Puerto Rican Medical School for Lower GPA student

[prowd2beloud147]

I have posted a thread earlier about getting into MD schools in the U.S with a science gpa lower than a 3.0 with a drastically upward trend and an MCAT over 30.

I have done extensive research over the years about the requirements of all schools, MD/DO, and am now researching PR schools.

I am fluent in Spanish (was my college major) and very very desperately want to get into medical school.

In this post I would really like a reply from an american who learned spanish in the states and went to a PR school. How was your experience? Was it a hard adjustment? Was it safe? Is there internet/ U.S like accommodations? Anything else I should know?

I definitely do not want to rough it, but if not accepted into a U.S program I will consider it.

I just fear that learning in spanish may make the already difficult course work that much more strenuous.

Note: I will not be applying to Caribbean school because they aren't as well respected as US schools, especially when it comes to specializing, something in which I intend to do.

If any one else has a comment or information pertaining to this topic please feel free to comment, I appreciate everyone's opinion.

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[music2doc]

I have posted a thread earlier about getting into MD schools in the U.S with a science gpa lower than a 3.0 with a drastically upward trend and an MCAT over 30.

I have done extensive research over the years about the requirements of all schools, MD/DO, and am now researching PR schools.

I am fluent in Spanish (was my college major) and very very desperately want to get into medical school.

In this post I would really like a reply from an american who learned spanish in the states and went to a PR school. How was your experience? Was it a hard adjustment? Was it safe? Is there internet/ U.S like accommodations? Anything else I should know?

I definitely do not want to rough it, but if not accepted into a U.S program I will consider it.

I just fear that learning in spanish may make the already difficult course work that much more strenuous.

Note: I will not be applying to Caribbean school because they aren't as well respected as US schools, especially when it comes to specializing, something in which I intend to do.

If any one else has a comment or information pertaining to this topic please feel free to comment, I appreciate everyone's opinion.

Why not apply DO as well? The PR schools are fine (except SJB...), but UPR only accepts those from the PR (or with extremely close connections to the PR) and the others, I believe, all require you to be fluent in Spanish. From your comments above, you may or may not meet that requirement. Have you lived in a Spanish-speaking country for any significant period of time? I've met an awful lot of "Spanish majors" who can hardly speak the language, let alone truly call themselves "fluent."

 

[235788]

Why not just do a SMP?

Its a bad-door into a mid-tier US MD school -- which will make specializing MUCH easier.

 

[Law2Doc]

...

If you are more flexible about where would you practice medicine, Guadalajara med school is partially taught in english and they prepare you for the USMLE (you still need to pass mexican requirements to get a mexican license though).

the puerto Rican schools are LCME accredited and so technically US med schools. Assuming the OP plans to practice in the US, they would be a huge step above schooling in Guadalajara or the "Caribbean" schools in terms of US residency matching. But yeah if OP isn't really really comfortable reading and conversing fluently in Spanish it could be a really bad idea.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I think even the other PR schools favor students that are residents or have close ties or people who have a strong desire to work with spanish speaking populations. Go to the school specific forums for the PR schools and look around there a bit. I think the amounts of curriculum taught in English vs. Spanish varies a bit by school.

Really though, I'm also wondering why you don't seem to feel like DO or postbac programs aren't good options?


(Also, I'm a bit concerned about the questions about PR and having internet and "roughing it." It sounds like you don't really know anything about the place. It's not a developing nation or something. The schools that are LCME accredited are going to have the usual stuff a medical school has: i.e. see this http://www.uccaribe.edu/medicine/?page_id=1331 )

 

[TriagePreMed]

Being from outside of PR, it'll probably be as hard for you to get into one of the schools. Look into the MSAR. For Universidad Central it's somewhere around 10 of 550 OOS applicants got in.

 

[eHombre]

I think even the other PR school's favor students that are residents or have close ties or people who have a strong desire to work with spanish speaking populations. Go to the school specific forums for the PR schools and look around there a bit. I think the amounts of curriculum taught in English vs. Spanish varies a bit by school.

Really though, I'm also wondering why you don't seem to feel like DO or postbac programs aren't good options?


(Also, I'm a bit concerned about the questions about PR and having internet and "roughing it." It sounds like you don't really know anything about the place. It's not a developing nation or something. The schools that are LCME accredited are going to have the usual stuff a medical school has: i.e. see this http://www.uccaribe.edu/medicine/?page_id=1331 )

^This.

