Thank you, I mainly started looking at SGU because a lot of my highschool friends seems to have success at that school. They got match into residency, they did well on their USMLE step 1 and 2. At the same time, I have talked to another highschool friend who went into podiatry school in the U.S. due to her Mcat-27. She and her husband, a surgeon has suggested that if I were to do Internal medicine, I would be fine going to a Carb school. The issue to me is the residency crunch. I have read a lot of rumors but I doubt it will just effect IMG, it will affect every MG.
I have looked into Touro, Kansas city, Lecom , and Arizona. I have read many scary incidents about Lecom, students complaining about "residencies just dropping out of the blue due to the school." I have also read that Obama passed a law to increase residency position, unsure which field though.
My concern is that I apply for 1-2 years, and get rejected. Worst comes to worst I wasted 2 years of my life, and attend a Carb school. But what scares me more is the idea that a lot can change within 1 to 2 years. How the DO and MD programs recently merged, and how medical schools are opening up everywhere. And depending who our next president is, we will either see an increase in residency positions.
I have thought a lot about this issue and although it might be easy for you to obtain a LOTR from a Dr., I have a huge research background, so it is easier for me to obtain letters of recs from professors and researchers. I have obtained 3 letters of recs from researchers/ PI. I have asked my family physician, but his wife who runs the front of the desk just loves money. So she basically said no. But I know if it was up to my physician, he would be okay with it. On my last checkup, he told me that with my scores, I can try to get to a MD program in the states, but I would be very competitive for DO and Carb schools. He also told me that at this point no one cares where you graduate from, they are all the same. My doctor is a USMG, interned at Stanford.
I want to thank you for addressing my concerns. It is not that I am impatient, it is the idea that the medical community is changing at an accelerated rate. I do not want to be stuck with loans and unable to find residency coming from a DO school, US MD, or Carb school.
Also may I ask which school you are planning to attend? I know you said you got into SGU, but it sounds like you do not want to go there. Maybe you got into another school that you have not mentioned?
You are kind of a bit all over the place here, so lets address each 1 by 1.
1) The Carib (SGU in particular) were in the past perfectly fine options. As you noted though, things have gotten harder for IMGs than they once were, mainly because of relative stagnation in residency positions and a significant increase in US MD and DO schools.
2) Obama can't pass a law for more residencies without congressional support (as far as I understand it). The truth is for the last 5-6 years either the president or congress has tried to expand residencies through medicare funding, but each year the bills have been dead in the water. That means that there certainly is a general stagnation in residencies that will affect all med graduates (hurting the IMGs the most and DOs next).
3) As far as LECOM students having "residencies dropped", I think you are confusing residencies and rotations. A residency is a GME, a rotation is a 4 week training program under a medical preceptor (MD or DO). Rotations occur throughout 3rd and 4th year of medical school. Sometimes rotations do get dropped at a school. This especially happens at DO and Carib schools, but there are usually other options of rotations available to students. Residency is the GME that trains you after graduating from medical school. First off, LECOM has consistently expanded and added new GME programs with its affiliates (via LECOMT) for the last few years. Secondly, residents don't get their residencies dropped, unless either the hospital loses accreditation (nothing to do with a school) or the resident gets fired (relatively rare).
Now LECOM has recently had its UPMC rotations dropped (last year), but as I've mentioned (having close ties to UPMC) this seems to have been more of a political/financial move with regards to the Highmark/Allegheny Health vs. UPMC feud. This has nothing to do with GME, all this means is that now LECOM students have to rotate at some of the 100-some odd other LECOM affiliates during 3rd and 4th year as opposed to UPMC sites. This year UPMC still matched many LECOM students into affiliated residencies programs (including RadOnc in Presby - bam!).
4) I'm almost done with MS1 at LECOM, but don't let my choice sway you. Any DO school on your list is fine, just make your decision (after you apply and get in of course) based on which one you like the best, is reasonably priced, and you think you would succeed most in.
The thing is, as an IMG, you may have a very unstable future. Who knows how state laws may change (generally speaking they have been consistently getting less IMG-friendly). Because you will never be a graduate from a US school, you will consistently have to jump through more hoops each time you apply for a state licensure. We all have hoops to jump through, but if your intention is to practice in the US, it is much safer and easier to go to a DO school than it is to attend any Carib school (even the best one). Now if you can't handle having DO behind your name, that's a different story...
Regardless of whether you are a US MD or DO, you should be able to secure a residency in the not too distant future. Very few people go unmatched, and even fewer go completely without finding a GME. The same really can't be said about all Carib grads, and even SGU grads. At the same time, the US will always be invested in the DO profession much more than a foreign program, because the schools are actually here, in the US, making money for each of states that they are in.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you your life will be over if you go to SGU. Its likely that many SGU grads will continue to match for at least the foreseeable future. That said, if your goal is stability, less unnecessary hurdles, and a more secure outlook for the future, DO is a much safer option than SGU.
My recommendation is to get your ducks in a row, get that doc letter and apply broadly and early to US MD schools and DO schools. If you can't get one from your doc, just start cold calling other docs and asking them if you can shadow them, or ask your PIs if they can introduce you to any MDs or DOs that you can shadow and then get a letter from. When I applied, I had 3 PI letters (2 were also MDs though), a DO letter, 4 faculty letters, and a physical therapist (extracurricular) letter. Just get as many letters as you can, and pick and choose which ones to send to what school.
or OPP for that matter...
