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Going to medical school outside of the United States is called going to a foreign medical school or international medical school. Going to foreign medical school has many advantages. For example, tuitions are much cheaper if you go to certain schools. Also, the thrill of living and studying in a foreign country can be an orgasmic experience.Another thing to consider is that foreign medical schools admit student straight out of high school. This is especially true in Europe.

A bigger advantage is that there are many beautiful girls in the Caribbean along with white sandy beaches. However, Caribbean medical schools comes with a bad stigmata. People often think you are a reject.

However, there are important issues to consider when looking at foreign medical schools. First, how is the medical school licensed? A diploma from some schools is treated as though it came from a US school, others require that you get certified by the ECFMG. Still others are not certified at all - which means you will never be allowed to practice in the US based on that particular diploma. Be very careful in researching the ECFMG certification status of the foreign medical school in which you are interested. Another caveat is that competition for residency positions may be more difficult. Many residency programs don’t accept international medical graduates, meaning the pool of available residency slots is smaller than that available to graduates of US medical schools.

Regardless of where you do your medical training, to practice in the US you will need to pass the USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2 and USMLE step 3 exams. It use to be that only foreign medical graduates had to take the clinical skills portion of USMLE step 2, but starting in the spring of 2005 everyone taking step 2 must take both the clinical skills and clinical knowledge portions of step 2.