Hey there Dexterin, thanks for sharing the info. I have a couple of questions:
What if I have an EU diploma but I'm not a French citizen? How does it work then?
If you have a UE diploma, whatever your citizenship, you can work in France. You just have to register your diploma, that's all.
You have to pass all exam if you are not a doctor (no diploma at all).
If you have a non-UE diploma, you have just to do as i told in my last post.
Is there some sort of a language proficiency exam that needs to be cleared? I'm assuming that the French system is slightly similar to the American one when it comes to choosing a post-graduate field (specialist field)...in that we have to write an exam, and the rank determines the specialty we get? Is that true?
OK.
1st year of medecine (just after hight school) :
everbody can enter med school for this year. No selection at all. Med school is free in France (as every universities in France).
But at the end of the year, there's a limited number of places to enter in second year. Around 10 or 15% of the candidates have a place. And you can only be in 1st year of medecine twice. If you don't have your ticket for the second year during your two tries : it's finish, it's done, you'll not be a doctor. And of course, this right to try the exam twice is for all the french territory. No way to try in another french university.
>> So it's a big selection by your capacity of working hard during this 1st year who make you becoming a doctor. You can be the son of the Mayor, you can be very intelligent in highschool, if you miss the exam at the end of the year, if you are not in the top 10% of the candidates, you'll not be a doctor.
For my example : i was not very good in highschool. But i woke up in med school and if i was not good during the year, i had some luck the day of the exam ! ;-)
After you pass your exam as normal, no selection, you must just validate some lessons every year.
At the end of the 6th year :
It's the choice of your speciality, your internate.
For that, we take EVERY STUDENT in 6th year for a national exam.
(the exam of the 1st year is different in each university, not this one).
We call him ECN : Examen Classant National
(national ranking exam)
And with the ECN you have a list of from the first to the last one.
Around 7500 candidates pear year and ... 7500 places ! ;-)
And you can choose with your rank... what's left !
Each year we know the average rank you need per speciality.
To be a brain doctor in a parisian hospital : better than 200.
In a provincial hospital : better than 500.
To be a ophtalologist : better than 2000.
To be a knee surgeon : better than 3500.
To be a hand surgeon : better than... 50 ! ;-)
To be a family doctor... you can be the last one (7000) ! ;-))))
In fact, if you want to choose your speciality, you work hard for the ECN. If you don't care and want to be a family doctor... you just need to work enough for validate your year, but not for the ECN.
The program of the ECN is all lessons of 4th 5th and 6th year. Hard.
You follow ?
When you are intern, you are salary of the hospital, during your internate : between 1500 and 1800 euros (if you do nights). Enought to live well, it's better than the average of the population. Internate (wathever is your speciality, even family doctor wich is a speciality in France, Residents doesn't exists) is from 3 to 5 years.
Secondly, how is the life for doctors/surgeons in France? I heard that they're not very well-paid? Is that true?
http://www.who.int/whr/2006/media_centre/06_chap4_fig04_fr.pdf
As you can see : the paid is proportionnal at the PIB (brutal interior product, BIP ? ;-) around the world. That's means the quality of life is almost the same for a doctor in economical " almost similar" coutries.
I try to found a grid of salary per speciality and i'll post here. ;-)
But as i know, surgeons are well paid. They just have a quality of life difficult because they are a little bit "slaves" of their diploma. But don't worry, they all have Audi or Mercedes cars... to go on WE at their second house near the sea ... ;-)