Caribbean or Pharmacy?

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lemonsoda

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I wanted some advice on what I should do. I've always had a dream of going into medicine. I began shadowing in various hospitals at the age of 15 and i'm currently 25 years old (f). I have a 4 years bachelors degree and I worked as well after graduating in a clinic as the receptionist. I did not get accepted to any DO school ( due to multiple mcat attempts and an unsuccessful post bacc) so I decided to enroll in pharmacy school. The pharmacy school I attend is a top 20 and I was able to get a 3.4 gpa overall for my P1 year. The pharmacy school allowed me to stay at home and the tuition was very cheap. I am also accepted to SGU. I wanted to know what is better option to 1. drop out of pharmacy school and go to sgu ( i'm afraid of failing out)2. finish 3 more years of pharmacy school ( i'll be 28 when I finish, I still want kids and a family) and then apply to medicine ( I still may not get accepted anywhere). My highest mcat after 4 attempts is a 499. Overall gpa is a 3.6, science is a 3.2. Grad is a 3.4.

The only reason i did well in my first year of pharmacy school was thinking about my aim of medical school.

Any advice would be much appreciated! I also want to go into family medicine or IM.
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With English being my 3rd language, I took the MCAT 4 times too. My scores were 487, 492, 500, 499 (cGPA and sGPA were both 3.7). 3 years ago I applied to 26 DO schools and 6 MD schools and received 12 DO and 1 MD interview invites. I attended 5 of them including the MD, and I was accepted to 2 DO schools. Now I'm a 3rd year DO student. I think there's a chance you can make it to DO school. No need to go to the Caribbean and risk everything. If you apply broadly to 25+ DO schools and still don't make it in, then I would stay in pharmacy and make the best out of it. I still like your outcome as a pharmacist better than any Caribbean school.
 
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Can't recommend pharmacy school as the field is oversaturated already.

With your MCAT of 499 and GPAs, you might consider applying to Aussie schools. You can apply back to US but, if unsuccessful, you will match as an intern in Australia. So you'll have to be prepared to start a life in Oz.

No international medical student in Australia has ever gone without a postgraduate position. Granted they may not always get their preferred location.
 
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Current OMS1 here. I'm a 28yo woman and having a family is definitely still in the plans. Try not to feel rushed by your age. It's better to take an extra year or two to set yourself up properly than make a hasty decision that you could regret. Can you provide more details about your MD/DO application? Your stats aren't strong but people are accepted to DO schools with similar stats. Caribbean is risky, which you'll see over and over again here, and pharmacy is saturated. If I were you I would try again for DO (obviously I'm biased lol).
 
lemonsoda said:
I wanted some advice on what I should do. I've always had a dream of going into medicine. I began shadowing in various hospitals at the age of 15 and i'm currently 25 years old (f). I have a 4 years bachelors degree and I worked as well after graduating in a clinic as the receptionist. I did not get accepted to any DO school ( due to multiple mcat attempts and an unsuccessful post bacc) so I decided to enroll in pharmacy school. The pharmacy school I attend is a top 20 and I was able to get a 3.4 gpa overall for my P1 year. The pharmacy school allowed me to stay at home and the tuition was very cheap. I am also accepted to SGU. I wanted to know what is better option to 1. drop out of pharmacy school and go to sgu ( i'm afraid of failing out)2. finish 3 more years of pharmacy school ( i'll be 28 when I finish, I still want kids and a family) and then apply to medicine ( I still may not get accepted anywhere). My highest mcat after 4 attempts is a 499. Overall gpa is a 3.6, science is a 3.2. Grad is a 3.4.

The only reason i did well in my first year of pharmacy school was thinking about my aim of medical school.

Any advice would be much appreciated! I also want to go into family medicine or IM.
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25 yo female who still wants to have a family but also wants to go to medical school. Assuming you had no hiccups in medical school and assuming you matched right away that is a 7 year pipeline minimum. So you will be 32 years old when you complete your residency. Sure you can have children and get married while doing that. People do. If you think you can swing that go for it.

