Do vs. Caribbean

[MD driven]

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Should I go to a DO school or the Caribbean for psychiatry. I heard it does not matter because it is a noncompetitive field. I am thinking of going to Ross University. Is this a good idea. Thanks a lot.

 

[Adam_K]

Should I go to a DO school or the Caribbean for psychiatry. I heard it does not matter because it is a noncompetitive field. I am thinking of going to Ross University. Is this a good idea. Thanks a lot.

I'm a USIMG myself going through the match this year, so take this for what it is worth.

I think that there is a misconception about psych being a noncompetitive. At every one of the programs I have been granted an interview, the applications were up very significantly over last year.

I don't think that anyone can predict how competitive the field will be in 4 or 5 years, but I'm betting that there's a good chance that it will be even more competitive. The key reason is that this is a lifestyle specialty and many grads will want the flexibility in style of practice that psychiatry currently allows.

Going the DO route has its own concerns and I'm not qualified to address those. However, although DOs do not have all the advantages of USMDs, they seem to do well when it comes to getting residencies in psych. Based on the residency rosters I've seen, they seem to do better than USIMGs.

 

[J ROD]

Should I go to a DO school or the Caribbean for psychiatry. I heard it does not matter because it is a noncompetitive field. I am thinking of going to Ross University. Is this a good idea. Thanks a lot.

Since your name has "MD" in the title, I would say you might would have an unconscious bias towards becoming a DO and may become ashamed of the initials after your name. Therefore, I would suggest going the Caribbean route to save yourself from yourself.

Enough psy talk, you will probably have a better shot at residency if you do the DO route because from what I hear Psy is getting more competitive. It seems as though all the specialties have hot and cold cyles. Who knows what will be hot and cold years from now? If we get universal healthcare, then there will be no hot fields in medicine unless they find ways not to cut physician salaries. But, of course, they will because docs always make too much money. Nevermind docs just wanted to keep up with inflation. We go through all the hell for the "love" of it. Myself, I love the science, helping people, and feeling like I did something worthwhile, but at the end of the day, my love for the above will not pay for my house, car, etc. Sorry for the rant, I digressed. Good luck!

 

[Chinnychin]

I am sorry but statistically speaking-hands down DO's-if you are a good applicant have less bias and better chance of matching at really solid programs. A couple of the UC's I believe have a couple DO's and cali is notorious for not taking them-they had no international people. More of the poor programs and middle programs had many more FMG's v. DO's and at better programs more DO's and no FMG's.

It is largely program and part of the country dependant-some parts still do not know what DO's are-so I guess in those areas the foreign would be better.

Also nobody I have spoke with who went to Ross or any of those schools had anything good to say and said they wanted to get the hell out of there and graduate-

BUt as far as psych-DO will open more doors-and you can go to every website of programs and view their resident profiles and you will see DO's hold more and better slots than FMG's at rograms

 

[MD driven]

thanks

 

[gardilimo]

i dunno, i have a friend who goes to st george's and he loved it when he was on the islands. he had a little house on top of a hill over the ocean and he would go surfing before his exams as stress relief. whenever i would see him back in the states all beach bummed out, i started thinking who has the better deal here-me struggling in the inner city of the northeast in american medschool, or him sailing in his free time. they do their 3rd and 4th yrs in the states or europe, i understand. i think its a toss up as far as do vs caribe, but conciously, try your hardest to get into an american school, even if it means taking time off.

 

[maranatha]

i dunno, i have a friend who goes to st george's and he loved it when he was on the islands. .

Yeah, I've worked with some outstanding residents from st. george's...however, i've been told that some of the US rotations in 3rd and 4th year have very rigorous work hours and lots of scut work.

You also have to have a lot of respect for someone to go to an off-shore medical school when they know the BS they will have to put up with to come back to the states...i think it shows a lot of dedication to medicine. Kudos to those who do this!

