Question Regarding Safety of Pak Medical Schools

First off, this is an English forum, regardless of this section being related to Pakistani medical schools. Please don't try and use other languages to make yourself clear; English is clear enough and all those words have English equivalents.

Secondly, please search the forum before you start posting. Safety of foreigners and safe cities/dangerous areas have already been mentioned throughout other threads.

I'll answer which questions I can of yours, but please keep these rules in mind for next time.

1. Not a question....

2. No, you should not be afraid of crime. Things are safe in the major cities as long as you stay in public and avoid going down dark alleys.

3. "What sort of criteria do Pakistani medical schools have for foreign students?" Criteria for what? What do you mean?

4. Medical schools themselves don't have crime, so there's no ranking of which school is safer and which is more dangerous.

Yeah it's true, people are dishonest often, but in the setting of a medical college, especially in a private one, there's not going to be brawls and thievery everywhere around you. People can't cheat you out of anything. If you have family in Pakistan they'll take care of everything for you. If not, you'll most likely live in school housing, and you won't have to worry about getting cheated out of stuff like when you go to pay bills or buy an AC or something like that. The more independent you are, the more hassles you'll run into, but when everything is taken care of for you and provided by the school, you won't have much to worry about other than staying healthy and studying.

Especially in a private school, the environment is very civil. You won't find yourself ever feeling unsafe or being cheated. As long as you're not out alone wandering around at 1am in the morning, you'll be fine. Stay in groups, or go out during a time when lots of people are out if you're going to be by yourself. Sure, it's different from what we may be used to as foreigners, but it's still safe enough to where trouble can be avoided with just a small amount of everyday caution and common sense.#happy

" 1) I chatted with a cousin from PK about this, and he strongly adviced me to absolutely NOT apply for medical school in Pakistan because a lot of crap happens there...(chalaakian, ladayi jhagday, theft etc.) ... All in all my cousin was very pessimistic about me studying in PK "


Hey, lol that's a problem from what i've seen to. For some reason people seem to reallllllyyy discourage you from going to study in Pakistan. They're number one reason is that you're already in the U.S and people are dying to go there why would you want to come here? Also, i'm really confused about this, but alot of people are like well you're gona go there but you come back here and take youre USMLE etc. you start off from like "Zero"..meaning the education in pakistan is looked down upon etc. etc. what would you guys say? Is it better just to stay in the U.S and do med here?

Well it all boils down to this… if you feel your are competitive enough within the US/Canadian pool of students and can easily maintain a high GPA of 3.5 -3.7 or above in post-high school (university) and can still find time to build up an eye-catching resume with a lot of volunteer work (since grades alone cant get you a guaranteed spot), and nail down the interview in front of a medical board panel after a 4 year undergrad bachelor degree and convince them that you’re actually there to be a doctor and save humanity rather than the pay it’ll give you… then I’ll suggest you stay in US/Canada…

Eventually one has to take the usmle test, even the students from US med schools…

There are cons and pros for both situation… it’s really a personal choice... i wud advice you to start looking up uni stats for students who got admission into us med schools ... to see your current standing and if you can really be competitve in that setting...

Depends on the school you go to and how familiar you are with Pakistan. If you never visited Pak your entire life or only when you were a kid and in the winter/summer vacations then its possible it could be dangerous. Karachi and similar schools in the area are somewhat dangerous, so is Ayub as they have a lot of demonstrations, but overall I guess its sort of safe if you live at home. If you live in a governtment school hostel, its pretty unsafe and chances are you will be robbed or have things "borrowed" never to be returned again. If your completly dumb its possible in your first year to be initiated beyond the norm and run away vowing never to return to Pakistan again.
All depends on the crowd your with in school and everything as well. But its safe all and all if you just keep aware of your surroundings and dont make bad friends or get into bad things (ie drinking, prostitutes etc.. I've seen some students get into that!).

All and all its a concern but definetly not an issue that should stop you from coming here. But if its something your really worried about then its best you stick to the more expensive private schools in which most of the students come from a higher middle class and are less prone to the lesser elements of society.

thosa said:

Hi,

I'm a college student from Denmark. After finishing college at the end of this month I want to go to medical school! Unfortunately, a certain average is needed to get into medical school in Denmark, and I don't think I can get that average(only something very close to it)...

