I am weighing options and would sincerely appreciate if current DO students and DO grads would share whether they ever considered attending one of the 4 Caribbean schools (SGU, AUC, Ross or Saba) and what factors lead them to select DO school over the Caribbean option.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my inquiry.
I'm surprised at how often these questions keep getting asked.
To make a long story short, going to an American DO school is a
much better idea than going to any Caribbean school. Why? Well, for starters it's way, way easier to match into American residencies in general if you're coming from an American MD or DO school vs. any Caribbean school. Period. Competition for American residency slots is hotter than it's ever been right now, and having gone to a Caribbean school will make it much harder to match
any American residency whatsoever (never mind your top choice). Second, if you're interested in a competitive specialty you'll also find that it is
much easier to match into these if you're an American osteopathic graduate vs. a Caribbean MD graduate. Third, you can't use many forms of US loan/grant money at Caribbean schools, and there have been horror stories of students struggling to find loan money once they're several years into their medical education and having to drop out because of it. Fourth, don't discount how much "culture shock" you could experience if you choose to head off to the Caribbean for medical school. You'd be moving to another country altogether, after all.
In short, if you can get into an American DO school (and your stats look reasonably competitive), you'd be way better off doing that than going to the Caribbean.
