Why I chose to study medicine in Poland?

 

Why Poland? This has been the million dollar question that I have been asked so far since I started my journey. I am gonna explain why I chose Poland so sit tight and read on!

I have toyed with the idea of studying medicine since I was in high school. I know people who have studied medicine and were leading good lives as doctors. They lived in relative comfort, were able to educate their children in good schools and were, literally, set for life. But most of all, they were respected and valued as Doctors as they save lives. As such, I aspired to do medicine to at least help people and earn the respect that comes with the job.

But I was an average student, at best, and my results were a far cry from what was needed in order to apply for medicine. By the time I was 17, I knew that I was simply not good enough for medical school so I turned my attention elsewhere. I still applied for medical school but my heart wasn't fully into it. So I knew that I would get rejections. And I did. I have always been fairly decent at science so I knew that I wanted to go down that route. So I turned my attention to Psychology and Neuroscience. I think, deep down, I was stlll drawn to medicine so it made sense for me to pick Neuroscience too.

But after 1st year of university, I ended up switching my degree to Natural Sciences where I majored in Biology and Forensic Sciences and a minor in Psychology. I was not sure what my career path was with Psychology and Neuroscience so made the decision to switch to a degree pathway that offered a bit more choice in specialism. It was a good decision to an extent as I was able to pursue more in-depth science knowledge and learn new laboratory skills. But I wish I had the hindsight to switch to a degree that was more cognate to medicine like Biomedical Sciences or Biochemistry.

Being a good scientist means that you have to have good research skills. Mine was in short supply as I did not realise that graduate entry medicine (GEM) was a thing till I started. For those who don't know, GEM is for students who have a degree, usually in a subject that is cognate to medicine, and want to pursue medicine in 4 years instead of the usual 5 or 6 year pathways seen in many countries. Universities that do the GEM course look at high school and undergraduate grades along with the entry tests such as MCAT, BMAT, UCAT and GAMSAT. Most of these universities also ask students to have a medical related degree such as Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences or Medical Sciences. Basically a degree that covers A LOT of human bioligy and chemistry. A select few universities don't look at the degree subject or high school grades but rather the grades from undergraduate (and masters in some places) and the entry test grades. 

I had completely turned my attention to non-medical science fields so the path of doing GEM did not click. I decided to give GEM ago despite not having a degree cognate to medicine and applied for universities that took the least amount of interest in the degree that I had but more on my undergraduate and masters grades and the entry tests (UCAT and GAMSAT for me). But just like my high school grades, these grades were mediocre. I failed to recieve any offers and was rejected a total of 6 times (this includes 2 attempts from high school). I felt that I had one effort within me to try again and started looking abroad to see if there are other universities that offered a 4 year GEM programme. I had family friends who have gone abroad to study medicine and came back successfully. 

And I was in luck! After much googling, I found out that Poland had 4 year GEM courses. By this point, it was March 2021 and I had already spend 9 years of my life applying for medicine. I quickly started looking at courses that were still taking in admissions and applied where possible. But I was in for a blow. Half way through my applications, I recieved an email from one of the universities stating that Poland had cancelled the 4 year courses in order to standerdise the medical programmes. This made sense but it left me devastated. Regardless, I continued my applications and after an entrance exam and interview, I was admitted to the university I am currently in. 

This university was the only one that gave me a chance to do medicine and it was a literal saving grace! I took it, despite the course now taking 6 years to complete instead of 4 years (most European countries only have 6 year courses). I could not care less that I would be in my mid 30's when I graduated but I was just happy to be studying medicine! I knew doctors who have done their medical degree in Europe, chiefly European Union countries such as Italy, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Lativa and were now working on UK, USA and Canada. So I decided to go for it. If they can complete it, why couldn't I? 

So that's my story so far. It took my 9 years to realise that medical school was for. If I can do it, why can't you?

I have also started a podcast so feel free to listen to it via this link: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/C3BNh9gTvsb