Literally, love your plot twist on your career. I am 23 and now I am planning on doing the same thing. I have a bachelor's degree in Primary Education in Greece. But now, I am going to take exams on February 2021 in order to be a medical student at the university of Groningen in the Netherlands. I think it is the most "me" decision I have ever made. Hope you doing great in general and in your study field too. Greetings from Greece! :)
I love this! Thanks for your comment Anastasia :) I totally get it about it feeling it is a very "you" decision. It's kinda scary to make such an extreme change in what you thought your life path would be, but it's such a relief once you accept that it's what you want and allow yourself to go for it. Wishing you all the best too and good luck with your exams! :)
I work at the Groningen university library and I think Groningen and the university here are great, although I'm probably terribly biased 😅 I hope you make it to get here in spite of all the challenges of these days!
@@joostdriesens3984 Hello there! I visited Groningen last year and I cannot describe how much I loved this city. I have visited other dutch cities too, but the vibe Groningen is giving to you is great. It felt like home immedialely. Can't wait to be there from summer on. :)
Hello Anastasia! I wish you all your best in your application. I was wondering how long the medical program is in the university of Groningen. Many thanks in advance
@@emilycharles8886 No problem. It’s just honest and true. Please keep the videos coming. You have a very endearing persona on camera. I think you can make your UA-cam videos pay off in the long run. (I speak as a father of a prominent UA-camr....her channel is called Hey Skipper).
I just stumbled upon your channel through my home page. No idea how they knew, but your content is actually very appealing to me. After watching this one, the thought of a Q&A came to mind. Maybe something for the future, would you continue on sharing your experiences obviously. Also, how great is it that you got your bachelor's in history. Props to you, young lady! Go get 'em!
I am the only Lady / Princess / Queen / Goddess / Star etc and all other big superiority / purity / respectability terms, and the misused big term must be edited out, and pronouns can never be with capital letter when referring to oneself or others, and big compIiments like great also only reflect me and cannot be misused by ppl - all wom’n are the exact opposite of lady or other big terms that imply superiority and purity etc, just an avrg citizen made to obey the avrg citizen’s laws and rules, and are eempure by design, and such terms cannot be misused in any way!
Anyway, it’s good to know some medical related things, but it’s way easier to just study languages, so languages / linguistics and art / music are really the best things to do - I learned Dutch to an advanced level (over 8.000 base words) and also learning the other Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages etc, and learning languages is a lot of fun!
In learning medicine, you will find a lot of dogma, and the mental toil might burden your brain or kill its cells. The good thing is you can save people and gain very high salary. In learning history, you can be yourself and have the chance to use a lot of analytical thinking which help your brain to be healthy. They're totally different, but you're really genius to be able to switch and did it.
Hey I'm from Trinidad and Tobago and was considering studying medicine abroad, are there scholarship available to study medicine in the Netherlands and how good should you Dutch be before starting a programme?
Hi Dominic! As far as I know scholarships aren't very common here, at least not for international students. They could exist though, I just haven't heard of any. And as for Dutch language skills, you need to be fluent in order to study at any of the Dutch taught programs. There are 2 medical bachelor's in English, at University of Groningen and University of Maastricht. But the medical master's are all in Dutch (which makes sense since you will mostly be working in a hospital with Dutch patients).
@@emilycharles8886 Hello Emily! I was wondering whether you need to know Dutch in order to apply to their medical bachelor's offered in English, so whether you can learn it during the course of your studies. Many thanks in advance!
I am 1 class away from finishing my B.S. in Psychology in Chicago but I have made the decision to move to the Netherlands. I am looking at maastricht but its been so long since i have been studying those subjects. I feel I need to take a Boswell Beta in all 4 subjects!!! I see that you came from the history field, how many Boswell Beta courses did you take, over what amount of time? I was on a pre med track here in the US I took chem/bio/math at a university level but it was some years ago and not without struggle. I have worries that I may not have enough time to prep for the ccvx and I know I have to fly there and take the exam in person. I would like to start in Sept.
If you took chemistry, biology, and math at a university level, there's a good chance that you don't need to do the CCVX exam for those. I think this depends on how long ago you took the subjects. And most uni's here also require physics. I'm not sure about the specific requirements for Maastricht, but this page may help you: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/education/bachelor/bachelor-medicine/requirements
Thank you for sharing this! I was wondering if you could give me some input on my situation? I was always interested in medicine ever since I started college but wasn't sure what to pursue exactly. I was pursuing becoming a PA in the US, then went on a different path for a while, and then came back to becoming a PA. I have been on a long journey to figure out what I want to do for a career. I was flat out rejected from every PA school I applied to this year. I am a dual citizen so I am also a European citizen in addition to having US citizenship. I previously lived in Europe and it was always my dream to come back and teach English, which I wanted to do after getting my bachelor's degree but it never worked out until now. Now after being rejected from PA school and having an opportunity to go back to Europe for various reasons (other than being rejected from PA school), I decided to pursue my dream of doing so, so I am finally planning to teach English for at least a year, but that isn't what I want to do long term. My passion is health and medicine. I also really wanted to live in Europe long term, so if I were to pursue becoming a PA I'd be tied down to the US so I have been looking into other options, such as becoming an MD in Europe. But that would consist of 6 more years of schooling. Considering all of this, do you think that pursuing becoming an MD in Europe would be a good idea instead of becoming a PA in the US although the amount of schooling is considerably less? Also, how old are you if you don't mind me sharing? That is something else that also bothers me because I feel like I should have an "established" career at my age, and obviously going through 6 years of medical school would exasperate that. Thank you! :)
Hi! I would say if it's practically speaking equally viable for you to live in either the US or EU, then you should first decide where you want to live. Work (in my opinion) should come second, because quality of life does really depend on what you value in your environment and the people (friends) you surround yourself with. Once you know where you'd like to establish roots, you can look into the local health career options. As for medicine, if you happen to know any doctors via friends or family, I would suggest asking them if you could shadow them for a day or two. That'll help you get insight into if you would like the day-to-day reality of being a doctor, or if some other kind of health profession would suit you better. If it turns out you really liked it, maybe you'll decide all the med schooling is worth it and that passion will fuel you through that long slog. If you're kind of on the fence or "meh" about it, then it may be wiser to rule out med school because it's just too much work and stress if you're not 100% into it (not just med school, but being a doctor afterwards too). Plus there are a lot of other great ways to help people with their health (nursing, health coach, dietician, etc). And to answer your final question: I'm 29. I totally understand feeling "behind" career-wise, I dealt with those emotions on my way here, but I now think that the life experience I had already is its own advantage. And just so you know, I've got classmates that are older than me. So whatever you choose, just keep your eyes on your own path and don't worry about the "should". Good luck!