Something to consider. Seems like your smart but perhaps test taking ability is not where it should be. Biggest predictor of future performance is past performance. You have to pass USMLE. Not the same test as MCAT but its massive. Matching as an IMG is contingent upon a solid Step 1 score. Or so they say.

Anyways my advice. Do what you wanna do lemsonsoda. If you want to be a medical doctor. More than want. Need to be a medical doctor. For whatever reason. Then go pursue that dream. Whatever route you have to go. If that is your goal. But I honestly think you need to be prepared to sacrifice a lot. You are 100 % putting your life on hold for 4 years while you go through medical school.

In terms of rigor I imagine it would be comparable to pharm school in a lot of ways. A lot of my classmates where pharm grads. Either PharmD or equivalent and they did very well. I know you are only 1 year in but its something.

A pharmacist makes great money. You can set up your life very well pursuing that. You will be making money three years from now versus 7 if you go med. I don't count the peanuts they give you in residency. Its not like your gonna be making financial gains. You will be paying off student loans and just trying to eat and keep a roof over your head.

I hope you have someone to talk this out in person with instead of just confiding in the anonymous peoples of SDN. Seriously find someone who has gone your route and personally talk to them. You can find them on linked in or go to facebook and just type St. Georges school of medicine. I did that when I was considering my options a few years ago and randomly messaged total strangers.

Anyways best of luck lemonsoda.
 
Med201821 said:
25 yo female who still wants to have a family but also wants to go to medical school. Assuming you had no hiccups in medical school and assuming you matched right away that is a 7 year pipeline minimum. So you will be 32 years old when you complete your residency. Sure you can have children and get married while doing that. People do. If you think you can swing that go for it.

Something to consider. Seems like your smart but perhaps test taking ability is not where it should be. Biggest predictor of future performance is past performance. You have to pass USMLE. Not the same test as MCAT but its massive. Matching as an IMG is contingent upon a solid Step 1 score. Or so they say.

Anyways my advice. Do what you wanna do lemsonsoda. If you want to be a medical doctor. More than want. Need to be a medical doctor. For whatever reason. Then go pursue that dream. Whatever route you have to go. If that is your goal. But I honestly think you need to be prepared to sacrifice a lot. You are 100 % putting your life on hold for 4 years while you go through medical school.

In terms of rigor I imagine it would be comparable to pharm school in a lot of ways. A lot of my classmates where pharm grads. Either PharmD or equivalent and they did very well. I know you are only 1 year in but its something.

A pharmacist makes great money. You can set up your life very well pursuing that. You will be making money three years from now versus 7 if you go med. I don't count the peanuts they give you in residency. Its not like your gonna be making financial gains. You will be paying off student loans and just trying to eat and keep a roof over your head.

I hope you have someone to talk this out in person with instead of just confiding in the anonymous peoples of SDN. Seriously find someone who has gone your route and personally talk to them. You can find them on linked in or go to facebook and just type St. Georges school of medicine. I did that when I was considering my options a few years ago and randomly messaged total strangers.

Anyways best of luck lemonsoda.
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Thank you so much for your response! I think my biggest fear is withdrawing from the pharmacy program, doing sgu and not getting a residency?
Yeah I will try to find a former sgu grad to talk to as well:)
 
lemonsoda said:
Thank you so much for your response! I think my biggest fear is withdrawing from the pharmacy program, doing sgu and not getting a residency?
Yeah I will try to find a former sgu grad to talk to as well:)
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Talking to SGU grads often reinforce the notion that you have fair chance of making it out of the Caribbean when in fact more than 40% don't. 100% of the students that go to Caribbean schools think they will be the lucky 50-60% to make it out, and by the time they realize they are not, it's already too late with thousands of dollars in debt.
 
