HELP please, SGU vs Ross ?

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Which medical school should I attend?

  • St. Georges

    Votes: 34 68.0%

  • Ross

    Votes: 7 14.0%

  • AUC

    Votes: 3 6.0%

  • UMHS

    Votes: 6 12.0%
  • Total voters
    50
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Zebulonwes said:
My partner and i hear Ross's status has taken successful nowadays.
Ip7OZO
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HUH?
 
hey man, i'm not sure how old you are, but i remember while in undergrad going to a nice, fancy presentation by Ross that made me think "huh, that's a pretty viable option." that was when I was 20. I'm sure you believe you can be an exception, but the people on here all have very valid advice for why not to go caribbean. if you scored a 22 mcat without putting in much effort, you most likely can do A LOT BETTER by committing to a sustained, dedicated study plan. the thousands of dollars you'd spend on a potentially useless carib MD is absurd when you could pay way less for a very good MCAT prep course.
 
Conflagration said:
Well, @Royaldoctor, I suppose RTC finds it hard to believe that you'd fare better in the Caribbean where a ridiculous amount of work ethic and dedication is needed for four years when you didn't put that out for a couple of months for a sizeable part of your application.
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It is not about work ethic so much as it is about lack of opportunity. I am done with OP; he has been thoroughly warned. If he does choose Carib, perhaps he was never meant to be a doctor anyways.
 
Dr Van Helsing said:
Tis not about work ethic so much as Tis about lack of opportunity. I am done with OP; he has been thoroughly warned. If he does choose Carib, perhaps he was never meant to be a doctor anyways.
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I'm talking more about surviving the four years to get to the point where he would even be concerned about matching.

Which, I mean, I hope you want to do better, OP. Personally, I wouldn't be playing coy about why people on here are skeptical, but that might be just me.
 
OP don't be an idiot and jeopardize $300k in student loans that can't be forgiven just because you're too impatient to wait 2 years and think you being 25 is too old.
Calm the hell down. Work hard and do well on the MCAT and get accepted into at least a DO school.
As a Caribbean graduate you'd be lucky if you even match into family medicine let alone other decent fields.

To the students that are saying the MCAT doesn't correlate with the USMLE. More than half of you haven't taken Step 1 so please stay quiet. A person with a 22 MCAT is not going to pull off a 240 on step 1 easily, which is probably what OP will need just to possibly match into primary care.
 
Just curious...what happened that you didn't study for the MCAT the first time around?
 
Well never mind. Apparently it is automatically correcting that into Tis for some reason
 
Yoh hzve a great DO school in your state and it has heavy IS bias. Retake the MCAT.
 
In reference to "smooth rotations" of Carib schools:

Many new med schools are establishing relationships with hospitals that used to have Carib students rotate through. The Carib students are literally being pushed out by the new MD schools and are unable to rotate their anymore. Losing rotation spots will only make it more difficult for IMGs, in addition to the plethora of other obstacles
 
itsraininbunnie said:
I'm working as a scribe, and there are 4 Caribbean medical school graduates who are working as scribes with me. 3 are from SGU, 1 from Ross. 1 is graduated 4 years ago, 2 graduated 2 years ago, and 1 graduated this past year. All are working as scribes because they have failed to match. Just a word of caution that you may end up in a similar situation - unmatched after 4 attempts, with interest from loans piling up, and working for $10/hour as a scribe.
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that's crazy
 
DesertSeaDiver said:
that's crazy
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And it's true. I know a guy who failed to match 3 times, working for 25k a year doing something quasi-medically related. From Ross. I know MANY IMG's who failed to match. And many that did-- and are totally miserable in terrible, malignant residencies.

It used to be a risk to go to these schools. It is now beyond a risk, it is a mistake.
 
Gregarious_and_Hilarious said:
In reference to "smooth rotations" of Carib schools:

Many new med schools are establishing relationships with hospitals that used to have Carib students rotate through. The Carib students are literally being pushed out by the new MD schools and are unable to rotate their anymore. Losing rotation spots will only make it more difficult for IMGs, in addition to the plethora of other obstacles
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especially in a state like Michigan where every directional state university in the state seems to be establishing a medical school.
 
cidem2065 said:
Just curious...what happened that you didn't study for the MCAT the first time around?
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Family medical problems made me forget the basic sciences i learned during undergrad that by the time i went back to studying my score suffered. And now its an uphill battle raising my score under then pressure of i the mcat changing after jan 23rd and possibly losing my sgu seat.
 
