My no holds barred review of SGU!

[piotrkol1]

“Sounds like you're almost set on going. You’ve heard the advice and pretty much all of the different perspectives from everyone. If you do go to the Carib, don’t leave us hanging. Keep us updated!”

“OP. You've heard all you want. If you're set on SGU, come back after your 1st year and give us an unadulterated version of what you saw and experienced. If you graduate and match, comeback and tell us I told you so.”

“Do your thing. Report back to us after you match and let everyone know how it went!”

Ask and you shall receive!

Introduction
Come one, come all! This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! I’m going to advise you to buckle up and get comfortable because this is a LONG read. For starters, let me give you a little rundown of how I ended up at SGU. Sadly, I wasn’t the greatest student in undergrad. I was always on the medical school track, but my study habits weren’t the best. At that young tender age, I definitely battled some immaturity, and when it came to my studies I just sort of coasted. I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard but it is what it is. I was generally a B student, but there were two semesters that I really bombed. Upon graduating I had a sub 3.0 GPA. I moved back home and did a DIY post-bacc for a year and I did ok (~3.5 GPA). I also beefed up my resume during this time by doing things like shadowing, EMT.

I applied to US MD/DO schools after that but as you might expect that went nowhere. I applied to SGU and I got accepted, but it was on the condition of completing either the MSAP or CFP program first, which is basically a preparatory course that assesses your readiness for medical school. I also got accepted to a SMP at RFU, and after mulling it over I decided that was worth the gamble instead of going to SGU. Basically, they made it seem like if you get Bs in the medical school classes and do well in the interview you get into the medical school. Spending two years in an underdeveloped place like Grenada and having to go through that preliminary course also didn’t sound too appealing.

The first half of the BMS program at RFU went fine, but then I bombed one of the physiology exams and I barely passed neuroscience. I ended up with two Cs and so I got rejected. Instead of moving down there I commuted from my parents’ place in Wisconsin, so while I saved some money on housing that arrangement probably didn’t help me focus. In addition to the medical school courses, which were obviously the most important, there were some additional supplemental courses that you didn’t really want to bother with because they ate into your study time. In a way those wore me down the most. The BMS program has since changed and participants are no longer in the same classes as the medical school students.

At that point it was pretty clear that my only shot at becoming a doctor was by going the international route. I had heard plenty of bad things about Caribbean schools so I was still hoping to avoid that, if possible. Initially, I considered Jagiellonian in Poland. My whole family is from Poland, I’ve been there many times, and I understand the language. Plus, my dad went to medical school in Poznan and then he was able to make it over to the US. It turned out that Jagiellonian had changed their program, and they only had a 6-year option for high school graduates. From there I turned my focus to UQ-Oschner. Interestingly, during undergrad I studied abroad at UQ and this seemed like an up-and-coming program. After several retakes I managed to get a 509 on the MCAT, and based on what people had posted on SDN it seemed like as long as you met their GPA/MCAT minimums you had a good chance of getting an acceptance. Well, I went down to New Orleans for the interview, but I still got rejected. I don’t know if it was my SMP grades that sunk me or if the program had become more selective, but I was pretty stunned.

With that, the Caribbean was the only option left. I briefly dabbled with podiatry, but I didn’t think I’d be satisfied with that career. Initially I set my sights on AUC due to the smaller class size and because it’s on a nicer island. However, at AUC you barely get any time off during the first two years. That sounded like a recipe for getting burned out really quick. So, I made an about-face and reapplied to SGU. Not only did I get accepted straight into the MD program this time, but surprisingly they also gave me a scholarship. I even got a call from the Dean of Admissions who offered to double my scholarship if I came down right away for the term that was starting in two weeks’ time (I declined). I know I’ve written a lot so far without actually diving into my time at SGU itself, but I just wanted to illustrate that I did exhaust every option before choosing to go there.

Year 1
I wasn’t aware of this the first time I applied, but you have the option of doing the first year at Northumbria University in Newcastle. That was big for someone like me who dreaded the thought of two years in Grenada. The drawback is that you can’t use US DOE loans throughout your time at SGU. They really tried to discourage me from going that route and using private loans but frankly I didn’t see what the big deal was. You have a couple of years after graduating before you have to start paying them back and sometimes the interest rate I got was even lower than what I would have gotten with a federal loan. At the time I started those going to the UK were ineligible to match into any residency program in New Jersey, but this restriction was rescinded by the time I finished my second year. Lastly, if you start in January, you will get longer summer breaks and you will also have several months off after finishing year two.

There were about 50 students in my class, and the group that started in August was roughly double that size. Because of the loan constraint most of the people in Newcastle are Canadians. The class did have some diversity, however. One girl was from Hong Kong, another one was from the UK, and a few people had even done their undergrad at SGU. Longtime lurkers on SDN would have been stunned to hear some of these people talk about why they ended up at SGU. For example, one guy told me SGU was the only school he ever wanted to go to because it places the most residents every year (he also was determined to go into orthopedic surgery). Another girl who was from Nevada turned down her only interviews at UNLV & Reno because she had spent her entire life in Nevada and she said she couldn’t stand it there anymore. There were even a few people who told me they had turned down MD/DO acceptances to attend SGU instead. I guess not everyone exists within the SDN echo chamber.

Unless you are married or you have a partner, you are required to live in the Northumbria student housing. SGU students are mostly confined to one building in the complex, so you don’t have to worry about living with the younger Northumbria students. There are a few studios for those who prefer to live alone, but the rest of the “flats” house five people. You will have an ensuite bathroom, but the kitchen area is shared. Personally, I thought it was adequate and definitely better than your typical college dorm in the US, but one of the guys in my room was 35 years old and I could tell that he felt he was too old for that sort of living arrangement. The housing complex is surrounded by a shopping center that has a Tesco (the equivalent of a Walmart Supercenter), a movie theatre, a Subway, gym/fitness center, and other shops/restaurants. It takes about twenty minutes to walk to campus otherwise its three stops away on the metro/rapid transit system.

When I started they had just recently overhauled the program and changed the curriculum to make it systems based. There were two in-person lectures each day, and in addition to this there were usually a couple DLAs (directed learning activities) assigned each week. These are basically shorter lectures that you’re supposed to go through on your own, and the content is related to the stuff that’s being presented in lecture. The other in-person activities are small group sessions and IMCQs (interactive multiple-choice questions) and you can expect a few of these each week. During the IMCQs you go through 10-20 questions that cover the recent lecture/DLA material and you must get at least half of the questions correct in order to earn credit for the session. Attendance is required for everything, but you only need to hit 80% each term so you have some leeway. This format is pretty much the same throughout the entire first two years, though starting in year two the small group sessions become more frequent. There’s also ITI sessions which are mainly reserved for those who struggle. I’m not super familiar with it since I never took part, but I believe it’s sort of like going through the lecture in a small group setting. A facilitator does a walk-through of the lecture, and you stop to discuss certain points with your peers. If you do poorly on exams, you can be moved into ITI.

