Akshay said:
Alright so I'm a pre-med, studying for my MCATs and in my final year. After 4 years of hard work I've managed to somehow lose the courage I once had when I started off as a freshman pre-med. At the end of the day, I say to myself..."I'll blow the MCAT and with my GPA, therez no hope whatsoever"...so I start thinking about the carib med schools. I've quite a few people who are going this year and already a few who are already there.
Okay, I think there's a problem here. You need to regain your courage. If you lose courage, motivation, and work ethic, it's not going to matter if you go to the Caribbean. Without these qualities, you will not succeed in the Caribbean. People like to think, "Oh, I'll just go to the Caribbean and fix things." Well, sometimes this happens, but it's not likely. In many cases, students without proper preparation will go to some Caribbean schools and essentially flunk out. And if you have the pessimistic attitude that "I'll blow the MCAT," imagine the possibilities if you go into shelf exams and the USMLE tests with that mindset. AUC and Ross have relatively high attrition rates. SGU doesn't seem to lose as many students, but it does have an appreciable amount of students who "decel"--essentially they slow down because they're not doing well enough or are having a hard time keeping up. Do not fool yourself into thinking that all will be well and good with a Caribbean acceptance. I think if you choose to go to a Caribbean med school, you MUST be prepared to succeed.
Akshay said:
SO herez my question:
1: itz FEB 1st and say I wanted to start med school fall 05....what schools shud I be considering (is that possible by the way?)......or even Spring 06 for that matter because from what i hear they have 2 - 3 semesters when the year can begin?? Is that true?
Call the schools individually and see what they suggest. Chances are you can probably make Fall matriculation if you get your app in soon. Classes usually don't start till what...late August? And yes, several schools have different terms that you can enter. Check with the schools or the schools' websites.
Akshay said:
2: And the most heard about school out there is Ross, SGU and AUC....now I've observed how much commotion ranking these guys can create....but what would you choose if given a choice with acceptances at all three schools?
any takers?
I'm biased toward SGU (I have a relative there) based on its clinical affiliations, USMLE success rate (which is somewhat misleading due to decels), and residency placements of graduates. For more competitive specialties, I think SGU slightly edges out the others. But if you're going for something like Internal Medicine, Ob-Gyn, Peds, Psych, Family Practice, etc., you might want to consider the other schools. In those fields, they're pretty similar with success. You really have to ask yourself what your goals are and what type of specialties you could see yourself doing. If you want your options open, I think SGU is probably the best choice. But I'm not saying that you can't do the same coming from Ross or AUC.
You might also want to consider cost, Ross is somewhat (some argue not much) cheaper than SGU. Ross is in Dominica and may come as a culture shock... Not to say you won't experience this in a place like St. George's. AUC is in a tourist spot and there's a lot of distractions. This draws some applicants/matriculants. I think people looking for these "benefits" are asking for trouble. If you had undergraduate shortcomings that have left you unable to successfully obtain admission to a US med school, why would you look for a med school that offers more distractions? But on the flip-side, AUC is probably least likely to give you culture-shock of a third-world country that you might get if you go to Grenada or Dominica. At AUC, conveniences are somewhat easier to come by since it's located on an island known for being a tourist resort. So if you're disciplined, AUC may be a reasonable choice too.
SGU06 said:
Most of my friends and I have GPA's of 3.3 or higher and MCATS ranging from 20-23.
I'm hoping that that would be good enough for SGU.
I could be wrong about this, but lower 20s may not be very competitive for SGU. Last I heard, the average score for US students at SGU was a 26. However, 3.3 should be competitive. I have friends at SGU with lower GPAs than that (about ~3.1). The caveat is that their MCATs were upper-20s / lower 30s. Anyway, it's worth a shot.
I agree with your ranking and statement on courage.
The three schools you mention seem to be the ones most often mentioned for Caribbean med schools--probably due to rep as well as US licensure issues. Another school to consider is Saba, which has had much success lately and seems to be on its way to licensure in all 50 states.
