I thought about applying to a school in the Carribean, but I am worried about the challenges that I may face upon my return to the US. Does anybody have any insight or suggestions?
favored said:I thought about applying to a school in the Carribean, but I am worried about the challenges that I may face upon my return to the US. Does anybody have any insight or suggestions?
DoctorPardi said:I feel bad about it.
favored said:I thought about applying to a school in the Carribean, but I am worried about the challenges that I may face upon my return to the US. Does anybody have any insight or suggestions?
Gabujabu said:A friend of mine was banned from applying to all U.S. medical schools due to lying about his personal circumstances.
anon-y-mouse said:wow... details? what happened??
Gabujabu said:The lie was about the death of a spouse (didn't have a spouse). The med schools found out and blacklisted him.
anon-y-mouse said:oh, on his amcas? crazy... I wonder why one would even think to lie about that. what did he say about it?
woodhorse22 said:I have done some research regarding carribbean schools. The thing is that you would be regarded as a foreign graduate and you know there are always complications with that. Like besides the USMLE, there is another exam you would have to take in order to find residency here in the US. Its not an easy exam. Also, some carribbean schools are not even US accredited and they would take literally any applicant that applies. Their funding is low, so the teaching quality, lab/clinical experience is also poor. I believe there are only 2 in the carribean that really reject applicants based on their extremely poor perfomrmance on the MCAT. If you graduate from there, you would also have a tough time looking for residency. So, carribbean schools should be your last option: only if you totally bomb your MCAT and have a very low GPA. Apply for US schools instead. hope this helps.
woodhorse22 said:I have done some research regarding carribbean schools. The thing is that you would be regarded as a foreign graduate and you know there are always complications with that. Like besides the USMLE, there is another exam you would have to take in order to find residency here in the US. Its not an easy exam. Also, some carribbean schools are not even US accredited and they would take literally any applicant that applies. Their funding is low, so the teaching quality, lab/clinical experience is also poor. I believe there are only 2 in the carribean that really reject applicants based on their extremely poor perfomrmance on the MCAT. If you graduate from there, you would also have a tough time looking for residency. So, carribbean schools should be your last option: only if you totally bomb your MCAT and have a very low GPA. Apply for US schools instead. hope this helps.
Gabujabu said:A friend of mine was banned from applying to all U.S. medical schools due to lying about his personal circumstances. He went to the Caribbean, returned to the U.S. for residency, and is currently doing a fellowship. While it makes things harder, getting a US residency is certainly not impossible.
favored said:I thought about applying to a school in the Carribean, but I am worried about the challenges that I may face upon my return to the US. Does anybody have any insight or suggestions?
I am assuming that everyone is talking about the Carribean as a backup for when you can't get into a US allopathic OR osteopathic program, correct?LifetimeDoc said:I would be very saddened to have to goto the carribean to get a MD degree, but if it's the only way to become a physician then so be it.
notdeadyet said:I am assuming that everyone is talking about the Carribean as a backup for when you can't get into a US allopathic OR osteopathic program, correct?
I understand the necessity of going the FMG route if you can't get in to either, but to go to the carribean instead of a DO program I think is shooting yourself in the foot. Talk to enough folks and you'll find that most competive residencies favor US Allopathic >> US Osteopathic >> FMG.
sometimes you have to say: "Maybe i am not cut out for medical school". Lookat other fields before the carribean
I'd still consider dental school before DO personally, but that may be just because I'm ill-informed about the DO programs.
DropkickMurphy said:Dentistry is one of the few jobs more boring than primary care medical practice....the options to specialize are rather limited due to an extreme lack of sufficient residencies. Most dentists wind up as general practitioners, not in any of the interesting specialties (OMS, etc).
BTW Many dental schools (actually MOST) are as selective (or more so) as medical schools so you don't have that much of a chance of getting in if you can't get into medical school.
baylormed said:Not interested. If I don't get in the US, I'll just try again and again until I get in. But I am not, I repeat, I am not leaving this country. 😍
Wow. If you're ambivalent about going to medical school, I'd definitely avoid going the Carribean. A DO is a physician, a dentist is an entirely different career.shnjb said:I'd still consider dental school before DO personally, but that may be just because I'm ill-informed about the DO programs.
notdeadyet said:Wow. If you're ambivalent about going to medical school, I'd definitely avoid going the Carribean. A DO is a physician, a dentist is an entirely different career.
If you'd consider leaving medicine altogether to pursue dentistry, fair play, but I'd think long and hard about going to the Carribean. You can still carve out a great career for yourself going the FMG route, but it will be hard to do so if you're looking at a competitive residency. Just food for thought.
notdeadyet said:I am assuming that everyone is talking about the Carribean as a backup for when you can't get into a US allopathic OR osteopathic program, correct?
I understand the necessity of going the FMG route if you can't get in to either, but to go to the carribean instead of a DO program I think is shooting yourself in the foot. Talk to enough folks and you'll find that most competive residencies favor US Allopathic >> US Osteopathic >> FMG.
AngryBaby said:I also wondered this and emailed the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) December of '05 for information regarding residency placements for MD's vs. DO's vs. Foriegn Medical Graduates (FMG's) and here is what they sent me:
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/tables/table2_05.pdf
Basically it says MD's match at a 94% rate, DO's at a 69% rate, and FMG's at 55%. For what it's worth, the text of the reply email told me that, generally speaking , US residency positions are filled by US medical graduates first and then FMG's (obviously clinical scoring and board scores are of primary importance). Finally, it's worth noting that 5th pathway students (go to med school overseas then do an additional rotation year at a US school) have a better match rate than FMG's (but below MD's and DO's).
