I graduated from Carib, ask me why you should stay away

[Mikkus]

Absolutely agreed.

Now do you believe the students who failed out would have been successful if they were in an MD/DO program in the states? Or do you think because of the wide nets of carib schools (allowing students who are not qualified to matriculate just for the $$) that they had no place being there in the first place and would have performed just as poorly if they were here in the states.

• I think this is dependent on circumstance. Some dropped out of 1st term during the first week of classes, the reality shock of the island hits hard. I really don't have an answer to this.

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[PikminOC]

Also, thank you @Law2Doc for helping me to fill in some holes. I fixed some wording to hopefully make myself a bit clearer, but it gets confusing- away vs auditions.

Thank u for the clarification. I am not up on the terminology. Are government loans enough to pay for the education and living expenses? I thought people need private loans as well...

 

[PikminOC]

• I think this is dependent on circumstance. Some dropped out of 1st term during the first week of classes, the reality shock of the island hits hard. I really don't have an answer to this.

Medical school is shocking by itself. In the us too. So much material so fast.

 

[PikminOC]

Again, these aren't "away" rotations because these places have no "home" rotations. It's ALL contracted for at hospitals in the US. There aren't rotations on the islands, you spend your latter two years stateside.

An "away" rotation, by contrast is something you might choose to do at another program coming from a US school, where you go someplace other than your home school. It's also sometimes called an audition rotation. And it's totally different than what we are talking about in this thread.

I was trying to be clear on what the op was talking about in terms of rotations. I am just trying to clarify. It was in his original posting so it is part of this discussion

 

[Law2Doc]

I was trying to be clear on what the op was talking about in terms of rotations. I am just trying to clarify. It was in his original posting so it is part of this discussion

Yes, offshore schools contract for all of their rotations, generally with US community hospitals that could use the revenue stream. These are the only rotations there are for these schools, there are no "away" rotations as there is no "home" hospital.

 

[Mansamusa]

Thank u for the clarification. I am not up on the terminology. Are government loans enough to pay for the education and living expenses? I thought people need private loans as well...

Nah, there are Grad Plus gov't loans that let you borrow up to the cost of attendance (the only way you can't get this is if you have bad credit)

 

[Mikkus]

Nah, there are Grad Plus gov't loans that let you borrow up to the cost of attendance (the only way you can't get this is if you have bad credit)

The loans they give you are more than sufficient to cover tuition and cost of living. Some even brought whole families down to the island and lived off the loans.
Everything in Grenada is expensive, so you must be frugal, but it is very doable. Here are some examples of costs

• Electricity for running one AC unit 15 ish hours a day in a 100 square foot room - 300 usd
• Nutella jar/peanut butter jar- 12 usd
• Gas- $4.5 usd per gallon
  
• 1998 trashy Escudo- with non working gas gauge, power steering, windows/ac and finicky breaks- 4k usd
• One off campus apartment in a nearby community neighborhood- 700-1000, not including electricity and water.
  
• Rare to find non frozen chicken out- generally when you do they only have feet on the table- Great way to kill my appetite

 

[jaxon]

303 subscribers....

 

[LuluLovesMe]

The loans they give you are more than sufficient to cover tuition and cost of living. Some even brought whole families down to the island and lived off the loans.
Everything in Grenada is expensive, so you must be frugal, but it is very doable. Here are some examples of costs

• Electricity for running one AC unit 15 ish hours a day in a 100 square foot room - 300 usd
• Nutella jar/peanut butter jar- 12 usd
• Gas- $4.5 usd per gallon
  
• 1998 trashy Escudo- with non working gas gauge, power steering, windows/ac and finicky breaks- 4k usd
• One off campus apartment in a nearby community neighborhood- 700-1000, not including electricity and water.
  
• Rare to find non frozen chicken out- generally when you do they only have feet on the table- Great way to kill my appetite

This is pretty interesting. Can you give more examples of how much food costs there and also what it's like to live on the island.

