Really need honest advice ..

[Chiii]

I am in a tough situation and I feel like I am in desperate need of reinvention

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[907914]

I am in a tough situation and I feel like I am in desperate need of reinvention. Graduated from Boston U with a 3.07 gpa (mostly due to low grades in the sciences and prereqs) Took upper level sciences my last year at Boston U and received 3.5 and 3.7 gpas for my last two semesters. I am currently studying and hoping to kill the MCAT. I applied to BU's MAMS program and just waiting to hear back from them, but I dont know how promising it sounds. I also applied to Northeastern's post bac- if anyone knows anything about it please let me know. I have 2 science courses left to take where I received a C-. Am i hopeless? Should i go through with Northeasterns post bac and apply to DO/MD? In need of honest advice.. I am also thinking of applying to the Caribbean- Why is it so awful? I know people who have successfully completed it and gained residencies. It also seems appealing to do Carribean because it will minimize the gap years. What should I do? thank you in advance i appreciate it

If your MCAT is >508 you can do DO solidly. If your MCAT is >515 you can throw in quite a few MD and be considered competitive. The postbacc/SMP would be fantastic if you were >3.5 throughout it. Would def recommend that route.

Do NOT do Caribbean. They are awful in that only half of their students get to sit for Step1 and only half of graduates match. I repeat, DO NOT DO CARIBBEAN

 

[Ad2b]

also thinking of applying to the Caribbean

Just no.

Clinicals (MS 3 and MS 4) tend to be trickier to obtain if not darn near impossible

Residency slots are worse than Clinicals

Did I mention USMLE Step 1 assistance/guidance/help? You won't find that in any substantive manner in Carib. If your choices are DO or Carib, go DO. IF you are thinking post-bacc formal vs. DIY, just go DIY... cheaper leaving you $$ in your pocket for applications.

 

[Moko]

Avoid the Caribbean. Take additional years to get into a MD/DO instead.

At the Caribbean schools, many of their graduates do get into residencies; HOWEVER, for every success story you hear, there's another story about a person who does not finish or does not match and is left with an exorbitant amount of debt with no earning power to pay it back.

I personally would not be okay with these odds especially when there is a more reliable path (working towards MD/DO) to becoming a practicing physician.

 

[Goro]

I am in a tough situation and I feel like I am in desperate need of reinvention. Graduated from Boston U with a 3.07 gpa (mostly due to low grades in the sciences and prereqs) Took upper level sciences my last year at Boston U and received 3.5 and 3.7 gpas for my last two semesters. I am currently studying and hoping to kill the MCAT. I applied to BU's MAMS program and just waiting to hear back from them, but I dont know how promising it sounds. I also applied to Northeastern's post bac- if anyone knows anything about it please let me know. I have 2 science courses left to take where I received a C-. Am i hopeless? Should i go through with Northeasterns post bac and apply to DO/MD? In need of honest advice.. I am also thinking of applying to the Caribbean- Why is it so awful? I know people who have successfully completed it and gained residencies. It also seems appealing to do Carribean because it will minimize the gap years. What should I do? thank you in advance i appreciate it

Post-bacs/SMPs are a dime-a-dozen/ Do your research and find one right for you. Either the BU or the Northwester program will be fine.
As to the Carib, No, just no.

Here's why:
The point here isn't that there are successful Carib grads. The point is how many additional obstacles to success you face by going to a Carib school.

Quoting the wise gyngyn: The pool of US applicants from the Caribbean is viewed differently by Program Directors. The DDx for a Caribbean grad is pretty off-putting: bad judgment, bad advice, egotism, gullibility, overbearing parents, inability to delay gratification, IA's, legal problems, weak research skills, high risk behavior. This is not to say that all of them still have the quality that drew them into this situation. There is just no way to know which ones they are. Some PD's are in a position where they need to, or can afford to take risks too! So, some do get interviews.

Bad grades and scores are the least of the deficits from a PD's standpoint. A strong academic showing in a Caribbean medical school does not erase this stigma. It fact it increases the perception that the reason for the choice was on the above-mentioned list!
Just about everyone from a Caribbean school has one or more of these problems and PDs know it. That's why their grads are the last choice even with a high Step 1 score.

There was a time when folks whose only flaw was being a late bloomer went Carib, but those days are gone. There are a number of US med schools that will reward reinvention.

It's likely you'll be in the bottom half or two thirds of the class that gets dismissed before Step 1. The business plan of a Carib school depends on the majority of the class not needing to be supported in clinical rotations. They literally can't place all 250+ of the starting class at clinical sites (educational malpractice, really. If this happened at a US school, they be shut down by LCME or COCA, and sued.

The Carib (and other offshore) schools have very tenuous, very expensive, very controversial relationships with a very small number of US clinical sites. You may think you can just ask to do your clinical rotations at a site near home. Nope. You may think you don't have to worry about this stuff. Wrong.
And let's say you get through med school in the Carib and get what you need out of the various clinical rotation scenarios. Then you are in the match gamble. I don't need to say a word about this - you can find everything you need to know at nrmp.org.

You really need to talk to people who made it through Carib threshing machine (like Bedevilled Ben or mikkus) into residency, and hear the story from them. How many people were in their class at the start, how many are in it now? How long did it take to get a residency, and how did they handle the gap year(s) and their student loans? How many residencies did they apply to, how many interviews did they get, and were any of the programs on their match list anything like what they wanted?

A little light reading:
Million $ Mistake
http://www.tameersiddiqui.com/medical-school-at-sgu

"Why didn't I Match?"

There seems to be a lot of discussion lately on this topic, including a lot of fear-mongering anecdotes with an undercurrent of innuendo that odds are you will necessarily fail if you go to the Caribbean. With that said, I'm sharing an article from the AMA's blog about why applicants/soon-to-be...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[curbsideconsult]

I know people who have successfully completed it and gained residencies.

Did you talk to them about their experiences and get their honest answers?

 

[Goro]

Goro. Thank you so much for your honest advice. I will definitely take it. Do you think it might be worth giving a shot if I write BU MAMS a letter of interest (I just graduated from Boston University, applied to their program and on the 23rd of March and when asked for an update in April they said I wasn't an immediate yes or no and a decision is still being made)

Haven't a clue. Worse they'll do is say no.