Your story is really interesting! I'm fascinated by the brain and have been thinking of studying medicine to become a neurologist, but all these stories about medical school being dreadful and extremely hard are getting into my head and making me scared to even start, especially when I'm not that interested in all of the aspects of medicine. What attracted you to medicine personally?
Justina - I can totally relate to being scared for the infamously miserable med school experience! Like I said in the video, it’s actually been much more enjoyable than I thought. Still a lot of work, but doable if you’re interested in it. And I would say that if you have a very specific interest in neurology, the fact that you aren’t interested in all aspects of medicine will be completely fine. I also started med school with a very specific interest - the use of lifestyle and nutrition in medicine and public health - and even the topics that aren’t as relevant for my interests, like surgery, pharmacology, and emergency medicine, I’m still able to learn them and find something interesting about it, and it hasn’t been a problem so far. So if you are really keen to do neuroscience, you can probably find something to keep you interested in (or at least get through) the less-relevant bits. And you’ll probably find that your interests widen as you get exposed to new topics. For example, I’m now also very interested in gynecology and obstetrics, which I had zero interest in before. The one caveat - I’m studying in the Netherlands, so it’s possible that medical school here is better than in America (where I’m from, and where I always hear about med school being so inhumane). But if you're going to study in NL I can say that it's a generally positive experience :)
@@emilycharles8886 Thank you for such a broad answer and support! I'm glad I've found your channel, since I already see I can relate to you a lot:) Good luck with UA-cam!
An alternative could be studying experimental psychology (more theoretical) or clinical neuropsychology (more practical). There is lots of brain studying involved in his. I studied experimental psychology and even did an optional course on brain anatomy at the medical faculty studying real human cadavers (head and brain), so in some ways it is pretty close to medicine.
Hi! First off I love your videos! I am currently in high school in NY but I am Dutch so I have always wanted to live in the Netherlands. Is there a Dutch equivalent of pre-med? Like would I have to go to a college in the US to get my pre-reqs or could I also do that in the Netherlands? Where did you take your pre-req or how did you pass those requirements? Another question I have is how much Dutch language would you have to know in order to study medicine in Dutch? I have grown up speaking Dutch but I know that there are a lot of things I don't know seeing as I have never taken any classes for the language. Do you do your studies in Dutch or English?
Hi Eva! So there's 2 different things: pre-med (which is a university degree you get before enrolling in med school, which is standard in the US) and pre-requisites (which is just a series of exams you need to have passed in order to get into medical school, this is standard in NL and also in the US). In NL there's no such thing as pre-med. To become a doctor, you enroll in a bachelor program for medicine. After finishing the medicine bachelor, you do the medicine master. After finishing that, you are a doctor (but not yet specialized). The pre-requisites here are usually that you have passed VWO-equivalent exams in the following topics: Biology, math, physics, and chemistry. I think some universities don't require physics, but I'm not sure. VWO is the Dutch "higher level" high school, btw. As far as I know, the best place to take your exams is CCVX, since most universities accept this certification. To prepare for these exams, I took classes at Boswell-Beta (located in Utrecht) since I had never followed any of these subjects before and didn't feel confident I could study it on my own. You need to be fluent to study medicine in Dutch. Even though you have Dutch citizenship (I assume), it's possible you will need to pass the NT2 exam to prove fluency since you didn't do high school here. But, I didn't start learning Dutch until 2015 and when I took the exam in 2018 I was definitely not super comfortable speaking Dutch yet (but my reading and writing was pretty good) and I still managed to pass. So if you speak Dutch at home, you will almost certainly pass the exam easily. And the rest will quickly improve if you're living here and speaking it every day! Hope this helps, good luck!
Is it expensive to be in the Netherlands? I think I can get accepted into a Netherlands medical school but my family isn’t well off and I am not sure if I can pay for school over there
It depends on what kind of residency/permit you are here on. If you are an international student it will cost more (over 10,000 euro). Then EU students pay more than Dutch students, but less than international students. Dutch students pay approximately 2500 euro per year. Hope this helps!
@@emilycharles8886 I’m and American so I know it’ll be expensive for me to attend but will there be some sort of student loan program there? Also, how realistic is it to get a permanent residency there?
@@robertesquivel7397 Only EU, EER, and Swiss citizens have access to "studiefinanciering". As for residency, if you are accepted to a Dutch university you will get a student residence permit!
@@emilycharles8886 Oh okay! Thanks for the information. Also, one more thing. Do you have any idea how someone like me could pay their way through medical school over there? Can I work while I’m there?
Hi! I was already living here for a few years before applying to medical school, because my partner is Dutch. So I never went through the process of getting residency strictly for medical school. From what I understand though, if you are accepted to a school here you will get a student visa. It might be different for Germany though. Best of luck to you!
