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raine_whispers

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Hello!

A little about me personally: I grew up in Texas. My favorite hobbies are painting, writing poetry, baking, and traveling. I have been working in a Primary Care clinic since I was 15 and working as a scribe for the past 2.5 years!

I am a medical student who has applied to multiple Caribbean medical schools for the Sept 2025 semester. I have applied to SGU, Avalon, SABA, AUC, and Ross. Right now, I am in the process of trying to make a decision about which school to go to. It has not been an easy decision to make, and I would love to have insights from students who went there or are currently attending any of the schools I applied to!

I would like to know:
  • What the first semester is like? What adaptations need to be made?
  • How does the staff help you succeed? How do they help with subjects you are struggling with? What resources do they offer?
  • Are there pre-recorded lectures? If not, how do you prepare for class?
  • How many hours a day are spent in lecture on a normal day?
  • How many hours do you spend studying per day?
  • How is the housing situation for first-year students?
  • What resources do they offer for stress management?
  • Did you like going to that institution?
Please be honest and thorough. I am well aware that in any institution I go to, I will need to work hard to succeed. Very hard. I just want insight from the pov of a student, rather than an admissions advisor. I would really really REALLY appreciate it!
 
Hi raine_whispers-
Welcome to SDN. Great to have you as a fellow member!
 
Please be honest and thorough. I am well aware that in any institution I go to, I will need to work hard to succeed. Very hard. I just want insight from the pov of a student, rather than an admissions advisor. I would really really REALLY appreciate it!

A lot of the day to day differs among each school you have listed. I'll always recommend premeds to fix the underlying problem(s) on their application and apply to US MD/DO programs prior to go to the caribbeans. If GPA is the issue, then do a post-bacc with a linkage to a medical school. If mcat is the issue, then gather your resources and figure out what works best for you. These are MILES cheaper than going to the caribbean for med school. The average debt of carib med school is probably higher than most US schools. Anywhere in the US is much better than life in the caribbeans.

Matching from the caribbean will never be the same as matching from a US school. In the carib, you'll likely be subjected to lower competitive specialties such as IM, FM, Peds, EM, etc. There are those who match into competitive specialties, but it's not the norm. Even matching at IM, FM, peds, etc, you'll likely be at a lower quality community program vs if you had gone to a US school, academic and even higher quality residency programs are likely compared to going to a carib school. Don't say you want to do primary care because everyone's interests changes as they go through medical school. You might like it now, but what if you don't in the future?

However, the biggest hurdle is actually to GET to the match/graduate. For reference, I went to Ross and during your first two years (basic sciences/preclinicals), I had many classmates repeating the semester in a different cohort. Some eventually failed out. This was pretty normal. If I had to guess the attrition of any carib school, it's prob at least 30% if not higher. Basic sciences is basically like the hunger games. The admins try some sneaky tactics. Even if you were to get out of basic sciences, the next obstacle is COMP/CBSE for Step 1 where many students get stuck at and they were often dismissed if they couldn't pass it in time.

With you asking those questions, I cannot recommend any of the carib school to you. Carib schools DO NOT offer any support to you whatsoever. It's a big risk. Majority of your questions aren't useful for caribbean schools or they're dependent on the person (like how many hours do you study a day). There are resources but it's limited and very low quality. I don't think anyone in their right mind likes their caribbean med school. If you actually want high quality support, go to a US MD/DO school. I would recommend you decline your acceptances to any of those and work on your application and go to a US school. Why gamble 400k+ in debt when the areas in your applications are very fixable. They'll always accept you again if you choose to go down that route but i still cannot recommend this path to anyone.
 
Carib schools DO NOT offer any support to you whatsoever.

Hmmm....


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