Applying to US and Canada?

Sorry if there's already a thread for this, i couldn't find one!

I have family in US and in Canada so I was thinking about doing medicine over there (maybe if it doesn't work out here?) but i don't quite understand how i could do that. Does anyone know how you would apply to do medicine in Canada or US? how you would do the MCAT in UK, what course do you need to take before hand etc..

Any help or advice is welcome, thanks!

Reply 1

Sarky

Original post by tal_08

Do you have citizenship of either of those countries? Without that it would be pretty difficult to get past the first steps.

Reply 2

ldsbabe

Original post by tal_08

Do you have the money to afford to study over there? Unless you are exceptional, scholarships are few and far between for international students, and your student finance wouldn't apply over there.

Reply 3

Dr_in_the_making

Hi!

I am currently a member of a US Programme to allow UK students to study in the US. If you wanted to study medicine in the US you would first have to do a general undergraduate degree (4years) and then apply to medicine after that. There are no financial aid scholarships or loans available so you either have to take out a loan with a bank (high interest rates) or have the money already (over $600000). So, unless you have that kind of money, it's really impossible to study medicine over there. I would say your best bet is to either study over here and then move there for residency, or study undergraduate over there and don't do medicine.

i hope that helps!!

Reply 4

Okorange

Canada is super difficult for its own students and even more so for internationals. I wouldn't recommend considering it, they have maybe 20 spots for internationals in the country mostly spread between McGill and UofT. However, you would need to do a 4 year undergraduate degree in Canada or the US to apply and you would need to be very exceptional, not worth it.

The same goes for the US although it is perhaps slightly easier as there are more spots. However, US tuition is very expensive and again not worth the risk. If you truly want to move to the US it is best to do medical school in the UK and apply to residency in the US down the road.

Reply 5

tal_08

Thanks for all of the responses, I think completely forgot about the finance :colondollar:

I would like to go to work in US and Canada, i think i'll try in my electives to get a place in Canada! Thanks again guys!

Reply 6

Mike7321

I'm looking at doing the opposite as you, so I can for sure help you out with this one. Canada has the most difficult medical schools in the world to get into, so coming in as an international is pretty much next to impossible. We also have the second highest paid physicians, next to the US, and generally a much better health care system than the US in that almost everyone who has worked both prefers Canada. Residency is determined by usually 3 years, and it gives you only preference for your province, and a slight benefit to applying to other provinces over international (i e typical school has 120 spots, 10 for out of province and maybe 2 or 3 for international). The acceptance rate for the easiest medical school to get into (unfortuntely that's Manitoba, the worst province ever to live in) has about 16-18% acceptance rate, and only one school to apply to. The average GPA of the accepted applicant is 3.82 in my province (equivalent to a strong first class honors, or getting almost straight A/A+'s throughout your undergrad degree), with a good MCAT score, and ridicolous amounts of volunteer experience. In short, unless you are superhuman, I would put Canada out the equation.

The US has much more variability in med schools, and are generally easier to get into. There are some that have poor reputations (unlike the uk and Canada) and some that have an enormous nepotism influence (harvard for example) and fees that would put you in debt for at least 10 years after grad (i believe harvard is 50,000 USD for an American, no idea for international). There are some schools in the US with average GPA's around 3.5-3.6, but nothing any lower than that. (I believe 3.3-3.7 is equivelent to second class upper honors). There are some US schools that put a large emphasis on the MCAT, so you may be able to get in there if you got in the top 5% or so in the MCAT.

If you are a UK resident your best bet by far is to apply to the UK. Alternative schools would be going to Australia, or a few schools in the Carribean, but their residency match rates can range from 50-85%. Looking at UK med students applying with a 40% chance of getting in, is better than the 2 to 4% rate for international students in North America. There are tons of UK physicians that work in Canada (likely due to the higher wage), and you can always try to do the US or Canadian board exams after finishing and do your residency afterwards, but the match rates from the UK are around 65-70%, as an enormous number of Canadians and Americans go abroad (especially Canadians) and find out that they can't get matched in their own country. This trend is increasing strongly, and almost 1/3rd of Canadian medical students are going abroad now, which would likely make the match rates dropping below 50% for IMG's in the next few years. I hope this helps, and I really don't want to discourage you. If you have an extremely high GPA, and crazy amounts of extra-curricular, you do have a shot at getting into a US school. Good luck!