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by Jeff Liu (Guest Blogger)

One of the more frequent discussions among English-language medical students in Italy, especially given that such programs are so new and yet to set solid precedent outside Europe, includes the possibility of doing post-graduate residency training in North America. In the next few articles I will try to give students a general overview of the initial steps one should take in order to potentially acquire Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification in what seems to be a challenging yet mandatory path for International Medical Graduates (IMGs) who wish to practice medicine in the US.

Valentina is a Harvey graduate from University of Pavia,  and she is starting work as a Foundation Year (FY1) doctor in London in a few weeks. In her second guest-post, she shares her experiences in applying for the Foundation Programme in the UK as an graduate of an Italian English-language med school.

The staff here at Med School team we have been getting a lot of personal messages from people hoping to transfer into the English-language medical schools at the state universities here in Italy. I have done some research on the topic, and will tell you what I have learned about it.

Applying to Medical school in Italy as an American has  a pretty intense bureaucratic process behind it. You will need to be very organized and err on the side of notarizing too much information rather than too little. Italian consulates across the country provide varying degrees of information, so we have tried to consolidate what we have learned here for you all.

Italy has a medical course conducted in Italian language and an English-taught medical course. They are similar in structure , although not entirely the same . They are both 6 year long programs, and the diploma gained at completion is equally recognized, but often the English-taught programs are structured to meet western models of medical education by leaving more time for clinical experience rather than theoretical knowledge.

With the new rule this year that EU candidates can choose all 6 Universities while the non-EU will only have their 1st choice taken into consideration a question arises: Who has a better chance of getting in? European or non-European candidates?