Hi Guys,
I have been recently accepted to both a DO school (for this coming fall) and SGU (for this January). This obviously does not leave me alot of time to think about what to do. Based on your research and overall experience, what do you suggest I take?
For those that don't know, SGU stands for St. George's University, and is the top Carribean MD school.
I know that I won't get a universal answer, and it really depends on me, but I want to see some cold hard facts before I make a decision (such as residencies, etc.) (for example, I hate hearing "well, you will be an MD over a DO!"). The DO school is an hour from where I live currently, so I am really interested.
I would really appreciate your guys' input on this matter.
Thanks.
Well, your choice basically reduces to this: attending a medical school in the US or a foreign medical school. In my humble opinion there are more risks to attending a foreign medical school (which are fairly obvious) and you will likely to be presented with a more challenging environment should you choose to attend one. The way I am thinking about this is if you do not have to accept the additional risks and challenges, why subject yourself to them? If you can answer this question and it is a reasonable answer, then by all means, attend SGU. As long as you do well and are willing to accept the challenges ahead, I'm fairly confident that it'll provide the means to becoming a physician.
At the risk of escalating this further, I confess that I am frustrated with the continual association of "lower admission standards," i.e., lower MCAT/GPA statistics, with osteopathic medical schools and how this "signifies" lower quality. This line of thinking is a fallacy. One does not necessarily follow the other. Yes, many osteopathic medical schools do have lower averages for these numbers, but I fail to see how this correlates with decreased quality. If you automatically make this assumption, that higher averages necessarily indicate more success (or higher quality), then you are forgetting the lessons learned from Terman's studies on IQ and success, which I recently become more familiar with in reading,
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell (which I recommend as an interesting read). Extending on what I've picked up from the book so far to this situation, I'd say that scores matter to some extent and that there is probably some sort of academic/intellectual threshold, beyond which it ceases to be an important factor.
That is to say, in a room full of medical students, MCAT scores and undergraduate GPA aren't going to prove to be the most important factors. There are clearly qualities not assessed by tests of intelligence, such as the MCAT, or even grades, which may play an equally important role in future success, including the applicant's creative potential, background, and history. For the purposes of medical school and becoming a physician, with respect to MCAT scores and GPA, there is probably a level that is sufficient, beyond which it ceases to be a robust indicator. It would seem that osteopathic medical schools recognize this and utilizes other factors that indicate medical school success more readily in the admissions process. Ponder this for a bit.
Anyway, sorry for the digression. I think you can do well attending either school, but I think that attending the US medical school will present fewer risks and better opportunities. Opportunities we are presented with, the environment we navigate through, and the challenges we have to face in our process, do in fact play significant roles in our future success. I'd suggest giving yourself the best of each, and for that, I'd say the osteopathic medical school is going to provide the richer environment. The rest, however, is up to you, regardless of where you attend.
If this continues to deteriorate in this fashion it will be closed. It may be Christmas, but this isn't the holiday spirit I'm seeing here.
