Many thanks
Hello everyone, I would really appreciate it if someone would tell me whether or not studying medicine in Geneva is a good idea or not. I'm from London and its SO expensive here to do medicine and I'd really like to study abroad anyway but I thought of Switzerland because I just love the country and the quality of life. Besides, language is no issue for me because I speak French the only thing is, is that I don't speak Swiss German... will I need to learn it to get by? Please could you shed some light on my situation I also intend on working in Switzerland too, probably permanently.
You think London is expensive? Geneva is up there at the top with high prices.
It is also very difficult to get a place at the university medical schools. Switzerland does not train enough doctors, and for the next 5 years the situation will not get better. I think I read that starting in 2016 there will be an extra 600 study places.
So I suggest you stay in London where you will not be distracted by the nearby mountains and lakes. EasyJet fly 12 times each day from London to Switzerland, so there really isn't a problem visiting us.
You could study in London and then open a practice here.
What about studying in France then opening
a practice in the French speaking area of Switzerland?
Hey all, thanks for your replies
1) it will cost me £50000 ( approx 100000CHF) to do a full 5 years of medicine in English universitys. I would have to take out a loan which would be hanging over my head for the rest of my life because, with interest, the loan would be about £100000 (200000CHF). This cost is excluding the cost of living away from home.
2) the pay in England is awful.
3) the quality of life in England doesnt even compare to the life someone would have even in the worst parts of Switzerland.
4) the taxes in England are EXTORTIONATE
These are my reasons for wanting to study in Switzerland XD please please can you just give me some useful information like what qualifications you need to go to Swiss university eg baccs or the UK 'A levels' or how much it costs to live as a student and how to work there as a British national ( before I become Swiss) and lastly stuff about naturalisation.
With thanks,
Armen, there are not enough places for Swiss student doctors here. Just forget the idea, you won't be accepted.
If you decide to ignore Sbrinz, start looking for information on the official Swiss Site. The facts, figures and links contained within will give you something to study for the rest of the week. When you've finished that, if you still want to pursue your idea, come back on here and check out cost of living threads and the like. Do a little searching - lots of information within the various stickies at the top of each sub-forum. Don't forget the Housing in General section and Complaints Corner. They will give you a taste of the sort of everyday problems which come with the mountains and the lakes!
I'll be back in a fortnight to see how you are getting on.
I imagine you already had a look at the Geneva University website ?
I would check out this site: http://www.unige.ch/medecine/index.html
it is the University site about medicine, it will help you along.
UniGe offers as well student housing that you should check out, I would as well look at this site http://www.unige.ch/futursetudiants/Info.html aimed at prospective students.
And I would just ignore the other comments.
Yes, the cost of living is high, but it isn't crazy high like they seem it to be!
I suggest you get in touch with the French language medical school of your choice eg Geneva,Lausanne, Fribourg etc and find out about the current entry requirements, aptitude tests etc from them. It's not that easy to get a place, but you might have the right qualifications. You would obviously need to have the funds to support yourself during your studies as getting a loan could prove quite difficult as could getting a job after your studies. Most of the EU doctors working here tend to have qualifications as well as experience from their own countries. But your first step needs to be to find out whether you actually can even get youself accepted by a Swiss medical school.
That's basically the sort of thing the above links are about.
Normally, anyone with A-levels or equivalent will get into uni here to study medecine as there is no numerus clausus. However, 70% fail the first year exams, so what would youmdomif you were one of these? Living and course costs are high, accommodation difficult to find.
Thank you SO much for all the new information, I really appreciate it
I have been looking at the uni websites and they really don't make a whole lot of sense to me :S swissuniversity.ch has been helpful to me but it says that in Geneva, university fees are around 1000CHF and an extra 1000 for foreigners. Now I'm guessing that the medical degrees are a bit more that that but what is nagging me a bit is whether there is the possibility of doing a medical course in English? My french is proficient but as a foreigner wouldn't it be better to do medicine in particular, in a more universal language? If anyone has any views on this, I would really like to hear your opinion
I don't think you've quite finished reading it though. More info about instruction in English is on the site here.
don't forget, that after university you still have to specialize for 5-6 years. during this time you will not earn much money and you have to be prepared to work 80-100 hrs/week (officially max. working hours are 50/week I know, but the reality is different...). so, if you want to earn much money or have some time to actually enjoy the country, better choose another profession....
rokoko
They will probably change the language of study if you ask them nicely....
Of course, dear. And then we really should ensure that all the patients speak fluent English - you couldn't possibly expect them to speak Swiss German or something, could we
BTW they are increasing the number of places to study medicine over the next few years, as there is a shortage- with a large % of doctors about to retire. GPs are in great shortage- but guess what, they are overall less well paid than in the UK, with much higher expenses (expected to have x-ray facilities, and lots of other testing equipment + staff). The priority will be given of course to Swiss doctors in the hope they will stay in CH to work.
Again I cannot thank you enough for helping me I would really be a very ignorant londener without you all. Another question I have is, is that would I be able to just come when I'm 18 and start studying or would I needed to have completed some swiss high school exam or have some relevent certificates to have specific A Level certificates, because in England, it isn't standard practice to do Bacc's at the end of high school; is it necessary to have an International Bacc?
No, you don't need to have the IB. However, you do need to meet the requirements for the course you wish to study, and, as you have already been infored, there are limited places availabe. ie: not everyone who meets minimum educational qualifications will necessarily be accepted.
Regarding the 100,000 loan that will hang over you for the rest of your life if you train in the UK: No, it won't. It may seem a lot of money now, but even if you do somehow manage to rake up that much debt, over tie you will of course pay that back, buy a house, a car, travel, and do all the things that doctors do get to do once they have left universtiy and started to earn ( and once those torturously long hours of the first years have been completed.)
BUt why London? If it means you can live cheaply at home, then fine. But if you are going to be paying for accomodation, that is the last place I would be applying to in the UK. There are some escellent med courses run through universities in other cities, where your living expenses will be much cheaper.
Finally, why Switzerland?
I'm not sure foreign students are allowed to study medecine in Switzerland unless their parents work and/or live in Switzerland. That's what I was told when I went to the "visit the university day". As far as I know, the conditions for foreign students are the ones on this website (sorry, no English, just French or German): http://www.crus.ch/information-programmes/inscription-aux-etudes-de-medecine/vd/admission-des-etudiants-etrangers.html?L=1
Unless your French is very good, you're going to have a hard time, as all the exams are multiple choice and worded specifically so as to confuse you. I have a friend who failed the first year twice (meaning she's out of medical studies, but also vet school, and pharmacy, for good) because of the last exam, the one on history and law and that kind of stuff because the exam questions were so hard to understand, and yet she speaks very good French.
You should also keep in mind that failing twice in Switzerland makes it very hard to get into med school in other countries in Europe (France and Belgium are totally out of the question, for example).
Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but there's been a lot of incorrect information above. Here's the official line:
http://www.crus.ch/information-progr...ml?L=2#zulass2
Here's my very free translation (stick it in Google Translate if you prefer):
Really sorry, but unless you have demonstrable strong family ties to Switzerland it simply isn't going to happen. Any other subject than medicine and you'd have no particular problems.
Most European countries operate strict quota systems for medicine. In French-speaking Europe your best shot is in Belgium, which has a set quota for non-resident medicine students: http://www.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_45708/etu...nces-dentaires
Good luck!