Life in Pakistan

The answer to how life is for a Westerner depends mostly on which city you're planning to go to study in. If you're in Islamabad life is great -- you can find almost everything here that you would back home and stuff is for the most part pretty modernized.

Shifa's girls hostels have a 10 PM curfew every night. The guys' hostels also have the same curfew however its almost never enforced. Gotta love the double standard. All of the hostels have a security guard and cook but the security guards for the guys' hostels don't really care where you go or when you come back. The girls hostel is basically on lockdown after 10 pm.

I personally find life to be really different from back home (California) but still awesome. Every place has its plus points and negative points but in terms of what Islamabad is like, its probably the cleanest, most civilized city in all of Pakistan.

I don't know much about hostels but I do know about food in Pakistan. Food is pretty cheap if your thinking that 1 dollar is 60 rupees. Almost every resturant has good pakistani food.(It is Pakistan after all) They have some good resturants in Islamabad which offer Italian food, Chinese etc. Papasallies in Islamabad is very good. ALso i remember there was a resturant called Arizona Grille couple of years ago, I dont know if they still have it or not. Pizza Hut does not taste like pizza in america. There is a McDonald's in Rawalpindi (which is right next to Islamabad). But their burgers are VERY dry for some reason. Other than that they have Subway and KFC which taste original. About internet access they have DSL here.(or internet cards which are cheap and slow). Basically Pakistan is not as bad people think. In the first couple of weeks when you come to Pakistan, you will be depressed and angry at yourself for coming to this dump, but then as time moves on you will start to enjoy it.

There is no such thing as life in pakistan as being perfect, everything is imperfect here that is the rule. If you go to a private medical institution like aga khan then you were very smart to get admission in the first place and it is the most modern medical school in the country even south asia, built at a cost if $80 million over 20 years ago, in todays money, well, thats enought to dwarf every medical institution in pakistan over the past 20 years combined, so you catch my drift. You will have a much easier time adjusting here as everyone there has been abroad, weirdo's usually dont get admission there so their pretty liberal as well.

Shifa is probably the 2nd best place for a foreigner to adjust to, modern, no cheap paindu people from villages going there ( i mean the locals have to pay as much as a foreigner does at other medical schools so its not cheap ) but if you havent seen other medical govt schools you will probably complain about it as being weird and so paki-ish like most of the current shifa students do who know no better.

If you are one of the many who enter into the govt med schools, first thing you do is find and locate other foreigners. Mostly their canadians who have been raised in a very supressed pakistani life style abroad and they look just like pakistanis and act and speak the same so you will have trouble finding them. Also, many pakistanis who get foreign seat admission these days get it because they have no marks taken off, they just have foreign passports from child hood but have completed their studies IN pakistan so there will be some of them maybe, they will flat out deny they are paying x thousands of dollars a year to go to the school. So, IF you are lucky, you will find another north american preson as normal as you are and just hope you both get through every year together as I find the more american you are, the less chance you have of making it all the way though.

Student life? Well, be prepared for 6 days a week total confusion for the first few months, the heat, the ugly facilities, the paint peeling off, the diarrhea, the not knowing what to do what to study thing as well as adjusting to the country. Student life doesnt exist, either your a "hostelite" or your a "day scholar". If you live in the hostel, for girls I guess its not as bad you might have your own room. They are more strict with females. Males they do whatever they want. If you are from USA you will take one look at a govt. hostel and run the other way so if you can stay with family or get your own place on rent, if you can manage your food, security bills etc then its better option, hostel would be a last option specially if you cant squat down every day and take cold showers and hear bollywood music blaring down the hallways all the time.

But, the good thing is if you stick it out, THINGS DO GET BETTER, you get used to it too. As far as being in a govt school, you'll notice 80% of the students come from an underprivledged background, their not middle class even if they have a $300 cell phone. These students might have even gone to urdu medium schools, and they have no past experience with foreigners whatsoever. They will stare at you initially, ask weird questions like if you have girlfriends in america, and the MOST common question you will get sick of hearing "WHY DID YOU COME TO PAKISTAN TO STUDY when everyone is going to usa" just say "I moved here, not for school though".

Its not that bad though not trying to discourage anyone, just helping you know what to expect. In my honest honest honest humble opinion if your a totally UMREEKAN Foreigner, try deadly hard to get into aga khan, baqai, or shifa. The studies are also less intense there (in my very honest opinion). Even if you have to take a year longer to get admitted, but if you end up in a govt college, dont sweat it.

Rawalpindi Medical College:
Pros:
Near Islamabad
Cons:
Girls are stuck up, very conservative atmosphere in the class room. But as time goes from first year to fifth year, you will notice hijbabs dissappear, they start wearing make up, they switch to jeans and high heals and more brighter clothes and are more open to talking to guys, not sure why this is. Our studies have showin its their last chance to find a guy before med school is over.

King Edward:
Pros:
Girls are friendly right from the get go I hear. Very liberal atmosphere as students who get admission here are usually brighter and from more modern families unlike other places which are villagers.
Cons:
Expensive for foreigners, much tougher studies.

Some guys are decent, but most of them have never talked to a girl so they will make excuses up like "can I borrow your notes to copy them" as a way to come up and talk to you, so you will find that most parties keep to their own in government schools. How should I put this... In private schools, you will find it comparble to the high school american environment in some way. In Govt schools, you will find it like Junior high school in El Salvador or something. I mean seriously most these students have been living with their families in some rural pakistan area their whole life they worked HARD to get admisison and now they just want to have fun, go wild in the hostels, stay up late at night, watch bollywood movies etc. I guess when the teacher turns around they go crazy screaming throwing spit wads. Even with the super strict teachers they can act like 10 year olds and you will not believe these are future doctors. Id say only by 5th year do they mature up a bit or get tired of acting so immature.