So basically...DO before overseas, though I'd recommend checking individual school match rates if possible because this obviously lumps ALL foriegn schools together (good with the bad).
BTW-A match for these stats is being accepted into a Top-3 choice of the applicant.
strawberryfield said:So this 69% rate for DO... is that DO matching into Allo? Or does it also include osteo residencies in addition to allo residencies?
strawberryfield said:So this 69% rate for DO... is that DO matching into Allo? Or does it also include osteo residencies in addition to allo residencies?
AngryBaby said:I am almost 100% certain those are only allopathic residencies. The osteopathic "match" program is handled by a different organization:
http://www.natmatch.com/aoairp/index.htm
All allopathic residencies are accredited by the ACGME, obviously, but whether there's a crossover of programs accredited as both allo and osteo I do not know (but highly doubt).
favored said:I thought about applying to a school in the Carribean, but I am worried about the challenges that I may face upon my return to the US. Does anybody have any insight or suggestions?
strawberryfield said:Thanks for the info! 👍 You have been very helpful! 😉
almost_there said:My brother went to SGU and matched into radiology in the US.
He did work his a$$ off, though, and his 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations were all at hospitals around the US. I think he planned it pretty well, so that his rotations were at really good places to do a lot and learn -- e.g. Emergency medicine in Oakland.
He's never been much of a academic person, at least grades and test-taking-wise, which is why he went to SGU. He's great with people, though, a good leader, and good at getting stuff done.
almost_there said:My brother went to SGU and matched into radiology in the US.
He did work his a$$ off, though, and his 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations were all at hospitals around the US. I think he planned it pretty well, so that his rotations were at really good places to do a lot and learn -- e.g. Emergency medicine in Oakland.
He's never been much of a academic person, at least grades and test-taking-wise, which is why he went to SGU. He's great with people, though, a good leader, and good at getting stuff done.
Possible, Yes. Probable, No.uvce said:I had heard of some people going to school there, and transferring to a US school for the last two years, not sure whether this was what they meant. Is it possible to transfer from a caribbean school to a US school?
uvce said:I had heard of some people going to school there, and transferring to a US school for the last two years, not sure whether this was what they meant. Is it possible to transfer from a caribbean school to a US school?
Orthodoc40 said:Like I said, I've heard of more people from SGU getting good US residencies than I have heard of DO's getting good allo residencies. I know people SAY that DO graduates are favored over FMG's, and I liked that table AngryBaby posted (thanks, by the way) but I just haven't heard of real PEOPLE that are DO's getting the great, competitive allopathic residency matches. I have heard of FMG's doing so, and so I'm just not sure what to believe about it all.
Just to echo a few points, there are a large number of graduates due to the 3 semesters. So one derm out of 400-500 isn't that impressive. It's hard to tell what connections/research anyone has so I wouldn't use the if he can do it so could I philosophy.AngryBaby said:I agree there's a million variables to consider which is why getting the match rate from the particular schools you're interested in would be ideal (though I heard a rumor that this year the match rate is no longer determined by a top 3 match but simply matching at all).
I know very little about the Carribean schools other than they are typically held in lower esteem than the US schools, osteo or allo. By the way, if you use the match list at SGU make sure it is for 1 year only, as many Carribean schools combine several years into 1 list for obvious reasons. Catch is they don't specifically say that the list is combined for several years. Also, that table I posted includes ALL FMG's, so you're getting docs from South Africa, Spain, etc with the excellent schools in Ireland, England, Australia, etc. So the match rate for the bad overseas schools may be bringing down their match rate, though to some degree that's true for all categories of docs. Again it's really about the individual student, and less about the school even though the school has a big part in molding the student.
Finally, I will say that the excellent DO schools are without a doubt more desirable than overseas, and there a few osteo- schools with better match lists than middle-and especially low-tier MD programs...try to get info specific for your school(s).
AngryBaby said:Finally, I will say that the excellent DO schools are without a doubt more desirable than overseas, and there a few osteo- schools with better match lists than middle-and especially low-tier MD programs...try to get info specific for your school(s).
Orthodoc40 said:I'd like to hear what DO schools you're referring to. I'm really interested - not trying to be difficult! It may come down to this choice for me, and I'm really not sure what to think.
Along with you're very useful information, it also occurs to me that roughly 75% of DO graduates choose Primary Care (or Family Practice, or Internal Medicine, whatever you decide to call it) for their specialty. Obviously the fact that they are choosing not very competitive specialties makes it easier for them to match into one of their top allopathic choices. Doesn't it? So the higher match rates that you got in that chart aren't really saying, "Oh yah, if you want to go into plastic surgery, you're better off going to a DO school than to the Carribean", necessarily...Or are they??
Also, even though one can get match lists for certain schools, without a lot of background research it is awfully hard to know what is a truly "good" match list. You have to know the specialties, and which hospitals would be among the best places to train for those specialties. That's pretty specific information that people tend to gather after they know what they want to match into.
OSUdoc08 said:TCOM & OSU-COM, for example
Orthodoc40 said:Great - thanks OSUdoc!
(TCOM meaning Texas, right??)
Orthodoc40 said:I am really trying to find out how true that is... You don't see many DO's in competitive MD residencies. I've heard of more FMG's getting a competitive MD residency than I have DO's getting them. But I am talking about just a handful of people, either way.