I am considering a caribbean medical school over an American D.O school for the sole reason of being able to be finished somewhat sooner. I am an older student (34) and I did okay on the MCAT and my gpa isn't horrible but I have 2 children and a husband to consider in my decision. My main concern with a non-american school is will I get a good residency placement? I am leaning towards emergency medicine at this point.
What other difficulties might I experience if I choose a caribbean school? Any help would be greatly appreciated
If your dead set on EM go DO definitely. It will be easier to match from a DO school than a Caribean.
Keep in mind that many people change their mind about specialty many, many times.
If you want primary care, caribean=DO. No difference at all. Competitive specialties will be easier through the DO route, since DOs have their own residencies.
If you're a fmg grad and you want to go into EM you will need good scores on the usmle (>215), very good lor's, and apply to many programs. Actually, you would probably need to apply to every program that's within your reach. By that, I mean avoid programs that don't take fmg's.
If you go to a DO school you would still need good scores and lor's but you won't need to apply to as many programs as you would if you're a fmg.
EM is competitive but because every year there are more programs developing, in 5 years EM will not be as competitive as it is now.
No matter what the specialty, go with DO over the IMG option. This is regradless of your choice of EM or even primary care. The bias toward forign grads is by far greater than that toward DO's.
Chances are you'll change your mind and not want to do ER after you see what it's really all about as I did. If you're thinking lifestyle, there are many other options out there.