In the UK you will deal with a mix of SGU and Northumbria professors. To me they all seemed competent and knowledgeable, but some people did mention that they thought some of the small group facilitators in Newcastle were a little suspect. Due to the smaller class size, it’s a lot more personal and intimate. For instance, the SGU professors seemed to prioritize learning everyone’s name, you can ask questions during lecture and it’s a lot easier to get one-on-one time with the professors. I know SGU gets a bad rap, but there were a few professors who stuck out and you could tell they genuinely cared about students’ success. They’d go out of their way to host review sessions and so forth. Something important to realize is that Grenada still calls the shots. The faculty there are the ones who choose the exam questions, and basically any big decisions will come from down there. You take the same exact exams as the students who are down in Grenada, and you even take the exams at the same exact time. Most exams have 144 questions, a few of which are experimental and don’t count (these are randomly mixed in, so you won’t know which ones are experimental). The first two exams cover foundational stuff like genetics, cellular biology, and then after that you start “real” medical school. The first body system that comes up is musculoskeletal and this block can seem overwhelming for those that haven’t studied much anatomy in the past. In term 1 70% is a passing grade, but in year two this gets bumped up to 72.5%. A few weeks into the first semester news came down that Step 1 was going to become pass/fail. Up until then it seemed like it was critical for IMGs to score as high as possible on this exam. As you might expect some of my classmates started freaking out a bit and SGU tried to reassure us that we wouldn’t be affected at all by the change. I didn’t really view it as a good thing but by that point it was obviously too late to jump ship.

I started in January 2020, so as you can imagine things ran amok a few months later when COVID blew up. Initially, about half of the students decided to pack up their things and return home. Some were worried they’d get stuck due to the ever-increasing travel restrictions and others had parents who were worried about them. SGU was going to accommodate those who left, but none of that ended up mattering because a short while later the entire Northumbria campus closed down and SGU switched to online learning for all students. Things were even worse for those who were down in Grenada. The school decided to “evacuate” everyone from the island because they didn’t want an outbreak to take hold and ravage the local community. They chartered a fleet of planes to fly everyone back to the US and Canada and from what I was told it was pretty chaotic. I decided to stick it out in Newcastle but in hindsight that wasn’t a good choice. I thought that the lockdowns and everything else would blow over and that things would return to normal before too long, but clearly, I was naive. All of my roommates left, and it ended up being a pretty miserable time. The only time I ever left my room was to either run/exercise or buy groceries.

For the remainder of the semester, we had to rely on old recorded lectures. A few professors recorded supplemental videos, there were some Zoom office hour sessions, and you could obviously email additional questions, but it did sort of feel like we were basically on our own for the rest of the term. As you might expect, the exam averages took a hit and they curved the scores quite a bit (if the class average is under 80%, they adjust the scores so that the new average is 80%). From that point through to the end of basic sciences the exams were split up into three hour-long blocks with forty-five minute breaks in-between. They added breaks to give you time to use the bathroom, eat/drink something, or resolve any technical issues, but it did sort of turn the exams into more of a marathon. In place of attending the anatomy lab they posted videos of faculty going through the various specimens (this practice continued the following semester) but I thought this was a poor way to learn it. I realize that the whole COVID-19 situation was unprecedented, but throughout the first two years there were definitely some instances where our medical education seemed insufficient as a consequence of SGU’s limitations. The anatomy practical exam originally scheduled for the end of the term was canceled, and on a related note, compared to what I had seen when I was at RFU, SGU’s anatomy lab in the UK is subpar anyways.

Not long after I returned home for the summer, we were informed that the following semester would remain fully online. However, those who wished to do so were given the option to return to the UK and live in the student housing. I decided to do this because 1.) I was worried I wouldn’t be able to properly focus at home and 2.) I wanted to travel in Europe, something I didn’t get a chance to do the previous semester. A few of my other classmates also came back but most stayed home. When I returned in August COVID cases were quite low and it was fairly pleasant. The downside was that the nightclubs were still shut, it was table service only at bars/restaurants (you had to remain seated unless you were going to the bathroom), and if you wanted to go out for drinks you needed to have a reservation at most places due to the capacity restrictions. The UK had also implemented a mandatory 10-day home quarantine for arriving passengers, but it wasn’t enforced at all.

If you can get past the issue with the loans, I would recommend spending the first year in Newcastle hands down. The living situation obviously blows Grenada out of the water and (excluding COVID times) there’s just so much more to do. In addition to Northumbria there is also Newcastle University and so with such a large student population Newcastle actually has some of the best nightlife in the UK. Edinburgh and London are just a couple of hours away by train. Before the first COVID shutdown I was able to go down to Liverpool and attend a match at Anfield. During term 2 I went to Spain and Portugal. The best time for any extended travel is the weekend following an exam. For something more local that you can do in a day I would suggest visiting Tynemouth, Durham, and York. During the peak of winter, it usually still gets up to about 40 degrees F most days, but windy/rainy weather is common. Also, because of how far north Newcastle is situated the daylight hours are very short during the winter months.

In term 2 all class activities (lectures, small groups, IMCQs) were done via Zoom. The first and last blocks of the semester, where you cover endocrine/reproduction and social sciences, respectively, are fairly straightforward, but in the heart of the term you have biochemistry/metabolism and neuroscience, and that material is pretty intense. Two days after the last midterm we had to take the BSCE1, which is a cumulative exam covering the entire first year. You don’t need to pass this exam to progress to year 2, but it does count more towards your overall term grade than the midterms. Unfortunately, the second semester ended similarly to the first. As winter rolled in COVID cases spiked and the UK (and most of Europe) went into another harsh lockdown. Unlike the first lockdown during the spring, restaurants remained open for takeaway, so I could still order stuff on Uber Eats and I didn’t have to cook the entire time. However, once again I was stuck in my room for the most part and it sucked. I had been worried about the possibility of having to endure that again and it was the main reason I was hesitant to return to the UK, but at least I had managed to get my travel in before the situation deteriorated. There was also like a month and a half where we didn’t have any warm water in our building. Apparently, it took them several weeks to order and receive a replacement part, and when it finally arrived it immediately broke again after a few days and then we had to wait another few weeks for another one to come in. They allowed us to go shower in vacant rooms in an adjacent building, but as you can imagine that was a huge hassle.