 

[Chinnychin]

i dunno, i have a friend who goes to st george's and he loved it when he was on the islands. he had a little house on top of a hill over the ocean and he would go surfing before his exams as stress relief. whenever i would see him back in the states all beach bummed out, i started thinking who has the better deal here-me struggling in the inner city of the northeast in american medschool, or him sailing in his free time. they do their 3rd and 4th yrs in the states or europe, i understand. i think its a toss up as far as do vs caribe, but conciously, try your hardest to get into an american school, even if it means taking time off.

Well ok I did not state the obvious-thinking it was obvious that yes most people I talked to enjoyed the amazing ocean and beaches and climate of the place. Some got sick of being on an island but overall they loved the place for that. What I am saying is nobody had good things to say about the education there which I thought this thread was referring to-not where you will enjoy the city the most. They charge a lot of money and apperently help you very little (this was St. George and Ross)-they especially do not help you once you are gone for 3rd year and 4th year-Multiple students have told me that getting your evals from rotations back to them is a nightmare. You send them and they frequenly lose them or misplace them and you are off to another rotation and if you lost the copy or did not make one is a big problem.

Although they do rotate in the states they often have to go to multiple cities to do it in and not get great picks of hospitals. Same for DO sometimes depending where but in general they get to rotate through atleast the same city for the whole 3rd year.

And finally-I was thinking the OP meant as far as obtaining a residency goes which is better-and like I said go to any decent programs site and you will see DO>foreign grads (most residency profiles will show their medschool)

I could care less-I have respect for both and think they are equal. Myself, I would go to a DO school. The caribean has such a stigma of being a place of last resort that is even made fun of on TV (off the top of my head the ER episode where maluchi was made fun of like 6 years ago). Especially in some states where DO's are prevelent.

Either way youll be a doctor and get in somewhere-but I sure do not know any DO applicants applying to 40 schools so not sure what that says.

 

[maranatha]

And finally-I was thinking the OP meant as far as obtaining a residency goes which is better-and like I said go to any decent programs site and you will see DO>foreign grads (most residency profiles will show their medschool)

Either way youll be a doctor and get in somewhere-but I sure do not know any DO applicants applying to 40 schools so not sure what that says.

As well trained as the IMG's and DO's are, I've got to agree with Chinnychin (Analyzthis?) on this. It seems like DO's tend to get better spots.

 

[MD driven]

thanks

 

[sga430]

1st go for being a us md. then i would go for DO but in some states u may have to do an extra intern year (unlike us MD and imgs.) so find out which states have this limitation. also some carribean schools have bad reps and in some states the state board may hold an inquest for no reason except that carribean schools have the rep that they cater to us students who party hard. i would look into eastern europe or ireland. do ur research thoroughly. i went to india but from talking to others i feel eastern europe is a good option. make sure u visit the school and talk to current students and recent grads. i will repeat this. talk to recent grads. when i joined i only talked to current students and older grads (who came to the US during the "golden age of medicine" when the market for docs was good. however u can still get psych as an img. make sure u get us clinical experience. u wont find much info on foreign schools here. check out other forums. (PM me for more info.)

also unless u take time off or do ur step 2 early, u may not get ur california letter in time to apply for cali programs.

 

[raspberry swirl]

im a DO student, so obviously im biased, but i have done a lot of rotations where there have been carribbean/foreign students and i have hung out with a lot of them. being a carribbean student makes your 3rd and 4th year so much harder- there are a million more hoops to jump through as far as approval, etc. goes for rotating in the states. i just remember they were always having problems with rotations, and they were always calling their schools, and faxing things around. i dunno. it always seemed like there was more paperwork and protocol and crap to deal with. and different states required different things from them, and every hospital required different stuff. if you're a DO, you dont run into any of that, because you are an american student, and your school has affiliates, and rotating at elective sites doesn't require anything different than what an american MD student would have to do (although i will make a disclaimer that i know nothing about ross specifically). as far as landing an actual psychiatry residency spot, i dont think DO vs IMG makes a big difference. i interviewed at mid tier allopathic programs, and they all had at least one or two DOs and/or one or two IMGs in each class.