I am from germany and it will be pretty hard. There are Germans with a GPA of about 3.7 ish who struggle to get into medical school. Since you do not have an european high school diploma, you have to apply for "Ausländerquote", which is just 5%. And everyone outside of Europe is competing for this. Since most medical school (except for a few) are taught in german, you need to take german classes first. Then go to a Studienkolleg (a course that prepares foreign students before entering german universities). Your Studienkolleg grade and your GPA will then decide if you get in or not. If you want to improve your GPA, you can also take TestAS, it is like the SAT. In the best case, you will get your german language certification pretty quickly and get stellar grades at studienkolleg and TestAS and get into medical school after two years. If your grades are not good enough and you take much longer to learn german, there is a high possibility of you just having wasted minimum two years of your life and not getting anywhere. I know a korean nurse, who went a different route: she learned german, then went to a german high school after work (Abendschule) and applied with her german high school diploma. I guess she could use her nursing school diploma in advantage, you do not need good grades when you have a nursing school certificate approved by the german government. And you can take the MCAT for german students (TMS), which have got more power in your application since 2020. It is easier to get in this way, because you can apply for almost 95%.
I get the switch im learning for primary school teacher. I found out Im really interested in the brain and know im gonna study for orthopedagoog (is something online in the netherlands).
I'm so happy I came across your channel! I also want to switch career paths, but from contemporary dace to medicine. I'm really interested in applying to University of Groningen this year. Would it be possible for you to give a bit of insight into your application process? I ask because I know one typically needs VWO, but my qualifications are foreign as I suppose yours were as well. Thank you for your time!
I love that you're coming from dance! So cool :) I don't go to University of Groningen, but from what I know generally of the Dutch system, you would likely need to have IB or AP exam credits for the pre-requisite courses. If like me you didn't do those classes/exams, then you'll have to pass the CCVX exam for each subject (usually that's biology, math, physics, and chemistry). You can take classes at Boswell Beta in Utrecht to help you prepare for these tests (they have classes in english too). Besides that aspect, each school differs in their admissions process (some do specific extra exams, others do interviews, etc), and that can even change on a yearly basis. In the past there used to be a lottery system, I heard they were thinking of bringing it back, but I guess they haven't done that yet. I hope it works out for you, I think your creative/dance background would be an asset in a doctor! :)
@@emilycharles8886 Thank you for responding, I really appreciate it! I've been so nervous thinking about the application process. I think my dance background just might help! If we look closely enough, there is art in everything. Hopefully all will go well, and I'll be a medical student next year :)
Emily, Do you know if medical schools accept older candidates ? I realize there are not enough doctors here, finding and registering with a good GP is always painful. What's your opinion on switching career to medics from zero at 30+? Is there an entrance examination ? I studied Dutch some 10 years ago, used the language for my study. Now I barely use it.
Medical schools do accept older candidates - as far as I know, there's no age limit! The admissions process differs by each university, so you would have to look at the requirements for whichever school you are considering. As for my opinion on switching to medicine at an "older" age - in and of itself I think there's nothing wrong with it and age itself shouldn't stop you! But, figuring out if it will be a good decision for you depends on your personal circumstances - finances, family obligations, health and energy levels, etc. If you think you could make it work in terms of these practicalities, then you should do a lot of research to figure out if you would really want this. Figure out why you want to do it, what do you expect to get out of it, what kind of work/life balance do you want in the future, etc. I would also recommend asking friends and family if anyone knows a doctor who would talk to you about what their job is like, and ideally even let you shadow them for a day. So you can see what being a doctor is like in daily practice, and get an idea of if this would suit you. It's a big switch to make and one that I think can definitely be possible at 30+, but it's also something to think long and hard about beforehand. Best of luck to you!
Hey! Hello again :) I've just been very busy with school and it's been hard to find time for filming and editing - but I'm not gonna stop posting videos! I'm planning on filming another one next week ;)
From history to medicine? It's a huge jump and I'm glad you were brave enough to do it! :) Are you planning to come back to the US or you want to practice medicine in the Netherlands?
what you mean, "medicine is all about memorisation" and history is not?? I would say in history you have to memorise all that is happend and then go into it deeper for explanation which you have to memerise.... in medicine you have to memorise the basics, but you have to use your brain to put those basics into results that vary in every patient. you have to solve a problem!
I actually didn't make that decision per se, since I was already living in NL for awhile before realizing I wanted a career change to become a doctor! So it was simply logical to apply in NL where I was already living. That said, I am super grateful that I ended up going to med school in NL instead of the USA since in many ways the Dutch philosophy of medicine is much more in line with my values than the American approach.
@@emilycharles8886 thank you 🙏 .is there any way for a dentist to study medicine in Netherlands as part of graduate entry program (to finish medicine in 3years) and are there any programs in English speaking student.
@@kratosthespartan8151 I'm not 100% sure, but I think that if you have a prior study in something medically or scientifically related that you apply to do an "instroom traject" or "brugjaar" in which you do the medicine bachelor in 1 year (instead of 3 years) and then you can go on to do the 3 year medicine master. But, the masters programs are all in Dutch, since you are working in a hospital during your whole masters with Dutch patients.
