Hilariously misinforming article about Carib med schools

Started by md-2020
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md-2020

md-2020

The Immaculate Catch
7+ Year Member
I am now embarrassed by my institutional affiliation because of this article

Edit: I am editing this post with an addendum because I realize after reading it again that it's kind of dismissive and a little mean. It sucks that this guy has to resort to writing misinformation like this to survive, but at the same time, it stands as a monument to why people here are so vehemently opposed to people going to medical school in the Caribbean.
 
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xyphr said:
Also I'm completely flabbergasted as to why he would write an article advocating for foreign medical education, given that he himself presumably couldn't match into a single residency out of SGU.
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BenjaminFranklin.jpg
 
I really feel for the guy- he's sunk Lord knows how much money into an education that taunts him every time he goes to work. The only reason he can wear a white coat to work is because that's the uniform for pharmacy techs at CVS (which stands for Consumer of Viable Souls, really).

If nothing else, he made it pretty clear to pre-meds that the Caribbean is not all sunshine and roses through his own story.
 
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Sigh. My longtime friend's sibling is at a school in the Caribbean right now after two unsuccessful MD cycles. I don't see their family much but their mom just keeps raving about how "good" the school is... 😡😕😱😵
 
sharkbyte said:
Sigh. My longtime friend's sibling is at a school in the Caribbean right now after two unsuccessful MD cycles. I don't see their family much but their mom just keeps raving about how "good" the school is... 😡😕😱😵
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I'm sure if the sibling's a great student and isn't trying to match into anything insanely competitive, it'll be fine. Though two unsuccessful MD cycles makes me a bit concerned...
 
sharkbyte said:
Sigh. My longtime friend's sibling is at a school in the Caribbean right now after two unsuccessful MD cycles. I don't see their family much but their mom just keeps raving about how "good" the school is... 😡😕😱😵
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That is how a mom do. They'd be proud of most anything and I'm sure she's extra happy to brag about how her kid is going to med school. No need for anyone to know it's a fake med school 😉
 
J Senpai said:
"Where did Jimmy go to med school?"

"Oh, he got his degree from a Happy Meal box. We're very proud."
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I see what you did there... 1st degree burn from french fries amirite?

Is your name Jimmy by chance? JSenpai = Jimmy senpai?

studentdocftw said:
Seeing that resume sent chills down my spine. Not that I ever considered pursuing medicine abroad, but seeing the B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia --> M.D. St George's --> MCAT tutor.....wow, what a regression.
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Well if you put it that way... yeah. This is incredibly depressing.
 
Holmwood said:
I see what you did there... 1st degree burn from french fries amirite?

Is your name Jimmy by chance? JSenpai = Jimmy senpai?
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And our campus is characterized by our newly implemented skinless apple slices. Ooh, very premium.

And no, I'm a different J 😉
 
Oh_Gee said:
how is he a fellow without doing residency
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"Research fellow"

I have quite a few of those on the ol' resume myself.

Any hourly rate job for an adult (he figures to be around 35) when youve just spent $500k+ on UG+med school is rough. Also it's sporadic income.
 
Oh_Gee said:
how is he a fellow without doing residency

and don't MCAT tutors make ~$40/ hour? it's not that bad...
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Surgical research fellow. . . I think that's like a gap year to rebuild your app. Those who didn't succeed in matching the first time end up trying again after that gap year of doing clinical research. That's with my limited knowledge. I'm sure others can chime in.
 
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He graduated with MD in 2008 and went to a prelim surgery position at Albany Medical Center, which means he is actually in the category of people who didn't match. Research fellow means absolutely nothing. High school students that do research with me (had two last year) are called research fellows.

How anyone takes anything on USNews seriously is mind boggling to me.
 