 

[Jamie561]

I have posted a thread earlier about getting into MD schools in the U.S with a science gpa lower than a 3.0 with a drastically upward trend and an MCAT over 30.

I have done extensive research over the years about the requirements of all schools, MD/DO, and am now researching PR schools.

I am fluent in Spanish (was my college major) and very very desperately want to get into medical school.

In this post I would really like a reply from an american who learned spanish in the states and went to a PR school. How was your experience? Was it a hard adjustment? Was it safe? Is there internet/ U.S like accommodations? Anything else I should know?

I definitely do not want to rough it, but if not accepted into a U.S program I will consider it.

I just fear that learning in spanish may make the already difficult course work that much more strenuous.

Note: I will not be applying to Caribbean school because they aren't as well respected as US schools, especially when it comes to specializing, something in which I intend to do.

If any one else has a comment or information pertaining to this topic please feel free to comment, I appreciate everyone's opinion.

From your previous threads, I have surmised the following:

-Your GPA sucks and you've been in school for a long time. Not promising academically.
-You don't want to go to Carib or DO, the two options that are the most likely to be realistic in your case.
-You want to eventually do an optho/derm residency.

I think the credited response here is that you can't always get what you want. I guarantee your chances at a US (including PR) MD/DO is 0% unless you do some major GPA repair.

 

[TriagePreMed]

From your previous threads, I have surmised the following:

-Your GPA sucks and you've been in school for a long time. Not promising academically.
-You don't want to go to Carib or DO, the two options that are the most likely to be realistic in your case.
-You want to eventually do an optho/derm residency.

I think the credited response here is that you can't always get what you want. I guarantee your chances at a US (including PR) MD/DO is 0% unless you do some major GPA repair.

Looking back into his threads and now remembering his post, I agree 0% chance, including the Caribbean, unless it's outside the big 4.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Why not apply DO as well? The PR schools are fine (except SJB...), but UPR only accepts those from the PR (or with extremely close connections to the PR) and the others, I believe, all require you to be fluent in Spanish. From your comments above, you may or may not meet that requirement. Have you lived in a Spanish-speaking country for any significant period of time? I've met an awful lot of "Spanish majors" who can hardly speak the language, let alone truly call themselves "fluent."

the puerto Rican schools are LCME accredited and so technically US med schools. Assuming the OP plans to practice in the US, they would be a huge step above schooling in Guadalajara or the "Caribbean" schools in terms of US residency matching. But yeah if OP isn't really really comfortable reading and conversing fluently in Spanish it could be a really bad idea.

No relation?


side thought.... imagine the sh** storm if US schools (or anything) required fluency in english....

 

[dbeast]

Also there is, in fact, no internet in Puerto Rico.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Also there is, in fact, no internet in Puerto Rico.

pretty sure i read that somewhere. seems legit

 

[NatrixCaelicola]

Um Learning in a different language is something you get used to (for anyone that's never done it but seems to think it's impossible)...

 

[music2doc]

Um Learning in a different language is something you get used to (for anyone that's never done it but seems to think it's impossible)...

Absolutely, but the sheer amount of information in medical school coupled with the apparent fact that the OP learned most/all of his/her Spanish in the States (i.e., little to no immersion) is likely to make all 4 years quite difficult in the PR. Not to mention there's the whole "practically no OOS are accepted" issue with most/all PR schools.

 

[unhappytnt]

pretty sure i read that somewhere. seems legit

I too heard that it is true. Poor PR, we really should grant them statehood

 

[eHombre]

I too heard that it is true. Poor PR, we really should grant them statehood

A) Pretty sure he was being sarcastic. There is, in fact, Internet in Puerto Rico.

B) Plebiscite after plebiscite has shown that Puerto Rican residents are split on the statehood issue. About half want statehood and about half like the current commonwealth status.

 

[unhappytnt]

A) Pretty sure he was being sarcastic. There is, in fact, Internet in Puerto Rico.

B) Plebiscite after plebiscite has shown that Puerto Rican residents are split on the statehood issue. About half want statehood and about half like the current commonwealth status.

So was I.

 

[jarkmones]

So was I.

I hear they're gonna get on it as soon as they patch up that hole in the chicken wire out back

 

[eHombre]

So was I.

You never know on SDN . Sorry for the hair trigger "I'll-have-you-know!" response.

 

[prowd2beloud147]