 

[PikminOC]

How much does it cost to go there? Us schools are expensive. I went to public school and had to get Perkins too.
The Caribbean grads I know have family money. May be a subset tho

 

[Mansamusa]

How much does it cost to go there? Us schools are expensive. I went to public school and had to get Perkins too.
The Caribbean grads I know have family money. May be a subset tho

Caribbean schools actually have lower tuition than a lot of US schools... My parents didn't go to college/don't know much about schooling and they recommended that I turn down my US MD acceptances to go to the Carib and save $100K. (I'm obviously not going to do that, but Carib is a cheaper option for a lot of people- Ross has the same tuition as my state school. I can't tell what SGU costs because I don't know how many "terms" are in a year).

 

[Mikkus]

How much does it cost to go there? Us schools are expensive. I went to public school and had to get Perkins too.
The Caribbean grads I know have family money. May be a subset tho

• I'll attach the full cost of attendance. They are 5 semesters every 2 years. Clinicals also cost more, and you have to pay for steps as well. I'm on a phone so I can't do the math for the numbers shown. You also have to take out loans for living cost, so the numbers are much higher.
• I don't know many families who can afford to front 300k, as I said every American I know took loans out.

Caribbean schools actually have lower tuition than a lot of US schools... My parents didn't go to college/don't know much about schooling and they recommended that I turn down my US MD acceptances to go to the Carib and save $100K. (I'm obviously not going to do that, but Carib is a cheaper option for a lot of people- Ross has the same tuition as my state school. I can't tell what SGU costs because I don't know how many "terms" are in a year).

So the schedule for the first 2 years is 5 terms. If you start in August, you have term one that ends in December, term two ends in June, term three runs through the summer, and four/ 5 September- may. Study time for step may- June, step in June/ July. Start clinicals August. Now these are from memory so they are estimated.

 

[Mikkus]

This is pretty interesting. Can you give more examples of how much food costs there and also what it's like to live on the island.

• You can get fresh fruits and veggies for pretty cheap, only problem is they spoil within 48 hours for the most part.
• Many Ovens vent inside the house. While baking house temps can reach well over 100.
• Sgu has a very good bus schedule for the near by communities. The bus in grand Anne and lae make driving obsolete. Parking and driving on campus are best avoided during class time.
  • During finals time police officers would ticket anyone without a valid license, creating major backups. You must renew your license every 3 months, and finals fell right at 3.5 months into the term, so many licenses would be expired.
• Safety is a very big hot topic issue down there, that you never hear anything about before you get to the island. Petty theft and crimes of opportunity are common. They are inventive, and know where students live. I have heard of people use fishing rods to hook backpacks through open windows. Nothing is safe to leave in a car. Or on the beach while you swim. There was lots of snatch and grabs of wallets and purses. Luckily violent crimes have been pretty rare on the island until recently. The recent murders can be found on Google.
• Another thing to consider is the hospital down there. You don't want to go there. I promise. The school has a health center as well, but just hope you don't get sick. I have never heard someone who had a good experience with them.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Which residency/field are you going into?

If you could do it all over again, would you have taken a year off to improve your app and send out more apps to more MD programs and sprinkle in some DO schools too? Would love to hear/read your thoughts on your journey (PM would be great as well!)

 

[Mikkus]

I'm headed to IM, which was my field of choice. I think if I came from a US school I would have ended up in IM as well, it is just what I enjoyed.
If I could do it all over again I would take the year to retake classes and apply DO. I chose Carib over DO at the time, but it is not a mistake I would make again. I was told carib was equal to do, and I could join the carib class now. I jumped at the chance without doing research.
Many were successful, but they are the type that would have been top of the class at US schools.
Generally the ones who fit in the top 10% were those who partied too hard in undergrad. If you have the mcat score to show your a good test taker, that's 9/10ths of the battle.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

@Mikkus

I sincerely want to say congratulations to you man. You deserve every bit of success and I am sorry that you had to undergo the more difficult route but THANK YOU for painting a clear picture and telling the honest truth about your experience. I really hope this thread and your advice helps others avoid many mistakes when pursuing this route.

You will be a great doctor! Good luck with everything and PLEASE contribute to the forum whenever you have a chance!