What to Know About International Medical Schools and How They Compare

Premeds based in the U.S. who are contemplating the possibility of attending a medical school abroad should investigate a foreign institution's accreditation status, attrition rates and residency placement statistics, experts say.

The World Directory of Medical Schools is an excellent place to find information about international medical schools, experts say.

This directory reveals useful statistics that come directly from foreign med schools, such as data about the proportion of students who graduate with a medical degree. It also includes important notes from the two organizations that create the directory: the World Federation for Medical Education, or WFME, and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, or FAIMER.

One key quality indicator to look out for in the directory's sponsor notes, experts say, is an explicit assurance that a school's students and degree recipients are eligible to apply for certification from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, or ECFMG, in the U.S. It's also prudent to check the notes for any mentions of sanctions, experts advise.

[Read: Med School in Europe Offers Tradeoffs.]

Dr. William Pinsky, president and CEO of ECFMG|FAIMER, notes that there are numerous international medical schools and that the number of foreign medical programs is rising rapidly. "It's difficult for students to discriminate among those," he says.

Unscrupulous international medical schools might put "misinformation" on their websites, Pinsky cautions. Some foreign medical schools have very lenient academic standards for applicants, but the students who enroll at those schools often fail to graduate and "the attrition rate can be significant," he says.

However, there are also some exceptional non-U.S. medical schools at well-respected global universities, and some nations have a solid track record of training doctors who eventually practice in the U.S., such as Canada, India, Israel, Ireland and Australia, Pinsky suggests. U.S. students should verify that a foreign med school is accredited and that its accreditation agency is recognized by the WFME, Pinsky says.

When assessing and comparing foreign med schools, U.S. premeds should inquire about whether the schools have a history of placing students into U.S. residencies, Pinsky says. It's also advisable to speak with schools' current students and recent grads, and to find out what types of clinical training options are at these schools, Pinsky recommends.

Because of the extraordinary selectivity of U.S. med schools, many aspiring doctors in the U.S. who would make excellent physicians are unable to get accepted and thus frequently apply to international medical programs, Pinsky says.

But before applying to a foreign med program, a student needs to realistically assess whether he or she is prepared to become a doctor, Pinsky warns. "I have met students who were desperate to become doctors but really did not have the academic background to do it," he says, adding that these students sometimes end up "with a lot of debt and no degree."

Many med schools outside the U.S. are willing to consider premeds with lower GPAs and MCAT scores than the outstanding academic credentials that are typically necessary for acceptance into a U.S. med program, though this isn't always the case and there are some highly selective foreign med schools.

A talented premed student, experts say, can benefit from an international medical education.

Hannah McGee, dean of the faculty of medicine and health sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, says that any student who is a good fit for med school in general is a compelling candidate for a good foreign med school. "Whether or not to study overseas is a decision dictated by the outlook and aspirations of the individual student," she wrote in an email. "In our experience, it is the most ambitious cohort of students who are open to considering international medical education."

[Read: What to Know About Caribbean Medical Schools.]

Premeds should be aware that it's challenging to transfer into a U.S. med school from a foreign med school based outside of Canada, whose M.D. program accreditation system is closely aligned with that of the U.S. Experts explain that many U.S. med schools do not accept transfer applications from med schools that aren't accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits M.D. programs in the U.S. and Canada only.

Nevertheless, U.S. med school hopefuls who are intrigued by the idea of attending school abroad can take comfort in the knowledge that there are highly prestigious programs outside the U.S. with impressive residency placement records.

McGee reports that more than 250 RCSI students have been placed into U.S. residency programs over the last five years and have obtained placements at high-profile academic hospitals such as Johns Hopkins Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. David Latter, director of M.D. admissions and student finances at the University of Toronto, emphasizes that his university is highly rated in many higher education program rankings and that it is the top-rated Canadian school in the most recent U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings. The UT medical school regularly places students into competitive U.S. residency programs, Latter says.

"Moving to a whole new country to study medicine can be a challenging but immensely rewarding experience," Latter wrote in an email.

Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen, a U.S. endocrinologist who owns the New York Endocrinology medical practice and earned her medical degree in Mexico, says a potential benefit of attending a non-U.S. medical school is lower tuition, since some international med schools cost less than comparable U.S. schools.

[Read: 3 Residency Factors When Considering International Medical Schools.]

Another possible perk of attending a foreign medical school, Salas-Whalen says, is the opportunity to gain cultural awareness and foreign language skills. Plus, medical students outside the U.S. can gain clinical experience with diseases and conditions that are rare in the U.S., such as tetanus and tuberculosis.

However, the process of taking and passing U.S. medical licensing exams can be a bit complex for foreign medical students. Preparing for and completing the exams is not an automatic feature of foreign medical schools' curricula, whereas prep for the exams is built into the U.S. med school experience, observes Salas-Whalen, who is on the faculty of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Dr. Uchenna Umeh, a San Antonio pediatrician and author of the book "How to Raise Well-Rounded Children," says U.S. med school hopefuls who are interested in foreign med programs need to think carefully about whether they are prepared to spend several years immersed in another culture.

"You have to figure out, before you get all excited, do you want to go to a country with different food and different cultures?" Umeh says, adding that U.S. foreign exchange students at the Nigerian school where she earned her medical degree often arrived without knowing much about the country. "People should learn about where they want to go."

Umeh emphasizes that there are some outstanding international medical schools and that students who choose one should understand that they will be learning lessons about both medicine and the host nation during their education.

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