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[piotrkol1]

Year 2
The third semester actually entails terms 3 and 4, and altogether it is six months long and it is a grind. This is when you join up with the Grenada cohort, so our class size now ballooned up to 500-600 people. COVID vaccines had just become available at the time, but we remained online. That was fine with me because after what I had endured in Newcastle I was ready enjoy some of the comforts of home for a while. It was a little more difficult to concentrate in that environment and my grades did take a small hit, but I still got by. Term 3 is the shorter of the two and here you go through public health/epidemiology, ethics, and microbiology/immunology. In term 4 the difficulty ratchets up. Whereas the focus of the first year was mainly on anatomy and physiology, now it shifted to pathology and pharmacology. From this point forward all our exams were curved, and quite significantly. This is also where the attrition became more noticeable because they post the distribution of scores for every exam and every time there were well over 100 people that failed.

Obviously with such a large class size we were no longer allowed to ask questions during the Zoom lectures, but we were able to enter them in the chat and there was another professor in the session that was assigned to answer them. Term 4 is also where you really start to delve into patient interviewing and physical assessment skills. Since we were online, the latter had to be verbalized and it seemed like a complete waste of time. At the beginning of term 1 SGU provides everyone with a physical examination kit that includes a stethoscope, ophthalmoscope, reflex hammer, and some other stuff. Clearly everyone could have taken it upon themselves to practice with a family member or friend, but once again this seemed like another shortcoming from the online format. Thankfully I had been an EMT for several years otherwise I think I would’ve been woefully unprepared for the clinical setting. At least for me, it took a bit of time to gain confidence and become comfortable interacting with patients. On the other hand, there were a lot of people that had absolutely zero clinical experience or knowledge coming into SGU. For instance, one girl was amazed that I knew how to take someone’s blood pressure. Back in Newcastle another person told me they had witnessed someone pass out in a store and they immediately proceeded to start giving them chest compressions even though they were breathing and had a pulse.

As a result of the (at the time) stabilizing COVID situation and the more widespread availability of vaccines, SGU informed us during term 4 that all students would finally be allowed to return to in-person learning in the fall. The catch was that anyone coming onto campus (including faculty, other staff) had to be fully vaccinated. I know some people living outside the US weren’t able to receive both shots in time and as a result they couldn’t come. By the time we actually got to Grenada the government had changed the rules to require vaccines for any foreigners entering the country. Returning to Grenada wasn’t required and in the end, I’d say only about a third of our class actually came back while the rest remained online. I thought the main benefit of going down there was the opportunity to do some of the clinical stuff in-person, but I also just kind of wanted to go for the experience. It just seemed sort of incomplete to be an SGU student without ever actually experiencing the island at all, you know? The trip down there was a borderline nightmare, however. For starters, there were barely any flight options, so I had to fly to New York and spend the night there before catching another flight down to Grenada the following morning. To make matters worse, my COVID test results weren’t ready when I got to the airport, so I had to rush over to the on-site testing spot and drop $225 for a rapid PCR test. The flight to Grenada got diverted due Puerto Rico due to simultaneous medical and mechanical issues on the plane, and then when I finally arrived, I still had to quarantine in a hotel for two days.

Yes, Grenada is a poor country, but honestly it wasn’t as backwards as I originally feared it might be. I had already traveled throughout the world quite a bit, but others might experience some culture shock coming here. I lived in a studio apartment in L'anse Aux Epines (a nicer, more affluent area) that cost me just over $1000 a month. I believe first-year students are required to live on-campus in the dorms, but you will get more bang for your buck by living off-campus. The campus is very nice and modern though and the gym/fitness center is top-notch. There are several food options on-campus including a bagel shop, a Subway, a coffee shop akin to Starbucks, and some other local vendors. SGU runs a series of bus routes from campus that makes it easier to get around. Keep in mind that only the Grand Anse bus goes to the main grocery store, so if you don’t live near this route, you might find yourself having to take multiple buses in order to get groceries. Some people chose to rent cars for the entirety of the semester but that will cost you a few grand. The main beach (Grand Anse Beach) is phenomenal. Like I said I’ve traveled quite a bit and its one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever been to. Be prepared because it is SUPER humid. I’m from the Upper Midwest so I’m not going to shy away from experiencing warm weather during the fall and winter months, but I would start sweating like crazy within minutes of stepping outside. Aside from it raining more often from June-December there is no variation in the weather, and you can pretty much expect it to be around 88 degrees F every single day. Hurricanes don’t usually hit Grenada because of how far south the island is located, but it is something to keep in mind. Catching Zika and Dengue is also a possibility. Forget about ordering anything on Amazon or having anything shipped in at all for that matter. Unless you use FedEx, it won’t even be delivered to your place. I made the mistake of ordering some scrubs and I had to go to the airport to pick it up and I also had to pay customs fees. Some people loved Grenada, and I thought one semester was tolerable, but I can’t imagine two full years there.

The Grenada professors were a mixed bag – some were engaging and interesting while others were quite dull. The first block of term 5 is basically a continuation of term 4. After that the focus shifts to Step 1 preparation. For the most part there’s no more new material presented, and instead you go through the body systems for a third time and review the more important points from years 1 and 2. Nobody really knew what to expect on these exams but most of the questions were about pathology. At this point a lot of people chose to completely ignore the lecture slides (I wouldn’t recommend this) and instead solely used outside resources to prepare for the exams. One week after the last midterm exam we had the BSFCR exam which covered the entire first two years. You need to pass this exam in order to progress from basic sciences and take Step 1. As you can imagine it was heavily curved.

Unfortunately, a mere few weeks after arriving in Grenada the COVID situation took a turn for the worst. Up until that time Grenada had been following a “zero-COVID” strategy. The country had registered just over 200 COVID cases and only 1 death from the start of the pandemic through July 2021. Then about 20 cases popped up (it was traced back to local folks, not students) and the government swiftly imposed a 9 PM curfew. Less than a week later all restaurants/bars were forced to close, but, predictably, cases continued to increase. As a result, the curfew was moved back to 7 PM, beach access was severely restricted, and "no movement days" were instituted during the weekend where nobody was allowed to leave their home at all unless you were going for COVID testing/vaccination. Needless to say, I was not used to such harsh restrictions, and I did not enjoy it one bit. Eventually, the school made the decision to return to online learning and at that point a lot of people started packing their bags and taking off. In the end I too decided to pull the plug on Grenada and return home early. That was just one too many lockdowns for me, you know? One of the main benefits of returning to the island for in-person instruction were the planned visits to the Grenada General Hospital. As I understood it these visits were supposed to function sort of like a clinical rotation, but the COVID situation cropped up right before we were supposed to have our first one and they were all canceled. As a substitute they came up with some virtual sessions that were delivered over Zoom but these were worthless. The COVID situation actually started to improve by the time I left but I didn’t want to stick around in case the numbers spiked again.

