Looking to practice in North America.
Have Canadian citizenship, and will take loans to cover expenses. Don't really care if government loans are approved or not (obviously the fact that the school is recognized by the government is a reflection on the reputation of the school, but if it's a great school, I'm not concerned if there are no government loans available, least of all American loans).
What are the most important considerations?
1) From what I can see, the only important thing is being allowed to write the USMLEs, which seems to require only an IMED(Faimer listing). Obviously it would be nice to be well prepared to pass and score well on them, which is where the USMLE pass rates come in, but the reporting seems a bit unreliable since it's done by the schools themselves, and some schools have small class sizes, which makes it more variable.
2) Being able to get a good residency. What does this entail? Some specialties don't even seem to participate in the matching process. Does a residency have to be ACGME approved for you to be able to practice that speciality in the U.S.? Can you get into ACGME-approved residencies without having done greenbook rotations?
Can you get residencies on your own- i.e. besides the school's reputation, does the school in any other way influence your ability to get residency? How about core rotations- are these basically bought by your school if it's not american? Can you hook up clerkships on your own, or can that only be done by the school? Can you ask your school to pay the clerkship site for you to be able to go there?
I'm initially looking at the caribbean, but anything that would do the job. As far as I can see, most school in europe and south america have 6-year programs. Obviously this takes 2 years out of potential earnings, so the savings have to be weighed against that.
Different accreditations:
LCME- accrediting body only for canadian and US schools, so irrelevant here
All the schools trot out FAIMER/IMED status, but as far as I can discern, all this means is that the country in which the school is located has approved its existence. IMED listing means ECFMG approval already, so these 3 things are all the same thing, yes?
WHO listing seems about the same, or even less stringent (all schools in the valuemd list are on the WHO's Avicenna directory)
CAAM-HP: this accreditation body seems super-cautious/non-commital. All I see is either disapproved/accrediation withdrawn, or else (initial) provisional accreditation(AAIMS jamaica; AUA; GU-MED; SJsom anguilla; vanguard) , or the best seems accreditation with provisions (ross, UWI, SGU, U of Guyana). no mention of AUC or Saba that I see, but that's probably because they're not part of the CARICOM countries (Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St.Kitts&Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad) that the CAAM-HP lists as overseeing, since they signed onto an agreement. On the other hand, CARICOM's website includes anguilla and dominica and cayman islands as CARICOM associates. but this doesn't totally explain why those anguilla and dominica are evaluated (as well as montserat which was denied accreditation), while St.Lucia and st.vincent which are part of CARICOM, are not evaluated.
ACCM - accrediting body only for St.maarten, cayman islands, nevis and saba. therefore has accredited AUC, St.matthews, MUA, and saba.
State approvals: California, NY, Texas - seems like they have approved, disapproved, but if the school doesn't appear on either list, you can still practice in the state, pending application/approval by the board. So, automatic if on approved list, but still possible if not on the disapproved list. Is this only for practicing for those states, or also for core rotations and/or residency?
3) Price - from reputation vs. price, it seems like you get the most bang out of SABA... besides having a no-beach, small island, with no US loans are there any significant disadvantages compared to Ross, SGU, and AUC? As for AUA, any advantages, compared to SABA?
Is there any reason there aren't any significants about the UWI schools and Cuba? Neither of them seems to give prep for USMLEs, but they both seem to have superior education, and be listed on IMED, so you can write USMLEs.
Disadvantage for Cuba: spanish language, and no USMLE prep, and takes 6 years, but the big plus is that it's for FREE.
UWI: seems pretty expensive and take 5 years, but seems to be superior to all other schools in the region. is it pretty impossible to get in?
Guyana - does the U of Guyana suck? seems better than their offshore-style schools.
Foreign schools in Europe and latin america and asia - their english programs are not approved for california, but does this really matter? you can still write USMLEs. are their english programs not as good as their native language ones? do they not prep you for USMLEs at all?
