Going to Medical School in Poland (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn / and others)

Come here and I'll introduce you with pleasure. Open invitation.

Then again, you taught Callan in Poland, so it's no surprise you never had the pleasure of mixing with more...elite circles.

I trained sports with some Norwegan medical students, utterly lovely people although they did tend to drink far too much and they were completely open about the fact that they had messed up their college exams and had no choice but to study abroad

What do you mean by "Americans"? Students of the English language program? The English language program in Poznan has students from numerous countries, I think Canadians are currently the largest group. In addition, there are students from the USA, UK, Ireland, India, Germany, Greece, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Israel, UAE, and Taiwan...those are just off the top of my head! Many of the students from North America are of Polish descent, so language is not a big issue.

There are rude and disrespectful students, but I think they can be found in every discipline in every university, not just English language medical programs in Poland. Amongst the medical students, you will find some who spend too much time partying, and some who never do anything but study. There are also English language programs in dentistry, pharmacy, and physiotherapy.

Remember, not all students in the English program are American!

Incidentally, if you see an English speaker in a shop or restaurant, how can you be certain they are a medical student, not a student from Mickiewicz or even just a kid traveling?

I am not defending the English language programs or rude visitors to other countries. I just want to point out some generalizations are too broad.

I mean the ones who talk, behave and generally are American. As for language, barely any of them can string a sentence together in Polish. And yes, I've spent quite a bit of time hanging out in their dorms, so I know a thing or two about them - although I always hung out with the Asians.


All of those programs are known for passing Americans without troubling them in Poznan.


If you're from Poznan, I'm sure you know the BP garage near the university, near Rondo Przybylskiego. When you see a group of drunken ******** in there, speaking loudly in English with a deep South accent, it's a certainty that they are in fact American and studying at the university.

Delphiandomine,

it seems you met one or a few English medium students at some point who were not representative of the norm. I'm sorry you chose to judge your opinion of the entire program (and possibly an entire country of 300 million plus residents) on them. Incidentally, the Asian students you met seem to also not be the norm (unless you are also Asian?) being as their norm is to mostly keep within their own community.

As to whether or not the program is easier - Polish medical education is still done in a very backward, outdated fashion. The focus is on small details, as opposed to the whole picture. Organ systems as a whole are not taught - rather each is covered separately in different faculties and at different times. Problem based learning has yet to be implemented. Proper patient care and respect is also not taught. So being as the school sells itself as providing an education EQUAL to that found in an American Medical University, perhaps its good that they don't drill the students ad nauseum on their minute details? Particularly since the licensure exams in both Canada and the United States focus on the big picture (as well as medical ethics and proper patient relations). That said, the vast majority of English medium students do manage to become employed as physicians, so clearly it can't be that bad.

It is the case of mediorce offsprings securing rights which I have described many times.In fact these people are so twisted that they may claim that a doctor who passes tests is worse because he is competitive and competitiveness is not good for the medical proffession.They also claim that dumber doctors are better because they don't get easily bored by repetition and that smart ones are unfit for the job.It is reversed logic again and again appearing.Basically it is the power of the offspring parents which decides the outcome.

Bialystok, and Warsaw Medical schools are one of the best med schools in a world. They are also accepted by the VA(veterans affair) so if you by any chance are a vet you could use your GIBILL. Do not hesitate to go to any of those two schools. I will tell you tho that Warsaw is much more foreign friendly than Bialystok due to the fact that Warsaw is a large city with majority of people that do speak English. I know several Docs that have studied at both of those schools and now are surgeons at large hospitals in the US. Good Luck and have fun... plenty do do in both cities.

gromada123

I'll chip in my 2 cents. I'm an international student studying medicine at MUW. I can tell you guys that in medicine everything depends on whether or not you work hard. This school is reputed to be among the best in Poland but really it's backward, the focus is on endless lectures that last for 3 hours focusing on minute details and teach you nothing. They literally interfere with my education. They also still (2013) have a mandatory indeks which is the bane of my existence. For the uninformed this is little green booklet which is a hard copy of your transcripts. You have to get it signed by the professor at the end of each course. This is really difficult and it takes on average a week of effort calling the secretaries office before the prof can be bothered to sign it. This is pointless bureaucracy because they have a great online system where all your grades are stored but you won't get your diploma until all 50-60 autographs from all courses in med school are there.