but i agree with the above poster who pointed out that your name is MD Driven (and not DO Driven) ... if that sort of thing is important to you (which is fine), you will not fit in at a DO school, trust me. most of us have got a lot of pride and most of us can tell who really wants to be a DO and is super into it, who doesn't really care either way and is happy with being DO, and he who would really prefer to be at an MD school and is generally bitter and disastisfied with life.

dont let landing a residency spot be your determinate- if you are smart, nice, and you rotate at places you are interested in applying for residency, you will probably end up where you want to be regardless of where you went to school. so if you're MD driven, then go carib or foreign or whatever. but i def think DO is an easier route in the long run. plus you'll be able to crack people's necks.

 

[Afrikyn]

I would also suggest that you go to a DO program rather than a foreign program. I understand that you are currently interested in psychiatry which is not the most competitive specialty, but what if you change your mind while in school? If you decide that you would like to do a more competitive specialty (or more competitive psychiatry residency program), you will have a much harder time coming from Ross. I think that it is wise to give yourself the most options when you go to medical school.

That being said, I wish you the best of luck and I hope that you are happy with whichever place you wind up. 🙂

 

[Dartos Vader]

I'm DO going through the psych match right now. I have found the process to be very DO friendly. I sent out about 36 applications and recieved interviews at all but 3 or 4 of them. When I rotated at MD institutions I recieved very favorable feedback, no one treated me poorly. One of the nicest things is that you can stay in the US for your training. Plus if you do change your mind and want to do something more competitive (ENT/ER/Etc.) there are a good amount of DO only residency sites. That makes a big difference. Whatever you do, just rotate at your desired spot and work your butt off. Good luck.

 

[Chinnychin]

I'm DO going through the psych match right now. I have found the process to be very DO friendly. I sent out about 36 applications and recieved interviews at all but 3 or 4 of them. When I rotated at MD institutions I recieved very favorable feedback, no one treated me poorly. One of the nicest things is that you can stay in the US for your training. Plus if you do change your mind and want to do something more competitive (ENT/ER/Etc.) there are a good amount of DO only residency sites. That makes a big difference. Whatever you do, just rotate at your desired spot and work your butt off. Good luck.

I question anything you have to say since you obviously are lacking some common sense-so you are a DO and applying to psych and you applied to 36 programs? I mean that is just ridiculous-I bet I could not even find 36 programs if I tried that I would know anything about or want to attend. And since you got interviews at almost all I assume you were a decent candidate which you knew before hand obviously so that even makes it wierder for a good candidate applying to psych to choose 36 programs-ridiculous

 

[BATiger]

1st go for being a us md. then i would go for DO but in some states u may have to do an extra intern year (unlike us MD and imgs.) so find out which states have this limitation. also some carribean schools have bad reps and in some states the state board may hold an inquest for no reason except that carribean schools have the rep that they cater to us students who party hard. i would look into eastern europe or ireland. do ur research thoroughly. i went to india but from talking to others i feel eastern europe is a good option. make sure u visit the school and talk to current students and recent grads. i will repeat this. talk to recent grads. when i joined i only talked to current students and older grads (who came to the US during the "golden age of medicine" when the market for docs was good. however u can still get psych as an img. make sure u get us clinical experience. u wont find much info on foreign schools here. check out other forums. (PM me for more info.)

also unless u take time off or do ur step 2 early, u may not get ur california letter in time to apply for cali programs.

This was true in the past, but is not any longer. My class (2009) will be the first class that does not have this requirement.