Again, natural selection at its finest.

Go ahead to Carib, OP, if you think you'll have the work ethic needed to severely outperform your counterparts when you didn't even take the MCAT seriously.


Not everybody should be a physician just because they want to be. Not harsh, just reality. This isn't a game. Have the decency to take it seriously and understand that you either suck it up and retake the MCAT, or forget about it. Sad to be content with a 22 MCAT and immediately move on.

I'm sorry that you had family problems. Now you have to recover. If you are NOT ready for this MCAT, you have to put off the exam, and try the new one. No point in retaking an exam to do just as poorly. It's also not worth your stress on such short notice.

I genuinely hope you reconsider, do very well, and start anew at a DO or MD school.
 
Royaldoctor said:
Family medical problems made me forget the basic sciences i learned during undergrad that by the time i went back to studying my score suffered. And now its an uphill battle raising my score under then pressure of i the mcat changing after jan 23rd and possibly losing my sgu seat.
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**** your SGU seat. You have a perception that the seat is valuable. It is not. If you lose the seat, they will offer you another next semester. And if they don't, another carribean school will. You don't want either of them.

Jan 23 is a month away. That is enough time if you're really serious about this. You're telling me you'd rather jeopardize half a million dollars and your ability to match into a specialty and location of your choosing, because you don't want to work like an absolute monster for a month. If you want to succeed at SGU, you'd have to work like an absolute monster for 4 years.

I don't know how to make it clearer for you. I don't have any dog in this fight. I have and do have dozens of friends from foreign schools, and their plight is often severe, and guess what, it's getting worse, not better.
 
Royaldoctor said:
Family medical problems made me forget the basic sciences i learned during undergrad that by the time i went back to studying my score suffered. And now its an uphill battle raising my score under then pressure of i the mcat changing after jan 23rd and possibly losing my sgu seat.
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Yet, you don't see an issue going into a Caribbean school with your background shoddy?

I mean, dude- even if you weren't going to retake the MCAT, you'd still want to remind yourself of your science classes.

It's your life, man. I've got worse GPAs than you, and I'm still going for DO. The Caribbean route isn't worth it to me- and if it is to you, I wish you the best. It wouldn't be the choice I make, though.
 
Look OP, we're not trying to make fun of you or be mean. We genuinely care that you become a physician. We strongly urge you to work towards DO schools at the very least. Hell, for all we know, you could be competitive to some MD programs. This is why an IMG program is financial and career suicide:

Despite the fact that more and more medical schools are opening up in the US, the rate of increase in residency spots is not proportional. You also have to consider that a lot of medical schools (and I mean almost every state school) will be increasing their class size by at least 10. Hell, when I got in in 2012, my medical school only took in 110 people. This incoming class size will be ~165! Taking both into consideration, along with residency spot numbers not going anywhere, your Doctorate of Medicine degree from the Carib will be worth nothing by the time you graduate.

Here's some good news though: the MD (ACGME) and DO (AOA) match systems are merging next year. What does this mean? Well, currently, DO's up until next year had to use a separate match system to get a job. DO's can use the MD match system (but not vice versa), however, you will be hard-pressed to get into an MD program as a DO in most cases for a variety of reasons. But starting next year, to my understanding, DO's and MD's will use one unified system and a DO will have the same chance as an MD for a residency (of course there are exceptions.) This will get rid of most problems with DO's from brand-new medical schools getting a residency spot. This, though, will make it harder for any Carib grad to land a job next year. Hell, I'd venture to say that this will cause 70% of all caribbean schools to be shut down due to funding loss.

This is my last reply OP. If you're dead-set on screwing up your future badly, then go ahead with Caribbean schools. But if US MD/DO schools are not an option, really look into PA and NP programs. Both professions will be getting more privileges and rights to practice medicine sans médecin in the near future, to combat our worsening doctor shortage.