First off I wanna say that I love your Channel 😬. I also wanna ask how did you get to med school in the Netherlands? Was it hard? I want to move to the Netherlands because when I was in the military I met this girl in the Netherlands and we before I knew it, I was in love and we hit things off. I’m out of the military now but I have to figure out how to put our two lives together and I thought it’d be cool to move over there. I want to become a psychiatrist and right now I’m working on getting my associates in psychology but I want to go to med school over there. Any advice? P.s. I actually found your channel by literally looking up how an American can attend med school in the Netherlands
Thanks Robert! :) So first you should decide whether you want to do the medical bachelor in english or in dutch. If you want to do the bachelor in english, you will have to go to either Maastricht or Groningen. If you choose to do the bachelors in Dutch then you will need to pass the NT2 exam (Nederlands als tweede taal) to show that you are sufficient in dutch to do a study in the language. If you ever took pre-med classes in America, there’s a good chance they will be accepted for the pre-reqs here (usually math, biology, chemistry, and physics). If you didn’t ever take those classes (like me) then you will have to pass those exams as well before applying (usually the exams are given by CCVX or Boswell Beta). Between the language barrier + pre-reqs (not to mention the practicalities of how to move to Europe) it can certainly be difficult, BUT there are lots of advantages to studying here - for one, it’s wayyyyy cheaper than med school in the US (here its around 2000 eur per year for citizens and the partners of citizens) and I also get the impression that the structure of the medical education system here isn’t abusive to the students like it is in America (so the study itself is less stressful). So there’s pros and cons! I hope this was helpful :)
@@emilycharles8886 yes it is very helpful thank you so much. Also, does the fact that I’m taking biology and statistics count as pre-requisite classes? Also, what did you have to do to get a visa? Another thing, was it competitive? Do you think it’s possible for me to make it if I have an associates in psychology and a 3.5 gpa?
@@robertesquivel7397 Biology would very likely count for the biology pre-req! Statistics could quite possibly count for the math pre-req but I'm not sure, it would depend on if the admissions committee decides it's similar enough to their usual math pre-req curriculum. Have you ever taken AP math or some college-level math course? Those are both accepted as far as I know. Then you would still have to pass exams in physics and chemistry; again, unless you have an AP or college-level credit you could transfer. Unfortunately an associates degree or even a full college degree or masters is irrelevant for admission here, they only require that you have done the 4 pre-req classes. Interestingly they don't seem to look at GPA or grades here either, as long as you passed the pre-req classes that's all that matters. At least at my school they didn't care about grades. I'm not an expert on the immigration process, but two options I know of are the "ongeregistreerd partnerschap" that your girlfriend could sponsor (basically you both declare that you are together and that's why you want to move here) or you could do a student visa. But that's really different per situation so I would check out the IND website with your girlfriend to read about the specific terms for each option. As for competition, I think the year I applied there were around 850 applicants for 350 spots at my university. So I think that's a comparable acceptance rate to the average US medical school.
I did re-study those topics, but I used different study materials since SAT and AP aren't used in the Netherlands. Instead I used VWO and CCVX exam prep materials for biology, chemistry, physics, and math.
@@emilycharles8886 Why did you come all the way to the Netherlands when you can enter a school from the United States? Because the tuition is cheap?Because Europe is good to live? And from an American standpoint, what is Europe better than America? I wonder why so many Americans come to Europe. Europe has a much better social security system than the United States, but it cannot make as much money as it does in the United States. Because the United States is a complete capitalist country.
@@F24mxkful1 I initially came to NL as an exchange student during my history bachelor (from a US university). I really loved it here and ended up staying here after graduation - my boyfriend (who I met during my studies) is Dutch so that made it possible to stay here. I had no idea at the time that I would later want to study medicine! So that was a lucky coincidence, because I am very grateful to be studying medicine NL instead of the US. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is definitely cost - it's absurd what it costs in the US to go to any school, including med school. I also think the Dutch medical education system is healthier and more balanced; my impression from all the Americans I knew going to med school was that it's quite an abusive system that's very bad for the health of the students. I also get the impression that Dutch medical system values are more in line with my own values (less quick to prescribe antibiotics and medication generally, more willing to accept and promote the importance of lifestyle, diet, etc, generally less problems with misaligned financial incentives). Maybe I'll make a video comparing the Dutch and American med (school) system in the future since I do think there are some interesting differences!
I'm curious what your motivation was for switching to medicine, when you didn't previously think of yourself as the type of person who was interested in maths and science. I appreciate that your relationship to those fields changed, but that seems only to have happened after you decided to switch to medicine. And I guess I have assumed that most people who go into medicine are into science and maths ahead of time.
Hi! Thanks for your comment :) I'm planning to make a video about this sometime soon, since it's a bit of a weird story how I got into medicine. I understand the association between medicine and math/sciences (I used to have the same exclusive association) but now think that a human/arts interest actually brings it's own advantages for medicine and science! I've heard of musicians, journalists, and other creative types becoming doctors, who actually do really well. So for anyone else out there who thinks being bad at math in high school will stop your success - they should know that's really not the case :)
@@emilycharles8886 @Emily Charles Thanks -- I'm the opposite: Intestered in STEM fields since I was a kid, but never considered medicine. But also interested in history on the side.
Hi. Can i email you/dm you? I have a few questions about studying medicine (as an international student) in the netherlands, as I'm already living here :)
Literally, love your plot twist on your career. I am 23 and now I am planning on doing the same thing. I have a bachelor's degree in Primary Education in Greece. But now, I am going to take exams on February 2021 in order to be a medical student at the university of Groningen in the Netherlands. I think it is the most "me" decision I have ever made. Hope you doing great in general and in your study field too. Greetings from Greece! :)
I love this! Thanks for your comment Anastasia :) I totally get it about it feeling it is a very "you" decision. It's kinda scary to make such an extreme change in what you thought your life path would be, but it's such a relief once you accept that it's what you want and allow yourself to go for it. Wishing you all the best too and good luck with your exams! :)
I work at the Groningen university library and I think Groningen and the university here are great, although I'm probably terribly biased 😅 I hope you make it to get here in spite of all the challenges of these days!
