Need a Second Opinion

[fides]

Hi guys in quite a predicament right now. So I applied to SABA and got rejected without an interview, they sent my file over to MUA, who conducted an interview and accepted me. This is for the upcoming September 2018 semester, orientation is this monday so I am scrambling at this point.


I also have a conditional acceptance from AUC in the form of a MERP in December, 2018 and then upon successful completion, admittance for May 2019.


Important things to note, I’ve been out of school for a long time, AUC calculated my sGPA at 2.9, MCAT was a 26. I have been working as a project manager ever since I left school for work. I am 26, I am also Canadian. I was studying for my PMP over the past summer so I was putting in 8-10 hour study sessions at the local starbucks no problem.


MY thing is that I am extremely scared on what to do, I literally have till tomorrow to get all my things sorted out for MUA. The one pro with MUA is that it will give me a headstart of 8 months, its also cheaper. The Canadian dollar isn't doing so well, but I have family support and they have assured me that money is not an issue. Also Nevis requires certain medical tests done before they can give you a VISA, and since I got an acceptance from MUA yesterday nobody can get this results in before I have to be on the Island this Monday. I spoke to their staff and they told me to come to the island and the staff will help me get those tests done locally, I am looking at missing two days worth of classes though in the first 30 days. Is this a big deal?


with AUC, the island is better, its more expensive, but with MERP I’ll definitely be on the right track to succeed on St. Maarten. It’ll also set those ever loving study habits. Things I am looking forward to are US clinical rotations, MUA placed two candidates over the past 10 years in Neurosurgery residencies. That is a huge deal but they place such a tiny amount of residents and not in desirable places either so theres that. I am looking to practicing some form of IM and or some kind of surgical speciality in the NYC area. Both AUC and MUA place students in Ortho and Surgery (General and Preliminary)


Right now I am so anxious on what to do, it seems so overwhelming. I hate rushing things, and not planning in advance so my nerves are on the edge. With MUA I can start the medical school journey this time next week, but with AUC i’ll have to wait 8 months. I really need help on the pros and cons of each school, I didn't even consider MUA until I got rejected from SABA. I do know someone starting at MUA in September as well so theres that.

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[NotAProgDirector]

I think you need to take a long hard look at your options and likely outcomes.

First, MUA states they matched someone to JHH Surgery. Looking at their website, there's no one from MUA listed there. JHH seems to take quite a few IMG's into their program, though. It's quite likely this person is in their prelim program, which is better than nothing but not great. MUA lists two ortho matches, one at Wake. Simple enough to google Wake's ortho program and see whom it is, and hunting from there discovers that he has a PhD and is in a research program. The point is that getting into Ortho or NS from the carib is extremely difficult, and given your history / GPA isn't likely to happen.

If you're interested in surgery, then AUC seems the better bet. They had 6 people go into surgery -- that's not good odds, but it's better than the zero at MUA. Remember that "prelim surgery" is not surgery, most of those spots are dead ends that lead nowhere.

In medicine, the AUC match list is much better than the MUA list.

Which wraps us around to the big question, which is whether you should be doing either of these. With a GPA of 1.9 and an MCAT of 26, your performance in medical school would need to be much better than that to have any chance at surgery or a good IM program. Perhaps you've changed and your past performance doesn't reflect what you're capable of. But you need to go into this understanding that the most likely outcome is an FP position, or failing out. Approx 20-30% of students end up failing out of carib schools, with that percentage increasing as you drop down into less competitive schools like MUA.

And you'll need a visa, which will further limit your options. Canada limits J visas in IM and surgery.

If you decide to proceed, I'd suggest AUC. You need as much help as you can get. Starting off missing classes, etc, sounds like a really bad idea. You want to maximize your chances of success. If you do AUC's MERP and don't succeed, then you were likely to do poorly at MUA anyway.

