The education that we receive
Today I got a chance to talk with Victor, a radiology resident from Madrid, Spain. He is spending the last three months of his medical education over here in the states learning radiology from the physicians at Duke. We had some down time today so I talked to him about several things, including trying to get some advice for my Europe trip after graduation. I figured that because he's from Spain, he has probably traveled to Italy, Switzerland and Germany....the places I plan on going. Unfortunately, it appears he mainly stays within the confines of Spain. Strangely enough, when I asked Gauthier about Europe, for someone that grew up in Madrid, he said the exact same thing. You would think living that close to each other you would spend time exploring...but maybe that's just an American thing. Luckily when I mentioned the possibility of going to Ibiza (with little Shader) his eyes lit up, and he insisted that he get a chance to write up some great clubs and beaches to go to while I am there. Of course I couldn't refuse. I tried throwing around Schaefer's name too, since it's a household European name by now, but Victor doesn't pay much attention to poker, so it was useless.
After I tried to get some traveling tips and ideas from him, I decided to ask about the medical education process in Spain. It is very different from how things are set up here. In Spain, right after highschool, you take a standardized test to get into medical school, this counts for 50% of your acceptance criteria, the other 50% coming from your grades. The medical schools as well as law schools all function like this, with no intervening "undergraduate" requirements inbetween. These grad level courses are also public institutions, with the tuition being roughly about $500 a credit, which is basically nothing in comparison to what we pay in the US. After 6 years of medical school, you take another standardized test, this time it counts for 75% of your acceptence criteria to get into a residency program, the other 25% again from your grades. With these results, they rank you in order (all the medical students in the country) and you take turns choosing what specialty and where you want to go. Once the specialty or residency position fills up, you are out of luck.
I wonder if that system is any better than the one we have in the US. We also take standardized tests, and our grades are utilized, to get us into college, but this is just to get into an undergraduate college. Again you take more tests, the MCATs or the LSATs, count the grades, and throw in the interview and essay, and you have the graduate level entrance. Is that really necessary. It seems like in other countries, people know what they want at an earlier age. They decide their careers by the time they are done with highschool. In the US, we have 5th year seniors in college still "undecided" of their majors. Why is this so different? Is it the quality? India is very similar in having highschool graduates take exams and go straight into medical school. They have some of the best physicians and engineers in the world.
Is it then our culture? I say all the time, that I wouldn't give up college and that it is where I have grown up the most. It also wasn't until college that I decided on what I wanted to do. But would that change, if there were greater pressure to decide earlier?
In these other countries they are often into the working world helping, treating, serving before they are 30. Here in the US we seem to place an added emphasis on more and more education. At first all you needed was a highschool diploma, then you needed a college degree and then a masters. Even with orthopedic surgery, you need to specialize now in order to differentiate yourself from the rest. Why have we placed such an emphasis on spending so much time to receive what people consider "a better education?"
After I tried to get some traveling tips and ideas from him, I decided to ask about the medical education process in Spain. It is very different from how things are set up here. In Spain, right after highschool, you take a standardized test to get into medical school, this counts for 50% of your acceptance criteria, the other 50% coming from your grades. The medical schools as well as law schools all function like this, with no intervening "undergraduate" requirements inbetween. These grad level courses are also public institutions, with the tuition being roughly about $500 a credit, which is basically nothing in comparison to what we pay in the US. After 6 years of medical school, you take another standardized test, this time it counts for 75% of your acceptence criteria to get into a residency program, the other 25% again from your grades. With these results, they rank you in order (all the medical students in the country) and you take turns choosing what specialty and where you want to go. Once the specialty or residency position fills up, you are out of luck.
I wonder if that system is any better than the one we have in the US. We also take standardized tests, and our grades are utilized, to get us into college, but this is just to get into an undergraduate college. Again you take more tests, the MCATs or the LSATs, count the grades, and throw in the interview and essay, and you have the graduate level entrance. Is that really necessary. It seems like in other countries, people know what they want at an earlier age. They decide their careers by the time they are done with highschool. In the US, we have 5th year seniors in college still "undecided" of their majors. Why is this so different? Is it the quality? India is very similar in having highschool graduates take exams and go straight into medical school. They have some of the best physicians and engineers in the world.
Is it then our culture? I say all the time, that I wouldn't give up college and that it is where I have grown up the most. It also wasn't until college that I decided on what I wanted to do. But would that change, if there were greater pressure to decide earlier?
In these other countries they are often into the working world helping, treating, serving before they are 30. Here in the US we seem to place an added emphasis on more and more education. At first all you needed was a highschool diploma, then you needed a college degree and then a masters. Even with orthopedic surgery, you need to specialize now in order to differentiate yourself from the rest. Why have we placed such an emphasis on spending so much time to receive what people consider "a better education?"
posted by Jimmy at
5:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home