I worked for varsity tutors as an MCAT tutor actually, their screening process is a joke, they basically request a printout of your scores and then they have you do one or two passages to show you get the answers right and you're hired. No training, no support, no oversight. They just hope you know what you're doing and can actually teach. If you're a bad tutor the students are just out of luck (and a lot of money)

So the fact that he got the job as a MCAT tutor is even less "prestigious" than it already sounded because it's not even a good MCAT tutoring company
 
The first two reasons to go abroad are gross. The third one is accurate but applies to a small amount of people.
 
jk1006 said:
I worked for varsity tutors as an MCAT tutor actually, their screening process is a joke, they basically request a printout of your scores and then they have you do one or two passages to show you get the answers right and you're hired. No training, no support, no oversight. They just hope you know what you're doing and can actually teach. If you're a bad tutor the students are just out of luck (and a lot of money)

So the fact that he got the job as a MCAT tutor is even less "prestigious" than it already sounded because it's not even a good MCAT tutoring company
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I can confirm this. They basically asked me whether I wanted to teach MCAT ( I listed my score, but I was applying for college-level classes). My score was quite average, so I'm not sure what they're trying to do here... While for NextStep, they ask for redonkulous MCAT scores. So that may suggest something about the caliber of some tutors at Varsity Tutors...
 
mimelim said:
He graduated with MD in 2008 and went to a prelim surgery position at Albany Medical Center, which means he is actually in the category of people who didn't match. Research fellow means absolutely nothing. High school students that do research with me (had two last year) are called research fellows.

How anyone takes anything on USNews seriously is mind boggling to me.
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why does preliminary surgery still exist if people know it's that bad?
 
tennerd said:
why does preliminary surgery still exist if people know it's that bad?
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Not everyone gets into their desired field on the first try. I know several ortho and neurosurg docs who did transitional/prelim years before getting into their programs.
 
Holmwood said:
I can confirm this. They basically asked me whether I wanted to teach MCAT ( I listed my score, but I was applying for college-level classes). My score was quite average, so I'm not sure what they're trying to do here... While for NextStep, they ask for redonkulous MCAT scores. So that may suggest something about the caliber of some tutors at Varsity Tutors...
Click to expand...
Looks like it's time to apply for Varsity Tutors
 
This poor man. This article is the perfect reference for anyone considering Caribbean medical schools. Not only will this type of education likely leave you unmatched, assuming you don't drop out, it also apparently brainwashes you into being an advocate for it! Such a sad story.
 
Written by a guy that did a prelim after SGU and never ended up completing a full residency and now is an MCAT tutor and writer to make ends meet. Surely, he has no ulterior motives and knows how what it takes to succeed.
 
tennerd said:
why does preliminary surgery still exist if people know it's that bad?
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md-2020 said:
Not everyone gets into their desired field on the first try. I know several ortho and neurosurg docs who did transitional/prelim years before getting into their programs.
Click to expand...

There is a tad more to it. Prelim spots are filled by:

#1 People who matched into programs that start as PGY2s (radiology, anesthesia etc) who need to do a PGY1 year in either IM, GS or do a transitional year prior to entering their main program.
#2 People who didn't match into a categorical program in their desired specialty (as @md-2020 talks about) and are doing a year of GS as a bridge to applying again

Prelim surgery exists because there are a lot of people who graduate from MD programs in the US and out who are willing to take 1 year contracts with no guarantee of anything to work 80 hours/week being a surgery intern. Hospitals like the spots because it is cheap labor. Surgical services need interns/midlevels to keep things running smoothly. Midlevels are much more expensive than interns.
 
xyphr said:
I actually genuinely feel bad for the guy. He's probably hundreds of thousands in dollars in debt, barely getting by teaching the MCAT, and has resorted to writing BS articles like this Yahoo one that he himself doesn't even believe in just because he needs a paycheck. Poor guy
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I'd feel worse for him if he used his experience to dissuade others from making the same mistakes. He could have written essentially the same article, but framed it as "here are three reasons people might think that going Caribbean would be a good idea, and here's why those people are wrong." If he needs to write these articles to make ends meet, he might as well at least give good advice.
 
mimelim said:
There is a tad more to it. Prelim spots are filled by:

