Carribbean Med School Chances

Started by Skittle1
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Skittle1

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Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?

Even a good accredited one?
 
Skittle1 said:
Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?

Even a good accredited one?
Click to expand...

Even with the low GPA, I think you can redeem yourself with an acceptable MCAT (25+). I would suggest maybe taking a year or two off and retaking the classes you got C's in to boost your AACOMAS GPA, then applying to US DO schools.
 
Do every thing you can to make yourself competitive for a US medical school. With US med school classes expanding and residence spots decreasing foreign medical grads are going to have a harder and harder time getting a residency in the next 4 years.
 
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I'm sorry, this is going to sound quite nasty, but these grades strongly predict failure for you in med school. You need to retake them and do MUCH better, or Caribbean med school will just be you burning off a small fortune. Just getting in down there isn't the tough part, unlike American med schools, and with this performance in introductory undergrad classes you will not succeed.

Skittle1 said:
Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?

Even a good accredited one?
Click to expand...
 
If you have a pulse and a checkbook you'll get in somewhere in the Caribbean. That said, you should be very scared by that reality. Your science GPA is even lower than a 2.6 I would suspect. This bodes very poorly for your chances of success in the Caribbean.

If medical school is a must for you, I would suggest you take a year or two off to retake any classes you got a C in. If you can get mostly A's on your retakes it will fix your grades enough that you could probably apply to DO schools with a decent MCAT. You need to get serious about performing better, not about getting into an offshore school.
 
Are you still breathing? Can write a tuition check (up front for the entire four years?) If so, then yeah, you're in.

Skittle1 said:
Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?

Even a good accredited one?
Click to expand...
 
Goro said:
Are you still breathing? Can write a tuition check (up front for the entire four years?) If so, then yeah, you're in.
Click to expand...

Sadly this is the case at a lot of offshore schools. They are glad to take your money and let you spin your wheels for a few years before they fail you out. Attrition is a big part of their business model -- they don't have rotations for everyone anyhow. Getting mostly Cs in undergrad courses doesn't bode well for suddenly acing things in med school, so you need to do some serious soul searching before you start down the offshore road. Because you have to turn it around big time in med school to have a shot. You have to go from mostly C to mostly A with a heavier courseload, worse instruction, and more distractions (lots of underachievers in a resort environment on a beach). A very small percentage of people manage to do so -- it's worse than Vegas odds. And that assumes there will still be unspoken for residency slots by the time you finish, not a certainty. But it's your time and money.
 
Goro said:
Are you still breathing? Can write a tuition check (up front for the entire four years?) If so, then yeah, you're in.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I came in here to say.

PS: OP, your pre-reqs look very similar to mine and I have gotten into several US medical schools. MD schools because I'm a URM, DO schools because of grade replacement. The latter is an option even if you're an ORM.
 
Skittle1 said:
Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?

Even a good accredited one?
Click to expand...

Can you write a check?
 
Skittle1 said:
Can anyone help me..need advice
I just graduated in December 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 2.642

My science grades are:

Chem 1:C
Chem 2:C
Chem lab: C
Bio1: C
Bio 2:C
Physics 1:C
Lab: B+
Physics 2: C
Lab: B+
Orgo 1: B
Orgo 2: B
Orgo lab: C

I also have many science electives in which I have received mostly B's but some carribean schools consider them and some do not. I am yet to take my MCAT in May and I have done some shadowing/volunteering/worked/and was part of pre med clubs. I really want to go to AUA or something decent in the Carribbean. What are my chances?
Even a good accredited one?
Click to expand...

Retake most of these classes and get anything from B+ to A on them; then do well on the mcat (27+) and apply DO...You still have a shot to get into a US DO school, please give yourself that chance first. If you dont want to do that, you might have a shot a AUA. But ,I don't think you have a shot at the BIG 4 (SGU, AUC, ROSS, SABA).
 
Hi OP, I was in your position about 5yrs ago. My stats were 2.3cGPA, 35MCAT.

I chose the Carib route - & it was not a good decision. There's a reason you got the 2.6GPA - it's because you don't know how to use your time properly.

I'll tell you what happened to me: I started off in one carib school, didn't attend any classes, & got kicked out. Transferred to another carib school - going through it now.

Luckily, I tend to do well on standardized exams so I did well on Step1 (258) - & currently preparing for Step2 CK. I'm not concerned about getting into a residency - but my choices will be much more limited & I'll graduate at a weird time so I'll have to wait one more year to apply to residency.

So it'll take me 6yrs to get through med-school & start residency. In retrospect, what I wish I'd done instead was take 2 yrs to redo my ugrad courses & LEARN HOW TO STUDY. I still really don't know how to do this properly & herp-derping my way through medschool was tough.

Seriously - two years now is worth saving a lot of headache in the future.
 
nshams said:
Hi OP, I was in your position about 5yrs ago. My stats were 2.3cGPA, 35MCAT.

