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Medical schools outside of the United States offer several advantages
for specific types of students. European medical schools, for example,
take students straight out of high school for a 6-year medical doctorate
program. Caribbean
medical schools, on the other hand, cater to post-baccalaureate
students, and offer a less expensive, standard 4-year medical education.
Many foreign medical schools do not require the MCAT
for admissions.
However, there are important issues to consider when looking at
foreign medical schools. First, how is the medical school licensed?
A diploma from some schools is treated as though it came from a
US school, others require that you get certified by the ECFMG.
Still others are not certified at all - which means you will never
be allowed to practice in the US based on that particular diploma.
Be very careful in researching the ECFMG certification status of
the foreign medical school in which you are interested.
Another caveat is that competition for residency positions may
be more difficult. Many residency programs don't accept international
medical graduates, meaning the pool of available residency slots
is smaller than that available to graduates of US medical schools.
Regardless of where you do your medical training, to practice in
the US you will need to pass the USMLE
Step 1, USMLE
Step 2 and USMLE
step 3 exams. It use to be that only foreign medical graduates
had to take the clinical skills portion of USMLE step 2, but starting
in the spring of 2005 everyone taking step 2 must take both the
clinical skills and clinical knowledge portions of step 2.
Foreign Medical Schools
UAG School of Medicine (Mexico)
Licensure Abroad
MRCP Revision Guide - A guide
to Membership of the Royal College of Physicians.
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