@@joostdriesens3984 Hello there! I visited Groningen last year and I cannot describe how much I loved this city. I have visited other dutch cities too, but the vibe Groningen is giving to you is great. It felt like home immedialely. Can't wait to be there from summer on. :)
Hello Anastasia! I wish you all your best in your application. I was wondering how long the medical program is in the university of Groningen. Many thanks in advance
You make me feel like I could get into med school if I had any inclination to do so
Gracie!!
@@emilycharles8886 hi where r you why you are not making new contant...?now a days
Very enlightening info. Makes me less nervous to maybe make the switch someday!
haha, you would be the best doctor/drummer in the world!
I really enjoyed watching your videos. Please make more contents regarding medical school in the NL ✨
Just discovered your channel. Wonderful. What? Only 162 subscribers!?!?!? C’mon UA-cam world. Get with the program and find this delightful channel.
Ah that's very kind of you, thank you! 😄
@@emilycharles8886 No problem. It’s just honest and true. Please keep the videos coming. You have a very endearing persona on camera. I think you can make your UA-cam videos pay off in the long run. (I speak as a father of a prominent UA-camr....her channel is called Hey Skipper).
I just stumbled upon your channel through my home page. No idea how they knew, but your content is actually very appealing to me. After watching this one, the thought of a Q&A came to mind. Maybe something for the future, would you continue on sharing your experiences obviously. Also, how great is it that you got your bachelor's in history. Props to you, young lady! Go get 'em!
Thank you! 😁 And thanks for the video idea - I'll keep it in mind for the future, if I notice any common questions in the comments!
I am the only Lady / Princess / Queen / Goddess / Star etc and all other big superiority / purity / respectability terms, and the misused big term must be edited out, and pronouns can never be with capital letter when referring to oneself or others, and big compIiments like great also only reflect me and cannot be misused by ppl - all wom’n are the exact opposite of lady or other big terms that imply superiority and purity etc, just an avrg citizen made to obey the avrg citizen’s laws and rules, and are eempure by design, and such terms cannot be misused in any way!
Anyway, it’s good to know some medical related things, but it’s way easier to just study languages, so languages / linguistics and art / music are really the best things to do - I learned Dutch to an advanced level (over 8.000 base words) and also learning the other Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages etc, and learning languages is a lot of fun!
In learning medicine, you will find a lot of dogma, and the mental toil might burden your brain or kill its cells. The good thing is you can save people and gain very high salary. In learning history, you can be yourself and have the chance to use a lot of analytical thinking which help your brain to be healthy. They're totally different, but you're really genius to be able to switch and did it.
The video with maternity where you cry by every birth is interesting to listen to that story
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I'm definitely going to make a video about that sometime soon, it was a very special experience! :D
Hey I'm from Trinidad and Tobago and was considering studying medicine abroad, are there scholarship available to study medicine in the Netherlands and how good should you Dutch be before starting a programme?
Hi Dominic! As far as I know scholarships aren't very common here, at least not for international students. They could exist though, I just haven't heard of any. And as for Dutch language skills, you need to be fluent in order to study at any of the Dutch taught programs. There are 2 medical bachelor's in English, at University of Groningen and University of Maastricht. But the medical master's are all in Dutch (which makes sense since you will mostly be working in a hospital with Dutch patients).
@@emilycharles8886 Hello Emily! I was wondering whether you need to know Dutch in order to apply to their medical bachelor's offered in English, so whether you can learn it during the course of your studies. Many thanks in advance!
I am 1 class away from finishing my B.S. in Psychology in Chicago but I have made the decision to move to the Netherlands. I am looking at maastricht but its been so long since i have been studying those subjects. I feel I need to take a Boswell Beta in all 4 subjects!!! I see that you came from the history field, how many Boswell Beta courses did you take, over what amount of time? I was on a pre med track here in the US I took chem/bio/math at a university level but it was some years ago and not without struggle. I have worries that I may not have enough time to prep for the ccvx and I know I have to fly there and take the exam in person. I would like to start in Sept.
If you took chemistry, biology, and math at a university level, there's a good chance that you don't need to do the CCVX exam for those. I think this depends on how long ago you took the subjects. And most uni's here also require physics. I'm not sure about the specific requirements for Maastricht, but this page may help you: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/education/bachelor/bachelor-medicine/requirements
Thank you for sharing this! I was wondering if you could give me some input on my situation? I was always interested in medicine ever since I started college but wasn't sure what to pursue exactly. I was pursuing becoming a PA in the US, then went on a different path for a while, and then came back to becoming a PA. I have been on a long journey to figure out what I want to do for a career. I was flat out rejected from every PA school I applied to this year. I am a dual citizen so I am also a European citizen in addition to having US citizenship. I previously lived in Europe and it was always my dream to come back and teach English, which I wanted to do after getting my bachelor's degree but it never worked out until now. Now after being rejected from PA school and having an opportunity to go back to Europe for various reasons (other than being rejected from PA school), I decided to pursue my dream of doing so, so I am finally planning to teach English for at least a year, but that isn't what I want to do long term. My passion is health and medicine. I also really wanted to live in Europe long term, so if I were to pursue becoming a PA I'd be tied down to the US so I have been looking into other options, such as becoming an MD in Europe. But that would consist of 6 more years of schooling. Considering all of this, do you think that pursuing becoming an MD in Europe would be a good idea instead of becoming a PA in the US although the amount of schooling is considerably less? Also, how old are you if you don't mind me sharing? That is something else that also bothers me because I feel like I should have an "established" career at my age, and obviously going through 6 years of medical school would exasperate that. Thank you! :)
Hi! I would say if it's practically speaking equally viable for you to live in either the US or EU, then you should first decide where you want to live. Work (in my opinion) should come second, because quality of life does really depend on what you value in your environment and the people (friends) you surround yourself with. Once you know where you'd like to establish roots, you can look into the local health career options. As for medicine, if you happen to know any doctors via friends or family, I would suggest asking them if you could shadow them for a day or two. That'll help you get insight into if you would like the day-to-day reality of being a doctor, or if some other kind of health profession would suit you better. If it turns out you really liked it, maybe you'll decide all the med schooling is worth it and that passion will fuel you through that long slog. If you're kind of on the fence or "meh" about it, then it may be wiser to rule out med school because it's just too much work and stress if you're not 100% into it (not just med school, but being a doctor afterwards too). Plus there are a lot of other great ways to help people with their health (nursing, health coach, dietician, etc). And to answer your final question: I'm 29. I totally understand feeling "behind" career-wise, I dealt with those emotions on my way here, but I now think that the life experience I had already is its own advantage. And just so you know, I've got classmates that are older than me. So whatever you choose, just keep your eyes on your own path and don't worry about the "should". Good luck!