So, after all that you must be wondering, how did I end up doing? Well, just fine, as a matter of fact. Despite all the disruptions I passed every single exam and most of the time I scored above average. I’d say my study habits were indeed somewhat better, but I do still consider myself fortunate. Maybe I’m just good at memorizing stuff or I just have an easier time figuring out this material, but it sure seemed like I spent much less time studying than most of my classmates. For example, unless there was an exam coming up, I pretty much always took the weekends off. Usually, I only did practice questions the day before an exam, but there were some exams where I didn’t do any. As for those cumulative exams at the end of year 1 and 2, some people started preparing for them at the start of the term, but all I did was review my notes a few days before the exam and I still scored around 90% on both. I think it’s important to note that I was very independent and that’s probably another big reason why I was able to succeed. I never went to any office hours or review sessions, and I always studied by myself in my room. I didn’t take any notes or pay much attention during lecture, and I didn’t use Anki or make any convoluted study schedules/calendars either. I simply went through the lectures on my own, wrote out the important points in my notebook, and then I just studied that. That way, instead of having countless PowerPoint slides to sift through, I was able to condense all the relevant information and write it out and organize it in my own personal way. I never recommended anyone else follow my approach, but I’m just telling you what worked for me. I also don’t want anyone to think that I just coasted through because pretty much every exam stressed me out and there were multiple times I thought I had bombed.

 

[piotrkol1]

Year 3
If you are in the January class you will finish your second year in December, and then you won’t start clinicals until May so there is plenty of time to study for Step 1 and whatnot. We did have the opportunity to take Step 1 in early January before it became pass/fail, but when the semester ended I was ready for a break and I was not about to power through the holidays with full-on studying. I took the exam in mid-March and the results were posted 15 days later and I passed. SGU gives you access to several question banks (UWorld, USLME-Rx, Pastest). To be honest, my preparation was very relaxed. I studied roughly 3 days a week for a month and a half using UWorld, Boards & Beyond, the First Aid textbook, and my notes. I did not even get through ¼ of the UWorld questions. Because I had done fairly well on all the exams up to that point, I figured I didn’t need to stress too much since all I needed to do was pass. I felt horrible walking out of the exam, but I guess that’s typical. I guess we’ll never know if I just squeaked by or not.

During term 5 you submit your preferences for year 3. You can request a region (New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Maryland, etc.) instead of specific cities or hospitals. I ended up receiving my clinical assignment in mid-April so I had less than a month to secure housing and get things in order for my move. I was assigned to a trio of hospitals in Brooklyn, with most of my rotations taking place at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. I was hoping to end up in Brooklyn, so I was satisfied with how things turned out. Obviously, the cost of living was high but I wanted to experience living in NYC for a while and plus this is an IMG-friendly area anyways. During my time in NYC, I stayed in shared housing through AYA & Outpost Club. These were good options for me because I didn’t have any potential roommates lined up, the apartments were fully furnished, and there was a lot of flexibility with the lease length.

Some more general information concerning third year: IM and surgery are twelve weeks long, while the rest of the rotations are six weeks. For IM & surgery you get two days off for shelf exam preparation, and for the other rotations you get one. SGU makes you take a “mid-rotation exam” but this doesn’t count for anything. When I was going through third year, we only had to do this for IM & surgery, but since then it seems like they have added it for every rotation. SGU may schedule you for a FM rotation during third year, and in that case it will be six weeks long. If they don’t, then you will have to schedule it yourself during fourth year but then it will only be four weeks. Either way you still have to take the shelf exam. All throughout third year I only had four weeks off (with two of those weeks coming at the end of December, the midpoint of my surgery rotation), so once things got going, I was at it pretty much nonstop for a little over a year. At the conclusion of one rotation, the next one started immediately the following week.

First up was OB/GYN at Woodhull Medical Center and it was disorganized from the start. Prior to the start of the rotation, we received a flurry of emails with unclear instructions. For instance, we were supposed to complete some online training sessions, but I never received a user ID/password or instructions on how to access this onboarding. Later, we were supposed to attend this infection control session, but nobody showed up to run it. The student coordinator was only at the hospital Monday-Wednesday so that didn’t help. On day one all we did was show up to get our picture taken, and then for some reason we had to schedule an appointment to pick up our ID two days later. During this time nobody knew anything about what was going on with the actual rotation (who we were supposed to report to, what we were supposed to be doing, etc.). Eventually someone got in contact with the attending that oversaw us, and we met with her in the clinic. Because of all the confusion we didn’t actually start the rotation until Thursday. In this rotation you do two weeks of L&D, two weeks of GYN surgery, and two weeks of outpatient clinic. On top of this you do four overnight shifts: three in L&D (one of which is on a weekend) and one with the GYN on-call PA. These four days are 24-hour shifts. For example, you could be in the clinic during the day and then in the evening you might be scheduled to report to L&D. Obviously following an overnight you would be off the next day. At Woodhull there are no OB/GYN residents, so you are basically on your own. Eventually it became pretty clear that when it came to the attending that oversaw us, we were very low on her list of priorities. At our first meeting we were told there would be an oral exam and case-writeups, but we never heard anything about that stuff afterward. In general, nobody cared too much about the students and, in fact, it seemed like a good portion of the midwives and attendings didn’t enjoy having us around anyways. In the clinic some would straight up turn you away if you asked to work with them. Also, if you’re a guy prepare yourself because a lot of patients won’t want you in the room during the examinations either. One of the attendings openly ranted to me about how a lot of the staff thought that the students got dumped on them out of the blue. As to her thoughts about the attending that oversaw us: “She’s fine with just signing off on all of you guys as long as she gets her free trip to Grenada every year.” Eventually most people decided “Well, I’m not planning to go into OB/GYN, so if nobody is going to make me do anything I’ll just hang out in the student lounge and chill, study, etc.” There was a sign-in sheet, but it was not policed at all. OB/GYN has a reputation as being a grueling rotation so even though my experience was easier it was still a little stressful because this was my first rotation and I was expecting more guidance and direction.

