P.R. schools?

[Hopefullpremed]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Easy to obtain residency? How much instruction is in English and is it necessary to know Spanish? GPA and MCAT to be competitive?
---Hopefullpremed

 

[liripez]

Easy to obtain residency? How much instruction is in English and is it necessary to know Spanish? GPA and MCAT to be competitive?
---Hopefullpremed

Yes, depending on how good you do academically and on the boards. Depends on the profesor. You need to know Spanish, it would be very important for the clinical rotations (you have to talk to the people). GPA and MCAT the higher the better but depends on the school. The avarage GPA it's around 3.30 nd the MCAT 7'.
.

 

[Khanoom]

Easy to obtain residency? How much instruction is in English and is it necessary to know Spanish? GPA and MCAT to be competitive?
---Hopefullpremed

PR schools are all excellent options. They get good residencies as long as you do well on the boards. I know some doctors practicing here in California even. The schools dont put as much weight on MCAT scores.( which is how it should be) I had competitive scores over 28, and did not get a single interview on the mainland. However, if you are from a ethnic group that is seen by AMA as medically under served you will get more interviews on the mainland. I know people with lower scores than me who got a ton of interviews because they were from those groups. That said, you should speak a bit of spanish if you come out here for school, from my experience as a non native spanish speaker it is necessary.

PR is also a great place to learn medicine, especially if you are interested in primary care. Not to mention that the people were incredibly generous and kind when I visited.

good luck.

 

[UVABranch]

getting interviews at mainland schools really has less to do with ethnicity than many might lead you to believe. many schools look at the intangibles such as where you grew up, if you worked during school, what type of ECs you have (or don't have), the quality of your PS, and how good your LORs are (and from who). Much like people have misconceptions about the PR schools, the same exist with regards to being a URM. Believe you me it's not a free pass into an interview 😉 But rather than make this an AA thread, lets get back to the OPs questions.

As far as I know getting residencies in any US school is really more dependent on what you do while in school, USMLEs, LORS from clinical rotations, and grades. They fact that you will be bilingual by the time you're done (if you're not already) would also likely be a big plus if you plan to work in an area with a sizable Spanish speaking population (or where most other physicians don't speak Spanish).

Some schools have you interact with patients from the first year (Ponce) so fluency is important from the beginning (i.e. the interview), but other schools you don't need to be fluent until your clinical rotations (3rd yr) like liripez said. Classes are taught in Spanish and English in all schools, depending on the professors preference, but all test, books, handouts, etc. are in English.

The MCAT tends to be lower in PR schools mainly because the applicants are predominantly native Spanish speakers, and it would be like a non native taking the MCAT in Spanish. I think they are around 20-23 for most PR school. And like liripez said the GPA is about 3.3. I think the PR schools generally look for slightly higher MCAT scores from non native Spanish speakers since the same language obstacle isn't applicable. G'luck!

 

[chaicos]

anyone has the match list for any of the PR schools?

 

[Khanoom]

getting interviews at mainland schools really has less to do with ethnicity than many might lead you to believe. many schools look at the intangibles such as where you grew up, if you worked during school, what type of ECs you have (or don't have), the quality of your PS, and how good your LORs are (and from who). Much like people have misconceptions about the PR schools, the same exist with regards to being a URM. Believe you me it's not a free pass into an interview 😉 But rather than make this an AA thread, lets get back to the OPs questions.



As far as I know getting residencies in any US school is really more dependent on what you do while in school, USMLEs, LORS from clinical rotations, and grades. They fact that you will be bilingual by the time you're done (if you're not already) would also likely be a big plus if you plan to work in an area with a sizable Spanish speaking population (or where most other physicians don't speak Spanish).

Some schools have you interact with patients from the first year (Ponce) so fluency is important from the beginning (i.e. the interview), but other schools you don't need to be fluent until your clinical rotations (3rd yr) like liripez said. Classes are taught in Spanish and English in all schools, depending on the professors preference, but all test, books, handouts, etc. are in English.

The MCAT tends to be lower in PR schools mainly because the applicants are predominantly native Spanish speakers, and it would be like a non native taking the MCAT in Spanish. I think they are around 20-23 for most PR school. And like liripez said the GPA is about 3.3. I think the PR schools generally look for slightly higher MCAT scores from non native Spanish speakers since the same language obstacle isn't applicable. G'luck!

By the way, I did not mean to imply that folks who get interviews from certain groups dont work hard, no quite the contrary I think they all deserve the interview. So I apologize if it seemed I was implying that.

However, folks get categorized completely differently based on being from so called" disadvantaged groups". There are too many qualified applicants and Its the AMA's way of trying to make up for the fact that entry into medical school has not been historically based on merit in the past but infact more class and race based. Statistically 70% of medical students are white. There is a need to have representation from different groups which I actually have no problem with, and strongly believe in.

I had excellent LOR's,EC's and over 10 yrs of community experience in addition to two publications , I also moved to the USA when I was 14 and supported myself, but because the majority of people from my group are in medicine ( im not white) its not as urgent to have someone like me in their minds.
No need to get into it as you said.

 

[Khanoom]

I know three students from PR who did residencies in California.
One from UPR did surgery at UCSF, one from Ponce went to Martinez and did Internal medicine, and another one from SJB and Ponce did OB'GYN at Fresno UCSF. Hard to find from SJB solely because before LCME most people would transfer to Ponce or UPR after first two years.

But you can find them if you have the time by doing a google search for both ponce and SJB.

Like UVA and liriperez have said boards and GPA and LOR's are key, once you are in a LCME school you compete with all the other LCME medical students.

 

[Hopefullpremed]

What level of Spanish is required, which years? Does the schools provide training or are they expecting fluency at time of admission? And what are the four P.R. schools again, someone posted it some days ago.-- Hopefullpremed

 

[liripez]

What level of Spanish is required, which years? Does the schools provide training or are they expecting fluency at time of admission? And what are the four P.R. schools again, someone posted it some days ago.-- Hopefullpremed

I don't know of any PR school that provides training. I guess school want you to know Spanish at a level that you can understand and speak at least a little bit, by the time you are admitted. If you can't make it through an interview in Spanish, you probably would not be accepted, and if you get accepted you might have a lot of work to do. The schools are San Juan Bautista, Universida Central de Caribe, UPR Ciencias Medicas y Ponce School of Medicine. Check their websites, they have info about Spanish requirements and related topics.👍