 

[MD driven]

thanks

 

[Dartos Vader]

I question anything you have to say since you obviously are lacking some common sense-so you are a DO and applying to psych and you applied to 36 programs? I mean that is just ridiculous-I bet I could not even find 36 programs if I tried that I would know anything about or want to attend. And since you got interviews at almost all I assume you were a decent candidate which you knew before hand obviously so that even makes it wierder for a good candidate applying to psych to choose 36 programs-ridiculous

Do you have a pre-existing problem with me? Your post was very insulting and fairly ridiculous. What is the harm in applying to multiple programs? I was able to narrow down my field by a variety of factors, ranging from programs I was very interested in to programs I hardly knew anything about. I accepted only 6 interviews, far less than most applicants I encountered on the interview trail. Many people apply to a variety of programs then narrow down the search based on the replies they recieve. Not that it changes my opinion of you one bit, but 36 was a typo, I applied to 26.

Fortunately for me your opinion of me matters very little. You are right, I am a well qualified applicant, that does not affect my common sense at all.

 

[Chinnychin]

Do you have a pre-existing problem with me? Your post was very insulting and fairly ridiculous. What is the harm in applying to multiple programs? I was able to narrow down my field by a variety of factors, ranging from programs I was very interested in to programs I hardly knew anything about. I accepted only 6 interviews, far less than most applicants I encountered on the interview trail. Many people apply to a variety of programs then narrow down the search based on the replies they recieve. Not that it changes my opinion of you one bit, but 36 was a typo, I applied to 26.

Fortunately for me your opinion of me matters very little. You are right, I am a well qualified applicant, that does not affect my common sense at all.

But you will always be a DO and me an MD-that is all I have to say-I win.

 

[jjbmsiv]

But you will always be a DO and me an MD-that is all I have to say-I win.

This is the kind of crap that makes EVERYBODY a loser. Can we lock this thread already?

 

[maranatha]

But you will always be a DO and me an MD-that is all I have to say-I win.

Anyone remember Analyzethis??? This is either him or his twin...It doesn't take long to show your self....

 

[goldengate]

Anyone remember Analyzethis??? This is either him or his twin...It doesn't take long to show your self....

Who can forget...or Braingames for that matter...pretty funny!

As far as my response to the OP, I would say an osteopathic degree would give you more options for residency, and that's what matters at the end. But when I try to tell people what a D.O. is, they get totally confused. At least they know what Caribbean is. EXCEPT they always think I went to the Bahamas...hilarious.

 

[sga430]

let's excommunicate this egomaniacal narcissist piece of turd to where he belongs - one of the surgery threads. he can spar with DO surgery applicants there after seemingly vanquishing the DO shrinks here.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Anyone remember Analyzethis??? This is either him or his twin...It doesn't take long to show your self....

Good call, m.

What will his screen name be next time?
Who will be the first to call him out?

 

[Chinnychin]

You guys are SO paranoid-I have never seen these boards prior to 2 weeks ago when I signed up. I was no lurker or anything and just started posting-Already I am noticing people here are very sensitive and obviously lack self-esteem. For example if you are an IMG and think there is nothing different about it and are so proud of being one-then why take offence to peoples comments about it-If I know something is not true-than it does not bother me one bit if someone tries to make a comment negatively about it-I simply know it is not the case.

Wow so I had a few alias's? haha Too much

 

[gbv]

settle down beavis.

 

[Taus]

settle down beavis.

best.response.ever.

 

[Dartos Vader]

But you will always be a DO and me an MD-that is all I have to say-I win.

Your rapier wit has cut me to the quick! Alas I have no retort for I see I am clearly overwhelmed by your almighty initials! You have caused me to rethink my life and I am dropping out of med school 2 months before graduation. Perhaps I can reapply and go to the same bottom tier MD school you went to so I can feel a false sense of superiority over people who (gasp) will end up doing the exact same job as me!

I concede, you are awesome.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

best.response.ever.

Until the next one.
Well said, Dartos Vader.👍

 

[Dartos Vader]

Until the next one.
Well said, Dartos Vader.👍

You know me, gotta keep it real. It's too bad this post got hijacked, people were giving some pretty good information.