- You've never left home for more than a month.
- There will be few (if any) Americans in a European bachelor's program.
- There is a 6 to 9 hours timezone difference with home.
- You don't have an easy time getting information compared to with American universities.
- The country will not speak English (UK aside). I know they speak english in French and German unis but your landlord probably won't, nor your health insurer.
That's a massive list of stress-inducing elements you have to take into account. For a master/PhD the situation is totally different but it's still not that easy (source: did an international master programme).
Lol in France, except in some top programs, they usually won't usefully speak English. Your landlord may be better at it.
This university is located in Belgium (where people speak Dutch, English and French), and ranks quite well.
https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2019/ku-leuven-rises-t...
Travel time from NY is about 7h. Sure, you might be in for a culture shock, but someone coming from Alabama will have a shock going to MIT or Caltech too.
The only European Uni I knew was oxford, and I had no idea that I could save money on a similar education in Europe. In the first place I just assumed I would need to know a foreign language for any non-UK European school.
Heh, yes. A long time ago there was this guide aimed at foreign students coming to study in the US. They had a warning: if the school pitches itself at foreigners it does not have sufficient domestic students. The prospective customer should ponder long and hard about the motive of the place.
(The motive may not always be nefarious. Back then, the Classics departments of Oxford and Cambridge did pitch themselves at German school leavers because in England Latin instruction was plainly worthless. In Germany it was actually at an adequate level.)
Some ignorant american would just drink, cost money and move away at end.
They wouldn't, but American universities do and it works. Thus the answer to GPs conundrum of why don't more students consider school in Europe.
It's not in the interest of any European government or university to get flooded by American (or any other foreign, non-EU) students. The only reason some German states haven't introduced a fee for non-EU residents yet is probably that their number is not that high yet. But some other German states have already set up such extra fees. Some other countries place fees on English-language programmes, while those in the local language remain free.
Everyone I know who did it did so for two reasons, and this is one of them. Getting into medical school means tonnes of debt - similar to art school, perhaps. And if you don't do well enough at your residency, or at your medical school prior to that, you are completely screwed in a way those who went to art school are.
Going to the Caribbean (or any other country) for medical school has its risks, though. You are treated differently when applying for residency programs, and need a much much higher score on the USMLE than someone trained in the US to match. But if you don't, you're not stuck with crippling debt.
Oh, and the other reason? Quicker to graduate. Most countries allow you to enter medical school right after high school.
Students go there because their bar for incoming students is lower, and not at all because they're cheaper.
Caribbean schools are often more expensive than US ones, and only like 20% of their grads actually end up becoming US doctors. When it comes time to apply for residencies, carribbean students get put at the bottom of the pile, if the programs even bother to look at their application at all.
I’ve talked with parents who told me how unfortunate that their kid can’t go to a good school. The school has a score of 9.2/10 versus the school they wanted which scores 9.5/10.
That's probably true if you compare the average European university to the handful of elite American one's, but it's even more true when you compare the average American University to those same elites (even if you exclude all the unaccredited and for-profit schools, which really drag the American quality standards down.)