Got a call from home yesterday, After the usual chitchat, The conversation slowly changed to what I want to pursue after M.B.B.S and a reminder that its time to start working for it. Considering the fact that its only my second year at Med School, I was genuinely confused.
Do people usually start preparing for postgraduate studies from their second year of med school ?
My mates seemed to disagree, They told me that you cross that bridge when you get to it. They further argued that It seemed illogical to set aside time to prepare for something that happens after 3 years, When you clearly don’t have enough time to prepare for exams which decide if you graduate from medical school in the coming years. The best you could do for now would be to study the PG aspects of my everyday UG lessons side by side, so that once you finally start preparing for PG, You will have a head start. Furthermore, they strongly advised me against getting myself into the PG training institutes out there. I’ve decided for now to set some time aside every weekend to prepare for PG until I can make a strong decision and that brings me to my next question,
What to prepare for, NEET-PG or USMLE ?
The time has come for me to decide between a US Medical Residency in Qatar or Postgraduate Education in India.
As I understand it, US has no Post Graduate course in any clinical discipline. MD is their only professional degree. They have a residency which is the path to becoming a specialist. If I am to consider applying for a US medical residency, I have to have passed USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK before applying for my residency and eventually the rest of USMLE Exams for medical licensure in the US before I can practice medicine. Also the exams come with a price tag of around 2500 dollars. Plus there is no absolute guarantee that given I pass the exams, I’ll be allotted a residency of my choice since Hamad Medical Corporation which regulates the Residency Matching Program in Qatar declared that it no longer has enough hospital residency positions for all the graduates earning MD (not mere M.B.B.S ) from Qatar University and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. This means competition and I’m pretty sure you can guess who they tend to admit, Graduates who spend 8 years studying for their bachelor’s & MD degrees or me with a mere M.B.B.S degree obtained after high school. Since USMLE and American residency programs are recognized all over world, I can head towards other countries, but do I want to ? It is a widely accepted fact that Doctors in the US earn much more than their Indian counterparts. Three years ago, this fact would never have been a factor to influence my decisions, but now 3000 USD in debt from medical school and a possible 2500 USD If I am to consider clearing my USMLEs, It pretty much makes the list.
NEET-PG is entirely different and pretty straightforward in terms of seat allotment. Ace the exams and the higher your rank, the higher your chance of allotment to the PG course of your choice. But unlike USMLE, NEET-PG tests your ability to learn all the subjects that ever existed, a night before the exam. Furthermore PG courses done in India are not recognized worldwide. India has a severe shortage of doctors nowadays which means that a job upon graduation is promised without much competition.
Do NEET-PG and prepare for USMLE simultaneously ?
Many people do it but it does have a lot of challenges. When you don’t qualify for NEET-PG after graduation (happens a lot when 1,17,000 aspirants compete for 23,729 seats-2017), you lose a year when you attempt NEET-PG the next year which means further delay in clearing USMLE. During your PG course, you’ll most probably be occupied 24/7 and hence it becomes very hard to find time to study. Joining USMLE training institutes will be out of the question. Most programs prefer recent medical graduates or at least those who have passed within the past 2 years, which reduces the number of programs you can apply for. So far this option seems like the most viable one for me.
I guess I’ll prepare for NEET-PG (for now).
Endless Decisions 