Views
| IFMSA-Chile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 
| |||
| Location |  | |||
| Cities for Professional Exchange (SCOPE) |
Cities and their Universities from North to South | |||
| Cities for Research Exchange (SCORE) |
| |||
| Languages | Spanish, English | |||
| Currency (how much is a Bigmac?) | Peso Chileno (CLP) Big Mac: $2.700 pesos, ($5/€3.4) | |||
| Time zone | Winter time: GMT -4 / Summer time: GMT -3 | |||
| Number of Doctors and beds per 1000 people | 1,09 Doctors and 2,4 beds per 1000 people | |||
| Member of IFMSA since... | 2003 | |||
| Number of incoming students per year | 180 (SCOPE & SCORE) | |||
| Who are our NEOs (Heads of SCOPE) | Pablo Acuña (Incomings) & Felipe Cid (Outgoings) | |||
| Who is our NORE (Head of SCORE) | Kateryna Bulatova | |||
| Our official website / Forum / Facebook group | www.ifmsa.cl | |||
| ||||
Contents |
Welcome Note
Hello future exchange student!!! We're more than pleased to welcome you in Chile. Here we have a structured Organization that will help you during althrought your exchange period. The clerkships are very well organized with really great tutors and we have an extremely good "Social Program", so you better be ready for your BEST month abroad.
Overview
Chile is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage at the country's southernmost tip. With a coastline that stretches over 6,435 kilometres, Chilean territory extends to the Pacific Ocean which includes the overseas territories of Juan Fernández Islands, the Salas y Gómez islands, the Desventuradas Islands and Easter Island located in Polynesia.
Chile's unusual, ribbon-like shape — 4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long and on average 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide — has given it a varied climate, ranging from the world's driest desert — the Atacama — in the north, through a Mediterranean climate in the centre, to a snow-prone Alpine climate in the south, with glaciers, fjords and lakes.The northern Chilean desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. The Andes Mountains are located on the eastern border.
Currently, Chile is one of South America's most stable, prosperous and secure nations. Within the greater Latin American context it leads in terms of human development, gross domestic product per capita (at market prices and purchasing power parity), competitiveness, quality of life, political stability, globalization, economic freedom, low perception of corruption and comparatively low poverty rates and the highest security level, mesured by the Global Peace Index (GPI). It also ranks high regionally in freedom of the press and democratic development. It has a high income inequality, as measured by the Gini index. Chile is a founding member of the United Nations and the Union of South American Nations.
That's why too many exchange student spend 1 month one in Chile doing their clinical rotation/lab work (and travelling throught it of course) and then use it like a platform to visit many countries in South America like Argentina, Perú, Bolivia, Brasil, etc...
Useful links about Chile
The Economist The where-to-be-born index 2013 (world rank #23, LA rank #1)
Transparency International Corruption perceptions index 2012 (world rank #20, LA rank #1)
Global Peace Index 2012 (world rank #30, LA rank #1)
CNN World's most loved cities 2012 (rank #3 Santiago)
NYT The 41 Places to Go in 2011 (rank #1 Santiago)
NYT The 45 Places to Go in 2012 (rank #8 Chilean Patagonia and #37 Chiloé Island)
Happy Planet Index 2012 (world rank #19)
Chile at Wikipedia
Chile at Wikitravel
Chilean National Tourist Board
Chile in Lonely Planet
Our health care system
The health system in Chile is divided in two. Private service manage for the ISAPRES and Public Service manage for FONASA. More than the 70% of the population is affiliated to the Public System. In the past years the Goverment has worked really hard in increasing the coverage of the Publich Health System. The new System is called GES, which in spanish means Guarantee Specifical in Health. The diseases which are include in the GES are 56. This means if a person is affected with one of this 56 common diseases the treatment and the follow up are for free. Right now the goverment is working in increasing the number of diseases that are include in the new System. Even if you have ISAPRE you get the coverage for the GES. In Chile is mandatory to be part of a Health System, either public or private. If you have a salary is mandatory to pay the 7% of it, if you are affiliated to the private one you can pay the 7% for the basic plan coverage or more if you want to get more insurance. Homeless people are on FONASA and they get health attention for free. The patients of the public system suposed to be attend first in the "Consultorios" if is an emergency the can get attention in the "SAPU" and then they are sent to the Hospital where they can get a more specific treatment.
