Hi Clarkalim,
While I'm not someone who replies to posts too often, I felt obliged to do so after reading what some of the previous individuals had to say about my Caribbean-based education.
As a soon-to-be graduate of the medical school at St. George's University (Class of 2011), I can tell you that SGU was by no means a "last option" for me - in fact, I looked at it as the best option after being wait-listed at 3 US allopathic schools. Not only did the school provide me with the foundation in the Basic Sciences that I needed in order to perform well on my USMLEs, but it's strong hospital affiliations only assured me that my clinical education would be on par with many of my fellow US medical students.
As I mentioned, I will be graduating this June and was fortunate enough to not only match, but match into my number 2 ranked program for Neurology in a very well respected hospital in New York. In addition, I was offered pre-match positions (an option for IMGs to sign outside of the match) for both my preliminary year of Internal Medicine as well for for Neurology. The reason I'm telling you this is because, contrary to what 24thGrade had said, by no means should you avoid applying to SGU at all costs. The unfortunate reality is that year after year, highly qualified students are being rejected by US schools and they are forced to look elsewhere in order to achieve their dream of becoming a physician...and for me, SGU gave me that opportunity. As someone who went on several residency interviews, I can tell you that I had program directors tell me directly that they have nothing but great things to say about my University and that several SGU students have gone through their residency program and gone on to become the Chief of their respective residencies before continuing onto fellowships. Needless to say, that only further reassured me of the quality of students that receive a SGU education.
To answer your question regarding research, absolutely you can (and should) get involved in it during your time as a medical student! I was able to get involved in several research projects during my clinical years and was fortunate enough to partake in 2 poster presentations at national conferences. The key is to be assertive while you are on your rotations and show interest in research...as long as you do that, attendings more often than not will be more than happy to guide you in the right direction.
Lastly, I'd like to provide you with a few links:
1. The SGU 2011 Match List (as well as prior years) showing the names of every student that has matched, specifying the Program/Hospital as well as the specialty he/she will be going into. In it you'll see some very impressive hospital programs (i.e., Albert Einstein, Mount Sinai) as well as some very competitive specialties (i.e., orthopedic surgery, ophthalmology, neurosurgery), that should assure you that a SGU education does not mean that you would be applying and reapplying to residency hoping to get into
any residency program.In fact, we have a 98% success rate of US students matching into a US residency within 2 years of graduation.
https://apps.sgu.edu/ERD/2011/ResidPost.nsf/BYPGY?OpenView&RestrictToCategory=PGY2&Count=-1
2. A list of the SGU affiliated clinical centers. While you'll see that there are hospitals located in several states, the majority are located in NY and NJ. I myself did the majority of my rotations in NJ and remained at both St. Barnabas and Newark Beth Israel for my clinical years (so there's no traveling around from state-to-state like some other Caribbean schools force their students into doing).
http://www.sgu.edu/school-of-medicine/affiliated-hospitals.html
3. As I noted, my clinical experience, I felt, was second-to-none. And to show you just how strong some of our hospitals are, here is a link to USNews, which just recently released a list of the top NY/NJ based hospitals. Of the ranked NJ hospitals, SGU has affiliations with 5 of the top 8 (including the top 2 - Hackensack University Medical Center and Newark Beth Israel).
http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/new-york-ny
Any additional questions you may have, PLEASE don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to reply in a timely manner! Best of luck on the MCAT and I hope things work out for the best!!
