Current Carib med student needs some honest advice please..

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I am a student at a caribbean medical school and in good standing. The problem is that I really dislike this school/staff etc and would LOVE to transfer out.

Now in order to do that, I would have to re-sit for the MCAT as I took it 5 years ago and all the school's I've spoken to need an MCAT even for transfer applicants along with a Step 1 score (I will sit for step 1 in March of next year)

My question is: Is it crazy to study for the MCAT while I am in Medical school and take the Mcat in October/November of this year?

do us med schools accept caribbean transfers? never heard of it

Well why not study for the MCAT now during the summer? Are you trying to transfer into another carib school or into the US ? The latter will prove very difficult if not impossible. You will most likely have to apply to a US med school as a first year student using your med school grades as post grad work.

You do your 3rd and 4th year rotations in the US, right? Don't waste your time. Dig in your heels and finish the first two years.

Originally Posted by tankgunner

do us med schools accept caribbean transfers? never heard of it

Some do: I know Toledo has in the past

I have friends at Drexel who used to go to St. George's. It's doable-- but you need to have excellent numbers.

Originally Posted by dr zaius

You do your 3rd and 4th year rotations in the US, right? Don't waste your time. Dig in your heels and finish the first two years.

I tend to agree with this.
I think it'd be a better return on the time invested to use the time you would have used retaking the MCAT to study for step 1. That's more likely to help you get into the residency you want since trying to transfer out of the Carib is not easy.

If you do a search for it online, there are several people who have written blogs who have transferred from the caribbean to the US describing their process. There is also a list somewhere of "carib friendly" schools that when have seats available, do take carib students that have good numbers. Drexel is usually the first mentioned and I believe NYMC is another.

As far as what you should do...
Retaking the MCAT isn't a big deal, if you did well on it before you left for the caribbean. I would say if you had a solid score it would probably only take you a solid 4-6 weeks of prep to do well again. If not, still plenty of time before your next term is probably scheduled to start in August to sit for an exam. As mentioned above though, the most important thing is achieving a great step 1 score next year.

I guess it's really up to you. Starting over after first year in the caribbean at a US school is likely the smart thing to do, if you have that option. Transferring to another caribbean school would be pointless IMO, unless you aren't currently at one of the big 3-4. However, if you're at one of the better caribbean schools and aren't expecting to land a stellar residency, it isn't a horrible option to just tough it out and stay there for the 1 more year before you come back to the US anyway.

Just realize that it's difficult to transfer, so in all likelihood your real decision is between filling out amcas, submitting it, and saying you have an MCAT score pending or just sticking it out wherever you are.