Argentina Medical School

[Animal1234]

Is there anyone here familiar with medical schools in buenos aires? I am from the states but am looking at going to medical school there due to the low cost tuition.

 

[DerAchtundzwanzig]

You should get in touch with Estubaires - they assess students who want to go to Med School in Argentina (in both private and public universities) and do all the paperwork for them. They work mostly with Brazilian students so their website is in Portuguese, but I know the director (Eliana) personally and know she's fluent in English. You can find her email right on the homepage: www.estubaires.com.br.

 

[DontMindMe]

Hold your horses. Do you plan to go back to the U.S. and practice medicine when you're done? It's not that easy, unfortunately, even though you're American. You'd have to repeat your residency and jump through all sorts of other hoops:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/economy/long-slog-for-foreign-doctors-to-practice-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[jantango]

There was a long discussion on the same topic.

http://baexpats.org/topic/27286-moving-to-buenos-aires-for-med-school/

 

[syngirl]

Yes it is a huge decision to do medicine abroad -- if you do, unless you are in the top 1% of the class, you have to accept that by doing med school abroad you will probably stay abroad. The exception -- the med school in the Caribbean where everyone who can't get into Canadian/Amer med school ends up (and their tuition probably a bit cheaper). [Edit: and I 've never heard anyone from that school actually practicing a specialty, they all just become GPs in Canada I believe, which isn't a bad gig, but a huge overhead, so lots just end up working in clinics].

There is supposed to be a good med school in Guadelajara -- that might be something to look into, but again, you're going to be back of the line when it comes to getting any residency match in the USA. Oh yeah, and you'll have to write the American boards before you can even consider applying for residencies in the USA, so it's yet another process on top of everything.

 

[DontMindMe]

Also, not to knock Argentine medical schools since the actual education is supposed to be excellent and people from all over Latin America go there to study, but when I went to a specialist in Houston for a second opinion after a BA specialist recommended I get surgery, they were blown away by the exams and reports I brought in. He said he hadn't seen anything like them since the 80s. The resident in his early 30s got a kick out of it. They do everything on iPads now--yes, there's an app for that. The technology in Argentina is behind (import restrictions won't help that anytime soon), and so were the surgical techniques, at least in my case. The surgery I was recommended was new in Argentina and I was going to have to wait for them to try to get a tool shipped in before I got it done, whereas in the U.S. it had been a common procedure for more than five years at that point. I trusted my Argentine doctor, but I said no to being a guinea pig considering the surgery carried a risk of stroke.

The point is, if you do somehow manage to get back to the U.S. to practice (if that's what you want), you may have to play catch up with a few things. Which I guess you could do while you repeat your residency...

 

[sheawj]

I'll get my other half on here to help out...she is in med school. This is the reason why I am in Argentina at all!

 

[Animal1234]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I am aware of the fact that Foreign medical graduates have about a 50% chance of getting into a residency program. I've seen quite a few residency programs who have accepted many foreign grads from South America within the last 5-10 years. I can get into medical school in the states but the reason I am looking into Argentina is the low cost of tuition and to me that's more important in the long run. I don't plan on doing my residency in Argentina so I wouldn't really be repeating my residency.

Shewaj where is your other half from?

 

[sheawj]

Shewaj where is your other half from?

From here. I'll see if she has any answers to your questions. She can always PM you, too!

 

[Bep]

Hello, I' m Sheawj's medical half. I'm in 4th Year (4 out of 6 or 7, counting internship)

I don't know if you're planning on going to UBA or to one of the private ones :Barceló, UCA hmmm... I' m not too familiar with private schools actually. The good thing about the private ones is that you get to go to the hospital from 1st year, although from what I heard, you don't get to do much. No idea about their tuition fees. As for UBA, to get into the school I know you have to pass some sort of Spanish test and you might need a bit more of paperwork (I was trying to post it but my computer is working slow and funky, but type in Google Resolución N º 1523/90 del Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología and it might say what you require to enter UBA. After all your paperwork is done you will need to the the CBC, you' ll be taking a bunch of basic subjects (chemistry, math, biophysics, cellular biology, epistemology and Argentine history) with a bunch of other students from different careers. Once that is completed you enter Medical school. The first three years you see basic medical subjects (Anatomy, physiology, etc) all your classes are in medical school and you see no patients. In 4th year you get a hospital assigned and then you go there every day for the clinical subjects. Once you complete all your subjects you do a year of internship (IAR) where apparently... you don't do much, you rotate in various hospitals but sometimes you just sit and see what the Dr is doing and that's it. It depends a lot on yourself and the hospital.
Also, if you are willing to work for free, there is a lot of things you will be able to do with no problems and depending on what it is, not much competition: do research, teach classes (of course you' ll have to pass a test and go a semester to teaching school for this), help in the ER of a hospital (specially South of Bs As)
Any other concerns just ask me.
Good luck!