#1 People who matched into programs that start as PGY2s (radiology, anesthesia etc) who need to do a PGY1 year in either IM, GS or do a transitional year prior to entering their main program.
#2 People who didn't match into a categorical program in their desired specialty (as @md-2020 talks about) and are doing a year of GS as a bridge to applying again

Prelim surgery exists because there are a lot of people who graduate from MD programs in the US and out who are willing to take 1 year contracts with no guarantee of anything to work 80 hours/week being a surgery intern. Hospitals like the spots because it is cheap labor. Surgical services need interns/midlevels to keep things running smoothly. Midlevels are much more expensive than interns.
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oh i see. so someone that was a prelim surg for multiple years means he/she is number 2? on published/leak matched lists, do people in number 1 show their match as the intended matched specialty or as prelim surg?
 
tennerd said:
oh i see. so someone that was a prelim surg for multiple years means he/she is number 2? on published/leak matched lists, do people in number 1 show their match as the intended matched specialty or as prelim surg?
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My understanding (as a pre-med, so maybe misinformed) is that people don't do multiple years of prelim surgery. As far as I understand it, those are one year programs/contracts with the goal being to either reapply to a very competitive residency (ie, dermatology, orthopedics, etc), or to continue on to a program that stats in PGY-2.
 
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tennerd said:
oh i see. so someone that was a prelim surg for multiple years means he/she is number 2? on published/leak matched lists, do people in number 1 show their match as the intended matched specialty or as prelim surg?
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In general, as @medic86 points out, most schools will either double list people from group #1 or only list where they matched categorically. For the most part, US-MD schools have such high match rates that they don't need to bother putting the prelim matches. On the other hand, if you are a Caribbean school and you want to make it look like most people at your school are matching, you put them all on there and sometimes even leave off who was categorical vs. prelim.

scoops619 said:
My understanding (as a pre-med, so maybe misinformed) is that people don't do multiple years of prelim surgery. As far as I understand it, those are one year programs/contracts with the goal being to either reapply to a very competitive residency (ie, dermatology, orthopedics, etc), or to continue on to a program that stats in PGY-2.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of cases are as you describe. However, there are prelim PGY2 years at some programs. They generally are positions that will be offered to prelim-PGY1 residents who a program wants, but doesn't currently have space for. They will then either get worked into a program as people go into the lab or leave the program via attrition.
 
jk1006 said:
I worked for varsity tutors as an MCAT tutor actually, their screening process is a joke, they basically request a printout of your scores and then they have you do one or two passages to show you get the answers right and you're hired. No training, no support, no oversight. They just hope you know what you're doing and can actually teach. If you're a bad tutor the students are just out of luck (and a lot of money)

So the fact that he got the job as a MCAT tutor is even less "prestigious" than it already sounded because it's not even a good MCAT tutoring company
Click to expand...
did you get paid well
 
Oh_Gee said:
did you get paid well
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not really, it was a standard kinda 20$/hr gig, I found out from some of the parents though that they pay upwards of 60-70 dollars an hour to the company, so not a lot went to the tutors. very profitable for the company, not so much for the tutors.
 
jk1006 said:
not really, it was a standard kinda 20$/hr gig, I found out from some of the parents though that they pay upwards of 60-70 dollars an hour to the company, so not a lot went to the tutors. very profitable for the company, not so much for the tutors.
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hmm, i thought i remembered a kaplan tutor telling me they paid $40/hour. i guess the bigger ones like kaplan and princeton pay more
 
Oh_Gee said:
hmm, i thought i remembered a kaplan tutor telling me they paid $40/hour. i guess the bigger ones like kaplan and princeton pay more
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Kaplan does not give you $40/hr, generally you'll start at around $20 as well.

Big companies generally all pay like ****. The real $$$ is private tutoring, 1v1. I charged $75-150/hr for SAT tutoring in college, depending on location/score desired etc. Have to build up a client base though.

Come to think of it, this sounds alot like physician compensation!
 
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