Capitalizing on the Premed Dream
PAPKE, DAVID R.
FOREIGN SCHOOL PLACEMENT Capitalizing on the Premed Dream by david R- papke Located on the 15th floor of a midtown Manhattan building, the offices of the Institute of International Medical...
...The agents compete with the services and sometimes effectively close off particular foreign schools...
...He supposedly organized his agency after watching his own son struggle into and through a foreign medical school...
...Perhaps the best indicator of the fierce competition for the aspiring medical student and his money is the spying that occurs between agencies...
...Baranson's estimate of his competitors is less favorable: "Let's face it, a substantial number of placement agencies are rip-off joints interested only in application fees...
...An ad in the Sunday New York Times elicits an average of 70 inquiries...
...In 1976, consumers played into the hands of the placement organizations by obtaining legislation requiring American schools receiving government funds to admit and give advanced standing to transfers from abroad, or lose the Federal money...
...1 can't run the ad too often," he says with a smile, "or I'd have too much business...
...Placement is nothing more than finding a hole for a peg," Schrager says, "but our efforts are public spirited...
...Yet of the 8,000 Americans currently studying in 35 foreign medical schools, two-thirds were placed through an agency...
...One 1976 Yale College graduate told me, "They charge you an arm and a leg for things you can do on your own tor a couple hundred bucks...
...But their facilities are second-rate, and students sometimes finish several years of study only to find that they are poorly prepared for United States licensure examinations...
...He cited an agency that asks $4,500 tor get someone into a school that welcomes Americans in the first place and charges a mere $150 tuition per semester...
...He also bristles if the "uninformed" visitor lumps his organization with other agencies...
...and an advertisement in a newspaper Baranson refuses to name produces an average of 190...
...Even standbys Belgium and Spain have adopted strict quota systems...
...When my father first called to ask about the agency," he recalled, "Schrager told him, 'Look, for $3,500 1 get your son into a foreign medical school...
...Would-be doctors and their parents besieged that nation's Park Avenue consulate and called the Italian government "inhuman and nativist...
...The Institute is one of 20 such services that have prospered during the past decade...
...Its advertisements in the San Juan telephone book suggest it is a computer programming outfit...
...A good number of the rejected look to foreign school placement agencies for help...
...In this category Mexico's Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, with its 2,500 American students and almost militaristic regimen, is a taxing though viable alternative...
...An especially notorious example of the latter is a New Jersey-based agent of a Phillipine medical school, who demands a $10,000 "contribution" whenever he supplies a place in the entering class...
...The consensus of medical education specialists is that the best alternative for a person turned down by a domestic school is a state-supported European one...
...FOREIGN SCHOOL PLACEMENT Capitalizing on the Premed Dream by david R- papke Located on the 15th floor of a midtown Manhattan building, the offices of the Institute of International Medical Education are posh, with enough deep rugs, gentle lights and fashion conscious secretaries to inspire feelings of confidence...
...It's that simple.' " Most agency heads are more to the point than the good Dr...
...We make medical programs known and available throughout the world...
...Baranson gleefully reports finding a rival's embarrassed maid subscribing to his organization and snooping on its operations...
...David Marien, a premedical adviser at Queens College and author of A Guide to Foreign Medical Schools, cautions: "The foreign agents vary as much as the schools they represent...
...Jerry Baranson notes that the agent has a long list of well-heeled potential customers presumably anxious to contribute...
...He also insists that he never spends client money to buy a spot at a foreign school, and that International Accredited is "above the table," based on carefully developed "relationships of trust" with assorted admissions officers...
...Susi Wugmeister, chief adviser in the Yale College premedical program, systematically warns seniors about the services...
...They hook onto panic-stricken pre-meds and charge huge fees without providing totally reliable services...
...The criticism hit the mark: Early last month Congress cut the life-span of the Rogers bill to one year...
...sus (he Ferrari of the agencies, it places Americans in Italian schools, offers language training and provides national board prep courses...
...These primarily money-making ventures have sprung up during the last few years, particularly in Mexico and the Caribbean, in direct response to the availability of American medical school candidates...
...Their business is secure and growing...
...They speak bluntly of their market share, and they admit to a strong liking for old-fashioned profit...
...At best, they convey the image of hustling small businessmen who know their clientele...
...Generally, this "award" means nothing more than a reduction in the agency's already inflated fees...
...To protect against fraud, he advises demanding the names of satisfied customers, and suggests extreme suspicion if all the people on the list are abroad...
...Nevertheless, the AAMC in conjunction with the American Medical Association (AMA), has chosen to restrict the number of slots in domestic institutions, claiming that there is a doctor surplus—news that would surprise residents of urban ghettos and rural communities...
...They cried "government interference in higher education," and charged Congress with pandering to voters that have relatives studying out of the country...
