He trusted the words of an agency he contacted with only two days left to decide where he wanted to study. In one hour the agent told him about a university with an international medical program with good english and a good reputation. Masaryk University was that university. Maximilian (Max) Wiebels took a risk coming to Masaryk University. He had never heard of the university before or been to Brno, all he knew was that he wanted to study medicine, Masaryk had one of the best medical programs, and Brno sounded like a good fit for him.
For Max, it was an added bonus that Masaryk was located in the small city of Brno. It provided him with the close to home, small city atmosphere, and good education that he was looking for.
“For me personally, I love the city. It's small and everything is in it,” says Max. On his 9th semester at the university now, he is happy with his decision to study here.
Max says he would definitely recommend the medical program at Masaryk to prospective students. “All in all, I really like it. I appreciate it.” The program has allowed him to get a well rounded experience in the medical field. Between his first few years of mostly studying books and now getting hands on experience working in hospitals with patients, he feels like once he is finished he will be ready to become an emergency room (ER) doctor.
Dedication is crutial
He does caution people who want to apply for the medical program at Masaryk. It is not all fun and games, “you have to be mentally ready for it,” he explained. It is easy to just see the cheap prices and want to drink and party, but Max says “you have to see your destination”. The rigour of the program is one of the things that he appreciates about it and was how he knew when he had to take an entrance exam to get into the program that there would be high standards.
“I have seen people fail here. It’s not that they are not intelligent enough, it’s that they are not dedicated enough.” But dedication is no problem for Max who found a good balance between having fun and focusing on his studies.
One of those high standards is taking four years of Czech language which is a requirement for all students in the medical program. This is so the students can work with patients once they get assigned to a hospital block during the final semesters in the program. Thanks to this Max says he speaks “decent” Czech now, even though he knows more medical Czech than anything.
No problem finding fun things to do
Despite the demands of the program Max has no problem finding fun things to do in the city. He likes that there are lots of different ways to have fun like laser tag, paintball, and even explore the forests which you can get to by “foot” (public transportation) as he calls it.
And if he ever gets enough of Brno, there are plenty of places to travel to by train like Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.
From Heidelberg, Germany Max says that the Czech culture is very similar to his own, he had no problem getting acclimated. They share similar mentalities, like when it comes to meeting new people, they are “first scanning, then accepting” he said. When he arrived he had no trouble making friends, which is how he managed to live in the dorms for only two weeks before finding flatmates.
Five years later, now entering his last couple of semesters in the program, Max is looking towards the future, which for him involves the state exams and deciding where he wants to work once he is finished. Yet another reason that he praises the international medical program at Masaryk; it allows him to have his pick of where to work once he graduates. His top three choices that he is considering are Great Britain, Norway, and Germany.