Caribbean for backup??

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rimon7381

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Hey guys,

So far I've had one interview and it's almost end of February.......and things are not looking good for me 🙁 .......so i was wondering if anyone applied to the caribbean schools for backup??

If so, where did u apply? And which ones would you recommend on applying to?

I am partcularly thinking of
Saba University......wut do u guys think?

Any comment will be appreciated!
 
When choosing Carib's as backups.. do your research carefully. Look for accreditation in various states. I hear SABA's a good school but not accredited in places like California.
 
Apply to DO schools. You get to stay in the US and you are assured a residency since you are a US med student. Would you really want to go to a place where the movie theaters have bats in the theater? (Apparently this occurs in Grenada)
 
From what i've heard, St. George's is the best. Ross has a reputation for kicking you out if you fail one exam... and I don't really know anything about Saba. But definetely do your research - take a look in the Caribbean section... i'm sure there are some threads on Saba there.

Good luck!
 
The "Big 3" you should look into first: St. George's, Ross and AUC.
 
What about the school that advertises at the top here? St. James School of Medicine. It says fully accredited, and best student teacher ratio?

Just a thought.
 
As a 4th year medical student, here is my advice....before you think about going south to the caribbean, I would go with your one interview now, and if it doesnt work out, apply again. If after two years you don't get in to an allopathic US school, apply to DO school. You will have much better chance of a good residency from an American DO school than the caribbean. I am going into a pretty competitive field and I bumped into a couple DOs on the interview trail, but not one FMG. Just my .02 cents worth
 
Originally posted by greatdane
As a 4th year medical student, here is my advice....before you think about going south to the caribbean, I would go with your one interview now, and if it doesnt work out, apply again. If after two years you don't get in to an allopathic US school, apply to DO school. You will have much better chance of a good residency from an American DO school than the caribbean. I am going into a pretty competitive field and I bumped into a couple DOs on the interview trail, but not one FMG. Just my .02 cents worth
Click to expand...

That may be sound advice for a young person looking to go into a very competitive residency, but I would not waste a couple of years reapplying if you are looking at family practice, or pediatrics etc.

The general surgery residency program at my local hospital has graduates from some of the lesser known Caribbean schools.

I would suggest US MD first, US DO second, and then offshore. But, I would not waste years reapplying. Just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.
 
344 people in St. George's 2003 class????

:wow:
 
That may be sound advice for a young person looking to go into a very competitive residency, but I would not waste a couple of years reapplying if you are looking at family practice, or pediatrics etc.
Click to expand...


well, when i applied, i was not "young"....28 to be exact....and i looked at it like this. when you are talking about the basis for the rest of your career and the rest of your life, one or two years is nothing.....and besides how many people know exactly what they want to do when the start med school. what if you thought you wanted to do family, but decided on ortho, EM or radiology....you are SOL....and as you will find your fourth year, location really comes into play...even the most "non-competitive" residencies are very competive on highly sought after locations.....I guess it comes down to the fact of how bad do you want it.... if someone wants it bad enough, one year wont matter.
 
Originally posted by 2bMD
I would suggest US MD first, US DO second, and then offshore.
Click to expand...
Yes most people would say that, but I say either US MD or US DO depending on where you want to go, and then offshore a distant third.
 
If you haven't already, I would go out and purchase a copy of Iserson's latest edition on getting a residency. He talks in length about each medical pathway including DO and international medical graduates (IMG). You should be aware of what obstacles you will encounter if you choose either path. I agree that DO's have an easier road to travel than IMG's.
 
If the OP is looking for general opinion on this issue, then had I not been accepted to a US MD school this year (which seemed like a possibility at first), I would have applied US MD and DO next year. FMG would have been a distant third option. Theres plenty of DO schools, its a great education, and you can be competitive for great DO residencies in numerous specialties and some allopathic residencies. Plus, Id rather remain in the country I plan on working in and possibly for.
 
You know, as I was talking to my professor whom I threatened to go climb the bell tower with hi-powered rifle.. I told him that I'd rather go to the Caribbean than do a Masters and try again. He stopped talking and then smiled, and said he knew a lot of people who went down to the Caribbean, such as his daughter's friends and his neighbor. He said they were all doing very well, and making boatloads of money as well.
 
One of my wife's friends just recently got a boob job from a plastic surgeon that did not attend a US medical school.

Now, I have not seen his work up close, but from what I can tell he did a good job. 😀
 
I wouldn't trust the surgeon until you get a good look yourself at your wife's friend yourself. It's strictly in the name of research.

-Entol

Originally posted by 2bMD
One of my wife's friends just recently got a boob job from a plastic surgeon that did not attend a US medical school.

