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can i be a doctor in the usa

would I be able to apply for the exams after a levels, or after university?
Reply 1
Original post by aspiringmed0
would I be able to apply for the exams after a levels, or after university?

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7551231
Reply 2
Original post by aspiringmed0
would I be able to apply for the exams after a levels, or after university?

I don't know a lot about becoming a doctor in the US but what I do know is that it is all at graduate level over there. So you have to do a bachelor's degree first.

As far as I am aware you would not have the kind of student finance over there that we have in the UK. There are some scholarships but they are very much in demand and do not cover all the fees.

Unless you have very rich parents I would say this is a pipe dream. If you want to be a doctor, do it in the UK first. It is stressful enough without being in a strange country.
Reply 3
Original post by aspiringmed0
would I be able to apply for the exams after a levels, or after university?

yup! process is so painful though, most quit. basically you go to med school in the UK like any other Brit, but you also do USMLE exams. it's split into many exams called 'steps' that you do over the span of a few years. you can start revising for them during uni, and you're allowed to do them during uni too, except for the last 'step' which you can only do after graduating. the problem is, medschl is tough enough as it is, that when u add the pressure of having a whole other set of exams it becomes nearly impossible. so many people graduate uni first, work in the NHS, then start the USMLE process. but if you do that, you're gonna struggle with the 'step 1' exam because its a lot of the stuff you learn in first/second year uni that by the time you're graduated and working as a doctor, you probably forgot the bulk of it. so its recommended you do it during uni while its fresh on your mind. keep in mind.. you're competing with applicants from all around the world so its a lot of competition. if you're dedicated and have a good work ethic its definitely possible.. and well worth it for US salaries which make the NHS salaries look like pocket change. 'd recommend doing more research because there's a lot that goes into it that I couldn't possibly mention in this response without writing a whole novel, but I will say: to answer your question, yes you can become a US doctor!

Hope things work out for you.
I've moved your thread to the studying in North America forum.

Medicine in the US is a postgraduate only degree. If you were intending to do your medical degree in the US, you would need to do an undergraduate degree (somewhere in the world) first. That said US medical degrees usually require a specific set of undergraduate course material to be covered, which I'm not aware of any university in the UK that allows you to cover all of it in a single degree (Cambridge nat sci I believe you could cover all the science content in principle, although you wouldn't meet the usual composition and non-science expectations although those are often somewhat more wooly).

There are bigger problems however. Firstly even if you do cover all the relevant premed curriculum in your undergraduate degree outside the US, most medical schools in the US require you study at least 1 year of science classes at an accredited US college (i.e. in the US). This itself is going to be very expensive to meet that requirement. Secondly, medical degrees are extremely expensive in the US (~$50k a year tuition fees typical - it's a 4 year degree as well. Plus you probably have living costs on top of that), and there are very few programmes providing financial aid for international students for a medical degree and very little financial aid you could apply for otherwise. So unless you're sitting on a quarter of a million dollars you will need to start thinking of how you're going to pay for that.

Finally while you can become a doctor in the US without a US medical degree anyway (you could just do your medical degree in the UK for example), either way you still need to apply to a residency programme and as a non-US citizen there are visa requirements and restrictions which could be problematic. Typically for any job in the US to sponsor you for a working visa, they need to demonstrate there are no suitably qualified American applicants for that job. Which pretty much restricts your options to uncompetitive specialties (e.g. family medicine, psychiatry) and/or uncompetitive locations (i.e. more rural areas - doubtful you'd be able to secure a residency in any city you've ever heard of already for example...).

So while it's possible ther seem to be a lot more barriers compared to say, working in Australia or New Zealand or even Canada (although even in those areas I think getting into training programmes i.e. not moving as a consultant already, is hard outside of a couple fields like GP/family med, psychiatry, or emergency medicine...?).

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