All the things Polish students say about English division is ********. I've met countless smug Polish students while doing my clerkship in the clinic who had a poor opinion of the English Division students and thereafter had to be literally schooled by me on some basic concepts. Sad thing was the next day they same person came back and was still talking **** about English students to my face. Sometimes it was the case that the Polish students just finished a course, we had it ages ago and I still knew more than they did.

On the other hand it is possible to know very little and just cruise by. Every exam can be taken at least 3 times and if you know the very basics they will pass you which is where the rumours come from. The students from North America are hell bent to get back there and study for USMLE's or Canadian boards which are extremely difficult. Hence people like that easily outperform the Polish division. On the other hand you have some less ambitious people from countries I won't mention that basically are funded by their government and have guaranteed jobs when they graduate. These are the people that tend just cruise and some might "fail spectacularly" when taking a board exam back home.

The difference between the divisions is that the English students tend not to get asked the professor's favorite minute factoid. These are usually thing you can't find in textbooks, thing you have to google which will give you multiple possible answers and things you will never in a million years get asked anywhere. My favorite example of this was "what pressure do baroreceptors fire at?" from first year physiology. No absolute value was given even in Guyton which is the bible for physiology and furthermore the question is ridiculous because the pressure at which they fire is dependent on a set point which is individual. A person with hypertension 160/90 will get cranky baroreceptors firing at say 150/80 or 140/80 whereas a person with a baseline of 110/70 the baroreceptors might fire at 100/60. The medically inclined will get this :). The Polish division considers this to mean their education is "better" or "harder" but struggling against more bull**** IMHO can hardly be considered a better education.

That being said I'm graduating this year, and I have job lined up in Canada. I did well on my board exams so it is not a worse education per se clearly. But I ascribe about 10% of this success to a handful of departments throughout the years. The rest of my "schooling" was as I said literally interfering with my education I hope this is helpful to people considering coming here to study.

i'm from asian country& now i'm a 2nd year student of russian medial university,i'm keen to stydy in poland, can i change my university to poland? i would be much greatful to u if u could let me know some cheap medial universities in poland? & there fee...

@secretmovie: Romania is cheaper: studyinginromania.com/medicine-in-romania.html

I found your comment both interesting and very familiar.
I went to med school in Wrocław back in the day.
All your frustrations were acutely felt by me and my colleagues.
I can't beleive they still make you deal with that gd Indeks! lol
good luck to you!

2013 Ranking Table and link here:

perspektywy.pl/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=719:uczelnie-medyczne&catid=92&Itemid=230

I think most will agree that the top three generally hold most prestige...

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If you mean "best" as in the highest level of academics, Krakow is no doubt the best one.
Warsaw and Poznan follow.

Lodz is one of the largest and best english medical universities in poland + the students are friendly

Just avoid the ambulances ;-)

Is university of lodz a good choice for studying medicine??

Hello my friend
Im a premed student at an american university and aiming to continue the 4 year prog. at medical university of Lodz (MUL). Does it have high program standards and valuable practical (clinical) perspectives? Im rlly lost and need your help:)?

Merged: Wroclaw Medical University's Online Registration process help me!!!

Hello Brothers.....

Help me to get admission in Wroclaw medical university.....
i am conditionally enrolled in Wroclaw, and doing 2nd step of enrollment,,, but i can't understand the steps of online registration system, please tell me how can i complete the all steps? i am from Pakistan. Thanks

Do you have some link?

Merged:

Entrance exam, University of Warmia and Mazury

Hello!
anyone planning to take the entrance exam for the medical studies in Olsztyn? Or have anyone taken it and want to give me some advice?

how many get accepted, how many fail? is it hard to get admission?
dziekuje

Merged:

Any american studying at the university of warmia and mazury in Olsztyn??

Hello, i recently got accepted to study in this university, i was wondering if there are any americans studying there and if you managed to get any student loans in the US in order to attend there.