Anyone out there in my situation?

[dallasdaines]

To start, I have a 3.49 cGPA and a 3.61 sGPA. I'm scheduled to take the MCAT in July and apply this cycle to various DO schools. With that being said, I would absolutely love to go to a Caribbean school like St. George's or AUC. I know four or five doctors in my town that went Caribbean, and are very successful physicians. Everyone says I'd be crazy to go Carib when I could go DO, and ultimately I will probably end up going DO, but is there anyone out there that chose Carib over DO, and if so, do you have any regrets?

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[plasmamorris]

I haven't had to make the decision between DO and Carib, but I'll say this - you may not regret it during your first 2 years on an island but you'll learn to regret it during your 4th year when trying to match will become incredibly difficult. You may even regret it as a 3rd year when you're rotating in hospitals all over the country. Regardless of what the future holds for IMGs - matching into a residency as a foreign medical graduate will always be more difficult than as a DO. You have good stats so presumably you would do well in the Carib, but honestly - it's a big lifestyle shift and you may not fair as well as in undergrad. I think 99% of people today would choose a mainland DO school over an offshore MD school these days. I think maybe 5-10 years ago - it was more common to go offshore to an MD school because people didn't want DO after their name. There's less of a stigma these days as a DO and you do everything that MDs do. Even better - you can match into more competitive specialties than a foreign medical graduate, even if they are an MD. Plus - while there may not be as obvious of a stigma these days for foreign medical graduates, in the days of healthgrades.com and vitals.com, patients may avoid your practice because you graduated from a Carib school. It probably won't effect you in the grand scheme of things - there's probably 1 for every 10 patients that will discriminate based on med school, but the stigma is still there. If I were you, I'd go DO and not look back. Examples of success are one thing - becoming one is entirely another.

 

[Medstart108]

Yeah its pretty much become US MD > US DO > Carib.

The knowledge that Caribbean schools are willing to dip down to incompetent applicants has reached many patients. DO schools do accept worse applicants than US MD schools but at the end of the day won't accept a 20 MCAT like a Carib school would.

I would just recommend going DO. Anyways, if you do well on the MCAT you could even make it into a US MD school.

 

[Phlebotomer]

I am in the exact same situation as you in that I have the same exact gpa and an mcat scheduled for july. The only difference is that I am terrified that I might have to do an smp or post bacc program with linkage if I end up with a 23 or something on the mcat. Going to a foreign medical school is not even an option amd with your gpa, it shouldn't be an option either! Rock the mcat and go MD/DO in the states!

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[Top Gun]

No! Do not go to the Caribbean! Not just yet, anyway. Take your MCAT, then apply to both US MD and DO schools. Your stats are good, so assuming your MCAT scores are good, you shouldn't have any trouble getting into a US MD or DO school. If you don't get in the first time, then do whatever you have to do to beef up your application(i.e. retake the MCAT, do an SMP, take more upper-level sciences courses, do more ECs, etc..), and reapply. You are far more likely to get your first pick of residency graduating from a US school (MD or DO) rather than a Caribbean one. The big four Caribbean schools, SGU, Ross, AUC, and Saba, are good, but if you want to do a competitive specialty, your chances of matching into one will be far greater coming from a US school, whether MD or DO. When you have tried twice to get into a US school, and have done everything possible to bolster your application, then you should consider the Caribbean, and only the big 4 schools. You would be a fool to consider the Caribbean over a US school.

 

[Medstart108]

You can even do research yourself on this. Just go onto FREIDA which is the official list of all the residency programs in the US. Go to the websites of a few you look potentially interested in and many of them will post their residents and where they went to medical school.

One thing you will notice is that top university programs rarely have any Caribbeans even in IM.
The second thing you will notice is that for most programs the number of Caribbeans or any IMG accepted are actually going down.

6 years ago a program i saw a community program in California which had 6 out of 20 IMG in its entering class. This year the entering class had was 0 out of 20. There was also a nice downward trend where fewer IMGs were accepted each year.

 

[Unzbuzzled]

I haven't had to make the decision between DO and Carib, but I'll say this - you may not regret it during your first 2 years on an island but you'll learn to regret it during your 4th year when trying to match will become incredibly difficult. You may even regret it as a 3rd year when you're rotating in hospitals all over the country. Regardless of what the future holds for IMGs - matching into a residency as a foreign medical graduate will always be more difficult than as a DO. You have good stats so presumably you would do well in the Carib, but honestly - it's a big lifestyle shift and you may not fair as well as in undergrad. I think 99% of people today would choose a mainland DO school over an offshore MD school these days. I think maybe 5-10 years ago - it was more common to go offshore to an MD school because people didn't want DO after their name. There's less of a stigma these days as a DO and you do everything that MDs do. Even better - you can match into more competitive specialties than a foreign medical graduate, even if they are an MD. Plus - while there may not be as obvious of a stigma these days for foreign medical graduates, in the days of healthgrades.com and vitals.com, patients may avoid your practice because you graduated from a Carib school. It probably won't effect you in the grand scheme of things - there's probably 1 for every 10 patients that will discriminate based on med school, but the stigma is still there. If I were you, I'd go DO and not look back. Examples of success are one thing - becoming one is entirely another.

Well said. Go DO! And apply to some lower tier MD schools too- you might get a few interviews.

 

[loltopsy]

Yeah its pretty much become US MD > US DO > Carib.

US MD > US DO > any SMP > prostitution > Carib

 

[Uzr]

DO schools aren't for everyone even if the curriculum is close but obviously matching is a big concern and I would probably apply to DO or the big 4 Caribbean schools with your stats

 

[jackets5]

I was in your situation close to 5 years ago. I had to chose between DO and a Caribbean MD and i chose the Caribbean MD. I did match into a quality University residency BUT my options and pretty much everyone in the Caribbean is severely limited. Off the bat eliminate and chance of surgical sub-specialty, eliminate the top programs in things like internal medicine and have the chance of your application not being reviewed no matter what your credentials are. The chances of matching as a Caribbean student are going down and will continue to go down every year.

Moral of the story, do whatever you can to stay in the US be it DO or MD

 

[Dreamstoo]

Yeah its pretty much become US MD > US DO > Carib.

The knowledge that Caribbean schools are willing to dip down to incompetent applicants has reached many patients. DO schools do accept worse applicants than US MD schools but at the end of the day won't accept a 20 MCAT like a Carib school would.

I would just recommend going DO. Anyways, if you do well on the MCAT you could even make it into a US MD school.

Agreed going to the Caribbean is often looked down upon. I used to shadow a MD cardiologist who stated one of his hardest working residents was his DO. However, he said Caribbean MD graduates tend to be looked down upon due to the fact its a lot easier to get into. I was a high school student at the time, he told us if you have an option to go to a DO over the Caribbean, choose DO