that point, at other points as well though, not only Romania option

Pettopo if you can provide some details, the suggestions may turn around more relevant options for you. For instance do you want to have an EU degree and do you consider to stay in EU platform in your future, or may you consider to work abroad, like in US or Asia or ... Also do you have bachelors degree and can you take MCAT? If you have bachelors degree for instance and take MCAT, depending on your MCAT score, there may be various 4-year alternatives. Just some more info s'il vous plaît

[pettopo]

Alright .... First of ... THANK YOU so much for replying... I've been staring at my pc for a reply haha.

Yeah Russia seems ... dangerous ... and safe ... actually it's JUST LIKE playing Russian roulette. You can either live ... or you can either die. It's all up to your luck.

As for how i would study in the Philippines : They have a 2 Year BSc. Course that you have to take before doing the M.D Program. ( They shortened it to 16 - 20 months i think ). But They start in June and all applications are closed. ( Except for Fatima and FEU i think ... I'd really like if someone can let me know about these two and if there is an agent somewhere to enlighten me on these two unis ).

Yes I want to do a 6 year program ( well mainly cause that's the only thing i CAN do .

As for Romania . I will try to find "chapelier" , It doesn't bother me whether the uni has french student or no. Students from the UK are better for me ( I'm Half British hay ) and Even though I was born in france and raised there for 17 years. I Spent most of my time in other countries such as Kenya , Thailand , etc ... ( Dad works for the UN ... had to travel with him ).

So yeah.


As for where do i want to work ? Well Mainly in the UK. I'd like to do some work for Medecin sans frontiere but yeah . Mainly In the UK. Not US... Never US lol. So UK / EU yes that's where i want to work.

And no i do not have a Bachelor's degree. I've put down all my qualifications already above ^^.

Thanks again btw for replying ;-). What about you ? Have you applied for a uni / Are you in uni ?

[bidiboom]

... As for how i would study in the Philippines : They have a 2 Year BSc...

Thank you very much Pettopo, I havent seen it in the universities I have been interested in, I think I must check it again and better this time.. thanks a lot

If you have some serious credits from your earlier university studies, there may be an option by completing it to a bachelors degree and by taking MCAT/NMAT to follow 4-year route. But it may be a complicated way which has a limited outcome. 6-year program is a more clear way of it, yes.

I dont know much about UK, how you can find a place in UK health system etc, but I think to have EU citizenship and EU diploma are the key points. So I focus only EU options.

Best alternatives for a future in UK is UK and Irish schools. French schools is an option. If you exhaust those two then comes East/Middle EU schools. Among them bests for today are in Poland and Czech Rep. Bests of Poland are Jagiellonian, Gdansk and Warsaw, but there are other options as well. In Czech, Charles said to be good. One rung lower then them, there are 6-year med programs in English in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine ... Turkey doesnt work for you I think for its not in EU. In South EU too there are some English med programs in Italy and Spain, but they dont have a proof of the quality of their grad.s yet, since they are very new and very expensive programs. BTW Malta is known to be a good and expensive option as well, but I dont know anything about it.

... What about you ? Have you applied for a uni / Are you in uni ?...

Not yet, I just try to develop myself for now and watch the alternatives. No more.

.. and you're welcome.. anytime you can ask, if I can be good for you

[devildoc8404]

Good point, bidiboom. I totally forgot about Malta.

Ukraine isn't EU, so IMHO it's a step beneath Romania/Bulgaria.

[bidiboom]

@Devildoc: Yes yes, thank you, I got confused about Ukraine/Croatia.. I think Croatia option was better, but its not in EU as well.

@Pettopo: This is a link works for both of us I think:
Study Medicine MD/MBBS in the Philippines -Study Abroad Philippines
I havent been interested in those schools, but its related with their lack of US contact, so regarding that you dont consider US for future, then they may serve for your goal.. but I dont know the quality of them. You can get in contact with this agency and learn the deadlines.

[mohan045]

Sorry for going off topic.......but i have finally recieved two acceptance letters one from Wuhan university for MBBS 2012 and the other China Medical University MBBS 2012 I would like to know the best out of these two to go to i have followed threads made by Texas74 and I get a feeling that China Medical University is better because of students passing USMLE's after graduating but I have no intention to work in the USA but rather Europe.... Any replies would be appreciated Thanks.

[bidiboom]

... but I have no intention to work in the USA but rather Europe...

Because of this reason I didnt suggest a school in China for Pettopo, if you consider to work in EU its better to have a diploma from one of the schools of the EU countries, because the restrictions for immigration is getting stricter in time, understandably. They dont close the doors, rather they define stricter rules and some countries even dont accept non-EU degrees. But some others are hungry for doctors and accept non-EU grad. doctors as well, but you will need to take their licence exams, or whichever procedure they have for licencing. The EU grads dont need to take those exams, at least for now, though it may change in future at the time of your graduation, since for all their struggle to create a standard quality platform in education, because the the qualities of the countries different, there are serious variety in quality of EU grad doctors and the governments are waking up to this reality as they see the grads of those schools.

So, the point is quality of education in China. Whichever provides a better quality, I would pick that one. USMLE success rate is a good indicator of quality for me.

[vivek105]

Philippines: I just got back from the Philippines and visited a few of the Medical schools there in Manila / Cebu / Angeles etc

The system of education is as follows
10 years of school
4 years of college
4 years of Medical School - MD degree

After College or in the last year of your College you give an Examination called the NMAT held twice a year in the Philippines - once in Nov-Dec and once in March-April. Registration for NMAT closes about a month or two BEFORE the last date. www.cem-inc.org.ph/NMAT is the website.

If you have finished College and have a DEGREE or expect to get the Degree then give the NMAT and clear it and apply to the Medical Schools. Most Medical Schools do not care about your NMAT scores. Some have prescribed a cut off in the NMAT of 35%ile or 40% percentile etc. Top schools like UP require a very high NMAT score - most just want a NMAT score and are not interested in the percentile.

If you have finished 12 years of School then you have to enroll in a B.Sc program for 16 months to 2 years dependent on the School. Some do this in 16 months with no holidays and hold summer classes. Some do it over 2 years with summer classes and you can give the NMAT while doing your B.Sc.

So I guess your first bet is to go and do a B.Sc in the Philippines as you do not seem to have one and then you can choose the Medical School.

You would probably like to see the schools in Manila. Angeles. Baguio and Cebu.

IF money is no object then I would suggest that you simply take a trip to the Philippines and visit the Colleges there and see for yourself which one you like. Check out the Campus. Talk to the students. See if they will let you sit in for a class or two and then you decide.

There are some lovely posts here from some of students who are / were in the Philippines for their MD and you should browse and read them. And they will help a lot in your decision.

If you have a friend who you can stay with in Manila then get a 59 day tourist visa and go to Manila spend a week or two there. Maybe 1 day in Angeles city a day or so in Baguio and 3 days in Cebu and you will have most of the Philippines covered - if you really want to travel all over the Philippines.

Regards and good wishes

[bidiboom]

Thats what I received from Study Medicine MD/MBBS in the Philippines -Study Abroad Philippines as a reply for my inquiry about deadlines and fees:

"For those with O-level it will take 2 years for a Bsc. Intake is in JUNE and NOVEMBER.
Application must be submitted 3 months before each intake.
For those with A-level, intake is in June and November, and it will take 1.5 years for a Bsc.

My processing FEE is USD 180. You pay intial Commitment FEE of USD 400. The balance is payable after receiving a Letter of Acceptance. It is 100% REFUNDABLE if denied admission."

How much trustworthy, I dont know..