Student Union
- By Hitender Rao
How Indian Doctors Get a Medical License in the US
In India, it is quite an achievement to graduate from medical school, given that many students come from modest socio-economic backgrounds.
It’s an even higher hurdle for foreign medical graduates to turn that degree into a license to practice medicine in the U.S.
“For a [foreign medical graduate] to come to this country, they have to be among the best students in their native country,” said Anupam B. Jena, an Indian American who is an associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. Jena is also a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The standards for acceptance into a U.S. residency program are high for international applicants. An international medical graduate (IMG) describes a U.S. citizen or green card holder who obtained their degree outside the U.S., while a foreign medical graduate (FMG) describes a foreigner who completes a degree in their country of origin.
Indian FMGs in the U.S. are composed of India’s topmost students, Jena said.
So how does someone with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and a post-graduate degree from an Indian institution practice medicine in the U.S.?
It starts with gaining certification from the U.S. Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, which measures whether FMGs are prepared for a residency program in the U.S.
Graduates must next complete the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The exams determine an IMG’s or FMG’s medical knowledge and skills in line with standards and practices in the U.S. The USMLE website describes it as a three-step exam that evaluates an applicant’s basic medical and scientific knowledge, clinical knowledge and clinical skills. It takes years to achieve medical licensure, but must be accomplished within seven years.
Costs to attain medical licensure through the USMLE vary with each stage of the examination, but it totals about $4,000.
“The biggest hurdle is getting admission into a U.S. residency training program,” Jena said.
Many Indian medical students participate in internships, unpaid or paid, in the U.S., where they shadow physicians and learn more about U.S. health care and medicine, he said.
Jena urged Indian doctors to apply to at least 30 health care programs in the U.S., to ensure at least five to 10 interviews for employment.
Applicants travel to each hospital for in-person interviews, said Rachana Gavara, an Indian American obstetrician-gynecologist at New York-Presbyterian (NYP) Hospital who studied medicine in India and immigrated to the U.S. in 2000.
“There are certain specialties which are much easier for foreign medical grads to get into like internal medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, family medicine,” Gavara said.
“Some specialties, like the neurosurgery, dermatology, radiology orthopedics, burns and plastics are very competitive,” said Gavara, who was a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University for three years.
Medical licenses are issued on a state-by-state basis by a medical board, so a doctor would apply in the state in which they intend to work. Licenses must be renewed every two years.
With those milestones achieved, and after completing residency training in a U.S. program, medical practitioners can practice independently in the U.S.
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
International students have options to pay for grad school
U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By Tracy Liu
Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
- By VOA News
Duolingo report details the reality of Gen Z international students
A report by Duolingo takes a look at the experiences of Gen Z international students studying in the U.S., Australia and the U.K, The Pie reports.
The report, the site says, debunks "characterizations of them as 'tech-obsessed, attention-deficit and self-centered'" and highlights "their emerging role in shaping global politics and economics."
Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
School with the lowest costs for international students
U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers and came up with a list of 20 U.S. colleges and universities with annual total costs at or below $20,184. Check out these best bargains for international students here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
How to make the most of schools' international student services
U.S. colleges and universities offer a variety of services for international students.
U.S. News & World Report takes a look at them and details how to best use them. Read the article here. (June 2024)
