need advice ...

[goldfish85]

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i am a junior in college. i really want to be a primary physician. I have my heart set on family practice or Internal medicine.

but i have a 2.77 cum. gpa. and only half way through college. 60 units done and 60 more to go. Its just im really sad that i have no certain future ahead of me. My bad grades are due to screwing up royally in my first 2 years! i have my reasons but im not going to get into it....

I know that I could do a post bacc, some research, and kill the mcat then apply to a US MD/DO school but that would take another 2 years plus a ton of work during those two years. What do you think about going to a "top 3" known carribean school like AUC or SGU? Would it be tough for me to secure a residency in the US, esp. california?

also from a cost perspective, i think the post bacc + us MD would cost more in the end


I was looking for some pros and cons....

So far i thought:

Pros:
saves me two years of more school work
only the first two years have to be spent on the island.
money is not an issue.
hang out @ beach.
MD

cons:
limits more competitive residencies (but this one doesnt really matter to me much)
Island life could be one (maybe not AUC, since i heard it was decently developed)

I really need some help with this guys. Thanks!


also, does AUC provide clinical rotations in the USA? can you do a clinical rotation all in the same spot? are there any in california?

 

[richmond_repn]

hey man just work as hard as you can and see what kind of gpa you end up with. If its not high enough to get into US schools apply to one of the big 3 caribbean schools. Since you are a US resident, and you want to do primary care (family practice, or internal) it wont be very difficult getting the residency assuming you pass all usmle exams etc. These are considered IMG friendly residencies, and make sure you contact each school about coming back to california. Also contact the California licensing people to see exactly what their polices are for IMG's.

 

[richmond_repn]

ohh yea sorry didnt see the last line, its hard to do your clinical rotations all in one spot but it is possible. You will end up doing your clincal rotations in the US if you go to the big 3 schools. Again about doing rotations in Cali you have to directly talk to the school and see where they set up their rotations. Hope that helps.

 

[Trader56]

Listen, you are half way through college, and have a chance to pull this up, but you need to start now. Take some easier classes that fulfill distribution requirements, and get A's (Gen chem is good for this). Then, in your Junior year, take Organic chem and Physics and do really well on these, even if it means cutting back a bit on your course load (you can always say you had to work if asked why your course load decreased). Then immediately take the MCAT when you're done with O-chem and Physics. Start practicing Verbal Reasoning passages NOW - doing 1 or 2 each day, and do hundreds!

At the end, you'll have a decent GPA, and show a trend towrd really buckling down after your first two years. You'll also have good MCATs. If you can get your GPA up to at laest 3.4, you should be competitive with an MCAT at 29-30 or above.

I was in your same situation, was an older non-trad, and did the same thing to get accepted successfully.

Best wishes!

 

[McGillGrad]

You need 90 credit to even apply, so you have at least one more year to go before you qualify to attend the Caribbean schools.