I chose the Carib route - & it was not a good decision. There's a reason you got the 2.6GPA - it's because you don't know how to use your time properly.

I'll tell you what happened to me: I started off in one carib school, didn't attend any classes, & got kicked out. Transferred to another carib school - going through it now.

Luckily, I tend to do well on standardized exams so I did well on Step1 (258) - & currently preparing for Step2 CK. I'm not concerned about getting into a residency - but my choices will be much more limited & I'll graduate at a weird time so I'll have to wait one more year to apply to residency.

So it'll take me 6yrs to get through med-school & start residency. In retrospect, what I wish I'd done instead was take 2 yrs to redo my ugrad courses & LEARN HOW TO STUDY. I still really don't know how to do this properly & herp-derping my way through medschool was tough.

Seriously - two years now is worth saving a lot of headache in the future.
Click to expand...

Too early to call this a success story really, you haven't matched yet.
 
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wow i hope i am not ever required to seek care from either of you lol. 2.6? 2.3? how lazy can you get?
 
Textbookversion said:
Too early to call this a success story really, you haven't matched yet.
Click to expand...

Well hi there debbie downer 🙂

I'll match somewhere. Definitely not in any competitive specialty, but I have a pretty decent shot at a low to mid tier University IM program. My school's match rate is about 80% & my stats are above average, so I'm not worried.

I wouldn't recommend the carib route for OP for sure. Especially if s/he isn't a good test-taker. Carib is not meant for people who don't manage their time well.
 
If you don't mind me asking, which carrribbean medical school did you organically attend? And which school are you in now? Thanks!

And to the post before this from "shaq", you say that now but it actually turns out you don't really know any of your physicians college GPA's. Some people go through problems in life which can slow them down but doesn't mean they can't succeed afterwards.
 
Skittle1 said:
If you don't mind me asking, which carrribbean medical school did you organically attend? And which school are you in now? Thanks!

And to the post before this from "shaq", you say that now but it actually turns out you don't really know any of your physicians college GPA's. Some people go through problems in life which can slow them down but doesn't mean they can't succeed afterwards.
Click to expand...

Sure - I started at AUC (which has a really strict attendance policy btw, so not recommended if you're not a conscientious student). Then I had to transfer to AUA.

Seriously though dude - unless you had some major disaster happening in your life that caused the 2.6, your GPA reflects that you don't know how to use your time. Getting a 3.5 or more in ugrad isn't difficult at your avg US university. I agree with the rest of the posters that you should really take the time to look at why you let your grades slip.

Also, take into consideration that there's a lot of US schools opening up right now - it's going to make it really difficult for IMGs to come back. I'm scraping by the skin of my teeth because my apps will go in for 2014 & it's getting harder & harder from here on out.
 
the lady who cleans my house has a son who had his head run over by a pick up truck. he has a 3.2 at a state college. i rest my case.

if you have below a 3.0 gpa, your degree is worthless. you were better off getting a job right out of high school, because if you did, right now you'd have had that many more years of work experience.
 
nshams said:
Sure - I started at AUC (which has a really strict attendance policy btw, so not recommended if you're not a conscientious student). Then I had to transfer to AUA.

Seriously though dude - unless you had some major disaster happening in your life that caused the 2.6, your GPA reflects that you don't know how to use your time. Getting a 3.5 or more in ugrad isn't difficult at your avg US university. I agree with the rest of the posters that you should really take the time to look at why you let your grades slip.

Also, take into consideration that there's a lot of US schools opening up right now - it's going to make it really difficult for IMGs to come back. I'm scraping by the skin of my teeth because my apps will go in for 2014 & it's getting harder & harder from here on out.
Click to expand...

When would you guess that carribean grads will be completely locked out from matching?
 
Skittle1 said:
If you don't mind me asking, which carrribbean medical school did you organically attend? And which school are you in now? Thanks!

And to the post before this from "shaq", you say that now but it actually turns out you don't really know any of your physicians college GPA's. Some people go through problems in life which can slow them down but doesn't mean they can't succeed afterwards.
Click to expand...

You're good for Carrribbean. 👍 Unfortunately, I don't have much to say, since I'm mostly of inorganic material (for some reason, I'm made of silicon dioxide).
 
Shaq said:
the lady who cleans my house has a son who had his head run over by a pick up truck. he has a 3.2 at a state college. i rest my case.

if you have below a 3.0 gpa, your degree is worthless. you were better off getting a job right out of high school, because if you did, right now you'd have had that many more years of work experience.
Click to expand...

Grow up and stop judging people you've never met over the Internet to massage your ego. No need to derail the thread.
 
GypsyHummus said:
When would you guess that carribean grads will be completely locked out from matching?
Click to expand...

