Caribbean success/failure stories

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If you are a recent (2014-2017) graduate from a caribbean school, I would like to hear your stories, whether you succeeded or failed.
(To all of you that are probably going to ask, I am not going to apply to the caribbean schools. I just wanted to get a gist of what the current climate is, from people who went through the experience).

I just want to hear some stories... How you ended up matching, or what were the reasons you failed out/didnt match? What was your experience like, how did you do on the classes and board exams? What was your experience like when you were applying for residency?

Again, I ask that you only reply to this thread if you went to a caribbean school. U.S. Adcoms/med students/premeds please stay out of this discussion. Im well aware of your opinions. Thanks.

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I just want to hear some stories... How you ended up matching, or what were the reasons you failed out/didnt match?.


Seems like for most of these kinds of threads, the first few posts set the tone for the rest of the discussion. If you're looking for unbiased opinions, this is probably not the place to do it. Anyhow, anecdotes away.

Graduated from SGU in 2016, finishing up my intern year in Psychiatry at a very large community hospital in the NE. Started in 2012 in the standard MD program in Grenada, 2 years on the island, 2 years in clinicals in NY. Graduated in 4 years, no delays or decel's. Matched into my number 1 program. Applied to >90 programs around the country, mostly in the Midwest and NE, a few in the South. Got 11 interviews (2 university programs, 9 community programs). Ranked 10 of them, only one I didn't rank was a brand new community program with no track record, didn't want to be a guinea pig. Ranked programs based on how I liked the area and how I felt the program/other residents fit my personality. No regrets, am absolutely head-over-heels in love with my program and I can honestly say I get up most mornings looking forward to going to work. Great people, good supervision, broad exposure, reasonable hours, and interesting patients. Can't ask for much more.

What was your experience like, how did you do on the classes and board exams?
Simultaneously really good and really bad. I've never felt more alive or more dead. Too Dickensian? Too bad. The highs are incredibly high and the lows are despondently low. I did well in classes and Step exams, graduated w/ honors and 240's for both Step 1 and Step 2.

What was your experience like when you were applying for residency?

Incredibly anxiety-provoking. No other way to describe it really. I had good odds, and still was really uncertain. There is always a roll of the dice. Its easy to reflect back on your success and think of it only as a product of your hard work and dedication, while chalking failures up to random chance. But in reality, chance plays a big part in both. I like to think that hard work stacked the deck in my favor, but its always possible to do everything right and still fall short. I have a good friend, much more competitive than me, who ended up in a program that she hates. She's transferring out this July, thankfully, but these are the horror stories you gather as you progress. I lost good friends to decel'ing, failing out, attrition, etc. You carry those scars with you regardless of how far you go.
 
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I think you won't find the success stories on this site because the successful people are too busy being successful and don't have time to come on here. And why should they honestly? It's not like they get any love on this site.

As far as not succeeding down the Caribbean route, I have used my story from a lesser ranked school to show the prospective candidate to the Caribbean that every school besides SGU and maybe Ross is a statistical dead end. I had the ability to withdraw and cut my losses but I know straight A undergrad students who got tripped up during basic sciences at some of these lesser schools and got the F or F's. They went in real smug and confident but they came back humbled. Was it all their fault? I don't think so. The Caribbean has a business model where they take in more students than they have third year spots for and they weed them out. Some people argue that it doesn't exist but I have never been satisfied with their rebuttals. I've seen a lot of stuff at the school I went to that left me scratching my head.

To quote a few things from my previous posts...

1. A professor told me that in the Caribbean you are only taught "what you need to know." They don't teach you everything.
2. 20 months is not long enough to learn basic sciences. You are essentially cramming in these programs.
3. An anatomy professor candidly told me "most of these kids won't make it" after I pestered him that the program was unreasonable.
4. Lack of transparency with a lot of things both academic and administrative that will frustrate you.
5. The Caribbean is easier to get in but don't think the work is any easier. If anything, the way they teach it and the time constraints make it much harder.
6. It's all self-learning. I personally believe that coming from a Caribbean school, you will be deficient in your clinical skills when compared to your American counterparts.
7. SGU probably has the most third year spots. Some of these schools have like 20-30 spots during third year for an incoming class of 100+ students. I even used the example how at my school the med 1 classroom was twice the size of the med 5 classroom. Anybody in their right mind should see that as a red flag and run.