Next was FM at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. You will be assigned to a clinic somewhere in Brooklyn, so I only went to the hospital on day one for orientation and then at the end when I had to turn in my ID and attendance sheet. I will say that it is a grim looking, run down hospital. FYI Kingsbrook is part of One Brooklyn Health which also encompasses Brookdale Hospital Medical Center and Interfaith Medical Center, so even if you are signed up for a rotation through Kingsbrook the rotation might actually take place at one of these hospitals. When you get your clinic assignment you have one night to come to an agreement with someone to switch locations. I got lucky in that the place I was assigned to was close to my apartment because if I had ended up at some of the other spots it would’ve been a grueling commute. Like my first rotation the first week was a wash. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday was orientation, and then on Wednesday they informed us not to report to the clinic until the following week. Obviously, each clinic functions its own way so your experience will be different depending on where you end up. The attending I was with was a very chill guy who enjoyed teaching. It was his own private clinic and there were no medical assistants or nurses. You see patients on your own. They come in, you interview them, take their vitals, fill out some of the EMR, perform the physical exam, and then give the attending a brief rundown of what’s going on. There were opportunities to do other hands-on stuff like EKGs and blood draws. This is probably a family medicine thing, but all the patients were very pleasant. It was a very relaxed environment and a good opportunity to practice my physical exam skills. The clinic was open four days a week and he said we could make our own hours, so I came in three days a week. From what I heard it seems like regardless of which clinic you end up at the hours will not be very demanding. At the orientation you take a pre-rotation exam. Then there’s weekly quizzes and a final exam but it all seemed to be more of a participation thing because they never said anything about grades. In addition, there were a few Zoom lectures each week, some of which were conducted by the world-famous Dr. Conrad Fischer (the author of Master the Boards), if that’s something you’re excited about. I didn’t see what the big deal was, but some people seem to be in awe of him. For some reason they expected you to attend the lecture even if you happened to be in the clinic during that time. They wanted you to turn on your camera and participate when able, but it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense. I enjoyed the rotation, but like I said each clinic will be different. Someone who ended up at a different spot told me in essence he was just a scribe, and he hated it.

The next few rotations were all at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. IM was first. Predictably, most of your time is spent on the medicine floors (including telemetry), but you also do two weeks in the ICU and two weeks in the primary care clinic. You switch every two weeks. Officially, the day started with morning report (case-based discussion with residents and an attending) at 7:30 AM, but as the rotation went on most people stopped coming to this. Afterward you’d have some time before rounds started. Sometimes the residents would ask us to complete some mundane tasks for them. This included things like calling other hospitals/clinics for medical records, six-minute walk tests, COVID swabs, medication reconciliations, etc. This was also the time to see a patient and look up their labs/information on the computer. However, sometimes we didn’t even have to present during rounds. It depended on the residents and attending that you were with. Some would teach you stuff some and expect you to be more involved, but others weren’t really interested in hearing from the students, so overall it was a mixed bag. The residents had a daily noon conference and while we were “strongly encouraged” to attend it was not required and almost nobody went. After lunch I usually checked in with the residents to see if they needed anything, but most of the time there was nothing going on and we were basically done for the day at that point. Twice a week the whole group would meet with the clerkship director in the afternoon for student presentations and practice question review. Suffice to say this rotation was pretty boring and it made me realize that IM was not for me. Rounds were dull and the residents spent the remainder of their time sitting in front of the computer writing notes. The ICU was slightly more exciting. I saw a bronchoscopy, did a few ABGs (which is a lot easier on ICU patients who tend to be unconscious), and if a patient coded you had to opportunity to do chest compressions. One guy in my group literally did not even bother to show up half of the time. Who knows if he suffered any serious repercussions in the end, but I doubt it.

Next up was the rotation I was dreading most: surgery. It was divided into six weeks of inpatient (surgery in the OR) and six weeks of outpatient (clinic). I was assigned to do inpatient first and I thought this was advantageous because when it came time to prepare for the exam at the end of the rotation I had much more free time and I wasn’t as worn down and tired. Keep in mind that this format is unique to Wyckoff. When I was at Woodhull I was told that their rotation is structured so that you’re in the OR for all twelve weeks but its six week of general and six weeks of subspecialty. This rotation did have an air of disorganization. At our first meeting they told us that they were revamping our schedules for the inpatient portion, but then midway through our first week they changed the schedule AGAIN. It ended up being 6 AM-2 PM for day call, 6 AM-6 PM for SICU, and 2 PM-9PM for night call. Generally, you were scheduled six days a week. The residents also needed somebody to come in at 4 AM to collect outputs (measurement of fluids from surgical drains post-surgery) and to help tabulate vitals prior to rounds. Whoever did this got to leave at noon. We had to figure this out amongst ourselves, and I ended up having to do it a lot of the time since few people were willing to get up that early. Rounds started at 6 AM. Compared to IM it was much briefer and more concise. The residents never made us present. If you were assigned to SICU then you were supposed to attend those rounds as well and also be available in case the resident there needed help with anything. However, this was rare, so in essence there wasn’t much of a difference between day call and SICU. Initially, we were told that each surgery needed to have a student assigned to it, but after a few days it became obvious that they didn’t really care if we came down for the surgeries or not. It was difficult to adhere to the assignments anyway because you’d show up in the OR to find out a surgery had been canceled, moved up, etc. We were supposed to stick to the general and vascular cases, but if you saw something on the board that interested you (orthopedic, neurosurgery) then you could still talk to the surgeon to see if you could scrub in. The things you could expect to do during surgeries included holding retractors, suturing, suctioning, and irrigation. There were plenty of instances, however, where I did absolutely nothing other than stand there and watch. That seems pretty standard for most surgery rotations. Personally, I just wanted to get the inpatient portion over and done with. Scrubbing in and then having to worry about the sterile field gave me anxiety. It didn’t help that the people in the OR tended to be prickly & impatient. I went down to the OR for one surgery each day and that seemed to be enough. The FIFA World Cup was going on during this time, so I didn’t mind dipping out early to watch the games. The residents rotate at another hospital so it’s possible that I lucked out with having a more laid-back group. Occasionally they needed someone to help them with a dressing change but for the most part they left us alone. As for the outpatient portion, it involved the various clinics (general surgery, orthopedics, ENT, wound care, etc.). The clinics usually only lasted a few hours each day and what you got to do depended on the clinic. Sometimes I just shadowed. Other times I scribed or saw patients on my own (interview, physical assessment, present to the attending/PA/resident, type the note). There seemed to be no method to the scheduling. For example, I was assigned to orthopedics a disproportionate amount (something I was quite fine with). Six weeks of surgery clinic is overkill, but it was easy, so I wasn’t going to complain. Towards the end of the rotation, they started to crack down on attendance (but not before one guy blew off half of the week to go to Florida without any consequences). There is an exam at the end of the rotation, but the residents went over literally all the questions with us ahead of time. I will note that they made some changes to the rotation for the next group of students. It became eight weeks of inpatient and four weeks of outpatient and during the inpatient portion everyone got assigned one week where they were the ones that had to come in at 4 AM every day.