I've heard 2015 but I have no clue how many new graduating USMD classes there will be in 2015 so I can't give a reason. But the trend right now isn't good for IMGs.

More than half of carib-students don't make it through the classes. They fail out or transfer out. I think out of my starting class at AUC (60 people), only 50% made it through.

Out of the average starting AUA class (500 for the whole year), less than 50% get to the point of applying for the match. Lots of people don't make it through the classes, have financial problems, or fail out because they can't pass Step1.

So even though our match rate at AUA is 80%, that's only considering the people who made it all the way through to applying to match (about 250 out of the original 500). So in 2012, AUA matched about 210 people out of 250-270 applicants.

The only good part of being carib-MD vs being an Indian/Nigerian MD is that we get tons of US-clinical experience. The average rate of getting residency for all IMGs (Carib + real foreign) who apply is about 50%. Just FYI.

There are people I know who went to carib, went onto residency in neurosurgery at Brown, or Mayo clinic. But these people usually had great ugrad GPAs, & just slightly below avg MCAT. They would've made it into US-MD schools but for some reason or other, the stars didn't align for them. They already had great work ethic. For them, the carib isn't a bad option.

People with a 2.6 ugrad GPA don't fall into this category. Unless OP had some disaster to explain his poor grades, there's nothing more than laziness. It's true - I was worse than you OP, so don't take it as an offense. And that laziness isn't going to magically disappear.

I don't think anyone will take my advice seriously - but I hope someone does. I don't know if I'd have listened to something like this when I was applying to carib, but I wish I'd atleast seen it.

Please don't lie to your self & say "Oh, I'm smart so I'll be fine." Being successful in medical school isn't about intelligence. A person of average intelligence with good drive is much better off in medical school than someone bright who can't focus.
 
Last edited:
mcloaf said:
Grow up and stop judging people you've never met over the Internet to massage your ego. No need to derail the thread.
Click to expand...

Seriously. Congrats on the Step 1 score nshams! That's the way to turn a less than desirable situation into something good, good luck with the match.
 
Just one last thing from my soap box: Please don't make the mistake of thinking "I'm really smart, so I'll be fine." Medical school isn't so much about intelligence as it is perseverance. A person of average intelligence with great drive does much better than someone super smart who can't focus.

I'm done now. I hope I convinced people with bad GPAs to consider trying to raise their GPAs up & build a work ethic first before deciding to take the carib route. It's not the end of the world if you end up going Caribbean, as long as you've PROVEN you can work hard.
 
Having now known several Caribbean MDs that have gone through the process (Ross/SGU and AUC), I want to echo something below:

"There are people I know who went to carib, went onto residency in neurosurgery at Brown, or Mayo clinic. But these people usually had great ugrad GPAs, & just slightly below avg MCAT. They would've made it into US-MD schools but for some reason or other, the stars didn't align for them. They already had great work ethic. For them, the carib isn't a bad option."

I really do think that this is the type of person who should look at the Caribbean. I know several folks from good undergrad colleges (Boston College, Washington U St. Louis, Brown) with reasonable GPAs and MCAT scores (3.3+/27+) that opted to pursue the Caribbean and were very happy with it. The most recent person I know when to AUC and loved that he could rotate in both the UK and US. He said that there was about a 15% drop out rate in his class (he said these people either didn't show up to class, didn't study, and failed multiple exams). He also recommended starting in Jan as a non-trad with smaller class sizes and more non-trads starting. AUC gave him a scholarship to attend based on his GPA/MCAT (3.3/30), but he never told me how much. He applied two cycles in the US MD and couldn't get in anywhere (he did not want to go DO b/c he had dual citizenship and the other country didn't recognize DOs and he wanted to have the option to practice there in the future).

Caribbean schools should be a last resort. But, before attending you should build a solid work ethic and be prepared to work your butt off. I've heard a lot of very scary things about the Caribbean, but I know folks that told me they really did enjoy their time on the island, the opportunity they were given (as you know, these are the REJECTS), their rotations and they matched. Improve your GPA, learn study skills, and apply after you've failed to get in with decent stats (GPA 3.0, MCAT 30) to any US school. Otherwise, you are just making a donation and WILL FLUNK OUT. It's so much easier to fail out of these schools and there is virtually no hand holding.
 
Last edited:
mspeedwagon said:
Having now known several Caribbean MDs that have gone through the process (Ross/SGU and AUC), I want to echo something below:

"There are people I know who went to carib, went onto residency in neurosurgery at Brown, or Mayo clinic. But these people usually had great ugrad GPAs, & just slightly below avg MCAT. They would've made it into US-MD schools but for some reason or other, the stars didn't align for them. They already had great work ethic. For them, the carib isn't a bad option."