I have friends at SABA, AUA, UMHS, Windsor, and SGU

I know more people who went to SGU and succeeded. If you're thinking Caribbean, I would only consider SGU and making it out of SGU is not easy by any other means.
 
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I'm an Aureus University grad, canadian citizen, matched in Internal Medicine. 240+ on Step 1&2, Step 3-219. Applied to little over 150 programs, made sure to apply to places where previous Aureus students have matched. smooth experience overall, minor ups&downs are always there.
 
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I'm an Aureus University grad, canadian citizen, matched in Internal Medicine. 240+ on Step 1&2, Step 3-219. Applied to little over 150 programs, made sure to apply to places where previous Aureus students have matched. smooth experience overall, minor ups&downs are always there.

Were you the only one in your class that matched?
 
??.. No, almost everyone matched, some for sure did not, some opted to do research first, but I'd say over 75% of class matched

Look at this guy's history. He's made an account just to go onto threads and tell people he's matched.


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If you are a recent (2014-2017) graduate from a caribbean school, I would like to hear your stories, whether you succeeded or failed.
(To all of you that are probably going to ask, I am not going to apply to the caribbean schools. I just wanted to get a gist of what the current climate is, from people who went through the experience).

I just want to hear some stories... How you ended up matching, or what were the reasons you failed out/didnt match? What was your experience like, how did you do on the classes and board exams? What was your experience like when you were applying for residency?

Again, I ask that you only reply to this thread if you went to a caribbean school. U.S. Adcoms/med students/premeds please stay out of this discussion. Im well aware of your opinions. Thanks.

I think you won't find the success stories on this site because the successful people are too busy being successful and don't have time to come on here. And why should they honestly? It's not like they get any love on this site.

As far as not succeeding down the Caribbean route, I have used my story from a lesser ranked school to show the prospective candidate to the Caribbean that every school besides SGU and maybe Ross is a statistical dead end. I had the ability to withdraw and cut my losses but I know straight A undergrad students who got tripped up during basic sciences at some of these lesser schools and got the F or F's. They went in real smug and confident but they came back humbled. Was it all their fault? I don't think so. The Caribbean has a business model where they take in more students than they have third year spots for and they weed them out. Some people argue that it doesn't exist but I have never been satisfied with their rebuttals. I've seen a lot of stuff at the school I went to that left me scratching my head.

To quote a few things from my previous posts...

1. A professor told me that in the Caribbean you are only taught "what you need to know." They don't teach you everything.
2. 20 months is not long enough to learn basic sciences. You are essentially cramming in these programs.
3. An anatomy professor candidly told me "most of these kids won't make it" after I pestered him that the program was unreasonable.
4. Lack of transparency with a lot of things both academic and administrative that will frustrate you.
5. The Caribbean is easier to get in but don't think the work is any easier. If anything, the way they teach it and the time constraints make it much harder.
6. It's all self-learning. I personally believe that coming from a Caribbean school, you will be deficient in your clinical skills when compared to your American counterparts.
7. SGU probably has the most third year spots. Some of these schools have like 20-30 spots during third year for an incoming class of 100+ students. I even used the example how at my school the med 1 classroom was twice the size of the med 5 classroom. Anybody in their right mind should see that as a red flag and run.

I have friends at SABA, AUA, UMHS, Windsor, and SGU

I know more people who went to SGU and succeeded. If you're thinking Caribbean, I would only consider SGU and making it out of SGU is not easy by any other means.

