Medical School in Hungary

Hey everyone!

First, I'd like to say what an amazing forum you have here, I've been reading through the threads all morning.

So as the title suggests, I'm interested in going to medical school in Hungary. The main university I've been looking into is Semmelweis, located in Budapest. However, others like Debrecen look very appealing as well.

As you may know, many Americans use international medical schools as their "last ditch effort" when they do not get accepted into a med school within the United States. However for me, studying in Hungary has been a dream of mine for a while, and even though I have high grades and could take the MCAT and could get into an American Med school, my sights are still set on Hungary for many different reasons.

First off, I do qualify for Hungarian citizenship, I contacted the consulate near my house in Los Angeles and they told me that I would just have to bring in my parents birth certificate and I would receive my passport and paperwork. Going to medical school in Hungary is already relatively cheap (around 8,000 USD a semester) and for many Hungarian universities, it is covered by American Financial Aid (typically loans). However, would being a Hungarian citizen have any advantages over just receiving a student visa? Is there anyway I could receive a scholarship from Hungary or the EU to help mitigate the cost of attendance? In America we have a website called Fafsa (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Basically it is an application that you fill out once a year and universities use it to grant you money based on your financial need. Have you heard of anything like that for Hungary or the EU, or is it solely dependent on the University? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Overall, what do you all think of my decision to study in Hungary? I've already had a few Europeans tell me to look into medical schools in Western Europe instead of going to Hungary. But I see this as a way for me not only to get an education, but also as a way to reconnect with my culture. If you have any comments, suggestions, or concerns please feel free to let me know  :proud

Thank you all for your time!

One of my kids was thinking of medicine and I looked into it some years ago.

I couldn't answer for sure about grants or scholarships but my gut feeling is that there's nothing you could apply for other than loans.    However, if you are an "EU" student by virtue of your birthright, you might be able to even get lower fees in other places, like Scotland (plenty of excellent universites) or Germany (they also do medicine in English I guess).  They would not charge you as a foreign  national if you had an EU passport.  You can also apply for student loans in the UK as an EU student (all EU nationals are treated equally, I don't see why they need to know you are dual national).

Hungary has a good reputation and history for medical training.  A lot of countries and regions send students here to study - Norway, Africa, China, Middle East and even Iran.  African countries used to send medical students to Moscow to study but since there was a series of racially based attacks on African people in Russia, there was a move to use other ex-communist countries like Romania and Hungary.  There's something of a legacy here from the communist past that build up "relations in socialism" by having overseas students from certain countries.

One area which might be an issue is if you return to the USA to practise and do not have a recognised degree which would allow you to obtain a license without further training or even worse, re-training. I understood this was necessary to obtain malpractice insurance rather than anything academic. My interpreter's husband was an oncologist and had to do a supervised training residency at a US hospital before he could practice there. That's even though he was a 10+ years experienced mid-career professional anyway.

I read some Caribbean countries have medical programmes which are recognised in the USA.  Maybe such things also exist here too but I haven't looked into it further as that part wasn't on my radar.  All EU doctors can work in any other EU country (UK now requires a language test).

Both those universities - Semmelweis and Debrecen - are top class medical schools.  Wherever you go, you'll need to learn the language (they give you courses) as you need to be able to talk to patients.

Since timing may be important in your case, you should ask the consulate how long the process will probably take, from submitting documents in proper form to receiving your Hungarian passport. Remember that everything gets sent to Budapest for processing.