Chances of matching with tons of red flags...Should I continue the pursuit of an MD degree?

[detroit313]

I need some career advice regarding getting a residency match

Background info:
- Started medical school (US Med School) in 2008
- Took 3-4 leave of absences at the US school (personal medical issues / family health issues)
- Failed Anatomy (retook it and passed)
- Failed Path 1 and Path 2 (two times)
- Passed every single course except Path 1/2 and dismissed due to academics (grades / failure in path / taking too long) but ended up WITHDRAWING

- Dejected and depressed I still did not give up and went to Caribbean (NOT one of big three - AUC, Ross, SGU but not a terrible school) in January 2013 to finish my Path 1 / Path 2 courses (16 months) which i completed with an A and a B
- Finished years 1/2 in April 2014, now planning on studying for Step 1 for a year (to relearn the material I was exposed to in 2008-2012 and do well on the Step 1)
- Plan to take Step 1 in August 2015 and complete two years of US rotations thru my Carib med school
- Plan to sit for Step 2 sometime after my rotations (around 2017)

Previous credentials:
-small research on antibiotics in undergrad
-hundreds of hours of volunteer work prior to 2008
-near 4.0 undergrad GPA
-Sub 30 MCAT score

Now with the Step 1 studying burn out and some horror stories from fellow Carib students, I am having second thoughts about continuing in my struggle to become a doctor.

Is it worth it for me to continue or will no residency programs take me?
- I dont want to spend another 3 years and near 50K for rotations only to wait 2-4 years on a residency program that never comes

I need to know what to do so if my chances are slim than I will enter pharmacy school (my back up plan) before my undergrad diploma (Honors Bachelors of Bio from 2008) will be too old for pharmacy schools necessitating me to retake undergrad classes.

If anyone can please offer me ANY advice or a person or organization i can speak with for help. My counselors at my US med school both during and after my withdrawal were VERY unhelpful same goes with my new counselors at the Caribbean school. I know I have spent alot of time and tons of money but I dont want to keep going if my chances are too low.

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[Law2Doc]

I'm not sure what to tell you. Your chances are low. You have to know that. There's always an outside chance that you will do well on USMLE and finish med school and eek out enough of a residency to get licensed (by stringing a couple of prelims together perhaps) or something. It will be a long road that may not pan out. You will have to decide if it's worth playing out the hand.

 

[PMR_doc]

I need some career advice regarding getting a residency match

Background info:
- Started medical school (US Med School) in 2008
- Took 3-4 leave of absences at the US school (personal medical issues / family health issues)
- Failed Anatomy (retook it and passed)
- Failed Path 1 and Path 2 (two times)
- Passed every single course except Path 1/2 and dismissed due to academics (grades / failure in path / taking too long) but ended up WITHDRAWING

- Dejected and depressed I still did not give up and went to Caribbean (NOT one of big three - AUC, Ross, SGU but not a terrible school) in January 2013 to finish my Path 1 / Path 2 courses (16 months) which i completed with an A and a B
- Finished years 1/2 in April 2014, now planning on studying for Step 1 for a year (to relearn the material I was exposed to in 2008-2012 and do well on the Step 1)
- Plan to take Step 1 in August 2015 and complete two years of US rotations thru my Carib med school
- Plan to sit for Step 2 sometime after my rotations (around 2017)

Previous credentials:
-small research on antibiotics in undergrad
-hundreds of hours of volunteer work prior to 2008
-near 4.0 undergrad GPA
-Sub 30 MCAT score

Now with the Step 1 studying burn out and some horror stories from fellow Carib students, I am having second thoughts about continuing in my struggle to become a doctor.

Is it worth it for me to continue or will no residency programs take me?
- I dont want to spend another 3 years and near 50K for rotations only to wait 2-4 years on a residency program that never comes

I need to know what to do so if my chances are slim than I will enter pharmacy school (my back up plan) before my undergrad diploma (Honors Bachelors of Bio from 2008) will be too old for pharmacy schools necessitating me to retake undergrad classes.

If anyone can please offer me ANY advice or a person or organization i can speak with for help. My counselors at my US med school both during and after my withdrawal were VERY unhelpful same goes with my new counselors at the Caribbean school. I know I have spent alot of time and tons of money but I dont want to keep going if my chances are too low.

In all honesty I would say no, don't continue. One thing I don't understand is- did you start med school in the US and then transferred to Caribbean? If you just have the record of the caribbean that's a different story. but otherwise, it will be tough to get into a residency without a doubt. More and more foreign grads and Carib grads will have an uphill battle matching even with decent profile. With so many red flags I think you will be throwing a lot of $$ into the wind. If I were you I would go into a more forgiving aspect of medicine-pharm, nursing, rad tech, PA, NP type thing.

 

[gutonc]

The simplest and most honest answer is no. Even if things go perfectly from here on out (250+ on all Steps, all honors in clinical rotations, stellar LORs, etc) your chances of matching, anywhere, in anything, are going to approach zero.

