:::Residency question about Caribbean school:::

[gaby1088]

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Hello, im looking to apply to one of the big 4 for fall 2011 or jan 2012 entrance. I want to get into plastics or surgery and im worried that if i go to a caribbean medical school my chances of getting into any of those are shot.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!
Gabriel

 

[Aphtalyfe]

Hello, im looking to apply to one of the big 4 for fall 2011 or jan 2012 entrance. I want to get into plastics or surgery and im worried that if i go to a caribbean medical school my chances of getting into any of those are shot.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!
Gabriel

Plastics is pretty much an impossibility coming out of the Caribbean. General surgery is very possible.

 

[gaby1088]

Plastics is pretty much an impossibility coming out of the Caribbean. General surgery is very possible.

cant I do gen. surgery THEN plastics?

 

[IMGUSMLEStep1]

Yes you can. From what I've gathered, there are plastic surgery residencies AND fellowships you can do after a Gen. surgery residency.

Plastics is one of the most competitive residencies/fellowships out there, so I really can't say much to reassure you. It's possible, but whether it's likely or not depends on how you do in med school.

 

[gaby1088]

Yes you can. From what I've gathered, there are plastic surgery residencies AND fellowships you can do after a Gen. surgery residency.

Plastics is one of the most competitive residencies/fellowships out there, so I really can't say much to reassure you. It's possible, but whether it's likely or not depends on how you do in med school.

thanks, im just worried it would be a waste of time because i really am not interested in being a Gen.prac. My dad is a foreign graduate and he is one of the best in his field (anesthesiology) and ive met many foreign graduated cardiovascular surgeons and general surgeons who are also top in their field (at least here in florida) but they are much older than I am, (40's+ so things are different now a days with harder placement ext.

 

[dragonfly99]

I do think things are different now. I don't know that I'd recommend for anyone to go to med school (US or foreign) if he/she can only imaging being happy in 1 or 2 fields of medicine. This is because nobody (US or foreign grad) is guaranteed to get a spot in the fieldy of his or her choice.
Doing plastics is damn near impossible from the Caribbean. Even US students who go somewhere like Duke, Emory etc. and do well would be sweating bullets trying to get a plastics residency. It's a function of how few spots there are and how many people want in.

If your dad is a doctor, why don't you consider a US school? Why don't you think you can get a shot there? With a dad who is a doc, you should be hooked up for clinical work, shadowing, etc. Is the MCAT giving you big time problems?

 

[medschool01]

Yes I completely agree with you - I think as days go by, things are getting very difficult for foreign graduates to get residencies spots. If you really want to go into only gen surgery or plastics residency, you should try to get into US med schools (MD or DO).

yea i have a similar question: what is it that is stopping you from getting into med schools in US if you don't mind sharing?

I do think things are different now. I don't know that I'd recommend for anyone to go to med school (US or foreign) if he/she can only imaging being happy in 1 or 2 fields of medicine. This is because nobody (US or foreign grad) is guaranteed to get a spot in the fieldy of his or her choice.
Doing plastics is damn near impossible from the Caribbean. Even US students who go somewhere like Duke, Emory etc. and do well would be sweating bullets trying to get a plastics residency. It's a function of how few spots there are and how many people want in.

If your dad is a doctor, why don't you consider a US school? Why don't you think you can get a shot there? With a dad who is a doc, you should be hooked up for clinical work, shadowing, etc. Is the MCAT giving you big time problems?

 

[gaby1088]

I do think things are different now. I don't know that I'd recommend for anyone to go to med school (US or foreign) if he/she can only imaging being happy in 1 or 2 fields of medicine. This is because nobody (US or foreign grad) is guaranteed to get a spot in the fieldy of his or her choice.
Doing plastics is damn near impossible from the Caribbean. Even US students who go somewhere like Duke, Emory etc. and do well would be sweating bullets trying to get a plastics residency. It's a function of how few spots there are and how many people want in.

