Negatives of Carribean?

[bulletproof]

A lot of people are posting answers to "How hard is it to get a residency if you're an IMG" question. Which it is harder to get one. If you are the #1 or #2 person in your class you have 245+ on both steps and you have some research and you are not a choad you have a 50/50 shot at derm/plastics/ortho/neurosurg and are a lock for mid-level competitive residencies. If you beat the mean on both steps, have decent grades, good LORs, interview well and apply to >30 programs and interview at 10 you will probably get surg/EM/gas are are a lock for all but the top tier FM/IM/Peds/psych programs. If you barely pass everything and you cast a wide net (ie apply to a lot of programs) you will probably get FM/IM/peds/psych somewhere, if you interview enough.

However, the OP wanted to know assuming you already had a residency. So, to the OP: Once you're a resident nobody cares where you went to medical school. Period. I matched EM and I tell people that I went to AUC and 99.999% of them --Faculty, staff, residents, med-students, nurses, techs, environmental srvcs, IT, HR etc...-- all say, "Awesome! How was the Caribbean?" I say, "Pretty cool, but I knew I wanted EM so I had to work a little harder than the average guy, but all in all I would do it again." Then they ask me, "Why did you go there?" I say, "It's really hard to get into medical school in the States, they screen candidates really hard to weed out potential bad apples. Caribbean medical schools have lower entry standards and rely on attrition to weed people out." "Oh." Then our conversation moves on to the topic at hand.

It's been said before, but once you graduate medical school people care about your medical school about as much as when you're in college people care about your high school.

My name badge says, "MD". My license says, "MD". I introduce myself as a doctor. Once you're in a residency, no one cares about where you went to medical school. They care about what kind of doctor you are, how professional you are, how much you study, how efficient you are, what % of conference you attend, your satisfaction rating, how well you perform on in-service exams, your evaluations, whether you have signed all your charts and orders. Where you went to school is nothing more than a mere curiosity.

If there are any PD's or headhunters on here that want to correct me, please feel free.

We should try and get this stickied in this forum, and add some FAQs etc. I think it becomes a bit redundant reiterating the same take home points repeatedly, and posts such as the above would save us all alot of time. Kudos.

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[oldpro]

Yeah I really get tired of the "Negatives and Positives of the Caribbean" every few months..............................WIth few exceptions the negatives never seem to change

 

[BubbaGump187]

Thanks a lot for replying. It really is hard to get a straight answer sometimes. From what you say, it seems like St. Georges is a good option if you are not accepted into MD schools in the States.

I am trying to decided between DO and Carribean. It seems from your evaluation that Carribean would be the way to go.

 

[timisdaman]

As long as you are capable of becoming a doctor, just do what you gotta do and you'll be fine.

 

[oldpro]

Thanks a lot for replying. It really is hard to get a straight answer sometimes. From what you say, it seems like St. Georges is a good option if you are not accepted into MD schools in the States.

I am trying to decided between DO and Carribean. It seems from your evaluation that Carribean would be the way to go.

I would say SGU/ROSS/AUC are all equal in choice, in fact ROSS is better for Texas then SGU. I would never pick Caribbean over DO though I think its better to go to a DO school in the States IMO.............(Yes I'm a Caribbean student)

 

[JoeNamaMD]

I would say SGU/ROSS/AUC are all equal in choice, in fact ROSS is better for Texas then SGU. I would never pick Caribbean over DO though I think its better to go to a DO school in the States IMO.............(Yes I'm a Caribbean student)

SGU would be better for Texas, I actually heard of a Ross graduate who completed an Anesthesiology residency, got an offer to work in Houston, but cannot get a TX license because one of his rotations was not ACGME accredited. The top 3 are all roughly equal, do not go to the island expecting to chase women or men, going to the beach, and bsing around, expect to spend time locked up in a room and reading your butt off.

 

[BubbaGump187]

oldpro---can you tell me why you would rather go DO?

if anyone can describe for me what advantage DO has over carribean other than

--you dont have to move away from home and live in uncomfortable conditions
--might be a little easier to get into residency of choice


any thing else im missing

 

[oldpro]

SGU would be better for Texas, I actually heard of a Ross graduate who completed an Anesthesiology residency, got an offer to work in Houston, but cannot get a TX license because one of his rotations was not ACGME accredited. The top 3 are all roughly equal, do not go to the island expecting to chase women or men, going to the beach, and bsing around, expect to spend time locked up in a room and reading your butt off.

Funny you gave the answer why the Ross student had a problem he messed up with his rotations, ROSS has had a special relationship with the TEXAS Board for years, years before SGU and AUC got the approval with TEXAS ROSS had it first, do not Kid yourself about SGU, ROSS and AUC are just as good as SGU.

I agree then they are equal................

To the Other poster, DO, USA DO is better then Caribbean Grad for the most part as long as you will be practicing in the USA. You will be able to get Competitive Residencies much much easier then from the Caribbean.

 

[N2b8]

I so don't even want to hear about it.

I'm now a pgy-2 in a fantastic anesthesiology program. Yeah, I had to work pretty damn hard, and it might have been easier matching closer to home had I gone to a US school. Whatever. I don't regret my decision in the slightest. I had a fantastic time, got a great education, and will in short measure will be a practicing anesthesiologist. I stand toe-to-toe with all the US grads, and I don't give a damn if someone chooses to look down their nose at my CV.