Now, I have not seen his work up close, but from what I can tell he did a good job. 😀
Click to expand...
 
Thank you everyone for ur replies!

Here's a little update on my situation: (if u r interested)

I applied to 10 MD schools and a few DO schools, and 2 caribbean schools (Ross and SABA) all at once....Don't really care if I become an MD or a DO.

Got rejected from 13 MD & DO schools pre-interview

Rejected post interview from SUNY Upstate & LECOM (I know I posted I've had 1 interview but the post was made after the SUNY rejection & was waiting for LECOM's decision so didn't count that in with a hope to get into LECOM) .....and during interview they stressed my MCAT scores very much....so prolly that was the main reason...did horrible on the MCAT (below avg)....but was lucky enough to get to interview stage....prolly my profs. wrote very strong LORs.

Ok now, I really don't want to go thru the MCAT hell again and reapply and wait a year but really want to start school in Sept 2004
+ my parents don't want me to wait a year and reapply......since they know a few IMGs from the caribbean schools doing well in the US so they r saying if they could make it to US, I can too.

So, after doing extensive research I have decided to attend Saba University in Netherlands-Antilles and not go to ROSS cuz I've heard the compitition is really cut throat (academically).....and I don't work well, in that kind of environment.

So, I hope I've made the right decision to attend Saba University in Sept 2004....especially after receiving the encouragement from SABA alumni and other IMGs. BTW after looking at the SABA residency placement for 2003?..I feel it is not bad at all for a foreign med school.

I believe if I work hard I will be able to get a residency in primary care if not into one of the competitive ones.

Feel free to post any comment if anyone thinks I m still making a wrong decision by going to SABA. (who knows it may change my mind as well as my parents?)

And Good Luck to everyone who is going thru this med school application process.

PS: CA is not an issue for me that?s why made the decision to attend SABA over Ross.
 
I was just curious what your stats where? I think you made the right becision by the way. I know many people who are happy with their carrib education.
 
Good luck. It takes courage to take a risk not everyone is willing to take to achieve your goal of being a doctor. Whatever happens you will end up serving and helping many people in your career!

Here's the Saba match list in case anyone's interested. There is lots of FP, Internal medicine and Anesthesia.

Note that Saba grads are not yet able to obtain licenses in California and several other states but they can obtain them in New York.

http://www.saba.edu/residency_match.php
 
If you manage to schedule and get through your US clinical rotations as well as PASS step 1 and 2, you will easily get an FP or IM(not a good one though) residency here in the states.

One thing you want to make sure of is that you pass step1 on the first attempt and make sure all of your rotations are set up with plenty of time to enter the match. If not, you wouldn't have gained anything by opting not to wait a year.

I think a moderately competitive residency is probably out(anesthesiology, EM, etc). Yes, people in the history of SABA have matched into these. But they probably had 240+ step 1 scores and great LOR's from elective rotations in their US clinicals. And if your mcat is what I'm guessing(21-25?), you aren't likely to score 245 on step 1. The community anesthesiology programs who can't fill with US grads are much more likely to take SGU and Ross grads with good applications.

I would have gone to ross because at least then I would know that I control my own destiny to a greater degree. Better organized rotations, more money poured into legal concerns, etc. As for the "cutthroat competition", it's a foreign medical school. If a foreign medical school catering to americans decided to treat their students like they are at Hopkins, I'd be concerned. But hey...that's just me. People have done it before from SABA and there is no reason you can't join that group....
 
Originally posted by rimon7381
So, I hope I've made the right decision to attend Saba University in Sept 2004....especially after receiving the encouragement from SABA alumni and other IMGs. BTW after looking at the SABA residency placement for 2003?..I feel it is not bad at all for a foreign med school.
Click to expand...

SABA has a good match list with quite a few graduates going on to places like Barnes-Jewish, Yale-New Haven, Cleveland Clinic, NY Presbyterian, UPenn, Baylor, Duke, UPitt, etc.... If you work hard and are truly dedicated to medicine, then you can definitely get a good US residency.

Don't let a stupid standardized test get in the way of your dreams. Good luck to you!
 
I've heard good things about SABA. Though I would be more inclined to first look into: St. George's, Ross or AUC. They already have firmly established reputations and are accredited in all 50 states.
 
For hope280:

Since you wanted to know my stats:

Major: Biochemistry
GPA: 3.4
MCAT: 22

School: Went to Columbia University for some time....then came to SUNY-Binghamton (for financial reason)

Graduating from SUNY-Binghamton in May 2004

Future plan: attend Saba University in Sept. 2004
 
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