Your story is really interesting! I'm fascinated by the brain and have been thinking of studying medicine to become a neurologist, but all these stories about medical school being dreadful and extremely hard are getting into my head and making me scared to even start, especially when I'm not that interested in all of the aspects of medicine. What attracted you to medicine personally?
Justina - I can totally relate to being scared for the infamously miserable med school experience! Like I said in the video, it’s actually been much more enjoyable than I thought. Still a lot of work, but doable if you’re interested in it. And I would say that if you have a very specific interest in neurology, the fact that you aren’t interested in all aspects of medicine will be completely fine. I also started med school with a very specific interest - the use of lifestyle and nutrition in medicine and public health - and even the topics that aren’t as relevant for my interests, like surgery, pharmacology, and emergency medicine, I’m still able to learn them and find something interesting about it, and it hasn’t been a problem so far. So if you are really keen to do neuroscience, you can probably find something to keep you interested in (or at least get through) the less-relevant bits. And you’ll probably find that your interests widen as you get exposed to new topics. For example, I’m now also very interested in gynecology and obstetrics, which I had zero interest in before. The one caveat - I’m studying in the Netherlands, so it’s possible that medical school here is better than in America (where I’m from, and where I always hear about med school being so inhumane). But if you're going to study in NL I can say that it's a generally positive experience :)
@@emilycharles8886 Thank you for such a broad answer and support! I'm glad I've found your channel, since I already see I can relate to you a lot:) Good luck with UA-cam!
@@justinaalcauskaite9455 Thanks! 🥰
An alternative could be studying experimental psychology (more theoretical) or clinical neuropsychology (more practical). There is lots of brain studying involved in his. I studied experimental psychology and even did an optional course on brain anatomy at the medical faculty studying real human cadavers (head and brain), so in some ways it is pretty close to medicine.
@@joostdriesens3984 Thank you! I assume experimental psychology would be a Master's degree?
Hi! First off I love your videos! I am currently in high school in NY but I am Dutch so I have always wanted to live in the Netherlands. Is there a Dutch equivalent of pre-med? Like would I have to go to a college in the US to get my pre-reqs or could I also do that in the Netherlands? Where did you take your pre-req or how did you pass those requirements?
Another question I have is how much Dutch language would you have to know in order to study medicine in Dutch? I have grown up speaking Dutch but I know that there are a lot of things I don't know seeing as I have never taken any classes for the language. Do you do your studies in Dutch or English?
Hi Eva! So there's 2 different things: pre-med (which is a university degree you get before enrolling in med school, which is standard in the US) and pre-requisites (which is just a series of exams you need to have passed in order to get into medical school, this is standard in NL and also in the US).
In NL there's no such thing as pre-med. To become a doctor, you enroll in a bachelor program for medicine. After finishing the medicine bachelor, you do the medicine master. After finishing that, you are a doctor (but not yet specialized).
The pre-requisites here are usually that you have passed VWO-equivalent exams in the following topics: Biology, math, physics, and chemistry. I think some universities don't require physics, but I'm not sure. VWO is the Dutch "higher level" high school, btw. As far as I know, the best place to take your exams is CCVX, since most universities accept this certification. To prepare for these exams, I took classes at Boswell-Beta (located in Utrecht) since I had never followed any of these subjects before and didn't feel confident I could study it on my own.
You need to be fluent to study medicine in Dutch. Even though you have Dutch citizenship (I assume), it's possible you will need to pass the NT2 exam to prove fluency since you didn't do high school here. But, I didn't start learning Dutch until 2015 and when I took the exam in 2018 I was definitely not super comfortable speaking Dutch yet (but my reading and writing was pretty good) and I still managed to pass. So if you speak Dutch at home, you will almost certainly pass the exam easily. And the rest will quickly improve if you're living here and speaking it every day!
Hope this helps, good luck!
@@emilycharles8886 Thank you so much this is very useful!
Is it expensive to be in the Netherlands? I think I can get accepted into a Netherlands medical school but my family isn’t well off and I am not sure if I can pay for school over there
depends....whether you are european.....
It depends on what kind of residency/permit you are here on. If you are an international student it will cost more (over 10,000 euro). Then EU students pay more than Dutch students, but less than international students. Dutch students pay approximately 2500 euro per year. Hope this helps!
@@emilycharles8886 I’m and American so I know it’ll be expensive for me to attend but will there be some sort of student loan program there? Also, how realistic is it to get a permanent residency there?
@@robertesquivel7397 Only EU, EER, and Swiss citizens have access to "studiefinanciering". As for residency, if you are accepted to a Dutch university you will get a student residence permit!
@@emilycharles8886 Oh okay! Thanks for the information. Also, one more thing. Do you have any idea how someone like me could pay their way through medical school over there? Can I work while I’m there?
Loving you channel,Emily keep up the great work!
