Now This is an interesting question....

[ocean11]

Would you choose a Caribbean school over a US school IF the caribbean school would give you FREE tuition, FREE transportation (ie: place tickets), FREE board and FREE food? Oh you were also guaranteed amazing weather.....

The school... would be either AUC, ROSS or SGU (the top 3) so the education one would get would be pretty good.

Me and my friend were discussing this today.... my verdict.... is no I'd still rather pay $$$$ and go to a US allopathic school....

what do you guys think....

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[CalBeE]

Originally posted by ocean11
Would you choose a Caribbean school over a US school IF the caribbean school would give you FREE tuition, FREE transportation (ie: place tickets), FREE board and FREE food? Oh you were also guaranteed amazing weather.....

The school... would be either AUC, ROSS or SGU (the top 3) so the education one would get would be pretty good.

Me and my friend were discussing this today.... my verdict.... is no I'd still rather pay $$$$ and go to a US allopathic school....

what do you guys think....

I agree...I'm somewhat a conservative person so I prefer going for the "safer" route

 

[ixitixl]

Originally posted by ocean11
Would you choose a Caribbean school over a US school IF the caribbean school would give you FREE tuition, FREE transportation (ie: place tickets), FREE board and FREE food? Oh you were also guaranteed amazing weather.....

The school... would be either AUC, ROSS or SGU (the top 3) so the education one would get would be pretty good.

Me and my friend were discussing this today.... my verdict.... is no I'd still rather pay $$$$ and go to a US allopathic school....

what do you guys think....

Call me crazy but yeah, I'd rather pay out-of-state tuition for U-Colorado 4 years in a row, graduate with a half-million dollar debt than go to a Caribbean school. The funny thing is, I can't really defend my position.

 

[skypilot]

If the US school could get you into a higher paying specialty like EM or Gas the tuition would only be a drop in the bucket.

Financially it wouldn't make sense to go to the Carib unless you had exhausted your other options.

 

[Tbonez]

Go to one of those diploma mills? The off shores schools that are currently under investigation for competency issues? The ones that have practice limitations in several states? The ones that are not eligible for licensure in California? I don't think so. If you want to be a medical doctor in the United States, you need to go to a fully accredited school (here comes the flaming from the off-shore grad) that is accepted UNQUESTIONABLY, and has zero practice restrictions.

Here's a supporting article, and a quote:
"Spartan Health Sciences University, on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, consists of four classrooms, one lab and three old cadavers in a building next to a brewery. In interviews, the students admitted that they sorely lack the academic qualifications to get into U.S. schools, and that the faculty includes teachers who do little more than stand in front of the class and read from textbooks.
Spartan is banned in at least six U.S. states"

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2293815

 

[CalBeE]

TBonez, can I join PETA too?

 

[callie13]

yumm, i could sure go for a steak right now. i will have an 8 oz filet, rare as can be. oh small budget, how do i hate thee!!

as for the carribbean, free sounds really nice (more money for steak) and the weather sounds even better. but i think the hardest thing about med school is going to be the work!! my roommate from last year just started and she never has any free time... i think if i'm going to put all that time and effort in i want to make sure i can still practice where i want to.

but still, free tuition, an MD degree, i might take it.

 

[ixitixl]

Originally posted by callie13
yumm, i could sure go for a steak right now. i will have an 8 oz filet, rare as can be. oh small budget, how do i hate thee!!

as for the carribbean, free sounds really nice (more money for steak) and the weather sounds even better. but i think the hardest thing about med school is going to be the work!! my roommate from last year just started and she never has any free time... i think if i'm going to put all that time and effort in i want to make sure i can still practice where i want to.

but still, free tuition, an MD degree, i might take it.

Okay. So it turns out one of my collegues did med school in Mexico and is a successful Emergency Med doc in NJ. He said the hardest part was getting US residency which is ESSENTIAL if you want to practice there (in the US). I'm not sure how Mexican med schools compare with Caribbean ones but it's food for thought.

 

[Gleevec]

I dont think I would.

 

[Optimist]

Why do anything that will limit options later on? US all the way.

 

[ixitixl]

Originally posted by Optimist
Why do anything that will limit options later on? US all the way.