I went AUA and graduated in 2012. I guess I am a dinosaur then. I will still respond as I have one second cousin Finished in 2016 and is in residency and one personal childhood friend who just graduated and will be starting residency this upcoming july and they both went to AUA based on my recommendation and have been successful so far. By the way my brother went to AUC since all of his friends were going there and he is also is successful and practicing out in California. So I have noticed to the person who's nick name is aformerstudent on various threads bashing other schools and only praising SGU and possibly Ross. My question to you is did you graduate from either of those schools and did you get a residency? Also I am under the assumption after reading your post you went to a prior school and transferred? Did you leave on your own due to not liking the school? Did you fail a class and did not want to repeat? Also I would like to point out how biased your opinions above are. Also please don't misunderstand my comments as I am only recommending everyone go to AUA either. I am somewhat biased towards them due to my own success of attending there, but spreading false rumors does not help all the prospective students make an informed decision.

First of all a professor telling you they don't teach you everything and only what you need to know: This statement is so generalized. Medicine is a changing environment. The guidelines change all the time. I mean look at the statin guidelines. They changed during my residency. Also look at lung cancer screening guidelines those have change. Look at pap screen guidelines and how they have change. They can't teach you everything because somethings are not clinically relevant. Also its the professors duty to teach and guide students to also learn things outside of class. When you get to residency if you think they will hold your hand and tell you how to treat a patient you have some serious issues. You better hope your senior resident knows what they are doing to help you diagnose the patient and start treatment and you better read up on the disease process and treatment. Once the attending gets there and you have no clue who are you going to blame?

20 months not long enough for basic sciences. People also claim residency is not long enough? Most Caribbean schools also incorporate 5th semester which I consider is part of basic sciences also. How would you like to solve this issue?

Most of these kids won't make it? Caribbean schools give many students a second opportunity to achieve their dream. Many people who go to the Caribbean truly want to become a doctor and work hard. There are also many however with many various reason(would be too complicated to mention all various possibilities). I did not take the MCAT nor did I want to after working as a Nuclear medicine tech decided to go to the Caribbean med school so that was my only option.

Also your comment most schools have only 20 to 30 spots for 3rd year clinical sites and SGU has the most. Where is this information coming from? I can safely say this is incorrect with out even having to fact check for the follow schools in no specific order (AUA, AUC, SGU, ROSS, MUA, SABA) other schools I cannot comment on. Many of these schools do their rotations at the same hospitals in big cities and also some smaller cities.

Anyways that is my take on some of those issues you brought up. Again anyone considering Caribbean schools please do your homework and make a check list of the schools you are considering. Don't go based of rumors.
 
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I went AUA and graduated in 2012. I guess I am a dinosaur then. I will still respond as I have one second cousin Finished in 2016 and is in residency and one personal childhood friend who just graduated and will be starting residency this upcoming july and they both went to AUA based on my recommendation and have been successful so far. By the way my brother went to AUC since all of his friends were going there and he is also is successful and practicing out in California. So I have noticed to the person who's nick name is aformerstudent on various threads bashing other schools and only praising SGU and possibly Ross. My question to you is did you graduate from either of those schools and did you get a residency? Also I am under the assumption after reading your post you went to a prior school and transferred? Did you leave on your own due to not liking the school? Did you fail a class and did not want to repeat? Also I would like to point out how biased your opinions above are. Also please don't misunderstand my comments as I am only recommending everyone go to AUA either. I am somewhat biased towards them due to my own success of attending there, but spreading false rumors does not help all the prospective students make an informed decision.

First of all a professor telling you they don't teach you everything and only what you need to know: This statement is so generalized. Medicine is a changing environment. The guidelines change all the time. I mean look at the statin guidelines. They changed during my residency. Also look at lung cancer screening guidelines those have change. Look at pap screen guidelines and how they have change. They can't teach you everything because somethings are not clinically relevant. Also its the professors duty to teach and guide students to also learn things outside of class. When you get to residency if you think they will hold your hand and tell you how to treat a patient you have some serious issues. You better hope your senior resident knows what they are doing to help you diagnose the patient and start treatment and you better read up on the disease process and treatment. Once the attending gets there and you have no clue who are you going to blame?

20 months not long enough for basic sciences. People also claim residency is not long enough? Most Caribbean schools also incorporate 5th semester which I consider is part of basic sciences also. How would you like to solve this issue?