So I've been considering going to medical school outside Denmark, and Pakistan was a country I had in mind... a reason why I've considered PK is that it might b somewhat easier for me to get into medical school here, but! Here comes the question(s):

1) I chatted with a cousin from PK about this, and he strongly adviced me to absolutely NOT apply for medical school in Pakistan because a lot of crap happens there...(chalaakian, ladayi jhagday, theft etc.) ... All in all my cousin was very pessimistic about me studying in PK

2) I've been checking this site out, and from what I see, many people here consider going to PK to study, and don't display much fear of the possible crime they could face... should I?

3) What sort of criterias do Pakistani Medical Schools have for foreign students?

4) Which medical schools are less prone to crime, gunda-gardi and chalaakian?

Click to expand...

listen to ur cousin! hes ur flesh and blood after all. a lot of people in this forum just project the "soft image" of pakistan. soft pakistan is not! fighting is not a problem. a weak european ex patriot will easily KO a normal pakistani. becuase through our youth we have been fighting whites and blacks who are normally ova 6 ft tall and 200 lb +. and not all pakis are gama pehlwan etc. so dont worry about fighting them, but the isolation will kill u. there views about the world are so distorted, they are away with the fairies- trust me. there are a lot of thefts, especially in lahore n karachi, in islamabad its a little better. the entry requirements, r a joke- ur forieghn bruv, wots wrong wit u!!! just pay up and enroll on a forieghn seat- in islamabad u can get onto at least 3 med schools by jus ringing them up and sending a dollars bak draft. but in america a paki degree is acceptable. not in europe. in england most pakistani, indian gps got expelled from the country when eastern european graduates came through. dont know the scene in america- if they arrested imran khan at the airport cant be much of a friendly country! yanks r 4 wankz. hope thius helps u bro.

OMG, this is such absolute crap. People you can listen to whoever you want, but let's go over the amazing (and oh so predictable) story of awaiseali first so that we can get some perspective regarding his opinion and oh-so-helpful advice.

Awaiseali thinking that he was a badass (because he knows how to speak some slang and because he lives in England) came to Pakistan expecting poor backwards cavemen who would kiss his feet the moment he got off the plane in Islamabad and worship his every word. He also figured that because this was Pakistan everything here must be akin to the stone age and not only would he easily put down some money and cruise through medical school, but that he wouldn't even have to study because of how great he is. I mean he's from England! That makes him so much better than anyone in Pakistan, right??

Then the harsh reality hit our dear friend when he realized that A) Pakistanis don't consider themselves any lesser than anyone else (and they shouldn't) and that B) medical school requires studying, and a ton of it.

Well after he failed a year he became highly bitter by the system and because he's so disillusioned (remember, he thinks he's the greatest thing Pakistan has ever seen) he left Pakistan with nothing to show for his time here and went back to the UK only to sit online and speak hateful rhetoric about everything to do with the country and the educational system. He speaks as if he's a qualified physician who actually has any credibilty but let us not forget that in the end, he's just a bitter kid who didn't get his way and didn't fly through medical school in Pakistan without studying like he thinks its his birthright. So now he makes up lies about how he easily got into three medical schools and how he's so amazing and blah blah blah, but in the end, he's still not enrolled anywhere. Hmm, doesn't quite fit right? Oh unless he's smarter than all the people at those schools and therefore it would have been a waste of his time to go there.

If you don't believe me, just click on his user profile and read up on all his posts -- does this guy sound like someone who works and studies hard and just unfortunately got the short end of the stick? Absolutely not. Everyone on this board knows what he is: an idiot. And he spares nobody in the propagation of his idiocy -- any person just has to read a post or two of his and realize the guy's a complete dumbass.

Now I'm not saying that injustice doesn't happen in Pakistan, and I do readily admit that corruption there may rear its ugly head more often than it does in the West, but don't be fooled into thinking this guy is a victim of that. This guy failing and being sent packing home isn't a flaw in the system; its the system working just as it was designed to. Does this guy seem like someone you'd want looking after your mother or daughter or brother or father if they were ill? I sure as hell wouldn't.

This guy needs to grow up and people shouldn't take anything he says seriously. Yes I'm sure that studying in Pakistan is not the same as studying in the United States and in the UK, but guess what -- in a way, it really is also. Studying is studying. Whether you're sitting in New York or sitting in Islamabad, you can come up with 2000 different reasons not to study if you want to but if you want to study, you can be sitting in Multan or in Munich and it won't matter. You'll still study.

Always take advice with a grain of salt -- but in the case of awaiseali giving the advice, just ignore it completely. Your brain (& brain cells) will thank you for it.

Take-home message: Awaiseali is a dumbass.

And with that, TotalNonStopAction is out. May my fans love and adore me, may my critics hate me with a passion just as equal!