At least you can practice in Russia if you are US trained, not that you'd really want to.

 

[supereagles]

Hmmmm let me think.....Still thinking...... Sure why not

 

[jlee9531]

Give me debt.

 

[Spitting Camel]

Two of my cousins went to med school in Guadalajara and they are now family practitioners. I have to say, though, it took them FOREVER to pass the required exams. It may be a testament to their education, or confirmation of why they had to go to mexico to begin with. You decide... I would choose US all the way!!

P.S. They had to PAY money to do their residencies after a mandatory 1 year in New York. Weird or typical, I have no idea.

 

[rgporter]

Originally posted by ixitixl
Call me crazy but yeah, I'd rather pay out-of-state tuition for U-Colorado 4 years in a row, graduate with a half-million dollar debt than go to a Caribbean school. The funny thing is, I can't really defend my position.

Ditto.

 

[Tezzie]

OK : First of all there is foreign and FOREIGN. You can't compare reputable European medical schools to diploma mills .

And no. I would not go to a diploma mill under any condition. I would much rather graduate with a 500k debt than get a degree that i would have to fight an uphill battle with.


Tezzie

PS. Although the first year of out of state in CO is 60k (i think), the second year by switching to in state tuition is 15k (i think). Which leads to 100-110k debt upon graduation. Similar to the debt that one would have by attending University of Missouri or Penn State as in-state student.

 

[Rendar5]

As tempting as it is, I really want to train at a major hospital. Oh, but it's so tempting!!!! (I wouldn't care about fighting an uphill battle, though. I know I'd succeed in the end. And I just want to practice. Don't need a major salary)

 

[skypilot]

There is at least one reputable school in the Carribean with a decent match list, good clinical sites, and a good board pass rate.

It is not fair to lump all the schools together. Spartan and SGU are not in the same league at all. SGU is not a diploma mill at all.

 

[ocean11]

I agree Skypilot, SGU is a great school! the match list is fantastic and the USMLE passing rates are HIGH.... Its licenced in all the states & has recognition abroad! Unfortunately, there will always be a 'stigma' attached due to many other 'shady' caribbean schools. Most people just lump 'caribbean' schools together, but they really shouldn't.....

Thats why when I began the forum I wrote "top 3 caribbean schools (SGU, AUC & ROSS)" to get a more 'narrowed down' perspective.

 

[krebse]

boooo to all of you bashing the foreign med schools and not really knowing anything about the process of medical education....I spent the summer with some fabulous med students from UAG (Guadalajara, MX) and yeah, there are some that don't have their **** together and there are many, many others that are there because they're non-trad students and didn't get in elsewhere the first time around, they wanted to experience another culture/language, or they just liked the style of the program. Most of my friends there were taking the step one that summer and therefore that's all they talked about with one another so I heard the lowdown of their classmates scores as they came in. Some were far below passing, some were well above passing, it was too varied to generalize one way or the other. A lot of these UAG kids transfered to a caribbean (good god, sorry about the spelling..) school to do their third and fourth years as they will then graduate with an MD and be eligible to apply for residencies in the states. Once you're done with residency, where you got your MD matters less. Bottom-line, if you can post the USMLE scores and the grades, you'll still be a good candidate for nearly any residency your little heart desires.

I'd take the free tuition in a heart beat, but it would never happen, most foreign schools aren't crying for bodies any more than any osteopathic school.

 

[smc927]

This is a true story from a friend of mine -

My friend is a US Citizen from a fairly wealthy family that has a home and a business in Mexico (one of those Mexico/Texas things). One of their family friends is a doctor who practices in Mexico. A well-to-do family had a child who needed a fairly complicated procedure. This Mexican doctor explained that they would not find anyone more qualified than he to perform the surgery. However, because they had the money and were sure the U.S. would offer better opportunities they made arrangements to move him to a U.S. hospital (money can do that you know). They arrived and were introduced to their U.S. surgeon - the same Mexican doctor. He was the most qualified, even in that are of the U.S., to perform the procedure. He worked on both sides of the border. Only now they had to pay the U.S. rates. ...

I don't know where he was educated.

 

[Tbonez]

Originally posted by CalBeE
TBonez, can I join PETA too?

BEEF. It's what's in my belly.