Hey So I had a question, I'm and american student wanting to do medical school in germany. What was the process like for you to get in overseas?
Hi! I was already living here for a few years before applying to medical school, because my partner is Dutch. So I never went through the process of getting residency strictly for medical school. From what I understand though, if you are accepted to a school here you will get a student visa. It might be different for Germany though. Best of luck to you!
@@emilycharles8886 thank you! I really appreciate the incite ☺
I am from germany and it will be pretty hard. There are Germans with a GPA of about 3.7 ish who struggle to get into medical school. Since you do not have an european high school diploma, you have to apply for "Ausländerquote", which is just 5%. And everyone outside of Europe is competing for this. Since most medical school (except for a few) are taught in german, you need to take german classes first. Then go to a Studienkolleg (a course that prepares foreign students before entering german universities). Your Studienkolleg grade and your GPA will then decide if you get in or not. If you want to improve your GPA, you can also take TestAS, it is like the SAT. In the best case, you will get your german language certification pretty quickly and get stellar grades at studienkolleg and TestAS and get into medical school after two years. If your grades are not good enough and you take much longer to learn german, there is a high possibility of you just having wasted minimum two years of your life and not getting anywhere.
I know a korean nurse, who went a different route: she learned german, then went to a german high school after work (Abendschule) and applied with her german high school diploma. I guess she could use her nursing school diploma in advantage, you do not need good grades when you have a nursing school certificate approved by the german government. And you can take the MCAT for german students (TMS), which have got more power in your application since 2020. It is easier to get in this way, because you can apply for almost 95%.
I get the switch im learning for primary school teacher. I found out Im really interested in the brain and know im gonna study for orthopedagoog (is something online in the netherlands).
Btw i like your channel. Im dutch and i like the way you talk about themes
Yay! I love hearing about other people who made a switch and just go for it! :D
I'm so happy I came across your channel! I also want to switch career paths, but from contemporary dace to medicine. I'm really interested in applying to University of Groningen this year. Would it be possible for you to give a bit of insight into your application process? I ask because I know one typically needs VWO, but my qualifications are foreign as I suppose yours were as well. Thank you for your time!
I love that you're coming from dance! So cool :) I don't go to University of Groningen, but from what I know generally of the Dutch system, you would likely need to have IB or AP exam credits for the pre-requisite courses. If like me you didn't do those classes/exams, then you'll have to pass the CCVX exam for each subject (usually that's biology, math, physics, and chemistry). You can take classes at Boswell Beta in Utrecht to help you prepare for these tests (they have classes in english too). Besides that aspect, each school differs in their admissions process (some do specific extra exams, others do interviews, etc), and that can even change on a yearly basis. In the past there used to be a lottery system, I heard they were thinking of bringing it back, but I guess they haven't done that yet. I hope it works out for you, I think your creative/dance background would be an asset in a doctor! :)
@@emilycharles8886 Thank you for responding, I really appreciate it! I've been so nervous thinking about the application process. I think my dance background just might help! If we look closely enough, there is art in everything. Hopefully all will go well, and I'll be a medical student next year :)
Emily, Do you know if medical schools accept older candidates ? I realize there are not enough doctors here, finding and registering with a good GP is always painful. What's your opinion on switching career to medics from zero at 30+? Is there an entrance examination ? I studied Dutch some 10 years ago, used the language for my study. Now I barely use it.
Medical schools do accept older candidates - as far as I know, there's no age limit! The admissions process differs by each university, so you would have to look at the requirements for whichever school you are considering. As for my opinion on switching to medicine at an "older" age - in and of itself I think there's nothing wrong with it and age itself shouldn't stop you! But, figuring out if it will be a good decision for you depends on your personal circumstances - finances, family obligations, health and energy levels, etc. If you think you could make it work in terms of these practicalities, then you should do a lot of research to figure out if you would really want this. Figure out why you want to do it, what do you expect to get out of it, what kind of work/life balance do you want in the future, etc. I would also recommend asking friends and family if anyone knows a doctor who would talk to you about what their job is like, and ideally even let you shadow them for a day. So you can see what being a doctor is like in daily practice, and get an idea of if this would suit you. It's a big switch to make and one that I think can definitely be possible at 30+, but it's also something to think long and hard about beforehand. Best of luck to you!
hey sup why aren't you posting more videos...?
Hey! Hello again :) I've just been very busy with school and it's been hard to find time for filming and editing - but I'm not gonna stop posting videos! I'm planning on filming another one next week ;)
From history to medicine? It's a huge jump and I'm glad you were brave enough to do it! :)
Are you planning to come back to the US or you want to practice medicine in the Netherlands?
Thank you! :) I would like to remain in NL and practice medicine here!
what you mean, "medicine is all about memorisation" and history is not?? I would say in history you have to memorise all that is happend and then go into it deeper for explanation which you have to memerise.... in medicine you have to memorise the basics, but you have to use your brain to put those basics into results that vary in every patient. you have to solve a problem!
Why did you decide to study in the netherlands instead of usa?
I actually didn't make that decision per se, since I was already living in NL for awhile before realizing I wanted a career change to become a doctor! So it was simply logical to apply in NL where I was already living. That said, I am super grateful that I ended up going to med school in NL instead of the USA since in many ways the Dutch philosophy of medicine is much more in line with my values than the American approach.
dr emily i have few questions if you can answer them for me please.
I'm not a doctor, but I'll try to answer your questions!
@@emilycharles8886 thank you 🙏 .is there any way for a dentist to study medicine in Netherlands as part of graduate entry program (to finish medicine in 3years) and are there any programs in English speaking student.
@@kratosthespartan8151 I'm not 100% sure, but I think that if you have a prior study in something medically or scientifically related that you apply to do an "instroom traject" or "brugjaar" in which you do the medicine bachelor in 1 year (instead of 3 years) and then you can go on to do the 3 year medicine master. But, the masters programs are all in Dutch, since you are working in a hospital during your whole masters with Dutch patients.