...The instant medical schools are a threat as well as a boon to the agencies...
...The cost discourages many...
...Perhaps their reflected images would only remind them that although the stampede on domestic medical schools has lately diminished a bit, they are among the two-thirds of the 45,000 students applying for entry annually who are still turned away...
...While any lay observer—possibly even the Justice Department Anti-Trust Division—can see through this market-control smoke screen, there is not much that can be done about it, or its effects on premed students eager to convert professional dreams into reality...
...In fact, Jerry Baranson, director of International Accredited College Admissions Services, uses advertisement responses to gauge the market...
...Fourteen of them declared they would give up their Federal grants...
...According to James Schofield, director of accreditation for the AAMC, the university appears to be a small mail-room operation run by a dentist...
...It is much easier to adjust to life on the Continent than in a developing country, and except for frightening built-in attrition rates, many European institutions—such as the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin or Lille in France—offer programs on a par with or superior to their American counterparts...
...To be sure, they have "open" slots in their entering clases...
...As might be expected, almost all the customers are middle-class whites in their early 20s...
...But alas, the situation in Europe is tightening...
...In late spring, when premedical undergraduates learn of their fate in the domestic medical school sweepstakes, agency advertisements spring up like dandelions in metropolitan newspapers...
...applicants, and now West Germany, Austria and Switzerland have taken a similar stance...
...on the other, they are anxious to cut out the middle man and often send their own agents to the U.S...
...The law, sponsored by Florida Democratic Congressman Paul G. Rogers, was roundly criticized by representatives of leading U.S...
...Naturally, agency proprietors had hoped for more permanent legislation, but they were not overly distraught when the Rogers bill lost its punch...
...As long as the medical establishment refuses to significantly expand enrollment in domestic schools, foreign medical school placement will remain a lucrative part of the crazy race for professional status in America...
...Baranson maintains that his success rate is an impressive 97 per cent, and attributes this to not handling borderline candidates...
...The Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands have never accepted U.S...
...Some are honest and upright, while others make no bones about selling admissions under the table...
...A commonly used ploy involves stringing along the marginal medical school candidate...
...schools...
...Most of the agency activities are not strictly illegal," she says, "but the agencies do fool people...
...Another gimmick is granting a fellowship or scholarship...
...Proof of their desperation came last year when Italy announced it would ban foreign medical students...
...Concentrated in New York, Boston and Los Angeles, they promote foreign programs, process applications, expedite visa requests, and provide tips on living abroad...
...Their sole option then becomes practicing abroad, too...
...According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the majority are fully qualified to attend U.S...
...Often the trap is baited with vague promises of a transfer to an American school after two years abroad, when in reality students at foreign schools, particularly Mexican schools, have severely limited transfer options...
...On the one hand, they provide them with openings for prospective students...
...By consenDavid R. Papke, a previous contributor to these pages, is the dean of Yale University's Davenport College...
...Schrager...
...The pathetic spectacle of Americans demanding "their" places in Italian medical schools eventually ended with the rescinding of the ban—and a sigh of relief at the Institute of International Medical Education...
...Consequently, the agencies increasingly rely on schools of lesser renown in Mexico, India, the Phillipines, and the Caribbean...
...Albert Schrager, the gregarious board chairman of the Institute, dodges the question and describes an article he plans to write on the ambiguity of the title "Doctor...
...Asked if he is a medical doctor, Dr...
...In the sprawling reception room, young men and women wait for appointments, but curiously, they do not gaze into the full length mirrors...
...schools...
...They vary greatly in competency and honesty, but all charge heartily: a sizeable application or subscription fee—in one case $750—and as much as $4,000-5,000 for final placement...
...Watching him battle his irrational sense of guilt as well as foreign bureaucracies convinced me of the need for decent placement services...
...The trauma for him was incredible," the father solemnly recounts...
...If the ban had stood, a large part of its operations would have gone under...
...The most questionable new proprietary school may be Boriquen University in San Juan...
...indeed, several have abandoned downtown offices for shopping center suites in suburban Boston or on Long Island—places rich in rejected medical school applicants...
...Yet that is simply the most fraudulent tip of a huge unfair-trade-practices iceberg...
...However, there is also a growing number of undersized proprietary schools that lack official recognition from their own countries, let alone from the World Health Organization in Geneva...
...What Wugmeister finds most distressing about the agencies' conduct is their failure to distinguish among foreign schools...
...One recent subscriber to the Institute smiled wryly when told of Schrager's public spirit...
...Services keep careful tabs on each other, and a few directors admit using undercover tactics...
...With directors anxious to point out each other's shenanigans, the consumer is understandably left wondering about the soundness of his investment—as well he might, for not long ago a New York agency was caught selling places in a nonexistent Haitian medical school...
Vol. 61 • January 1978 • No. 1