Most of these kids won't make it? Caribbean schools give many students a second opportunity to achieve their dream. Many people who go to the Caribbean truly want to become a doctor and work hard. There are also many however with many various reason(would be too complicated to mention all various possibilities). I did not take the MCAT nor did I want to after working as a Nuclear medicine tech decided to go to the Caribbean med school so that was my only option.

Also your comment most schools have only 20 to 30 spots for 3rd year clinical sites and SGU has the most. Where is this information coming from? I can safely say this is incorrect with out even having to fact check for the follow schools in no specific order (AUA, AUC, SGU, ROSS, MUA, SABA) other schools I cannot comment on. Many of these schools do their rotations at the same hospitals in big cities and also some smaller cities.

Anyways that is my take on some of those issues you brought up. Again anyone considering Caribbean schools please do your homework and make a check list of the schools you are considering. Don't go based of rumors.

I was going to rip you a new one but I'm tired.

You ARE a dinosaur. Nobody in their right mind would go to AUA. What I suggest you do since you think AUA is such a great school since you went there, go talk to your connections, if you have any, in admissions and post the stats for this past first term. Post it here and then make your argument again. You see, I know those things because my information is still relevant. I don't go off of rumors. I've recently been to one of these schools and I have friends currently their now. Who cares if you went to AUA in 2012. It's not 2012 anymore.

To save you the trouble. 22% of the first term class of around 300 passed to term two. Most of that class were repeats who are going to be dismissed, the others will repeat. Explain that to the prospective student instead of coming out of the woodwork to defend these schools.
 
I was going to rip you a new one but I'm tired.

You ARE a dinosaur. Nobody in their right mind would go to AUA. What I suggest you do since you think AUA is such a great school since you went there, go talk to your connections, if you have any, in admissions and post the stats for this past first term. Post it here and then make your argument again. You see, I know those things because my information is still relevant. I don't go off of rumors. I've recently been to one of these schools and I have friends currently their now. Who cares if you went to AUA in 2012. It's not 2012 anymore.

To save you the trouble. 22% of the first term class of around 300 passed to term two. Most of that class were repeats who are going to be dismissed, the others will repeat. Explain that to the prospective student instead of coming out of the woodwork to defend these schools.
Please feel free to rip me a new one. This is the internet and does not hurt my feelings one bit. So since you know everything would you mind answering a few questions. Did you finish medical school and which one did you go to? If so when did you start and when did you finish? Did you transfer medical schools? Any failures during basic sciences or in rotations? If so did you finish start or in process or finished residency? Again if you read my posts I don't claim 100% everyone should pick AUA over all other schools. I am trying to help future students from getting facts and from making mistakes based disgruntled students and based on your responses sounds like you are one of them. I started my journey on here discussing with various students from other schools and I based my decision on which school to attend back then so trying to give back.

Also your "Fact of 22% passed on to med 2" you say you got from current students. So are you able to verify that "fact" or does it "seem" like majority of the people failed so they pulled out random numbers. I have US medical students and AUA medical students who rotate with me and some of the AUA students complain that the comp is hard to pass. Well guess what if you can't pass the comp at the set score you most likely won't get a high USMLE score and residencies are getting even harder as time goes along. So yes I believe there should be requirements set to make sure people pass with high scores otherwise they will end up finishing all 4 years of medical school with no residency and no future job. If that is what people want there are schools you can go to which will be much easier than the big 5 schools so they can get the diploma and call them selfs doctors.
 
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I am trying to help future students from getting facts and from making mistakes based disgruntled students and based on your responses sounds like you are one of them.

Ok then help them genius. But right now you are not.

Go call up AUA and ask them for the first term pass statistics. Assuming they give them to you, post them here. I have the grade report. 22% passed the first term to move onto the second term. 22% of 300 students. That is scary, confusing, and perhaps even unethical or illegal considering this school has Title IV.