Our medical education
The medical education in Chile is really good. First to get in you have to pass a National Exam which is called PSU (University Selection Exam)and also you have to have good High School's grades which mix with the score in the Exam gives you a total. You muss have between 700 to 780 in the score to get into a Medical faculty. We have a lot of faculties which teach Medicine in the country. They are 21 enroll in IFMSA and 12 are SCOPE available. In Chile we have Public and Private Universities in both you have to pay but the prices are differents; in a public one you pay around 3.500-6.000 Eur per year meanwhile in a private one you pay over 7.000 Eur per year. There are just a few students who have full scholarships and most of them ask for loans to the goverment or private banks. Medicine is the longest career to study in the country, it takes 7 years to get your MD diploma. The first 2 years are most theorical and since the 3rd year you start to go everyday to the Hospital. Most in the mornings and in the afternoon we still have theorical classes. This goes on until the 5th year. In the 3rd year you study Semiology. Then the 4th and 5th year we have internal medicine, surgery, gynaeocolgy, pedriatrics, ophtalmology, dermatology, OTN medicine, legal medicine, etc. The last 2 years, 6th and 7th, you work as an intern which include night shifts. In this last 2 years you has to pass in the differents Departments of the Hospital but the ones that take longer are Internal Medicine, Surgery, Gynaeocology and Pediatrics. By the end of 7th year you have to take the National Medical Exam to practice Medicine, when you do that, then you have different choices; you can work as a General Practioner, work in rural areas and gain points to get your specialization paid by the Ministry of Health, or go with your grades, National Medical Exam scores, published work to a National Ranking Competion and choice the specilization you can sign acording to your ranking.
QS Ranking of Latin American Universities
4 Chilean Universities in the TOP 10
2° : Universidad Católica de Chile
4° : Universidad de Chile
9° : Universidad de Concepción
10°: Universidad de Santiago de Chile
And 30 in the top 250 Universities in Latin America, which has place it as the country with the biggest "Top Universities per millions inhabitans ratio" in Latin America.
- Chile......1,72
- Colombia...0,72
- Argentina..0,63
- México.....0,40
- Brasil.....0,33
Accommodation & Boarding
The accommodation and boarding for exchange students is in Host Families. This gives a plus to the Exchange because it gives you the opportunity to really realized how the Chileans live. Normally you will have your own bedroom or probably you might share it with someone of your Host family. Sometimes students don't study where they actually are from so they rent an apartment. In this case you might live just with one student or probably with other ones. Although the most common way is that you will live with the student and his/her family. The normal chilean family is with 4-5 members but also you will find families with more. In Santiago we will try to place you near where you will attend your clerkship but sometimes is not possible. Santiago is a capital with more than 6 millions inhabitants so the distance from one point to another might vary. From your host family's house it can take from 20 minutes to 1 hour a half to get to the Hospital you will attend. In Santiago the Metro-Line is extensive and work very efficiently but is not open after 11:00 pm. The busses work 24/7 but at night they run with less frequency. The cities in the Regions tend to be small so the distances among differents points shouldn't be longer than 40 minutes by bus. The only cities where there is Metro is Santiago and Valparaíso-Viña del Mar
Social program
We have a really organized Social Program for all the exchange students (SCOPE and SCORE). It has regular activities althrought the year (every month), and some special activities depending the month.
- City Tour
- International Dinner
- Valparaíso-Viña del Mar Tour
- Viña Concha y Toro Tour
- Ski Trip winter months (june-july-august)
- Valle del Equi Trip wummer months (december-january-february)
Beside all the educational experience you will have in your clerkship you will enjoy all the magic of our country, because Chile is All Ways Surprising!!
