Is There Hope?

[firesinx]

1. You can get into medicine with any major in Canada, not sure about the US.

 

2. Depends on how motivated you are. Keep in mind most students coming from foreign countries including India don't do well here in University level due to getting side-tracked and not focusing on their studies + university/medical difficulty here is much more difficult (don't believe anyone who says otherwise)

 

3. Don't give up, if you keep working hard you can make it one day.

 

 

To be honost coming to the US or Canada to study medicine is alot more difficult than India (My parents are from India and I know how it works there) and would cost you alot of money (minimum $200,000+ = 1 cror rupees+), so it's not worth coming. At the end, I suggest you finish your medical degree there and then try coming here otherwise it's not worth coming here.

[maxminimalist]

I've been a following the forums a few months, and thought I'd finally register and chime in here, as I'd wished I had all this information before. To give a background, I recently started grad school in Canada but am considering a shift to medicine.

 

First of all, regarding the science requirement, I think there's no getting around the fact that science is required for medicine in general. Not sure if there was any particular subject you had a problem with, but biology and chem. are a must given the nature of the field. I will agree however that the science subjects in India go above and beyond what is covered in the typical North American high school. I studied in India, with PCMB options (physics, chem., bio, math), and we already had organic chemistry, with zoology and botany being separate subjects starting in grade XI. I did pretty bad in my final two years, but when I came to the US and did a BS, I placed out of calculus I, and aced Phys I and II. I found it very easy.

 

Now, since you are interested in an MD, I'm assuming that your final goal would be to move/settle/practice this side of the pond. Otherwise, you'd be looking at the MBBS over there. If you do intend to come here, don't bother with the MBBS, as you'll have to jump through hoops to come practice here with that, and the effective success rate for the licensing exam (from what I've read) is about 25%. If you are deciding between the US and Canada, I strongly recommend the latter, which I'll expand below. Before that, you should realize that obtaining the MD is basically a very long commitment; it's harder still for someone who comes from abroad, so you have to be in this for the long run. A poster above also mentioned that students at the undergrad level get side-tracked very easy. At that age, after coming to a country that has a lot more liberal societal norms and for some people, easy alcohol, it simply becomes a study-holiday and their grades dwindle.

 

Canada has fewer medical schools (most graduate schools really) than the US, but there is no wide variation in the reputation as in the US. The bigger/better schools in the US are not only very expensive for internationals, but have much fewer seats if at all, and are very selective. You could look at some of the Caribbean schools, but that's risky as well. The other reason being that if your intent is to live here, Canada is much more aggressive in keeping/welcoming immigrants as compared to the US. They recently overhauled their system where university graduates can work after they finish their studies for up to 3 years depending on the degree undertaken with no restriction on where you can live (before it used to be just 1 year in the big metros). This provides an easy path to permanent residency, as they introduced a new immigration stream at the federal level called the 'Canadian Experience Class', where it tries to target students that have studied here and have at least a years’ work experience in a skilled category job. With the 3 years post-graduation work permit that you obtain, you can easily meet this requirement. In addition to that, each province also have their own programs to attract immigrants, most of them tend to have a student category 'Provincial nomination' with varying requirements. The province I am in for example, lets students apply for a PR through the provincial nomination after just 3 months of post graduation work experience. I read about a pilot program in BC for graduate students (I think it was science) where they can apply for PR nomination after they graduate without any work experience. Either path, provincial or federal, offers an easier path to the PR compared to the US. Bearing this in mind, you will have to do a bachelor's here and then the MD, here is something you could do:

 

• First see what province you'd be interested in (most immigrants tend to end up in ON, BC or AB). I would recommend looking at others such as MB, NS, NL or SK. Because everyone wants to be in the metros, later on, you might have an easier time getting placement in the respective medical programs (most favor their own province). Also the other provinces may have more attractive provincial nomination programs for immigrants.
  
• Once you decide on a province, start looking at schools and look at the programs they have - both the medical schools as well as for your bachelor's. Obviously a science based program is essential (BS Biology is popular) but schools accept BAs too. From what I've read, they prefer well-rounded students and seeing as you will work in a social setting, perhaps some social science subjects may be in order. Just make sure you hit the med school pre-reqs. The idea is you want to take the easiest courses to max out your GPA. Another recommendation is to find a program that has some kind of medical technical basis (I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on this) so that you can get A) hospital exposure and use it for a job to work when you graduate. Now in Canada, you can work on campus in your first year, and after your first year, you can work off-campus during school for 25 hours per week and full-time in the summer. I mention this so it gives you a rough financial planning idea. In the US you can only work on-campus until you graduate, and then you get a 1 year post-grad work permit. If you are into computers, you can mix some computer courses and then get an IT based job to work part-time.
  
• Then you go on the med. school path after finishing the BS or BA. Apply for your canadian post-grad work permit, and then start some job outside. Depending on the path you chose, you can apply for PR either after a few months or after a year. Either way it will be at least a year before you end up with the document in hand. During this year, you can start preparing and then taking the MCATs. You would also likely be fulfilling the residency requirement of whatever province you're in (The province I'm in reserves the majority of their seats for in-province. Residency here is met by being in the province for a period of 12 months and not in student status). Once you get your PR your tuition bill will also be cut drastically as you'd be paying in-province fees for med. school.
  
• During all of this, try to work in as much volunteer time, at a hospital or some related capacity, as you can. This can sometimes make a difference, and I've even read where someone got very high MCAT scores but were passed up because of almost 0 volunteering exposure.
  

 

Like I said, this a big outlay, and there a lot of IFs. The commitment time is long, you have to keep your GPA high, and then there is the matter of the MCATs and interviews. But if you are committed, I don't see why you couldn't pull it off. Not to mention, if you just end up doing a BS/BA here, and maybe doing something in medicine other than a MD, you could still look at settling here in some capacity - up to you.

 

Most of the info is what I've gathered; maybe others with more knowledge can correct me or add more if I missed something. Either way, good luck to you.

[simpy]

Most of the info is what I've gathered; maybe others with more knowledge can correct me or add more if I missed something. Either way, good luck to you.

 

Excellent post, maxmin! Hope to see you around some more!

[phosgenic]

Are you sure you're not being swayed into it by a rose-tinted perception of the field from the media/society/family?

 

Love this..... probably more than i should. sick rhetoric