Med School Help NEEDED!

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skotdaskater

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Hello everyone, I'm new to SDN so I hope I'm posting in the right place! My name is Scott and I live in Mississauga, ON. I took medical radiation technology as a 3 year college program and graduated December of last year. Even before starting the program I knew I wanted to be more in life, like one had a purpose but didn't know for what or why yet.
After finishing my program in December I went for my annual gastroacopy and received news early January that they had found cancer. I was told I could either wait and see if the cancer grew or got worse, or go the safe route and have a total gastrectomy. I didn't want to risk my life waiting on something to progress that I already knew was inside me so I went ahead with the surgery early March. It's been just over 6 months and I feel terrific and more motivated than ever. I feel so motivated and great because I finally know that I want to go to med school and become something great - a general surgeon.
The care I received in the hospitals care was terrific and I finally got to see things as a patient instead of an employee. I had an amazing surgeon at Mt Sinai hospital and i just admire her so much. I had a lot of time to reflect in the hospital and over the first two months recovering and I just know in my heart I need to go to med school.
NOW, here is my question/concern; I want to go to either St. George's or Saba School of Medicine in the Caribbean because they are the top one's there. But I know I want to come back to Canada to do my residency and to work permanently eventually. Are my chances slim to none or decent with hard work and great test scores throughout school? How many people do end up getting a chance to come back to Canada for Residency? Is there an even smaller chance since I'm passionate about general surgery?

Any information is greatly appreciated and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Thank you,
Scott

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You may want to post this on the Canadian sub-forum, as residency programs in Canada may view Caribbean schools differently than residency programs in the U.S. You'll likely get better responses from fellow Canadians than just the general SDN populace on this one...
 
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You may want to post this on the Canadian sub-forum, as residency programs in Canada may view Caribbean schools differently than residency programs in the U.S. You'll likely get better responses from fellow Canadians than just the general SDN populace on this one...

It's the same deal in Canada, just as bad if not worse. Plus all the usual reasons not to go to the Caribbean still stand (attrition etc).

OP what are your stats? Desire alone won't get you through med school, especially in the Caribbean. It's really tough in Ontario I know, but unless you're an extremely strong science student and you're just a tiny bit out of range for med schools here, I wouldn't consider it.

Also if you do go there and somehow beat the odds and get a North American residency, you have a close to 0% chance of it being surgical. Matching as an IMG (assuming you don't flunk out with 300k of debt like 50% of people) in anything but family or psychiatry is not something that you should ever assume will happen.

edit: Canadian questions are best asked of premed101.com the Canadian sub-forum here is pretty dead
 
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The Caribbean is a desperate last choice for those who have failed two applications after their best remediation efforts.
Even then, it should only be undertaken if there is easy access to sufficient funds to pay the debt accumulated which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
 
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If American's have a slim chance of matching to a surgical residency from the Caribbean, Canadians have none. You're going to need an undergrad and apply in Canada to do this
 
What my learned colleague is politely saying is that you had better like the idea of being unemployed and deeply in debt.

The Caribbean is a desperate last choice for those who have failed two applications after their best remediation efforts.
Even then, it should only be undertaken if there is easy access to sufficient funds to pay the debt accumulated which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
 
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Reactions: 1 user
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