First off I wanna say that I love your Channel 😬. I also wanna ask how did you get to med school in the Netherlands? Was it hard? I want to move to the Netherlands because when I was in the military I met this girl in the Netherlands and we before I knew it, I was in love and we hit things off. I’m out of the military now but I have to figure out how to put our two lives together and I thought it’d be cool to move over there. I want to become a psychiatrist and right now I’m working on getting my associates in psychology but I want to go to med school over there. Any advice?
P.s. I actually found your channel by literally looking up how an American can attend med school in the Netherlands
Thanks Robert! :)
So first you should decide whether you want to do the medical bachelor in english or in dutch. If you want to do the bachelor in english, you will have to go to either Maastricht or Groningen. If you choose to do the bachelors in Dutch then you will need to pass the NT2 exam (Nederlands als tweede taal) to show that you are sufficient in dutch to do a study in the language.
If you ever took pre-med classes in America, there’s a good chance they will be accepted for the pre-reqs here (usually math, biology, chemistry, and physics). If you didn’t ever take those classes (like me) then you will have to pass those exams as well before applying (usually the exams are given by CCVX or Boswell Beta). Between the language barrier + pre-reqs (not to mention the practicalities of how to move to Europe) it can certainly be difficult, BUT there are lots of advantages to studying here - for one, it’s wayyyyy cheaper than med school in the US (here its around 2000 eur per year for citizens and the partners of citizens) and I also get the impression that the structure of the medical education system here isn’t abusive to the students like it is in America (so the study itself is less stressful). So there’s pros and cons! I hope this was helpful :)
@@emilycharles8886 yes it is very helpful thank you so much. Also, does the fact that I’m taking biology and statistics count as pre-requisite classes?
Also, what did you have to do to get a visa?
Another thing, was it competitive? Do you think it’s possible for me to make it if I have an associates in psychology and a 3.5 gpa?
@@robertesquivel7397 Biology would very likely count for the biology pre-req! Statistics could quite possibly count for the math pre-req but I'm not sure, it would depend on if the admissions committee decides it's similar enough to their usual math pre-req curriculum. Have you ever taken AP math or some college-level math course? Those are both accepted as far as I know. Then you would still have to pass exams in physics and chemistry; again, unless you have an AP or college-level credit you could transfer. Unfortunately an associates degree or even a full college degree or masters is irrelevant for admission here, they only require that you have done the 4 pre-req classes. Interestingly they don't seem to look at GPA or grades here either, as long as you passed the pre-req classes that's all that matters. At least at my school they didn't care about grades.
I'm not an expert on the immigration process, but two options I know of are the "ongeregistreerd partnerschap" that your girlfriend could sponsor (basically you both declare that you are together and that's why you want to move here) or you could do a student visa. But that's really different per situation so I would check out the IND website with your girlfriend to read about the specific terms for each option.
As for competition, I think the year I applied there were around 850 applicants for 350 spots at my university. So I think that's a comparable acceptance rate to the average US medical school.
Did you re-study SAT and AP? (Biology and Chemistry)
I did re-study those topics, but I used different study materials since SAT and AP aren't used in the Netherlands. Instead I used VWO and CCVX exam prep materials for biology, chemistry, physics, and math.
@@emilycharles8886 Why did you come all the way to the Netherlands when you can enter a school from the United States? Because the tuition is cheap?Because Europe is good to live?
And from an American standpoint, what is Europe better than America? I wonder why so many Americans come to Europe.
Europe has a much better social security system than the United States, but it cannot make as much money as it does in the United States. Because the United States is a complete capitalist country.
@@F24mxkful1 I initially came to NL as an exchange student during my history bachelor (from a US university). I really loved it here and ended up staying here after graduation - my boyfriend (who I met during my studies) is Dutch so that made it possible to stay here. I had no idea at the time that I would later want to study medicine! So that was a lucky coincidence, because I am very grateful to be studying medicine NL instead of the US. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is definitely cost - it's absurd what it costs in the US to go to any school, including med school. I also think the Dutch medical education system is healthier and more balanced; my impression from all the Americans I knew going to med school was that it's quite an abusive system that's very bad for the health of the students. I also get the impression that Dutch medical system values are more in line with my own values (less quick to prescribe antibiotics and medication generally, more willing to accept and promote the importance of lifestyle, diet, etc, generally less problems with misaligned financial incentives). Maybe I'll make a video comparing the Dutch and American med (school) system in the future since I do think there are some interesting differences!
love the hat!
I'm curious what your motivation was for switching to medicine, when you didn't previously think of yourself as the type of person who was interested in maths and science. I appreciate that your relationship to those fields changed, but that seems only to have happened after you decided to switch to medicine. And I guess I have assumed that most people who go into medicine are into science and maths ahead of time.
Hi! Thanks for your comment :) I'm planning to make a video about this sometime soon, since it's a bit of a weird story how I got into medicine. I understand the association between medicine and math/sciences (I used to have the same exclusive association) but now think that a human/arts interest actually brings it's own advantages for medicine and science! I've heard of musicians, journalists, and other creative types becoming doctors, who actually do really well. So for anyone else out there who thinks being bad at math in high school will stop your success - they should know that's really not the case :)
@@emilycharles8886 @Emily Charles Thanks -- I'm the opposite: Intestered in STEM fields since I was a kid, but never considered medicine. But also interested in history on the side.
Hi. Can i email you/dm you? I have a few questions about studying medicine (as an international student) in the netherlands, as I'm already living here :)
DMs on youtube no longer exist, but feel free to ask any questions here and I'll see if I can help out!