SGU/Ross Fellowship Placements

[Rypto]

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[bedevilled ben]

There is a saying in medicine. You're only as good as your last performance (or institution). In general, fellowships are going to be more concerned with where you did your residency and your evaluations during that residency rather than your med school. That being said, obviously the (perceived) quality of your residency is going to be dependent on where you went to medical school and your performance during M3 and M4. It all matters, but the further removed you are from med school, the less it is going to matter.

The average Step scores of incoming residents are increasing yearly for nearly every specialization across the board. If you are considering the Caribbean as an option, I highly encourage you to browse these forums and read as many posts as you can. There is a wealth of information here but it sometimes requires a little digging to find. There are a handful of critical mistakes that prevent most students from completing the programs successfully. With some planning and foresight you can avoid most of them. Exhaust every avenue you have of getting into a USMD/DO program before considering the Caribbean, even if it costs you a year or two. It will be time well-spent in the long run.

 

[Skip Intro]

Totally agree with bedevilled ben.

I would only add that there has been an expansion of fellowship positions, too. You will have options to pursue fellowship after residency, but it may not be in GI or Cardiology. Likewise, these are currently lucrative fields but, like many other fields, they are rapidly becoming saturated. There are other much less lucrative fellowships (like endocrinology) that remain pretty wide open.

The key is to find out where there will be a need in specialties and try to steer yourself in that direction, especially if it is a field you find interesting and rewarding. You can get paid a lot of money in a particular field, but if you're miserable going to work everyday - trust me - it ain't worth it. Miserable doctors make everyone around them miserable.

-Skip

 

[Rypto]

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[Skip Intro]

Currently, I'm sitting in a position where I am very competitive for US DO schools, and slightly competitive for US MD schools. The only reason I was considering the Caribbeans was because I could have saved a year of waiting, but I will take your advice on waiting an extra year to attend a US school.

I think this is prudent. As I've stated many times before, there are now (and are going to be) a lot more seats opening up for former "near misses" that otherwise resulted in those of us taking an alternate pathway into medicine. If you are young enough and have the patience, it is worth waiting another year, improving your application, and staying involved in the peri-medical field (somehow) until you can gain a U.S. acceptance. If you're already close with your stats, this is doubly true.

I am glad that most fellowship programs do not emphasize medical school preference. Is it the same case for medical degree (MD vs. DO) if I were to attend a MD residency as a DO?

Again, I've worked with fellowship-trained D.O. cardiologists, GI docs, pulmonologists (etc.) as well as M.D. Caribbean and "true" IMG of the same training. The point is to get into some fellowship that is ABMS recognized so that you can get subspecialty board certified when you are done. You might have to work a little bit to find a geographic area or system that wants someone with your talents, training, and pedigree to work for them, but again (at least in my class' case) I'm continually surprised when I get back in touch with people to see how well they are doing, most recently a fellow classmate who's working in the Johns Hopkins Community system after finishing a fellowship.

-Skip