Could people please comment on their experiences coming back to the US after having studied in those countries, not speaking their native languages. What if you are not a native of those countries, but are not an american citizen either (i.e. are canadian)
Thanks
Have Canadian citizenship, and will take loans to cover expenses. Don't really care if government loans are approved or not (obviously the fact that the school is recognized by the government is a reflection on the reputation of the school, but if it's a great school, I'm not concerned if there are no government loans available, least of all American loans).
What are the most important considerations?
1) From what I can see, the only important thing is being allowed to write the USMLEs, which seems to require only an IMED(Faimer listing). Obviously it would be nice to be well prepared to pass and score well on them, which is where the USMLE pass rates come in, but the reporting seems a bit unreliable since it's done by the schools themselves, and some schools have small class sizes, which makes it more variable.
2) Being able to get a good residency. What does this entail? Some specialties don't even seem to participate in the matching process. Does a residency have to be ACGME approved for you to be able to practice that speciality in the U.S.? Can you get into ACGME-approved residencies without having done greenbook rotations?
Can you get residencies on your own- i.e. besides the school's reputation, does the school in any other way influence your ability to get residency? How about core rotations- are these basically bought by your school if it's not american? Can you hook up clerkships on your own, or can that only be done by the school? Can you ask your school to pay the clerkship site for you to be able to go there?
I'm initially looking at the caribbean, but anything that would do the job. As far as I can see, most school in europe and south america have 6-year programs. Obviously this takes 2 years out of potential earnings, so the savings have to be weighed against that.
Different accreditations:
LCME- accrediting body only for canadian and US schools, so irrelevant here
All the schools trot out FAIMER/IMED status, but as far as I can discern, all this means is that the country in which the school is located has approved its existence. IMED listing means ECFMG approval already, so these 3 things are all the same thing, yes?
WHO listing seems about the same, or even less stringent (all schools in the valuemd list are on the WHO's Avicenna directory)
CAAM-HP: this accreditation body seems super-cautious/non-commital. All I see is either disapproved/accrediation withdrawn, or else (initial) provisional accreditation(AAIMS jamaica; AUA; GU-MED; SJsom anguilla; vanguard) , or the best seems accreditation with provisions (ross, UWI, SGU, U of Guyana). no mention of AUC or Saba that I see, but that's probably because they're not part of the CARICOM countries (Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St.Kitts&Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad) that the CAAM-HP lists as overseeing, since they signed onto an agreement. On the other hand, CARICOM's website includes anguilla and dominica and cayman islands as CARICOM associates. but this doesn't totally explain why those anguilla and dominica are evaluated (as well as montserat which was denied accreditation), while St.Lucia and st.vincent which are part of CARICOM, are not evaluated.
ACCM - accrediting body only for St.maarten, cayman islands, nevis and saba. therefore has accredited AUC, St.matthews, MUA, and saba.
State approvals: California, NY, Texas - seems like they have approved, disapproved, but if the school doesn't appear on either list, you can still practice in the state, pending application/approval by the board. So, automatic if on approved list, but still possible if not on the disapproved list. Is this only for practicing for those states, or also for core rotations and/or residency?
3) Price - from reputation vs. price, it seems like you get the most bang out of SABA... besides having a no-beach, small island, with no US loans are there any significant disadvantages compared to Ross, SGU, and AUC? As for AUA, any advantages, compared to SABA?
Is there any reason there aren't any significants about the UWI schools and Cuba? Neither of them seems to give prep for USMLEs, but they both seem to have superior education, and be listed on IMED, so you can write USMLEs.
Disadvantage for Cuba: spanish language, and no USMLE prep, and takes 6 years, but the big plus is that it's for FREE.
UWI: seems pretty expensive and take 5 years, but seems to be superior to all other schools in the region. is it pretty impossible to get in?
Guyana - does the U of Guyana suck? seems better than their offshore-style schools.
Foreign schools in Europe and latin america and asia - their english programs are not approved for california, but does this really matter? you can still write USMLEs. are their english programs not as good as their native language ones? do they not prep you for USMLEs at all?
Could people please comment on their experiences coming back to the US after having studied in those countries, not speaking their native languages. What if you are not a native of those countries, but are not an american citizen either (i.e. are canadian)
Thanks