If your dad is a doctor, why don't you consider a US school? Why don't you think you can get a shot there? With a dad who is a doc, you should be hooked up for clinical work, shadowing, etc. Is the MCAT giving you big time problems?

Yes I completely agree with you - I think as days go by, things are getting very difficult for foreign graduates to get residencies spots. If you really want to go into only gen surgery or plastics residency, you should try to get into US med schools (MD or DO).

yea i have a similar question: what is it that is stopping you from getting into med schools in US if you don't mind sharing?

my 2.8 GPA. Ive been scoring 36s consistently on the mcat practice tests which makes me want to kick myself harder because my GPA is offsetting my MCAT score
If i can get into gen surgery from a Caribbean i can fight work hard to get into plastics after correct? Im just better and medical stuff. Im ACLS certified CPR certified and ive done a crap load of shadowing with all types of doctors, ive even done pap-smears with the medical school down here (legally i could because it was a free health care clinic in which medical students practice and they had to sign a waver saying NON MD students would be treating you under MD supervision) and i finally am starting to get over the fact US med schools are not going to happen.

 

[rkaz]

If you spent this next year retaking all courses that you received lower than a 'C' on... I'd think there is a good chance that come next June you might have over a 3.3 GPA (by DO school calculations, since they replace the old grade with the newer one). Combined with a high MCAT score, I think a DO school acceptance could very much be a possibility... and you could be applying next summer. You would just have to get awesome grades this time around, which I am certain you could do if you are committed to it.

 

[gaby1088]

If you spent this next year retaking all courses that you received lower than a 'C' on... I'd think there is a good chance that come next June you might have over a 3.3 GPA (by DO school calculations, since they replace the old grade with the newer one). Combined with a high MCAT score, I think a DO school acceptance could very much be a possibility... and you could be applying next summer. You would just have to get awesome grades this time around, which I am certain you could do if you are committed to it.

Im highly against DO so that would not be a possibility for me thanks for the info though!

 

[RussianJoo]

Im highly against DO so that would not be a possibility for me thanks for the info though!

i guess you're also highly against having better opportunities when it comes to matching into a residency for your choice. 👎

 

[illegallysmooth]

"I want to go into one of the most competitive specialities, but I can't even get my GPA up to the DO average, so I'll just act like I'd rather go to the Caribbean, which is the bottom-of-the-barrel option for medical school, and I know they'll take me cuz I got a pulse n shiit. I'm gonna be the next Dr. 90210, MD"

 

[caseofthemndays]

Duuuuuuuuude.... If you can score a 36 on your MCAT it would be totally worth your time to do an SMP. For serious.

 

[gaby1088]

i guess you're also highly against having better opportunities when it comes to matching into a residency for your choice. 👎

"I want to go into one of the most competitive specialities, but I can't even get my GPA up to the DO average, so I'll just act like I'd rather go to the Caribbean, which is the bottom-of-the-barrel option for medical school, and I know they'll take me cuz I got a pulse n shiit. I'm gonna be the next Dr. 90210, MD"

Just saying, not many DO's get respected here in the hospitals and if I want to be a doctor i'd rather be an MD. Stay out of this thread if you have nothing useful to contribute.

Duuuuuuuuude.... If you can score a 36 on your MCAT it would be totally worth your time to do an SMP. For serious.

Yea im just going to stay here in the states and do an SMP. I already wrote to UPenn, Tufts, USF, BU and Barry and they all say i have competitive GPA (with my upward trend + MCAT) and that i should apply to their schools.

 

[illegallysmooth]

Just saying, not many DO's get respected here in the hospitals and if I want to be a doctor i'd rather be an MD. Stay out of this thread if you have nothing useful to contribute.

You have a lot to learn buddy.

Good luck.

 

[RussianJoo]

yeah I agree with Illegally smooth, you have a lot to learn about DO's and how well respected they are.