Don't like an FMG? Lick my boots and pass me the propofol!

 

[bulletproof]

Don't like an FMG? Lick my boots and pass me the propofol!

I heard from a friend of a friend that in Texas, FMG anesthesiologists are no longer allowed to administer the propofol solo. They must now have a CRNA or U.S. trained anesthesiologist present, preferably a CRNA.
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Sarcasm turned off...

 

[JoeNamaMD]

DO is good in the fact that you do not have to go overseas for school, you will do rotations in one particular geographical area. All in all though a lot of people are pretty ignorant about the DO acronym. I have been seeing an Internist for over 10 years with an MD behind his name, and I never looked up his medical school until recently. He went to Columbia University, and I thought impressive, I got an Ivy League doctor. But he happens to practice with two IMGs. It really doesn't matter where you went to school, your boards and your performance in medical school are the bottom line. Schools in Australia, Ireland, and the Caribbean offer a second chance for those of us from the US who would not have gotten into in the first place.

 

[Bring It On]

She is the best...right on the money and I never thought about where she went to medical school....so I asked her and she said "AUC"....doesn't change my mind about not seeing her again....in fact I thought it was great!!

 

[BubbaGump187]

Can anyone tell me briefly what kind of licensing issues there will be graduating from SGU.

Is it gonna be something where I have to fill out a few extra pages and pay and extra 500 bucks or is it gonna be a serious problem some places?

 

[Top Gun]

Can anyone tell me briefly what kind of licensing issues there will be graduating from SGU.

Is it gonna be something where I have to fill out a few extra pages and pay and extra 500 bucks or is it gonna be a serious problem some places?

Well, for example, even though SGU is approved by California, to get a residency in that state, I think you have to register with the Medical Board, and that means a ton of paperwork which could last up to 6 months. And this applies to all IMG's, not just SGU grads. Other states may not be as strict.

 

[Moosemilk]

I personally believe that all this FMG stuff will be nonsense in a decade. There's a huge doctor shortage and it's getting even worse. A US medical school hasn't been built in 20 years (someone want to check that for me?) and only around half of the current schools are considering expansion. Couple this with the ever increasing number of applicants and you're going to have a lot of qualified people that are left out. Schools like SGU, Ross, etc. are going to pick up the slack.

I think the current foreign medical school paradigm is a reminent of a time when access to US schools wasn't as bad and you truly had to be a f**k up to not make it in. Now a days more and more qualified people are seeking education abroad because the US just isnt keeping up. I don't think going to a foreign school will ever be as prestigious as attending a US one, but it will be akin to choosing a state school over a private one; just a minor factor that won't matter in the long run.

 

[Sage75]

Maybe, MD schools haven't been built recently, but if you check out the DO schools, there has been a few popping up the last couple of years. Check out this website it has current info on DO schools:
http://www.aacom.org/insideome/2007-06-Jun.asp#item2

 

[ditch doctor]

I personally believe that all this FMG stuff will be nonsense in a decade. There's a huge doctor shortage and it's getting even worse. A US medical school hasn't been built in 20 years (someone want to check that for me?) and only around half of the current schools are considering expansion. Couple this with the ever increasing number of applicants and you're going to have a lot of qualified people that are left out. Schools like SGU, Ross, etc. are going to pick up the slack.

I think the current foreign medical school paradigm is a reminent of a time when access to US schools wasn't as bad and you truly had to be a f**k up to not make it in. Now a days more and more qualified people are seeking education abroad because the US just isnt keeping up. I don't think going to a foreign school will ever be as prestigious as attending a US one, but it will be akin to choosing a state school over a private one; just a minor factor that won't matter in the long run.

FSU recently converted from a 2 year basic sciences only campus to a 4 year medical school, so there's one.

Also, Charlotte, North Carolina will be getting a medical school in the coming years. I don't know if it will belong to Carolinas Medical Center or part of UNC-Charlotte.

I think there is another opening up in a few years in Michigan, too.

 

[Top Gun]

FSU recently converted from a 2 year basic sciences only campus to a 4 year medical school, so there's one.

Also, Charlotte, North Carolina will be getting a medical school in the coming years. I don't know if it will belong to Carolinas Medical Center or part of UNC-Charlotte.

I think there is another opening up in a few years in Michigan, too.

Are they DO or MD schools? I know that there are quite a few new DO schools (VCOM comes to mind). I just wondered if there might be new allopathic schools developing in the US any time soon.

 

[ditch doctor]

Are they DO or MD schools? I know that there are quite a few new DO schools (VCOM comes to mind). I just wondered if there might be new allopathic schools developing in the US any time soon.

All MD. Puerto Rico just got another school LCME accredited, so there's another one. I think half of it's taught in Spanish, so have fun.

 

[qechan2003]

UC Riverside is building an allopathic school that is expected open in 2012.. Check out their website for more info.

 

[McGillGrad]

UC Riverside is building an allopathic school that is expected open in 2012.. Check out their website for more info.

That would be awesome if I were 18 years old...lol.

But people in their late 20s do not have time to wait