Inferior

[GangaMaster]

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Am I Inferior if I go to a Top 4 Caribbean school?

 

[EMDO2018]

Are there any African American med students here or anybody who has experience with diversity recruiting? Im looking for advice PM me 🙂.

 

[Blizzard18]

Am I Inferior if I go to a Top 4 Caribbean school?

You aren't. Your education is. And your chance of residency is. And since most of us define ourselves at this point by our careers than I suppose so...
Avoid Caribbean. Do D.O.

 

[link2swim06]

Chances are you are inferior with respect to doctoring; your education is not all that inferior but similar to everyone's med school education; Better schools have the better and usually more driven students. Most of med school is lonely time studying. 🙂

That can be said of the first two years....but not of the 3rd/4th year (where you learn the important stuff).

3rd year I'd say at least 40% of my learning was from seeing patients and then being taught about them/reading about them. From the few people I know who go to a Caribbean school, it seems like quality really varies on the rotations and leaves much to be desired.

 

[evilbooyaa]

From what I understand the top 4 Caribbean schools (whose names I'm not sure of) have better clinical rotations than most schools. And pay handsomely for it.

No. They may have better rotations than some DO schools (only because I haven't heard the greatest things about rotations at the local DO school), but based on what I've heard from friends at Carribbean schools (compared to rotations at my school) they are at the very best equal, and at the worst much closer to observerships than rotations. Even if they pay handsomely for those observerships, it doesn't make them automatically better.

 

[link2swim06]

From what I understand the top 4 Caribbean schools (whose names I'm not sure of) have better clinical rotations than most schools. And pay handsomely for it.

Most academic medical centers are staffed by people who 'want' to teach. Also they typically have a well defined curriculum including didactics. Hence why imo allopathic students have overall superior rotations.

Paying a lot of money for a rotation does not equal quality.

 

[drcrispmd]

The rotations through SGU are far from observerships. I can't speak about other Carib schools. Our rotations are required to all be green book, so we were always with residents. Other schools do not have this requirement. I know some DO schools who never work with residents on their rotations. I felt being with residents better prepared me for residency.

 

[Gifted Hands]

The rotations through SGU are far from observerships. I can't speak about other Carib schools. Our rotations are required to all be green book, so we were always with residents. Other schools do not have this requirement. I know some DO schools who never work with residents on their rotations. I felt being with residents better prepared me for residency.

No offense, I'm sure the rotations they offer you guys are better than other Caribbean schools but... I've rotated with SGU and other Carib students at some of these hospitals and it's kinda horrifying. Yes, there are residents but they barely speak English and can't read an X ray! There were a handful that were okay, some even good. But overall you can't compare the experience at some of these community hospitals to an academic medical center. I was really impressed with the Carib students tho!

 

[Bryan O’Blivion]

That's a strange question, really. Personally, I don't think so. I go to a US MD school with a good reputation, but just from the outset, I can't see why you would be inferior to me. I applied to med school 4 years ago, got accepted into two programs and wait listed at two others. I think it has a lot to do with luck, and the feeling of confidence you get when you get one acceptance under your belt. Interviewing for residency, I met some IMG's who had amazing scores and seemed like smart hard working people. I can't comment on other schools' rotations, but mine were hit and miss, some I learned an amazing amount from. Others just felt pedantic. A lot of it is how much you make of it. I could have worked harder, been more inquisitive, and gotten more out of things on my less liked rotations. Being an IMG probably keeps you hungry rather than complacent.

 

[Gifted Hands]

then why have I read articles whining about how these top Carib schools are stealing NY rotation spots with their cash flow? Whose spots are they stealing?

The spots they are "stealing" are at community hospitals, not academic centers. The only reason NYC medical schools even say anything about it is because of the high volume of cash flow that changes hands between the Caribbean schools and these hospitals and that prevents US MD schools from enrolling even more students. Meanwhile many of these sites are affiliated with academic centers (meaning when the patient is too complex they transfer them to that hospital, no financial support) and like to send students there so they can say they give students community exposure and diversity. Less Caribbean students, less competition, more capacity for the US MD schools to control care. There's a NY times article about it somewhere.

 

[drcrispmd]

No offense, I'm sure the rotations they offer you guys are better than other Caribbean schools but... I've rotated with SGU and other Carib students at some of these hospitals and it's kinda horrifying. Yes, there are residents but they barely speak English and can't read an X ray! There were a handful that were okay, some even good. But overall you can't compare the experience at some of these community hospitals to an academic medical center. I was really impressed with the Carib students tho!

Yes our rotations are better than the other Carib schools. I have rotated with other lower Carib schools and I was shocked at what they could consider a rotation. I think if a student does not have any exposure to working with residents (or very minimal) it hinders the educational experience. I felt better prepared for residency because of it. They also worked our backsides off which is why I say SGU rotations are not observerships. All clinical center and hospitals are like that. You can't group all Carib schools into one.
Yes you will have good Carib students and bad ones, but you have that at US schools too. There are a lot of foreign grads in the residencies where my rotations were. There are a lot of foreign grads in the residencies at the university I am doing residency at as well (which is at a university with a medical school). Some you could not understand their English and some that were fantastic. I was lucky to be with very good residents that actually took the time to teach and were knowledgable. The clinical center I was assigned to had student only didactics for each core rotation. Some rotations it was daily. Just because the hospital is not some big name does not mean there is not good teaching. A lot of students get caught up on names.
Like I said I rotated with other Carib students and US students I have worked with uS MD and Do students as a resident as well and wondered how some were able to get into medical school in the US.