My $.02

EDIT: Are you f**king kidding me? A 22 MCAT is the ONLY thing that stands between you and a bright future in medicine?? Look, work for the next year. Save up money for an in-person MCAT tutoring session. TPR, Kaplan, WHATEVER YOU NEED to get at least a 31 and you will be competitive for MD programs. Wait a year so that the MCAT prep companies can get feedback and actual MCAT tests to improve their programs. Hell, I knew a few classmates who used the 6-week MCAT bootcamp with Kaplan and they all got at least a 32!
 
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OP, you could probably get into Liberty's DO school with a 22. Even Liberty is better than any Caribbean school.

Also,
itsraininbunnie said:
I'm working as a scribe, and there are 4 Caribbean medical school graduates who are working as scribes with me. 3 are from SGU, 1 from Ross. 1 is graduated 4 years ago, 2 graduated 2 years ago, and 1 graduated this past year. All are working as scribes because they have failed to match. Just a word of caution that you may end up in a similar situation - unmatched after 4 attempts, with interest from loans piling up, and working for $10/hour as a scribe.
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this reality should be absolutely terrifying to anyone considering going to medical school in the Caribbean.
 
rodmichael82 said:
Calm the hell down. Work hard and do well on the MCAT and get accepted into at least a DO school.
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He will do well on the MCAT. He's going to study for 3 weeks! (While he's starting new classes.)
Then he will still go to a foreign medical school.

Do it right or don't do it at all, that's my advice to the OP for the MCAT, medical school and damned near everything. If you would rather go to the Caribbean than study properly and do what you need to do to succeed on the new MCAT, then don't be too surprised when those short cuts come back and bite you on the ass down the line. Don't be a fool and think that the medical school you attend doesn't matter and that it will all work out fine in the end. That's a luxury of US medical schools. I'm sure you will turn it around though because there are no distractions in paradise, and you'll outscore 95% of them on the USMLE.
 
darklabel said:
I've seen more success at SGU than Ross, so I would advise picking SGU. But if Ross is significantly cheaper, then I would choose Ross.

Completely avoid UMHS and AUC. Had a friend go to UMHS who claimed to be doing well throughout the 2 years he was there but did poorly on Step 1 because he felt they didn't accurately prepare him. I believe SGU's curriculum is closest to a US school's and teaches to Step 1 as well as giving you a lot of dedicated step studying time.
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Did he pass it on first attempt? If he did, he still has a better chance to match than someone who went to SGU or Ross that did not pass on 1st attempt...
 
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If you are going to a caribbean school OP, go to Puerto Rico if you want to avoid the caribbean stigma... I recommend Ponce School of Medicine, Universidad Central del Caribe and San Juan Bautista School of Medicine. University of Puerto Rico does not accept out of state students... I know someone who is at one of these schools and he is doing good... He is not Hispanic and he told me their books/power point are in English and most classes are taught in English. He applied to a competitive residency and he got multiple interviews... But you might need to have a better MCAT score. He got in with a 26.
 
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None of the above. Don't go to the Caribbean. Get yourself to the point where you can apply DO either with re-taking classes, master's degree/SMP, re-taking the MCAT, whatever it takes.

DO >>>> Caribbean.
 
I'm gonna beat this dead horse just in case the OP is (a) actually listening to anyone and (b) not a troll.

The whole "saving time" mantra is one of the most common ways these schools hook students. It is a terrible, terrible reason to go carib. Especially for an applicant who has one, very easily correctable flaw in their application that would likely make the difference. It doesn't seem like it when you're 20 or 15, but investing time into your future now is a tremendous investment that will pay dividends your entire career.

This doesn't even get into the huge flaw in the "time" argument, since a large number of caribbean students take more than 4 years to complete medical school.
 
SouthernSurgeon said:
I'm gonna beat this dead horse just in case the OP is (a) actually listening to anyone and (b) not a troll.

The whole "saving time" mantra is one of the most common ways these schools hook students. It is a terrible, terrible reason to go carib. Especially for an applicant who has one, very easily correctable flaw in their application that would likely make the difference. It doesn't seem like it when you're 20 or 15, but investing time into your future now is a tremendous investment that will pay dividends your entire career.

This doesn't even get into the huge flaw in the "time" argument, since a large number of caribbean students take more than 4 years to complete medical school.
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My flaw is my MCAT score which I did study of course but think I could have done better probably. The MCAT is changing so that is my problem so my 22 can't be changed cause its a new scoring system. I feel that after puting effort into this mcat and scoring like this who knows what I would get on the new version. I saw the new version as part of my trial section on my mcat and that was some crazy stuff. I got a 50% on the trial section cause I was guessing and have no idea if that is any good.
 