I really do think that this is the type of person who should look at the Caribbean. I know several folks from good undergrad college (Boston College, Washington U St. Louis, Brown) with reasonable GPAs and MCAT scores (3.3+/27+) that opted to pursue the Caribbean and were very happy with it. The most recent person I know when to AUC and loved that he could rotate in both the UK and US. He said that there was about a 15% drop out rate in his class. He also recommended starting in Jan as a non-trad with smaller class sizes and more non-trads starting. AUC gave him a scholarship to attend based on his GPA/MCAT (3.3/30), but he never told me how much. He applied two cycles in the US MD and couldn't get in anywhere (he did not want to go DO b/c he had dual citizenship and the other country didn't recognize DOs and he wanted to have the option to practice there in the future).

Caribbean schools should be a last resort. But, before attending you should build a solid work ethic and be prepared to work your butt off. I've heard a lot of very scary things about the Caribbean, but I know folks that told me they really did enjoy their time on the island, the opportunity they were given (as you know, these are the REJECTS), their rotations and they matched. Improve your GPA, learn study skills, and apply after you've failed to get in with decent stats (GPA 3.0, MCAT 30) to any US school. Otherwise, you are just making a donation and WILL FLUNK OUT. It's so much easier to fail out of these schools and there is virtually no hand holding.
Click to expand...

Yea - 15% drop out rate wasn't a bad #. AUC does take much better quality of students compared to AUA. My class did really poorly actually, compared to other classes.

I started at AUC in a summer class & I was definitely one of the border-line applicants who got in because of my MCAT.

There were a couple of people with 36, 37 etc on MCAT but they'd applied to US-MD programs & had raised their GPAs close to 3.0. Now they're graduated, & IM & Gen surg residents at Top 30 residency programs.
 
nshams said:
Yea - 15% drop out rate wasn't a bad #. AUC does take much better quality of students compared to AUA. My class did really poorly actually, compared to other classes.

I started at AUC in a summer class & I was definitely one of the border-line applicants who got in because of my MCAT.

There were a couple of people with 36, 37 etc on MCAT but they'd applied to US-MD programs & had raised their GPAs close to 3.0. Now they're graduated, & IM & Gen surg residents at Top 30 residency programs.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately with the upcoming residency changes these will probably soon be just stories of the past. Sounds like you're making it just before things get really rough. Good work and congrats on the Step 1.
 
I'd argue that no matter the changes, the very top few students in the Caribbean will still do well (of course, I realize I'm talking about 1 out of a 100). The prospects of a Caribbean grad scoring in the 99th percentile on the USMLE will be good post 2015 (I realize the difficulty). Granted, I do realize there are a lot of odds that need to be beaten, but it's done every now and again: http://www.auamed.org/aua-medical-student-receives-high-score-us-exams

I'm not a big Caribbean fan, but it's a shot at a dream and for some the shot is worth it.

mcloaf said:
Unfortunately with the upcoming residency changes these will probably soon be just stories of the past.
Click to expand...
 
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The better question than "can I get in" op, is "with such a below par track record, what would i change about myself to finish"

It's rough but you need to have an answer
 
mspeedwagon said:
having now known several caribbean mds that have gone through the process (ross/sgu and auc), i want to echo something below:

"there are people i know who went to carib, went onto residency in neurosurgery at brown, or mayo clinic. But these people usually had great ugrad gpas, & just slightly below avg mcat. They would've made it into us-md schools but for some reason or other, the stars didn't align for them. They already had great work ethic. For them, the carib isn't a bad option."

i really do think that this is the type of person who should look at the caribbean. I know several folks from good undergrad colleges (boston college, washington u st. Louis, brown) with reasonable gpas and mcat scores (3.3+/27+) that opted to pursue the caribbean and were very happy with it. The most recent person i know when to auc and loved that he could rotate in both the uk and us. He said that there was about a 15% drop out rate in his class (he said these people either didn't show up to class, didn't study, and failed multiple exams). He also recommended starting in jan as a non-trad with smaller class sizes and more non-trads starting. Auc gave him a scholarship to attend based on his gpa/mcat (3.3/30), but he never told me how much. He applied two cycles in the us md and couldn't get in anywhere (he did not want to go do b/c he had dual citizenship and the other country didn't recognize dos and he wanted to have the option to practice there in the future).

Caribbean schools should be a last resort. But, before attending you should build a solid work ethic and be prepared to work your butt off. I've heard a lot of very scary things about the caribbean, but i know folks that told me they really did enjoy their time on the island, the opportunity they were given (as you know, these are the rejects), their rotations and they matched. Improve your gpa, learn study skills, and apply after you've failed to get in with decent stats (gpa 3.0, mcat 30) to any us school. Otherwise, you are just making a donation and will flunk out. It's so much easier to fail out of these schools and there is virtually no hand holding.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Posted the wrong numbers. You needed to post your credit score. We'll base your acceptance chances on that.
 
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