i want to move to NY

i’m a y12 student studying bio chem german and rs alevel. i got 10 9s at gcse. i want to be a lawyer or doctor, in nyc. its always been my dream to live there, but both of these fields seem impossible to succeed in if you are not american. with medicine, immigrant doctors get trapped in family medicine, and with law it is insanely competitive to move with a UK law degree, with very little job opportunities. or you have to go to an ivy league. what do i do? is new york unachievable ?

Reply 1

ehj5

do you want to go to uni in the UK or US? cus that's gonna be your first step. uni in the US is crazyyyy expensive (like $50k a year) plus for undergraduate it's one year longer. however I'm sure the 'immigrant doctor' issue you're worried about would be much less likely if you have a america. degree. also scholarships are available, even some to international students! However if you wanna stay here, im sure if you are a good doctor with plenty of experience you're not gonna be held back if you do decide to move to the US, especially since you're fluent in English anyway.
But do take it step by step. it's definelty not unachievable but you have to know what you can do to push yourself towards that direction

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Seems more like a fantasy and over-romanticisation than reality to me.

Reply 3

sreddy

Original post by ehj5

if medicine, i deffo wanna study here, for law since its post grad as well i have no clue

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Seems more like a fantasy and over-romanticisation than reality to me.

which bit? the jobs or the new york? tbh i know its not easy but like i said it is a dream/fantasy

Reply 5

jemmaaaaa

Original post by Anonymous

Seems more like a fantasy and over-romanticisation than reality to me.

no its not, it sounds like someone who wants to travel as well as keep up with education which is totally possible. Reality is everything and everything is possible

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Original post by jemmaaaaa

no its not, it sounds like someone who wants to travel as well as keep up with education which is totally possible. Reality is everything and everything is possible

thanks so much!

Reply 7

Zitka

Original post by Anonymous

So your options are: 1) complete med/law school in the UK or 2) complete an undergraduate degree with first-class honours and an impressive CV, so you can apply for med/law school in the US later on. I'm not familiar with law, so I'm going to stick to medicine.

With option 1, as you said, applying for specialty training in the US as an international medical graduate (IMG) is very, very competitive and the vast majority of IMGs in the US are GPs (family med). If you're interested in a specialty, it is even more important for you to finish medical school with a very good CV and glowing letters of recommendation from US doctors working in your desired specialty. Meaning you would have to work very hard during medical school (or even foundation training or later if you're CV isn't up to scratch) to get published, to present at conferences, to win prizes, to be involved in extracurriculars in a leadership role and to graduate near the top of your class. You would also have to travel to the US as a UK med student to complete electives there and impress doctors in order to get those letters of recommendation. Lastly, you would have to complete the US medical licensing exams (three parts costing about $2500 total and each taking a full 8-hour day) and study for these on your own time because the UK curriculum isn't geared toward preparing you for these exams. So it's not impossible to graduate from a UK medical school and then go to NYC for residency but you'll need to be driven, organised and prepared to spend lots of money. That said, as someone who's worked in a Manhattan hospital (as a clinical research coordinator alongside doctors, but not as a doctor), I can tell you that life as a NYC doctor isn't very glamorous! Medical students on elective and interns/resident doctors work 6 days a week, >80 hours a week and many, many nights. I'm now a med student in the UK and I miss NYC a lot but I would go back as a fellow (after specialty training) or an attending (equivalent to a UK consultant), not as a resident.

Onto option 2. You could focus on doing very well in an undergraduate course and again, cultivate an impressive and varied CV to go onto to apply to graduate entry medicine in the US. On this pathway, you would be on a level field with other US medical graduates in applying for specialty training. However, there is a severe bottleneck for international spots in US medical schools. You need to be prepared for the chance of not getting in, when you could have applied for undergraduate medicine in the UK to begin with. In my opinion, I would do medicine here in the UK rather than risk finishing an undergraduate degree in something else and then not being accepted into a US medical school. You could always work in NYC in the future on a two-year fellowship or in a research capacity. I would maybe lean towards US medical schools if you're set on immigrating to the US and living the rest of your life out there. Many of my friends in US medical schools owe $300k+ in student loans, so if you were able to secure a loan for this, you would really only pay it off by working as a doctor in the US for another 10-15 years.

Reply 8

mrcatsam

Original post by Anonymous

It is very achievable if you know where to look. I lived in nyc before I moved back and I know that international students only know about NYU or Columbia. However, there is CUNY (easier to get into, much cheaper and more integrated with the city) which has colleges all over the New York area. They will also try to get you internships and jobs if you intend to stay after uni. Just make sure you apply to the ones with accomodation.
Generally, I think Americans look at American degrees with more merit than UK degrees because of the rigour of the US university system. However, don't let that get you down. There's always a way to achieve your goal. You might just have to live on Staten Island or in Queens (not bad places).