Medicine, as I'm sure you know, is comprised of many steps. The first of them being successful completion of basic sciences and passing of STEP 1. You are an old student, a dinosaur like you said, your experience is irrelevant to what's going on at these school's today. What was the minimum passing scores for all the exams you had to take as an AUA student? Guaranteed it's much lower than what is expected today. With that one fact, you should be discredited from posting your experience here because it no longer matters because nobody has to get those scores right now.

If you read all my posts, which I'm sure you have, you can see that the advice I give is to steer clear of any lesser school and just put it all on the line and apply to SGU. If you disagree with that, feel free to explain WHY. You are not explaining the why but you have this fascination with my experience for some reason.

Your last few posts are incredibly futile my friend. Instead of trying to get tough with me, why don't you post why you feel a student should go to any other school than SGU. Then we can talk. But don't post this nonsense.
 
Ok then help them genius. But right now you are not.

Go call up AUA and ask them for the first term pass statistics. Assuming they give them to you, post them here. I have the grade report. 22% passed the first term to move onto the second term. 22% of 300 students. That is scary, confusing, and perhaps even unethical or illegal considering this school has Title IV.

Medicine, as I'm sure you know, is comprised of many steps. The first of them being successful completion of basic sciences and passing of STEP 1. You are an old student, a dinosaur like you said, your experience is irrelevant to what's going on at these school's today. What was the minimum passing scores for all the exams you had to take as an AUA student? Guaranteed it's much lower than what is expected today. With that one fact, you should be discredited from posting your experience here because it no longer matters because nobody has to get those scores right now.

If you read all my posts, which I'm sure you have, you can see that the advice I give is to steer clear of any lesser school and just put it all on the line and apply to SGU. If you disagree with that, feel free to explain WHY. You are not explaining the why but you have this fascination with my experience for some reason.

Your last few posts are incredibly futile my friend. Instead of trying to get tough with me, why don't you post why you feel a student should go to any other school than SGU. Then we can talk. But don't post this nonsense.

My experiences at AUA still matter so students can see how things have changed and why. For things I don't know I can easily refer them to new graduates or current students. Overtime the school saw what was needed to be done to help students pass and be successful so things have changed. I will try to verify your claim of 22% since I don't have access to that information but for some reason i just don't buy that. Also you tell everyone to apply to SGU and not other lesser schools. So did you graduate from SGU? Also you consider AUC, ROSS, SABA lesser schools. If you do you are kidding your self. While I agree US schools should be first choice but for many students the Caribbean can also help them. I just share my experience with AUA and other general questions for possible new students. Also you think I am getting tough with you but its quite opposite. With all the claims you are making just want to make sure you actually went to one of these schools and sharing your experience weather it be a positive or negative experience.
 
I will try to verify your claim of 22% since I don't have access to that information but for some reason i just don't buy that.

Don't try, just do it. Also, ask your sources how many people in that class repeated the first term. That will end this conversation.

Regarding my experience. I withdrew from an accredited Caribbean school after three terms. I could have applied and been accepted to AUA, UMHS, Windsor, or any other school in those brackets but I did not. Why you ask? Because I saw for myself how these schools are traps and how you will be a victim to policy not your ability. SGU is for the student who knows exactly what they are doing. You will work just at SGU as you would at any other school so why waste your time with the risk of those schools when SGU's match statistics are obviously better.

You have people arguing not to go to the Caribbean. I argue that the Caribbean produces doctors so if you feel you have the caliber to make it through a Caribbean program, just go to SGU and call it a day.

You obviously are biased towards AUA. Feel free to explain why someone should go to AUA and I'll just refute it with statistics.
 
Don't try, just do it. Also, ask your sources how many people in that class repeated the first term. That will end this conversation.

Regarding my experience. I withdrew from an accredited Caribbean school after three terms. I could have applied and been accepted to AUA, UMHS, Windsor, or any other school in those brackets but I did not. Why you ask? Because I saw for myself how these schools are traps and how you will be a victim to policy not your ability. SGU is for the student who knows exactly what they are doing. You will work just at SGU as you would at any other school so why waste your time with the risk of those schools when SGU's match statistics are obviously better.

