Medical Education US

I was looking out for reputed colleges offering medical courses and I came across Antigua College of Medicine and Kasturba Medical College International Center. The 2 colleges are affiliated and they give an option of enrolling at either of the campuses and later the students have the opportunity to complete their clinical Sciences at United States teaching hospitals.

Asclepios wrote:I was looking out for reputed colleges offering medical courses and I came across Antigua College of Medicine and Kasturba Medical College International Center. The 2 colleges are affiliated and they give an option of enrolling at either of the campuses and later the students have the opportunity to complete their clinical Sciences at United States teaching hospitals.

i think this is a good option for Indian students who want a US certification. I checked AUA's website and found that one can become a US physician after studying here. But yea if someone studied there and could vouch for them would be great...

hello folks

i aspire to become a doctor and want to practice in the US. Is it possible to study in India and gain that US certification? If it is, what colleges offer such courses? Please enlighten me on this. Any help will be much appreciated.

I am basing my responses on what I've read and heard, mostly information I've found on the internet elsewhere. I am definitely not an expert in this field though so if you find out more information, please share your knowledge.

You would not be able to complete all of your training in India and practice immediately upon arrival to the United States. You would need to successfully complete the three steps of the USMLE and then complete a residency program at a certified US program. You can obtain your MBBS degree in India and take the first two steps of the USMLE in India. You would need to take USMLE step 3 in the US, and you can do this on a visitor's visa.

You can get additional information on the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE).

and find helpful information at the ECFMG website particularly the frequently asked questions.

Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Hello people,

I want to pursue a career in medicine and hence have been searching for various options. A friend of mine told me about this association between Kasturba Medical College Manipal, India and the American University of Antigua. Basically a student can partially study in Manipal and partially in Antigua. The student can then appear for his USMLE exams which are basically the gateway to becoming a US physician.

Such an arrangement mkaes a lot of sense for students from India or South Asia like me...

Truly appreciate your effort DrAdmin...

soledadboy wrote:A friend of mine told me about this association between Kasturba Medical College Manipal, India and the American University of Antigua.

At this time, I would be very skeptical of their programs. The American University of Antigua website has many sections with horrible grammar. I'm not too familiar with the Medical Schools of the Caribbean, but I would not count on this program of training in India and expecting to have an easier time getting a US residency. Time will tell, as this seems to be a very new program.

Hi,

I don’t have much idea about medical colleges in India, but still I can say that Kasturba Medical College International Center (KMCIC) won’t be a bad choice for today's aspiring medical students.

KMCIC is one of the leading medical colleges in India. The website says that KMCIC consistently ranks among the top five medical schools in India, and is the third largest in the country. It is attended by students from over 40 nations, and their degrees are recognized world-wide.

Kasturba (in India) or American University of Antigua (AUA) gives students the chance to study medicines who do not get accepted to a US Medical School. Apon graduation these students can come back to the US and take their Boards and get jobs at US hospitals. The degree offerred here provides a medical education equal to the highest U.S. medical education standards.

Antigua College has organised a couple of seminars, students can visit the website for more information.

Hope this information helps.

Rashi Gupta,

I'm not sure how they got their data for their website saying that KMCIC ranks in the top 5 of medical colleges in India. The only information I found on rankings of medical schools in India from DoctorNDTV shows that the Manipal campus was 7th (out of 20) and the Mangalore campus ranked 15th (out of 20). I have no idea what this actually means, aside from the schools really don't seem to be the top programs in India. My understanding is that getting into a US residency program is difficult even if you were to attend a top program in India.

One of the things any person quickly finds while gathering records is that information available on different sites often conflict with each other. Here, I can show you few links that also says that Kasturba Medical College ranks 3rd in India.

http://arunseeker.ampli5.org/?p=86
http://www.successcds.net/Top-Colleges/
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010 ... cine.shtml
http://www.indiaedu.com/top-educational ... index.html

Even I have no idea what this actually means. Well I cannot speak against researchers who collect data from different sources, but my understanding is that websites always provides accurate information.

Selecting the right Caribbean Med school is very important. Here are a few pointers:

1. Listing by the WHO.
2. Listing by the ECFMG - IMED.
3. Provide a curriculum based on a United States medical school model.
4. Graduates must be eligible to practice in the country (not only the jurisdiction) where the school is located in order to be eligible to practice in the various states.
5. Graduates must be eligible for the NRMP Residency Placement Match in order to participate in residency training.

If the med school adheres to the above criteria, one should go ahead and apply to it.

Slightly off topic but I'm sure it'll be useful...

rashi_gupta wrote:One of the things any person quickly finds while gathering records is that information available on different sites often conflict with each other. Here, I can show you few links that also says that Kasturba Medical College ranks 3rd in India.

http://arunseeker.ampli5.org/?p=86
http://www.successcds.net/Top-Colleges/
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010 ... cine.shtml
http://www.indiaedu.com/top-educational ... index.html

Even I have no idea what this actually means. Well I cannot speak against researchers who collect data from different sources, but my understanding is that websites always provides accurate information.

