Singapore to China for Med School w/ Apoorva

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Hey, welcome. This is Episode 10 and this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Apoorva, you can find her on Instagram @appystudiesmed. If you would like to learn more about her journey going to China for medical school and keep on listening.

So hi, how are you doing.

Hi Kinza, thank you so much for having me.

Of course I'm so excited to connect and get to know you better.

So my first question for you is just to introduce yourself, where are you from, where do you go to medical school and what year are you in?

Sure, so my name is Apoorva, and I'm a fourth year medical student at Georgetown University in Huntsville, China, it's right next to Shanghai. It makes it easy to understand. But yeah. So I'm originally from India and I was living in Singapore before I moved to China. And I did my final years of high school in Singapore. We applied to different schools around the world and then, yeah, I ended up going to China.
Did you grow up there? Did you move there at any point?

No. So I moved there when I was 15 because of my dad's work. Oh, nice. So were you born in India to?

Yeah!

Ok, so we're speaking to someone for our listeners to just make it clear, so she grew up in India and then she applied to medical school kind of all around the world and she chose to study in China. Which brings me into my next question about like, how have you liked your medical school experience so far in China and what motivated you to study in China out of all the other different countries that you could have chosen from to?

Right. So it's honestly been a very learning experience. I feel like I'm a whole new person. And when I was when I started med school, I feel like, you know, when you study abroad, study away from home, you always learn a lot of things. There's a lot of independence and freedom and so many things you just have to do on your own. And with China, the issue obviously was the language difference. So that was something I had to work on to be able to adapt and let them know.


That I must've been really.

Did you learn Chinese when you got there before?

So I try to learn a bit before, but honestly, nothing can prepare you for what it's actually like over there. So most people speak Chinese at my university was quite nice and I think all universities who have international students make it compulsory for students to learn Chinese over there. So we had a Chinese course from the first semester itself. So by now, we all read, write and speak Chinese pretty well.

Wait, what year are you in again?

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention it. I'm a fourth year, fourth year.

Now, you would say you're fluent almost.

No, no, no.

I want to go to China for medical school to learn the language.

So how what is your curriculum look like? I know as an international student, the timing is a little bit different. So do you mind just speaking a little bit about what grade you were in when you applied to medical school, maybe how old you were to give people some perspective? And then how many years is medical school in China?

For sure. OK, so I finished my high school at 18. How many students do I did the Indian curriculum, the CBSE and right after high school. You can apply to medical programs in the UK or China or even India because they're all undergraduate and the BS programs. The Bachelor of Medicine. Bachelor of Surgery. So, yeah. So as soon as I graduated, I applied to UK, Canada and China. I tried for India, but I didnt want to go back, well, yeah. So yeah, in the course of a six year course for some countries, it's a five year course, five and a half. But my university is a six year course. So the first year is premed. Then we have two and a half years of preclinical and then the last two and a half years of clinical experience. So it's quite like segregated into different portions. I know a lot of universities around the world have a very integrated course, but like in a lot of countries like India, UK, China, everything is like section into preclinical and then purely clinical.

Ours is a bit like that too. So our first two years are preclinical. So we study the first two years. We take classes, we take our step one exam, and then the last two years are more clinical. We still have exams and maybe a few classes trickled in, but we go on our rotations our third year and then we take our exams. After each rotation, you take an exam and then I think fourth year is a little bit laid back. It's more more clinical work. Again, you take electives. So you what your studies and China are six years, right? OK, so that's nice. So you start early and you finish early.

Yeah, but I feel like, you know, by the time I finish this, I'll be about twenty four or twenty five and then we have to do some extra exams like step one step two people spend two years or three years working on those. And then, yeah, we are pretty much.

So do you take your step one. When do you take step one?

Also, it's a great optional to us, it depends on where we want to go. So some students, some IMGs international medical graduates, like to take it through their med school. Some like to do it right after med school. But your first six year program, generally it's the end of the third year or like at least my four year people like you do this step one.

Yeah, that makes sense. So if you finish your preclinical, would it make sense to just take your step one right after so it's fresh in your mind or what do you think?

Definitely, yeah. Yeah, that's what my seniors recommend do. So just do it sooner, but make sure you're ready.
Yeah. And they have the intentions of coming to the US to study, correct?

Yeah, that's right.

But what are some of your future plans about what you want to do and where you want to be after you graduate.

Right. So my first priority would be US. So I'm studying for the step one right now, but there's a lot of other things I'm also considering. I consider U.K. for the U.K., I would have to do the LAB and still be. It’s USvs UK though, based on my Step 1 scores I will decide.

Do you have to take step for UK though?

You guys have to take a lot of exams.

No.

I hope that they're all similar.

Well, I really hope that you make it over here is your family. Do you have any family in the US?

Yes. So I'm living near Chicago because my parents just moved here just last year.

I'm so happy that you get to be in the US instead, because of the pandemic.

Yeah, I came because of the pandemic.

And then I think maybe it's worse in the US now than it is in China.

But my last question for you is a very specific piece of advice to leave our listeners today. It could be related to medicine, are completely unrelated, but something that's had a significant positive contribution to your life.

Ok, so that's such a nice question. Thanks for asking me that, honestly, you know I've been in this kind of like slum recently because I've been home since childhood, and it's so irritating to be missing out on Unilife and, you know, all these crazy opportunities. I've just been reminding myself that, you know, your present is not your you know, it's not your forever. It's a really nice quote that I read recently. I feel like all the time will be stuck at home forever. And like all my friends outside are having fun. Yeah, well, I feel like, you know, it's OK. It will eventually end and I will get better.

So thank you so much for sharing that every time important for our listeners to know that things would get better and that even if you're in a slump right now, just work towards getting out of it because it won't be there. It won't be like that forever. Well, thank you so much for joining. I'm sure a lot of listeners who are kind of interested in international medical school will definitely benefit from this podcast, because I do get some questions from international students who are actually abroad right now studying medicine, either in India or the U.K. who come and ask me these questions. I hope that it gave them some perspective and that, yes, they're not alone, like they will be able to make it to the US if they just follow the same steps that you're following. All right, well, thank you so much.

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