 

[fides]

IDK that's a tough call

If you want Surgery, it looks like MUA placed 1 person in 2018 (and it was at Johnny Hopkins so I'm thinking nepotism)


If you've been out of school for awhile MERP might be a softer landing for you

I know a couple guys that MERPed and did pretty well at AUC, also people that crashed and burned

Some things that stood out to me though, out of the uber-competitive but attainable (EM+Gas+RAD = they matched 3 people)

Forget about Neurosurgery, someone says NS to me and I say NS? I'm a carib student, I don't even know what that means.

Oh I have no desire for NS, I just thought it was worth a mention since I never thought that was attainable by any means.

 

[fides]

I think you need to take a long hard look at your options and likely outcomes.

First, MUA states they matched someone to JHH Surgery. Looking at their website, there's no one from MUA listed there. JHH seems to take quite a few IMG's into their program, though. It's quite likely this person is in their prelim program, which is better than nothing but not great. MUA lists two ortho matches, one at Wake. Simple enough to google Wake's ortho program and see whom it is, and hunting from there discovers that he has a PhD and is in a research program. The point is that getting into Ortho or NS from the carib is extremely difficult, and given your history / GPA isn't likely to happen.

If you're interested in surgery, then AUC seems the better bet. They had 6 people go into surgery -- that's not good odds, but it's better than the zero at MUA. Remember that "prelim surgery" is not surgery, most of those spots are dead ends that lead nowhere.

In medicine, the AUC match list is much better than the MUA list.

Which wraps us around to the big question, which is whether you should be doing either of these. With a GPA of 1.9 and an MCAT of 26, your performance in medical school would need to be much better than that to have any chance at surgery or a good IM program. Perhaps you've changed and your past performance doesn't reflect what you're capable of. But you need to go into this understanding that the most likely outcome is an FP position, or failing out. Approx 20-30% of students end up failing out of carib schools, with that percentage increasing as you drop down into less competitive schools like MUA.

And you'll need a visa, which will further limit your options. Canada limits J visas in IM and surgery.

If you decide to proceed, I'd suggest AUC. You need as much help as you can get. Starting off missing classes, etc, sounds like a really bad idea. You want to maximize your chances of success. If you do AUC's MERP and don't succeed, then you were likely to do poorly at MUA anyway.

Hi, so it was actually a 2.9, it was a typo on my end. I wrote the MCAT with a 30 day prep, I was scoring 30,31,32 in my samples and just decided to wing it. None the less that was still quite poor, and I was a poor student. Cannot change that. I decided to reject MUA and proceed with AUC for now. Yes, I didn't account for the fact that these students could've been working in a professional/research capacity with said hospitals. I'll need to further re-evaluate and perhaps try to do some prep work to develop some genuine study habits and rationalize objectively before impulsively making a decision. I would ask for advice on the matter of studying, if at all possible, I understand as an Attending you are a little bit distanced from that time.

 

[fides]

Did you apply to Ross?

Practically the same school just bigger classes.

From what I can tell the two school although both owned by Adtelem don't communicate that well.

Wouldnt be surprised if you got direct admission into Ross

I got direct admission into AUC with scores similar to yours. Probably because I completely shut down the idea when the interviewer brought it up and said I'd probably apply to different schools if only offered MERP.

O ya, you wouldn't have "Caribbean" anywhere on your diploma, that'd be nice

No have not, was dissuaded by the tremendously large class sizes. They are moving to Barbados though so maybe things are different, I can give them a shout. Thanks

 

[Skip Intro]

First, MUA states they matched someone to JHH Surgery. Looking at their website, there's no one from MUA listed there.

Residents and Fellows PGY-3 | The Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery

Second resident listed. Not a prelim.

(Okay, not a reason to choose this school in and of itself. Just setting the record straight.)

-Skip

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Well there you go. They listed it as a 2018 residency appointment, so I assumed they meant a PGY-1. It's very weird, since his linked in profile says he started at JHH in Mar 2016, so he shouldn't be on the 2018 appointment list.

But, in any case, I stand corrected.