As best I could tell, the highest rank there was the first link, a blog post by someone that looks like they took the data from elsewhere, which shows Katsurba is 4th. The others show it ranked 5th or lower. On the last site you linked to, I couldn't even find Katsurba.

I will repeat my overall opinion that even if you go to the top school in India, it may be difficult for you to obtain a residency in a US program.

As for the link you included to someone at xenomed's forums, the link was broken. If there is someone who you think can be helpful here, I would see if you could get him to comment here. I would definitely appreciate someone's opinion who actually attends the school. Even better would be someone who graduated and see what his/her experience was in getting into a residency program in the US.

Hi DrAdmin,

Why it is so difficult for anyone to obtain a residency in a US program even if he/she goes for a top medical school in India?

Can you please provide me some insights into this problem?

I have never personally participated in the admissions process so my comments are just from what I've heard and my impression talking with residency program directors.

When looking at prospective residents, if I had to guess the importance of various factors in getting accepted, I'd say the list is as follows:
1. A personal phone call from someone respected in the field (ie, department chairman) to the residency director with positive praise
2. Positive letters of recommendation from people in the field you are pursuing who are respected nationally
3. Positive letters of recommendation from people the residency director knows or respects

I would say those top 3 factors are probably necessary to get into the most competitive fields, especially at the most competitive programs. The above factors are unnecessary for the majority of residency programs.

4. Graduating from a top medical school. I would define a top medical school as one that is nationally recognized as a top medical school. People in the medical field know which schools are excellent, which ones are good, and which ones are not so good. The general opinion is that osteopathic schools are a moderate step below the lowest M.D. school, and that foreign medical schools (including Caribbean schools) are a significant step below US medical schools when it comes to accepting students into a residency program. While this may not be entirely fair, it seems to be the quality of applicants from DO schools and foreign medical schools is much more variable. Occasionally residency programs get outstanding graudates from foreign medical schools, but often they get very poor residents from foreign medical schools as well. There is much more variability when the student has not come from a US medical school.
5. Getting good grades (although my medical school fortunately was entirely pass/fail)
6. Positive letters of recommendation from faculty at a top medical school
7. Positive letters of recommendation from anyone else

Research experience with a top named person in the field or at a top institution can play a factor, especially in a competitive field.

Again, this is just my experience and remember that I have never been part of the decision making process in accepting residents (other than having the residency directors ask my opinion at times of applicants I met while they were interviewing). I just know that when I was looking at residency programs, one of the ways to measure the caliber of a program is based on what percentage of US graduates they attract vs what percentage of their program is filled with foreign medical graduates. It may not be fair, but it is the reality of the system. I am certainly open to opinions to the contrary if they can be backed with some solid evidence.

Also, these factors are significantly less important if you are going into a less competitive field like family medicine. If you are choosing to go into a field like orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, radiation oncology, or actually any other surgical field, then you would have virtually no chance of getting a residency unless you graduated from a US medical school. I actually will see if I can track down what the percentage of foreign graduates is based on field of specialty, as I would expect in some fields there are almost no slots going to foriegn medical graduates. In many fields it is difficult for US graduates to get a spot too.

Here are some general #s from JAMA's Graduate Medical Education, 2006-2007:

(The list is broken into Total # of Residency Positions, # of Positions taken by Females, # of Positions taken by US Med School Grads, # of Positions taken by IMGs, # of Positions taken by grads of Canadian Med Schools and # taken by DO grads.)

Overall % of Residency Positions taken by IMGs: 26.9% (28176 from 104879 total)

Examples of Specialty/Sub-Specialty:

Anesthesiology - 14.8% (735/4970)

Dermatology - 3% (32/1069)

Family Medicine - 39.2% (3708/9456)

IM - 44.1% (9737/22099)
> Critical Care - 66.7% (82/123)
> Geriatric Medicine - 66.3% (161/243)
> Nephrology - 49.3% (395/802)
> Oncology - 49.6% (59/137)

Plastic Surgery - 6.6% (40/609)

Pediatrics - 23.9% (1903/7964)

Psychiatry - 30.6% (1411/4613)

Surgery General - 19.1% (1462/7651)

For some reason I had a link from 2005-2006. Maybe I saved this link incorrectly. Will look into it and post here if I figure it out.

Tipton,

Thanks for the information, but for someone reading the statistics it is important to keep in mind that those statistics don't show how many people applied and didn't match. As mentioned in another thread on Caribbean schools, there is only a 50% match rate for US citizens attending medical school outside of the US.