India has two types of undergraduate medical colleges, those operated by some form of government and private colleges. AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi) and JIPMER (Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry) is administered and funded by the central government. AIIMS is recognized as one of the best medical colleges in the world. The Ministry of Defense operates and provides college medical programs at the Armed Forces Medical College. Individual state governments administer and financially support three additional medical colleges in Chennai and Delhi. India has four privately owned, funded and administered medical colleges, with Christian Medical College of Vellore ranking in the top two Indian medical colleges.
Medical degrees in India are provided at the undergraduate level. Medical school candidates take undergraduate coursework that culminates in a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. These students complete a Higher Secondary School Certificate (an examination that is typically subjective) that includes 10 years of secondary education and an additional two years of intense focus on Biology, Chemistry and Physics during 11th and 12th grades of high school. High school students seeking admission to medical school must achieve at least 50% passing grade point average on a 100-point scale.
Admissions to medical school in India is dependent on students receiving a passing score on the Higher Secondary Certificate examination and may also require a personal interview with the college board. Government funded medical schools are highly subsidized by the government and offer very cheap tuition costs to individuals who are residents of India. The government of India has allocated reserved seats for foreign students from developing countries that have inadequate medical education colleges or have limited availability of medical education centers. The government accepts application for the reserved seats through the Indian Missions Board and through the individual countries diplomatic missions. Admission applications are accepted one time each year on or before February 28th.
Medical colleges in India receive more than 200,000 applications each year and admit approximately 2,500 students annually. The Medical Council of India regulates the number of physician licenses that are granted each year to only 18,000. Over admission of students to medical schools in India becomes a critical concern as a result of licensing limitations. Of the 30,000 graduates who attend medical school in India 60% have to leave their country to obtain medical licenses to practice. This results in thousands of highly qualified doctors leaving their country to study and work abroad in an effort to finish their degree programs and gain legal rights to practice medicine.
Several medical colleges in India are recognized by the Medical Council of India and provide world-class programs that prepare doctors to thrive in a highly competitive field. However, India still remains a country that struggles with corruption and the provision of inadequate educational programming.
The south Indian states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and TamilNadu offer private medical school programs that generally practice fraudulent admission procedures that are based on the amount of money they can be bribed with and a high school diploma. In many cases the admissions committee, professors, chancellors and board members act as brokers and negotiators in the months prior to admission in May. The cost of bribing your way into one of these private medical colleges can be 20,000 to 40,000 rupees ($430 to $860 USD). However, tuition to a private medical college in Mumbai, India may cost as much as 3,000,000 rupee ($64,000 USD), this may be a result of Mumbai being highly Americanized. Another dishonest practice that is encouraged is the act of using undergraduates, anatomy attendants and other lower cast individuals as servants to accomplish program requirements. Sadly, thousands of medical school graduates and engineering graduates that hold MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) degrees stand in long lines at the Indian Embassy hoping to obtain a US visa to finish their programs and licensure requirements.
As a result of the corrupt educational practices at many colleges in India, Indian students typically seek admission to colleges in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, etc.) where tuition to medical programs is inexpensive and offer high quality medical facilities. Teaching and educational infrastructure are considerably better in Eastern European countries as compared to India. College programs in Eastern Europe are based on the United States education model. Tuition costs for medical schools in Eastern Europe is approximately $14,500 dollars annually. In Bulgaria tuitions costs may be as little as $10,000 annually. These programs also offer higher quality teachers and more consummate learning experiences than can be found in India.
There are many alternatives to gaining admission to highly competitive medical schools; however, students must be cautious and well informed before making decisions. Acceptance rates and tuition fees are typically significantly higher than graduation rates and internship availabilities as well as licensing opportunities are more plentiful. The best practice is to do in depth research of available medical school programs, including companies that assist with medical school applications to foreign programs and then make local contacts with individuals who are in the program and have had similar experiences to yours. With Facebook and other social networking sites ranking in the top most used sites, connecting with students across the world is easy. These available resources can assist students with the research necessary to select the medical school that best meets their needs.