Pediatrics was divided into two weeks of pediatric ED, two weeks of clinic, one week of newborn nursery, & one week of inpatient. Practically every single weekday there was some sort of lecture or discussion that was had to attend via Zoom. The ED is the most intense part of this rotation. The schedule is 7 AM-7 PM every other day (including weekends). I will say that the folks in the ED have high expectations when you present patients. Make sure you have your ducks in a row when it comes to the history, physical exam, assessment, & plan. It was made easier by the fact that most of the time you will be dealing with the typical minor childhood complaints (fever, URTI symptoms, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.). Since it is the ED, you might also have the opportunity to do some minor procedures (IV access, suturing, etc.). However, most of the time I never got a chance to do anything because the PA/attending were concerned about how worried or upset the kid or their parents were. I lucked out during my one week of inpatient because the regular attending was on vacation at the time. Her replacement barely acknowledged us. Her main focus was to get rounds over and done with so that she could go off to her clinic. Apparently, the usual attending tends to keep students late. In the regular outpatient clinic, you mainly just shadow, but if you’re inclined you can practice your physical examination skills. One week of clinic is with specialists (endocrine, pulmonology, cardiology, etc.) and to be honest almost nobody bothered to go because this was the one week where you didn’t have to get an evaluation sheet signed. In the newborn nursery you basically assess any of the newborns and then if there happens to be a delivery/C-section then you go to that with the attending. There is a NICU but you don’t spend much time in there. There is an exam at the end of the rotation, and you get an extra day off to study for that as well.

My last rotation at Wyckoff was EM. As you’re probably aware SGU has a ton of clinical sites. However, if you do a big chunk of your third-year rotations at Wyckoff you will be scheduled for a six-week EM rotation. Maybe there are some other spots where this happens, but at least when it comes to my conversations with other SGU students who rotated at different NYC hospitals, nobody else had an EM rotation during third year. I never found out an official reason for why this was, but someone told me that it was Wyckoff who wanted us to do it. I was interested in EM so I wasn’t going to complain. SGU does not require EM, and you do not have to take the shelf exam. We had four eight-hour shifts a week. Weekends & overnights were included. We also had to attend the residents’ weekly Wednesday conference/lecture from 9 AM to 2 PM. This was by far the most chaotic environment I was thrown into during medical school. I worked as an EMT in Milwaukee before starting medical school and in those EDs everyone got their own room. Well, it was nothing like that here. They basically crammed as many beds together as they could along the wall, put a curtain in between them, and called it a day. Imagine trying to get the history from a patient while you have the interpreter on speakerphone. Meanwhile all hell is breaking loose all around you and nobody can hear anything. This ED is a pretty small space (there is nowhere for students to sit down during the daytime) so there doesn’t even have to be a big rush in order for things to become hectic. Afterward, whenever I told someone that I did an EM rotation at Wyckoff their reaction was usually something along the lines of: “Oh god, Wyckoff?” I will say that from a hands-on perspective this was the best of all my rotations. There were plenty of opportunities for suturing, IVs, blood draws, ABGs, and if you get lucky you might even get to put in an NG tube. If a code comes in, you can do chest compressions. There is a separate “fast track” area where patients with minor complaints (think urgent care) are directed to, and you do not deal with any of those patients. Like the peds ED, they grill you on your presentations. There was one guy in our group who was just starting out. It was his first rotation, and I could tell he was overwhelmed. You mostly work with the residents, so getting face time with the attendings required more initiative. Other miscellaneous tasks included running samples down to the lab, hooking up patients to the blood pressure/SpO2/cardiac monitor, or wheeling a patient down to radiology. I didn’t think about too much about it at the time because I wanted to help anyway I could, but when the residents are responsible for transporting their own patients to imaging it’s probably not a sign of a good EM program. The culture seemed very bossy, serious, and uptight. There was a fourth-year student with us who had already done a few EM rotations and even she said that the vibe here was way more intense. For example, even if residents worked overnight, they were still required to attend the conference on Wednesday. During the conference the seniors tended to bombard the interns from the back of the room. I was the only one in the group who wanted to do EM so that made it stressful. At times it seemed like the residents’ approach to the other students was all fun and games. Meanwhile I got put through the wringer. As is the nature of the ED, sometimes when it becomes too crazy the students get lost in the shuffle and sidelined. There were days that I was busy running around the whole time helping nurses and whatnot, yet it didn’t seem like my efforts were recognized. I’m not saying that every day was bad and indeed I did learn a lot, but if you want a good SLOE then go somewhere else. For most people the ED is a love/hate kind of thing, so if you’re dreading it, recall that this is an elective, meaning it is pass/fail. You need to get an evaluation sheet signed each day, but unless you want to go into EM you can pretty much just coast, get the rotation over with, and move on. The clerkship director mentioned that the subsequent groups of students would have an exam at the end of the rotation.

Last but not least was psychiatry. This rotation is through Kingsbrook but you get sent off to either Brookdale or Interfaith. Of the two, Interfaith is more relaxed. At Brookdale you have to submit an avalanche of notes at the end and there are mandatory lectures three times a week in the afternoon. The annoying part is that you also have Zoom lectures with the people from Kingsbrook so it does become a bit much. Just like in FM there was a pretest, weekly quizzes, and then an exam at the end. However, psychiatry is easy so it’s nothing to sweat over. I was at Brookdale and suffice to say this hospital is not in a great neighborhood. On the first day they gave us a syllabus and in big bold letters there was a warning that we should exercise caution when we’re outside after dark. Personally, I never had any problems walking to/from the subway stop that’s fifteen minutes away. At this point I was pretty burnt out and ready for a few months off, especially after the whirlwind that was EM. I mailed it in and did the absolute minimum. You rotate through the two adult inpatient units, the pediatric inpatient unit, the adult psychiatric ED, clinic, and consults. You spend one week in each. It will obviously depend on the resident that you’re assigned to, but pretty much every day I was off the hook after lunch. Overall, it was not a difficult rotation, and you don’t have to do a whole lot. You just have to be there.