Your app has more red flags than I have fingers. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if I were in your shoes, I'd cut and run.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I'm going to disagree, very slightly. I agree that your chances are not great / pretty bad. However, if you do well on Step 1 and 2, complete your clerkships in the US, then I think you can spin a tale that you didn't do well in a US school for XYZ reason, but then got a second chance and did well in the Carib. And with that, assuming none of your problems in your US school were professional in nature, you should be OK.

Here's the problem -- given all of your troubles in the 1st two years, I'm not convinced you're going to do well on Step 1.

But, given how much you've invested already, the cost of taking Step 1 is small potatoes. So, a reasonable plan might be to take Step 1, and decide from there. If things don't go well, then you stop. If things do go well, then you consider continuing. I can't speak to the "opportunity cost" of studying for Step 1 -- you seem to be considering taking a very long break from medical school to study for Step 1 (a whole year?) and I'm surprised your medical school will let you do that. If taking that long a break means you can't apply to pharmacy school, then you need to decide what makes the most sense.

 

[gutonc]

I don't often do this, but I'm going to argue with aPD on this one. If I understand the situation correctly, it took the OP 3+ years and 2 different schools to pass 2 courses. Courses that most people get through without too much difficulty.

If this is the case (and I'm willing to accept that I didn't really understand what the OP was saying because it's not exactly straightforward) then it's seriously game over. Not much (other than a few Benjamins) to lose by taking Step 1, but if you get under 250 you should seriously move on.

 

[detroit313]

In all honesty I would say no, don't continue. One thing I don't understand is- did you start med school in the US and then transferred to Caribbean? If you just have the record of the caribbean that's a different story. but otherwise, it will be tough to get into a residency without a doubt. More and more foreign grads and Carib grads will have an uphill battle matching even with decent profile. With so many red flags I think you will be throwing a lot of $$ into the wind. If I were you I would go into a more forgiving aspect of medicine-pharm, nursing, rad tech, PA, NP type thing.

I started med school in the US, withdrew, and went to Caribbean to finish last two courses

 

[detroit313]

I'm going to disagree, very slightly. I agree that your chances are not great / pretty bad. However, if you do well on Step 1 and 2, complete your clerkships in the US, then I think you can spin a tale that you didn't do well in a US school for XYZ reason, but then got a second chance and did well in the Carib. And with that, assuming none of your problems in your US school were professional in nature, you should be OK.

Here's the problem -- given all of your troubles in the 1st two years, I'm not convinced you're going to do well on Step 1.

But, given how much you've invested already, the cost of taking Step 1 is small potatoes. So, a reasonable plan might be to take Step 1, and decide from there. If things don't go well, then you stop. If things do go well, then you consider continuing. I can't speak to the "opportunity cost" of studying for Step 1 -- you seem to be considering taking a very long break from medical school to study for Step 1 (a whole year?) and I'm surprised your medical school will let you do that. If taking that long a break means you can't apply to pharmacy school, then you need to decide what makes the most sense.

If my chances are very slim to get in I would rather study for pharmacy school for a year instead of trying for Step 1

I was hoping to apply to family med or maybe peds / psych. Would I have any chance to get a residency if my Step scores arent well above average?

Should I call residency programs and gain their opinion on the matter?

Im not sure who else to ask?

 

[gutonc]

If my chances are very slim to get in I would rather study for pharmacy school for a year instead of trying for Step 1

I was hoping to apply to family med or maybe peds / psych. Would I have any chance to get a residency if my Step scores arent well above average?

Should I call residency programs and gain their opinion on the matter?

Im not sure who else to ask?

Well....you've gotten the advice of a bona fide residency program director so I'm not sure how much more advice on that front will be useful for you.

At this point you need to decide how badly you want to be a physician. A stellar Step 1 is your only chance to continue down that road.

That said, you're actually in med school at this point and Pharmacy school is basically just an idea. So I would argue that you're best served by going for it on Step 1 and making your decision after that.

 

[Law2Doc]

...Would I have any chance to get a residency if my Step scores arent well above average?

I think the consensus on here is that a great step score would at least give you something to point to to suggest you've turned things around. If you barely pass (after a year of studying) that kind of projects the opposite. I don't know that anyone can give you a roadmap that if you follow you'll be in. We are all saying it's a very tough climb and we don't know if you will make it, but that If you choose to undertake this climb a good step score would be the right first step.

 

[drcrispmd]

By the time you are finished with everything it will be 9 years for medical school total. Taking almost a year and a half to study for step 1 and then waiting till rotations are over for step 2 ck and CS? You would need to kill both. You should not need to take that long to study for them. Residency programs are going to be concerned about whether or not you are going to be able to pass the board exam on the first time (they get dinged for failures). Also, transferring to the Carib will prevent you from getting residency and practicing in some states. Even more depending on what school you transferred to. Also, they may be concerned that you will struggle with the stress of residency as well. You would be lucky to get 1 interview for FM.