Looking for 2nd chance

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Is it possible to get a second chance at a Caribbean school if you get dismissed from a US school for non-academic reasons?

I withdrew from a US medical school about a year ago but have decided to pursue a medical degree. My "withdrawl" was greatly encouraged by the school as I would have been expelled otherwise and they told me it would be better to have a W on my transcript and not an "expelled". I made a mistake, but it was a tough time in my life (I'll spare the sob story suffice to say I honestly made a mistake and am not someone who has been getting in trouble my whole life.)

I have good stats, and I think I would probably be accepted just to pad a caribbean schools admission statistics. However, I am really worried about residency. I know that it is 4 years down the road (Im sure I will have to start from 1st year again, and that I have a lot of time to demonstrate my maturity and get good LORs, but I am wondering if anybody knows someone who has had a similar situation and was successful at the Carib schools. I have good academic abilities and most likely won't have a problem with the coursework (again), I feel terrible about the entire situation, and wish I could do it over again.

Also:
The fact that I withdrew and wasn't expelled doesn't seem like much of a difference on a residency application since they will assuredly ask why I withdrew. I am not going to lie about this under any circumstance (even though there is no "adverse" records), and want to know if it would still be possible to get a residency (ie if I got 217 step 1s.)

I would appreciate any advice, especially anyone who successfully faced similar circumstances.

Edit: I am not trying for any US medical schools since realistically I don't think it is possible at this point

 

[dragonfly99]

wow. That is a sad story. It sounds like you have learned from whatever mistakes you made.
I have to honestly say you have no idea how this problem is going to dog you and dog you if you decide to stay in medicine. I can't say what your chances would be for a residency - you could probably find some family practice or IM residency that would take you ultimately, if you distinguished yourself in med school in terms of behavior, grades and USMLE scores. I honestly don't think grades from a Carib med school (or even a US med school in many cases) carry much weight due to variable grading in different med schools. The main problem for you would be that medicine is SO EXTREMELY overregulated currently, and it will keep being that way. Residencies and hospitals like to take the "safe" i.e. noncontroversial candidate, likely because they just want to have smooth sailing and don't want to open themselves up to a liability risk. They are likely to discriminate strongly against someone like you. They will be afraid that
either
a) you are not honest
or
b) you will have personal problems or
c) you will get into tangles with nurses patients or other docs
None of which they want to deal with.
Also, you will have to state your resignation from med school on any medical licensure applications you ever fill out, all applications to work in hospitals, etc.

My honest advice is to do some other career if there is any possible other thing you are interested in. I know what I am talking about. I had a good friend who is a US IMG and she had to go through so much crap trying to get a residency here...surgery prelim...surg 2nd year at another institution...another 2 years wasted in a "research" job, then ultimately switching to another easier specialty that she could get in to. Another friend was sent to be "reeducated" and labeled a "problem physician" for getting into a tangle with a nurse, despite being the smartest and one of the best fellows in our program. His career was almost destroyed, but luckily he managed to rise from the ashes.

I don't mean to hang the black crepe here, but medical careers in general are HARD for US grads of Carib med schools in general, and I think you'd have kind of 2 strikes against you with your previous problem.

Isn't there some other career that interests you, where you could have a clean slate? How about a doctorate in physical therapy, or trying to get in to pharmacy school or optometry school or podiatry school, if you desire to do something medical so strongly. It just seems a shame to go down that road you are thinking of, given all I know you'll face. Honestly, I'm an MD and I enjoy it, but once you get to the end of training you realize that there are lots of other folks out there in similar careers, making good money, less years of training and probably less government and licensing BS to deal with. Also, it's important to be able to live your life without having this thing constantly hanging over you, so why go through it?

Maybe you should just go get another degree/career. Business, law, science, teaching, etc. There are lots of good important careers, not limited to just medicine.

If you insist on retrying medical school, are you SURE that a US allopathic or DO school won't consider you? I agree it is a long shot, but in my opinion any US school would give you a leg up in the residency selection process vs. a Caribbean school.

You can PM me if there's any questions I might be able to help you with...not that I am an authority but I did go through US med school, IM residency and currently a fellow.

 

[NeurosurgeryGal]

Yes. I know SEVERAL american students kicked out of US med schools and went to caribbean schools and matched into residency.

Don't give up.

 

[twitcher]

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[IMbound]

To the previous writer, I do agree you have a chance to get into SGU. There was someone in my class that ended up withdrawing from a stateside school, that person was later found to have a learning disability, got into SGU and with a lot of test taking strategic help was able to ultimately finish. I DON'T think though, that you have a good chance to transfer to a stateside school.

Now, to the previous writer, I think after withdrawing from ROSS, it still is possible to go to a lower tier carib school but as carib schools are in reality already second chance schools, is a third chance at a lower school really going to result in a good outcome?? For few it may but for most it will probably result in the same outcome as previously.

Brutal though honest.....

 

[twitcher]

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