Medical As an international medical student how are the possibilities to match with the changes in step 1?

[tantacles]

Hi. I'm thinking of applying to a caribean school or UAG at mexico (already accepted in both), but I've been feeling anxious because of the new changes in step 1 where there is a clear disadvantage for IMG. IMG cant depend now of step 1 to be competitive so i dont know how this is going to affect vs prestigious schools applicants and i would like to apply a competitive specialty in a good hospital. How can IMG manage to achieve that now? Thanks.

Even before the change to Step 1, my recommendation, unequivocally, is that no one should be attending a Caribbean medical school. The road for IMGs is already difficult, and without being a superstar (not just compared to applicants at your school, but compared to literally every other applicant), many specialties are already walled off to IMGs.

If you want to practice in the United States, my suggestion is to go to an MD or DO school in the United States. If you go to medical school in Mexico, would you potentially be taking that spot from someone who wants to work in Mexico? Does Mexico already have an adequate number of primary care physicians to serve its entire population?

These are considerations, but ultimately, the choice is yours.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

PLEASE listen to the advice on here and DO NOT go Caribbean. With the new USMLE scoring, this will screw over Caribbean students even more than they are being screwed over right now. This could literally be a financial disaster for you.

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks for the answer. I understand that about carribean schools so I'll try to avoid them. The one at mexico is with the purpose to work in US, I've heard a lot of people who end up working well at US but still dont know the cons of the school with the usmle changes. I think is the same as Caribbean schools. Anyways, thanks a lot.

UAG was a viable alternative when there was a Fifth Pathway Program. Now that it has closed, you should only go there if you would be ok with practicing in Mexico. In the only data available (2014), about half the US IMG's educated in Mexico matched. https://www.ecfmg.org/resources/NRM...atch-International-Medical-Graduates-2014.pdf
see page 22.
It's likely to be an even smaller percentage now.