Royaldoctor said:
My flaw is my MCAT score which I did study of course but think I could have done better probably. The MCAT is changing so that is my problem so my 22 can't be changed cause its a new scoring system. I feel that after puting effort into this mcat and scoring like this who knows what I would get on the new version. I saw the new version as part of my trial section on my mcat and that was some crazy stuff. I got a 50% on the trial section cause I was guessing and have no idea if that is any good.
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I really don't mean to sound like a d*^^ - but here goes.

You need to stop thinking like a loser and start thinking like a winner.

All I hear from your posts is excuse after excuse. The new MCAT will be hard, no one knows how the scores will be. Wah.

Sack up, study your ass off, and crush it.
 
W19 said:
If you are going to a caribbean school OP, go to Puerto Rico if you want to avoid the caribbean stigma... I recommend Ponce School of Medicine, Universidad Central del Caribe and San Juan Bautista School of Medicine. University of Puerto Rico does not accept out of state students... I know someone who is at one of these schools and he is doing good... He is not Hispanic and he told me their books/power point are in English and most classes are taught in English. He applied to a competitive residency and he got multiple interviews... But you might need to have a better MCAT score. He got in with a 26.
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Don't you need to be fluent in Spanish to attend one of these schools?
 
edgerock24 said:
Don't you need to be fluent in Spanish to attend one of these schools?
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The guy that I know was not fluent, though he is now after 3 1/2 years. He told me that was not a big issue at the beginning... But 3rd year, you need to speak Spanish because rotations are done in PR... He is doing 4th year electives in the state right now... He told me he was not the only American who was not fluent; there were a few... However, these schools require 12 credit hour spanish, which most people don't have..

He went there because he was not competitive for US MD with a 26 MCAT and wanted to avoid the DO 'stigma', which I thought was foolish, but it turns out ok for him since he told me he got a lot residency interviews to a very competitive specialty with above average step 1 and step 2 scores. I think that ACGME specialty he got these interviews is quasi impossible for a DO to match into... Although I know ortho, uro docs who went to school in PR, I had the misconception that ACGME PDs bias would be worse against PR schools than DO. However, he told me that was not the case at all in his interviews... Not sure I believe him on that... I would not take that leap of faith, but he did and now he will have an MD with a very useful second language...

He also told me he made a concerted effort to learn Spanish while he was there, but some of his classmate mainlanders are still not fluent but they can carry a normal conversation... I would not do it; however, for people who want to avoid the 'DO stigma', I think it's a better option than going to SGU, ROSS etc...
 
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Royaldoctor said:
Back to studying MCAT ill try my best again to raise my score in a January MCAT before they change it. BTW MCAT score doesn't really predict success on usmle. I don't have time where do I start lol. Oh and rotations are really smooth nowadays just matching into a residency is competitive.
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It does... do a pubmed search. BS section is a particularly good indicator for step 1 score.
 
In my opinion anyone who even considers going to the caribbean should not become a doctor...It displays crap judgement
 
SGU VS ROSS ? Which would you chose and WHY? Ross has an organ system based curriculum which I like. But Ross living conditions look much worse than SGU.
 
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Please answer the question! I will try to get into US of course but I still want to know which you would chose and why! Dont reply if you are going to say neither should be an option. That is up to me to take the "gamble"
 
Neither.

I don't care that it's not what you want to hear.

Your thinking in this thread has shown that you are the type most at risk of failing out of the caribbean. You are choosing to take the easy way out and literally run away to the caribbean.

If you can't buckle down enough to improve your MCAT, how are you going to do anything different the next time you face a challenge?

Your options are to change your habits now and demonstrate the work ethic needed to succeed as a physician, or to realize after 4-6 years and 6 figures of debt that you can't shortcut your way into this field.
 
Royaldoctor said:
Please answer the question! I will try to get into US of course but I still want to know which you would chose and why! Dont reply if you are going to say neither should be an option. That is up to me to take the "gamble"
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"Which gun do I shoot myself with, the one in my right or left hand? Don't tell me not to shoot myself it should be up to me to decide."
 
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