You have people arguing not to go to the Caribbean. I argue that the Caribbean produces doctors so if you feel you have the caliber to make it through a Caribbean program, just go to SGU and call it a day.

You obviously are biased towards AUA. Feel free to explain why someone should go to AUA and I'll just refute it with statistics.


So you indirectly answered my question and you did not attend SGU. If all other schools were traps why did you not go to SGU and finish your medical school there? Anyone who takes advice from you about going to SGU or any other medical school might as well take advice from a magic 8 ball. Your claim stating you could have applied to other medical schools and could have gotten in is absurd. How are you so sure they would have accepted you? Thats like me claiming I could have ran for president of the united states and I am sure I could have been elected but I did not want too. You are not even qualified to give advice to people about going to AUA since you rely on facts from so called friends who also must be the 78% of the people who failed med 1. Again going to SGU is a better choice than some other Caribbean schools. My conversations with you have not been about going to AUA over SGU. It was purely about your "Alternative Facts". I think in many posts on various threads I have clearly stated I went to AUA and why I chose it and if people had questions about the process they could ask me. Also I never gave any false or fake information about other schools that I did not personally attend nor that I could verify easily. If you have the sheet of paper that proves only 22% passed med 1 please post it for everyone to see.
 
So you indirectly answered my question and you did not attend SGU. If all other schools were traps why did you not go to SGU and finish your medical school there? Anyone who takes advice from you about going to SGU or any other medical school might as well take advice from a magic 8 ball. Your claim stating you could have applied to other medical schools and could have gotten in is absurd. How are you so sure they would have accepted you? Thats like me claiming I could have ran for president of the united states and I am sure I could have been elected but I did not want too. You are not even qualified to give advice to people about going to AUA since you rely on facts from so called friends who also must be the 78% of the people who failed med 1. Again going to SGU is a better choice than some other Caribbean schools. My conversations with you have not been about going to AUA over SGU. It was purely about your "Alternative Facts". I think in many posts on various threads I have clearly stated I went to AUA and why I chose it and if people had questions about the process they could ask me. Also I never gave any false or fake information about other schools that I did not personally attend nor that I could verify easily. If you have the sheet of paper that proves only 22% passed med 1 please post it for everyone to see.


Dude just stop now. You're making a fool of yourself. Go away.

And I want YOU to go call up AUA, verify the information I have presented, and get back to us. If you're going to make a case for AUA then you can at least do that.

If you can't do that...stop posting.
 
Only to you, my friend. And, most others here I'm confident would agree.

-Skip

Most people here agree with what I say. You're like 10 years out of the Caribbean Skip. Don't you think it's a little disingenuous for you to be giving current students any advice. Since you've been out of school, plenty more schools showed up. When you were at Saba, what was the minimum pass of whatever exit exam they made you take? The kids today must have it 10 points higher than when you were there. You're advice is no longer reliable.
 
Most people here agree with what I say.

You sure about that? I'm not.

As for the rest of your post... you've repeatedly demonstrated that you just don't have much clue about what you're talking about, you proffer your opinion as fact, you have not spent adequate time on the planet reflecting about life, you're short on the benefit of wisdom and experience, etc., etc., blah-blah-blah... Nonetheless, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Doesn't mean much.

So, my thoughts? Bottom line: I'm not convinced you even know what the word "disingenuous" means, as evidenced by the context you used it.

'Nuff said.

-Skip
 
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You sure about that? I'm not.

As for the rest of your post... you've repeatedly demonstrated that you just don't have much clue about what you're talking about, you proffer your opinion as fact, you have not spent adequate time on the planet reflecting about life, you're short on the benefit of wisdom and experience, etc., etc., blah-blah-blah... Nonetheless, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Doesn't mean much.

So, my thoughts? Bottom line: I'm not convinced you even know what the word "disingenuous" means, as evidenced by the context you used it.

'Nuff said.

-Skip

Skip, stick to anesthesia.
 
Yeah, I didn't think we were going to hear from that AUA guy again.
 
I now see the grave mistake I made by creating this thread
 
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