In general, I scored a little below average on the shelf exams. My study resources included OME (until they started charging for it), UWorld, the Step-Up to Medicine book, and YouTube videos from Dr. High Yield and Emma Holliday. I didn’t do any NBME practice exams. I passed every shelf on my first try except for FM. To be fair, I definitely underestimated that exam and in hindsight it’s definitely not easy if it’s your first or second rotation. It’s almost like a mini-Step 2 because there will be questions concerning OB/GYN, pediatrics, & psychiatry. Likewise, the surgery shelf is more difficult if you haven’t done IM yet. SGU raised their passing scores a few months before I started my first rotation. However, it’s not the end of the world if you fail a shelf. You simply have to retake it once you finish third year. Residency programs won’t know that you had to retake the exam either. Initially, you just had to prepare for the retake on your own, but then they added mandatory remediation activities over Zoom that included stuff like small group discussions & UWorld question review. I pretty much blew all of that off, took the exam, passed, and didn’t have any issues.

 

[piotrkol1]

Year 4
You are allowed to have 20 weeks of bridge time (AKA time off) in a 12-month span. I finished psychiatry in mid-June and then my first elective wasn’t until September. In those two and a half months I went back home, relaxed, went on a trip, worked a little bit, and then prepared for Step 2. I took the exam in August and my score was 239. I would’ve liked to have scored at least a few points better, but the preceding year the average score for US-IMGs that matched into EM was 238, so I didn’t think it was a complete disaster. My preparation definitely could’ve been better though. I never even finished an entire first pass of UWorld. During the exam I also nearly had a panic attack after I returned from my lunch break. Taking an Adderall and then chasing it down with a 5-hour Energy probably had something to do with that.

Once you finish your second rotation you have to speak with your academic advisor. Afterward you are free to start scheduling fourth year electives. I would recommend you reach out to the hospitals at least 6 months ahead of time, if not earlier, especially if you really want a specific rotation at a specific hospital. SGU provides a list of the affiliated hospitals and what rotations they offer, and then it’s simply on you to reach out to them to schedule the rotation. In some cases, it’s easy and straightforward. Then there’s some hospitals where it’s almost impossible to get a reply from anyone. You can also do a certain number of rotations at unaffiliated hospitals. I never bothered with any of that, however, and I did all my electives in NYC. I don’t think I need to provide a ton of details about these rotations, so here’s just a brief summary about each one that I did:

EM @ Coney Island Hospital – The ED is in a brand-new part of the hospital. The vibe is much better than at Wyckoff, but it is a four-year program. There are a lot of Russian speaking patients at this hospital.

IM sub-I @ Wyckoff Heights Medical Center – Basically a repeat of IM during third year. Nothing was different and there were no additional responsibilities.

Orthopedic Surgery @ Coney Island Hospital – I was mainly interested in working in the clinic, but it was a waste of time. All you did was shadow.

GI @ The Brooklyn Hospital Center – On my first day the fellow explained to me that either A.) He signs my evaluation sheet right then and there and then I don’t come back or B.) I show up every day for the whole month. Well, this was during December, and I wanted to go home at the end of the month, so I chose the former and got out of there. Clearly the hospital doesn’t care at all because he also told me that I was like the twentieth new student to show up that week. How are you supposed to have a GI rotation with twenty students all at once?

Anesthesia @ Brookdale Hospital Medical Center – As soon as the patient is sedated & intubated, I was encouraged to go take a break, grab a coffee, etc. Oftentimes the residents dismissed me after the first case. I did have the opportunity to bag some patients as well as intubate a few times. If you want to do more stuff, then I suggest you migrate towards the cases that don’t have a resident.

Radiology @ Coney Island Hospital – Most of the attendings dismissed us right away. Radiology has a reputation for being an easy rotation and it was no different here.

PM&R @ The Brooklyn Hospital Center – On my first day the attending dismissed me for the rest of the rotation when she found out that it was my last one.

Now, about the Match. I applied to roughly 100 EM programs (out of 276 total). The bad news is that I only got four interviews. The good news? I still matched. As luck would have it, the last day of my last rotation was on Match Day. Needless to say, I was surprised and disappointed to only get four interviews, but since the competitiveness of EM had cratered in recent years, I never completely lost hope. I can only speculate as to why I didn’t receive more interview invitations. For starters, I am an IMG, so right off the bat I had that working against me. If you couldn’t tell, I don’t think I received a very good SLOE from my first EM rotation. Of course, that’s just a hunch and I don’t have any confirmation of that, but I just didn’t feel good about it. It’s not like I gave a piss poor effort but sometimes you just don’t mesh well with certain people. It probably also didn’t help that my second SLOE wasn’t submitted until October (after programs can start reviewing applications). It’s possible the average Step 2 scores shot up after Step 1 became pass/fail. In retrospect, I also probably could’ve been less selective when it came to the programs that I applied to. Who knows? Maybe it was a combination of all those things. The previous year there were over 550 unfilled EM positions. This year there were only 132. Part of me was worried that I might have to possibly consider FM or IM in SOAP, but thankfully things worked out and that’s one tough decision that I didn’t have to make. I did not match at my top ranked program, but in hindsight maybe I should’ve ranked the place where I ended up higher. The other programs I interviewed at were more established, but in terms of location I ended up in the best spot. My program filled all their spots in the Match.

Obviously, I’m not any sort of medical school advisor, but let me give you some anecdotal advice if you are considering going down this path:

• Exhaust all your options: I think it’s safe to say that I wasn’t going to be able to get into any sort US medical school. I screwed up my GPA and unfortunately it can be hard to recover from that. SGU was really the only remaining option. At minimum, I would go through at least two application cycles. I don’t think there needs to be any rush to start medical school immediately after graduating from college either. After two failed attempts it’s understandable that you might have the urge to want to get on with your life. That could mean either looking at the IMG route or considering other careers like PA or DPM. I think SGU does have some advantages over DO schools. From what I understand, for anything even remotely competitive, DO students need to take the COMLEX & USLME. Basically, that’s like having to take the Step exams twice. Then there’s OMM which, let’s be frank, is something even most DO students will never utilize after medical school. I’m not upset that I didn’t have to spend time learning it. Some of these DO schools also seem to be located in random small towns in the middle of nowhere. However, and this is probably most important, when it comes to the Match DO students still have a leg up.
• Have realistic expectations: If you go through the SGU match lists you will see that out of the roughly 900 students that match each year, there are usually one or two people that manage to get into orthopedic surgery, dermatology, vascular surgery, etc. I’m assuming they either have an insane resume, connections at a high level, or maybe even both of those two things. The point is, if you decide to go to SGU then you pretty much have close to zero chance of getting into any of those super competitive fields.
• Assess your own abilities: In my view, to succeed in medical school you need to have the proper balance between natural intelligence & strong work ethic. One can make up for the other, and obviously if you have both then you will be in a great position. As you can tell I did not study a ton. I wasn’t at the top of my class but it’s not like I just barely scraped by either. Some of those who were nonchalant in college have the ability to raise their game when they get to SGU. If memorization, exam taking, critical thinking, etc. aren’t your strong suits and the material doesn’t come naturally to you then be prepared because you’re going to have to spend even more time studying. SGU will accept almost anyone but if your GPA or MCAT are low then you need to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself whether or not you can really do this.
• You can match: If you are content with FM, IM, or pediatrics, then it is completely doable even if you don’t have the best scores. You need to apply broadly. Don’t expect that you will end up at some prestigious university program but as long as you match somewhere you will still become a doctor. The key is that you need to avoid having glaring issues on your resume (repeated semester, failed Step, extended LOA). Beyond those specialties, EM & psychiatry are also obtainable but a little more competitive. Surgery, anesthesia, & OBGYN are in the upper tier. Keep in mind that the competitiveness of a particular specialty can change over time. In some sense, a lot of it comes down to your Step 2 score and you need to consider the possibility of it changing to pass/fail in the future too. You can help yourself by getting strong LORs. I saw some people ask attendings for letters after only working with them once. I mean, really? If you’re doing an audition rotation, then make sure to interact with the program director enough to make an impression so that they remember you.

In closing, I just want to remind you that this is my account of how things were during my four years. Some things might be different now. The education at SGU is not first-class but it is adequate. The clinical rotations were not super demanding, but if you wanted to do more the opportunities were there. There were students from other programs (PA, DO, Caribbean, & even US MD) with us at these hospitals so it’s not like SGU is completely bottom of the barrel in this regard. Maybe I did get a little bit lucky with the Match. So what? I didn’t match at some super prestigious program, but my goal all along was to get into EM and that’s what happened. Yes, people fail and drop out, more so than at other medical schools. But what did that have to do with my performance? I saw a lot of hand wringing on SDN about an accreditation issue involving SGU, but I never heard one person bring this up or raise any concern about it. SGU is too big to fail over something like that. Speaking of SDN, I will leave you with this. What the “experts” on here say isn’t the be-all and end-all. Before I enrolled at SGU I posted a thread on here to explain my situation and get some feedback as to whether a Caribbean school was my only path forward. Here’s some of the replies I got:

“My heart goes out to you, but it's likely time to start seriously considering other opportunities.”

“You will simply do poorly in the Carib, and be dismissed.”

“If it were me, I’d hang up the pre-Med cleats and find something else to do. This plan of yours not only puts your financial well-being (for the rest of your life) at risk; but it’s more likely to fail than to succeed.”

“You’re not qualified to be a physician. You just don’t have what it takes. Most people don’t and there’s no shame in that.”

“OP I seriously wish the best for you but unlike people just saying "do what you want, good luck!" I really wish I could convince you to take the advice given to you on this thread before you potentially ruin your life by taking on hundreds of thousands in debt while failing in the Caribbean.”

“There is no chance you could handle medical school based off your academic history much less jump through Caribbean's hoops. Save yourself some debt and think about a new profession.”

“Since you're still serious about the Carib, try AUA. At least their faculty seem serious about medical education. So, you've been warned, and good luck driving for Uber.”

 

[ScubaV]

Nice write up, reminds me a lot of my AUC experience a little over 10 years ago minus Covid and the online learning. I've said this before, but 20% of Caribbean students are unqualified and will eventually fail out, 20% should have gotten into a US school and will do just fine and 60% have to sink or swim when they hit the water. It's a gamble, but one that can pay off with realistic self-assessment and realistic goals, something neither the optimists nor doomers want to acknowledge.

 

[Stallion76]

Thank you for this, I read the whole thing

 

[darkdome987]

Now, about the Match. I applied to roughly 100 EM programs (out of 276 total). The bad news is that I only got four interviews. The good news? I still matched. As luck would have it, the last day of my last rotation was on Match Day. Needless to say, I was surprised and disappointed to only get four interviews, but since the competitiveness of EM had cratered in recent years, I never completely lost hope. I can only speculate as to why I didn’t receive more interview invitations. For starters, I am an IMG, so right off the bat I had that working against me. If you couldn’t tell, I don’t think I received a very good SLOE from my first EM rotation. Of course, that’s just a hunch and I don’t have any confirmation of that, but I just didn’t feel good about it. It’s not like I gave a piss poor effort but sometimes you just don’t mesh well with certain people. It probably also didn’t help that my second SLOE wasn’t submitted until October (after programs can start reviewing applications). It’s possible the average Step 2 scores shot up after Step 1 became pass/fail. In retrospect, I also probably could’ve been less selective when it came to the programs that I applied to. Who knows? Maybe it was a combination of all those things. The previous year there were over 550 unfilled EM positions. This year there were only 132. Part of me was worried that I might have to possibly consider FM or IM in SOAP, but thankfully things worked out and that’s one tough decision that I didn’t have to make. I did not match at my top ranked program, but in hindsight maybe I should’ve ranked the place where I ended up higher. The other programs I interviewed at were more established, but in terms of location I ended up in the best spot. My program filled all their spots in the Match.

Do you mind sharing your step 2 score? Surprised you only got 4 interviews for EM.

 

[piotrkol1]

Do you mind sharing your step 2 score? Surprised you only got 4 interviews for EM.

I mentioned my score earlier in that post. I figured the reasons for the low number of interviews were multifactorial. Who knows for sure though.

You are allowed to have 20 weeks of bridge time (AKA time off) in a 12-month span. I finished psychiatry in mid-June and then my first elective wasn’t until September. In those two and a half months I went back home, relaxed, went on a trip, worked a little bit, and then prepared for Step 2. I took the exam in August and my score was 239. I would’ve liked to have scored at least a few points better, but the preceding year the average score for US-IMGs that matched into EM was 238, so I didn’t think it was a complete disaster. My preparation definitely could’ve been better though. I never even finished an entire first pass of UWorld. During the exam I also nearly had a panic attack after I returned from my lunch break. Taking an Adderall and then chasing it down with a 5-hour Energy probably had something to do with that.