Local & National transportation
In Santiago the Mass Trasportation is easy to get use to it. The Transantiago is the name of the Transportation System in the capital. It works combined with buses and the subway. The subway lines covers up most of the city but still remain a lot of residential areas where it doesn't reach up yet. But most of downtown and other areas are pretty well cover. The Metro in Santiago works really efficiently and is really fast and pretty much safe. It has 5 lines and by the end of 2009 and 2010 will cover more Districts of the capital. The bus system was changed just a few years ago and is getting better every time. The City is divided in differents areas and each area get a different color bus which drives around. There're also "Troncales" which takes from further points of the city. To get into the Trasportation System you must use a BIP card which you charge with money and allows you to travel either in bus, metro or combined. You just pay once and you get 1 hour a half ticket to use metro, bus or both. Upon your arrival to Santiago the SCOPE team will provide you with the BIP card and a initial charge. Unfortunately you can't get the students' price because it takes a long time to get the Students' National Card and a month exchange is not enough. The other cities aren't as big as Santiago and the only one which has Subways is Viña del Mar which shares the line with Vaparaíso and other neighbors towns. In the regions you can ride buses which takes from one point to another is not that hard to get use to it and is not necessary to have the BIP card.
Weather
Chile is a long country so the weather varies a lot from north to south. Remember Chile is in the south hemisphere so we have differents seasons if you come from any country over the Ecuador. This mean if you're from Europe and you come here in July, it will be the middle of the winter and if you come in octuber, november we're in the middle of spring. In Chile you can tell the change of every season. The summers are really hot and dry and winter is cold and it rains a lot. This might vary from north to south. In northern Regions the weather is milder and it doesn't get that cold and it doesn't rain that much during our winter months. Although it gets quite cold specially during the nights. If you plan to travel to Atacama Desert which is up north is really cold during nights reaching temperature below 0°C even in summer. In the center of the country the weather is according to each season, in summer is really hot and dry with temperatures over 30°C and at night around 15-20°C. In winter instead is cold and rainy. In the mornings the temperature could be below 0° and during the day is rare to be over 15°C. It raind a lot, but you can have some sun also. Remember if you plan to do your exchange in Santiago, it is really near to the best ski resort, therefore be ready, Eventhough is close to the Andes is really weird to snow in Santiago, it does every 10 year or more. The south is colder in winter and you can get some snow if you plan to go really south. In winter it rains more often than Santiago and is clouder. If you plan to come in summer the weather is really nice over all the country and is really nice to enjoy the nice coastline specially the one which is in the north because the water is warmer.
Social life
Chile offers a great social life!! If you come during our winter or summer months, the social program is fully arranged. We like that all the students meet each others at the beginning of their month abroad. Usually there is an international dinner party, which all the incomings students prepare the typical dish from their country and also they bring the typical drink. We like to arrange ski trips during the winter, so everyone can enjoy the breathtaking landscapes of the Andes. In chile is common to go out at night usually on Fridays and Saturdays. The parties start later than in most countries, around 12:00-1:00 the people start going out and usually they last until 5:00. We like to take the incomings out, so they experience the Chilean nightlife. We'll be expecting you and prepapre yourself to be full of energy to enjoy our country and its people.
Chilean Ski Resorts: http://www.chileanski.com/eng/
Exchange conditions
If you want to see our exchange conditions go to: [1]
The student has to enclose with the AF the following mandatory documents in English or translated into Spanish.
Documents needed with your AF (preferably 5 months in advance)
1. Personal photo
2. Proof of Enrollment in a Medical School during the time of the clerkship. It has to be signed and stamped by the University/Medical School of origin.
3. Transcript listing courses the student have completed
4. Spanish language certificate indicating the level of knowledge. We need it with the AF, otherwise we won't be able to guarantee the placement of the student. Non spanish-speakers need to send their English certificate
5. Proof of Vaccination, including at least 1 dose of Hepatitis B
6. Curriculum Vitae
Documents needed 1 month before arrival
1. Proof of Vaccination, including at least a 2nd dose of Hepatitis B.
2. Health insurance certificate: Have to be sent 1 month before arrival. Please ask the Insurance company the way it works before leaving your home country.
ALL THESE DOCUMENTS MUST BE HANDED UPON ARRIVAL (paper version).
Optional documents that could be attach in AF:
• Letter of motivation: Must be formal and in Spanish because it will sent to Faculty authorities (this is mandatory for those who apply to Universidad Catolica de Chile). Exceptions in English have to be discussed directly with the NEO-Incomings
• Letter of recommendation from a Tutor or the Dean
Some universities may need extra documents or a special application form. The NEO-Incomings or LEO will contact you. Please send those documents as soon as they are requested.
Cities offered for exchange
From North to South
- Viña del Mar
- Valparaíso
- Santiago
- Talca
- Concepción
- Osorno and Valdivia