Studying Medicine Abroad

I understand that nights out are unheard of in some countries

I agree. Where I study you don't start any clinical till 3rd year. But you do a hell of a lot of pre-clinical in the 1st two years. I am in uni for 11 hours some days and in second year I will do a 12 hour anatomy exam. You do physics and chemistry here, a lot more in depth than any UK school I know.
They make sure you have the background knowledge for every single thing before you start clinical.

I don't think you are right. In the UK your chance of getting a place at medical school is around 40% just like it is in the US.

I don't know of any medical course that has more than 40 applicants per place, the high end is usually 12-13 applicants per place.

Also, the 4 year bachelor degree requirement only reduces the applicants who never had a shot in the first place. In Canada 20% of applicants get a spot at medical school, 80% of those don't succeed and a huge number don't bother applying because they don't even meet the requirements.

"Dr. Tony Sanfilippo. In his recent blog, he summarized the state of admissions at our Medical School, noting, “We received 3818 applications for our 100 positions this past year (an applicant to place ratio of 38 to 1). All Canadian schools receive many times more applications than they can accommodate. Statistics collected and published annually by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada indicate that the Canadian schools collectively received 34,048 applications for their 2,877 total available positions in 2011. Assuming an application per candidate ratio of 3.3 (as Ontario statistics would suggest), it would appear that at least 10,318 individuals submitted applications that year.”

Remember these applications are made by people that have gone through the huge amount of weeding during university and a huge amount of time preparing their applications. This leaves many thousands of Bachelor of Life Science (most common major for those wanting medicine) looking for a few jobs in research most of which pay a pittance. Yes some will go do masters and into research but not everyone wants to have a research career.

That'll come in really handy when you're a clinical med student/doctor

I stand corrected; undergraduate entry medicine courses have an average acceptance rate of 30-33%. However, GEM courses tend to have more applicantslaces. For instance, King's College, London had 40 applicants per place for the graduate course; this was not true for the undergraduate entry course.

I completely agree with your views on Canada. They need to fix their medical education system. I read a statistic (can't find it now) that more Canadian citizens are studying medicine abroad than are studying it domestically.

In the U.S., however, things aren't so bad. The overall admittance rate is between 40-45%, and due to the admissions process being quite objective, students can normally take additional post-baccalaureate courses to improve their chances. It is not unusual, in the U.S., to see medical students with doctoral degrees already in hand.



Basic chemistry and physics are quite important in clinical medicine. Having a good knowledge of physics, for instance, can make you stand out when applying for a competitive specialty, e.g. radiology.

Another thing to note is that medical school is not just to become a doctor. Many people go to medical school to become researchers later on. This is the exact reason why some of the best medical schools (both domestically and internationally) place a lot of emphasis on pre-clinicals.

Where do you get your statistics mate. Approx 1500 Canadians study abroad but there are about 10,500 studying in Canada.

A lot of doctors in NA become doctors that do research (most consultant level physicians at teaching hospitals do research). Very few actually become research only doctors but they do exist.

Sorry, I meant that more Canadians have enrolled this year at foreign medical schools than domestic ones. It is my understanding that there are 3900 Canadian medical school places; where did you get your number of 10,500?

10,500 are the current number of medical students in Canada. There are also not 3900 Canadian medical school places each year, the number of spots is in the high 2000s.

CBC says there are 3500 canadians studying abroad in total.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/too-many-canadians-studying-medicine-overseas-1.993980

I'm at Pleven in Bulgaria. Feel free to ask any questions