For the caribbean students that make it to rotations..

[iqe2010]

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I think we all can agree that one of the many problems with caribbean medical schools is their high attrition rate. I've read on here that on average about 50 percent of the students fail step 1. What about the other 50 percent that go on to rotations. Are there any statistics about them? Do many of them match into a residency? Or did they just get lucky on step 1 and bomb step 2? A close friend of mine is in this situation, and I want to know the chance they have on becoming a doctor and if its realistic or not.

Thanks!

 

[mmmcdowe]

I think we all can agree that one of the many problems with caribbean medical schools is their high attrition rate. I've read on here that on average about 50 percent of the students fail step 1. What about the other 50 percent that go on to rotations. Are there any statistics about them? Do many of them match into a residency? Or did they just get lucky on step 1 and bomb step 2? A close friend of mine is in this situation, and I want to know the chance they have on becoming a doctor and if its realistic or not.

Thanks!

After the attrition they tend to have a relatively "high" rate at the top 3-4 schools, or so they say at least.

 

[StoicJosher]

Caribbean medical schools will not reveal how many students enroll as first year students yet fail out and never "make it off the island" for third year rotations.

The be all and end all indicator of success is a medical school's match list, many of which are published on schools' websites. But, interpret these lists carefully. First of all, you want to know what percentage of graduating fourth year students obtain categorical matches. Why is this significant? Preliminary positions are only one year and do not guarantee a specialty match or board eligibility. Categorical positions, on the other hand, are specialty matches and do guarantee board eligibility. Many published school lists do not distinguish between preliminary versus categorical matches. One major Caribbean medical school recently disclosed at a faculty meeting that 15% of its graduating students did not obtain categorical positions last year. This information, is not easy to obtain, however, and for obvious reasons schools rarely disclose this raw data to prospective students and their parents.

From: http://studentdoctor.net/2011/01/caribbean-medical-schools-what-to-consider/