I want to be a pediatrician, should I go to a 6 year caribean med school right after high school?

[Dr.J.D]

BRUV
You made like 4 posts identical to this one, and everybody keeps giving you the same answers. Go to a good 4 year university. Do well, high gpa, study hard for mcat, get lors, get volunteering hours, extra curriculars , and then apply to MD and DO schools in the US, and go to a nice residency of your choosing. Then have a nice life, saving lives and taking care of people and developing relationships etc blah blah blah. If you go to carib its likely that you will waste hundreds of thousands of dollars and also never practice medicine. If you're confident that you can become a doctor there, then why aren't you confident about doing it here. Instead of wasting your time posting the same stuff over and over again, maybe study for actual school?

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[WhyNeedAName]

With this 6 yr program that I keep seeing on here, do it if *you* want to. Don't ask a bunch of strangers to guide you in your life. You don't even know what life entails, so just do it. At least you can say "hey, I am a doctor at <whatever Caribbean island>". If the US falls into war or some other deep poop (brought to you by Trump ), you know you can be successful in another country. If you're pressed on being a pediatrician here, do research on what immigrating pediatricians should do to keep their job without repeating med school. To the others above, you make it seem as if getting an MD at another country is pointless and the US doesn't allow doctors from other countries. My uncle got his MD in Haiti, and all he had to do was this 2 year program at FIU or FAU (don't remember which one does it exactly) so he basically learns what is in his scope of practice in Florida and that's that.

 

[PikminOC]

There are 6 and 7 year ba md programs in the us

 

[HomeSkool]

I spoke with my department's residency program director and got some actual data about this. He said the match rate used to be 99% for US allopathic (MD) grads, 75% for osteopathic grads, and 50% for grads from the Caribbean. However, the explosion of DO schools in recent years has pushed the US allopathic match rate down to 96%, and the match rate for Caribbean grads is now under 50%. So there's some data directly from the program director of an anesthesiology residency program.

FWIW, we do have one faculty member who studied in the Caribbean, and he's an outstanding physician.

 

[HomeSkool]

I don't think any of us are criticizing Caribbean grads. You have to be outstanding to make it through and match. I have worked with some Caribbean grads and we have some on the faculty as well, and they have all been great. However, that does not mean that going to the Caribbean for med school, particularly for someone straight out of high school who hasn't even attempted the traditional route, is worth the risk of taking.

I know that, and I'm not criticizing Caribbean grads, either. I cited my colleague as an example that Caribbean grads can have success stateside. As I noted previously, though, they don't have the same likelihood of success as those who train within the US. You're right: what the OP talks about is a bad idea without trying the traditional route first.

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[Blackdogue]

Alright so I’m a 17 year old depressed senior in high school, and I’m planning to go to college to do either premed or pre-physician assistant. I’m really interested in the health field and helping people. However, my parents (Indian parents :/) really push me to go to a 6 year foreign medical school program in the Caribbean straight out of high school. I got a 26 on the ACT, and have 3.5 GPA, while taking some AP and honors classes. According to my parents a 26 on the ACT means that I’m stupid and won’t get into a U.S medical school. Tbh I didn’t study for the ACT, and I don’t like taking these standardized tests. They believe that since I got a low score on the ACT, I will also get a low score on the MCAT. I know that U.S medical schools are competitive and hard, my parents tell me that foreign medical school is lightwork compared to U.S med school and it’s faster since it’s a 6 year program. However, they tell me that the only thing I need to really study hard for is the USMLE. According to them, if I get a good score on the USMLE I will get a residency. My parents have a strong feeling that I will get weeded our and end up wasting time and money if I do undergrad premed here in the U.S all because of my high school stats (ACT). I read about foreign medical schools and I found that it’s not the best place to go, I could already tell it’s a sketchy place. I would hate to go to a foreign med school, I’m kinda immature to go to a med school straight out of high school and I won’t find any friends because they’re all foreign and most of them don’t speak English. Another reason why I don’t want to go is because I haven’t fully made up my mind if I want to be a doctor or a PA. I’m leaning towards the PA side because my parents scaring me into pushing me to go to foreign med school. The funny thing is that, my dad went to foreign med school in India and he ended up getting a residency here in the U.S but he lost it, and till this day he is still looking for a residency. My mom planning to send me to same foreign med school in Dominican Republic that she went to, she says that foreign med School is easy getting the grades, but when she took the USMLE she didn’t get a good score and she didn’t get a residency. Right now she’s a nurse. My question is if I somehow go to foreign med school out of high school, and do really good on the usmle, will I have a good chance of getting a residency?

Sorry, I'm not from the U.S., so you can dismiss my opinion if you think I'm uninformed, but isn't it weird that your parents insist you take the same path as them if that path didn't lead to success for either of them?

 

[OddNath]

To the OP- it sounds like your parents are belittling you, just at the thought that you could get a real education with a US undergrad degree. They’re threatening to cut you off.

Well, I think the path is clear— let yourself get cut off financially, find a reasonably cheap undergrad where you can take pre-med courses and major in something interesting. Take the loans, work in the summers. Go ahead and let yourself be the “bad child” for “running away” or whatever they will accuse you of.

Because frankly, their plan is an absolute disaster.

In addition, as others have pointed out- get yourself evaluated for ADHD. Also, get yourself set up with some counseling to help you cope with this toxic home environment. Granted, this might not be feasible until you leave for college...but if that’s the case, set this up in day 1 of undergrad.