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If you have to attend an overseas school, be prepared to live in that country for the rest of your life if you never end up matching in the states.
 
Hazle said:
If you have to attend an overseas school, be prepared to live in that country for the rest of your life if you never end up matching in the states.
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Most off-shore schools have host countries with no intention of keeping any of them, though.
 
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lemonsoda said:
Thank you so much for your response! I think my biggest fear is withdrawing from the pharmacy program, doing sgu and not getting a residency?
Yeah I will try to find a former sgu grad to talk to as well:)
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You also need to talk to one of the many non-grads as well.
Don't forget the lab techs and high school tutors with an MD and no residency (no license).
One of our PA's has an MD from Ross.
 
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gyngyn said:
You also need to talk to one of the many non-grads as well.
Don't forget the lab techs and high school tutors with an MD and no residency (no license).
One of our PA's has an MD from Ross.
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That is so scary in terms of lost money, time, effort and opportunities etc.
 
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Emmet2301 said:
That is so scary in terms of lost money, time, effort and opportunities etc.
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She can't use that title (MD) in the hospital, of course.
She has a much better attitude about the whole ordeal that I would have ever imagined.
 
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DrStephenStrange said:
Talking to SGU grads often reinforce the notion that you have fair chance of making it out of the Caribbean when in fact more than 40% don't. 100% of the students that go to Caribbean schools think they will be the lucky 50-60% to make it out, and by the time they realize they are not, it's already too late with thousands of dollars in debt.
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I don't think luck has much to do with it. I will say yes there is a small chance factor but at the end of the day it is up to the individual to make themselves a competitive applicant to a residency program. It is their responsibility to get good grades (if its not pass/fail), study for usmle, build your CV etc.

Obviously, the wash outs help subsidize clinical rotations. At least that's what I've been told but I've never actually been privy to that data. But I would argue that SGU probably has collected enough data that they know who is more likely to make it 4 years, whose at risk of having to repeat a year and who is definitely not going to make it. After seeing thousands of applicants and matriculants there is no way they wouldn't have analysed the data.

I would also add that as students you know if you have what it takes to make it through the program or not. If you only put 50 % of your effort in undergrad, were not real focused and that's why you graduated with a 3.1 gpa and had no chance at US MD/DO that's one thing. But if your one of those people had solid study habits and still could only get by with a 3.3 I would argue the former has a better chance of making it through.I am also being tremendously generous because I am sure SGU takes people with lower GPAS. So you get a large number of people who first just don't have the cognitive capacity to make it through or who do but had **** study habits thinking they will change and then they don't change. I think everyone should have enough personal insight to know which category they fall into and whether or not they can make it through the program.

I suggested the op reach out to former graduates so that she can get an idea of the sacrifice she will have to make. Obviously, reflection is done through rose coloured glasses but it would still be valuable. It was for me. I had started an application to a Caribbean school and the response I got made me pump the brakes hard on that route. So I am glad I did it.
 
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gyngyn said:
Not anymore. There are are only two scores on Step 1 now.
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Well it currently still is. The earliest cohort going pass/fail is in 2022 and that is potentially subject to change. So we will see. But yes the OP would likely be taking a pass/fail version of step 1 if she decides to pursue med.

It will probably just change the emphasis to step 2 CK. There needs to be a way to rank applicants. The USA took in nearly 8000 international applicants to PGY1 spots in 2020. Their going to have to rank them somehow and I imagine it will be with Step 2 CK. But honestly lets see if they actually implement Step 1 as a pass/fail exam.

I don't think they should. As much as I hated studying for the exam. Knowing I was going to be ranked against my peers spurred tremendous growth and my understanding and integration of first principles really levelled up. But that's just me.
 
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Med201821 said:
Well slap my ass and call me Sally.

I wonder what the financial incentive is. It's always about the money.
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Although your assumption would be correct at least a majority of the time, in this case I think it is more about their constituency...
 
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