 

[ButImLETired]

Agreed. I am very familiar with the hispanic doctors' opinion of DOs because someone in my family just went through this whole ordeal and his dad basically made him go do the pre-med (or whatever you call it, I guess it's like an SMP) at SGU instead of allowing him to even apply DO.

If you can accept that times have changed as far as residencies are concerned, and that it's now way harder for an IMG to get a good position than it was 40 years ago, maybe you should also accept that times have really changed as far as DO schools are concerned. They're a lot more respected now, they're extremely standardized, and a lot of them have great clinical locations where you'll be well-trained. They graduate almost everyone who enters, and the students can apply to both DO and MD residencies. Altogether, it's incredibly dumb to just say "oh they're not respected" and close the door altogether- you WILL regret it later, and you'll be down in the islands with tons of people who'll tell you that as well (since so many of them tried and didn't get into a DO school). But hey, to each his own.

Have you considered Puerto Rico? If you speak Spanish, it could be a good choice, especially if you want to end up practicing in Miami. Their med schools have way lower admission stats and I think they're within the umbrella of the LCME.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Agreed... you have an infinitely better shot at doing plastic surgery out of a D.O. school than you do out of the Caribbean. After numerous google searches I can't find a single U.S. plastic surgeon that went to a Caribbean med school... I found a handful of DOs though.

You have a lot to learn buddy.

Good luck.

 

[dragonfly99]

Agree with considering Puerto Rican MD and US DO schools before Caribbean, for sure.
Also, it doesn't look like the OP has taken a real MCAT, just the practice ones, and a 36 on a practice test translates into we don't know what on an actual/real test.

DO schools actually are a lot better respected than they were in the past. Certainly I would say they are at least equally respected as Caribbean schools, and more respected than all but the best of the Caribbean schools. What you need to care about is not the respect that your parents or other older people that you know give to DO docs or DO schools, but the respect that residency program directors give them. I'm not going to lie and say DO would be my first choice med school, but there are definitely some that are well respected and I think it's much smarter to go to one of those versus going to the Caribbean.

Your chance for plastics out of either DO or Caribbean school is honestly pretty dismal. Be sure you want to be a doc for the right reasons, and that you could accept working in a variety of fields within medicine.

 

[JonathanMD]

Just saying, not many DO's get respected here in the hospitals and if I want to be a doctor i'd rather be an MD. Stay out of this thread if you have nothing useful to contribute.

You are either not taking your situation seriously or you are severely misinformed.

 

[medschool01]

It surprises how many people are ignorant about DO schools and they want to be in medical field! I can't believe that someone wants to go to carribean rather than to a DO school - now that shows how ignorant your statement sounds! Look, some people have went through that stage where they don't want to go to DO schools because they don't know enough info about it and they go by what they hear. Do your research before you set your foot in Carribean. If you want to become a plastic surgeon, it will not happen if you go to caribbean - but you can believe whatever you want to believe - I guess you will find out anyway when you go to carribeans anyway. I know a lot of people who are struggling over there - they tried to get into MD AND DO schools but they couldn't so their last route is to go to caribbean where they take pretty much anyone!!

There are DOs and MDs who work together these days and things have changed dramatically in the past ten years! there is not much difference between DO and MD anymore. When a patient is in a life and death situation, he is not going to ask for MD physician - He wants someone who can save his or her life and BOTH MD AND DO physicians can save his life - this is the WHOLE POINT OF GOING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL - TO BE TRAINED TO SAVE A LIFE.

And one another thing: I don't think you can get into DO school anyway - you have a really low GPA and you still have not taken your MCAT - DO schools are also getting competitive these days! so I think CARRIBEAN is probably the only option for you at this moment...

Before you run your mouth,do your research - try to understand what others are saying in this forum! They have been in your position so they know what they are talking about!

Also learn how to RESPECT every physician regardless whether they are DO and MD! With your attitude, you have a longggggggggggggg wayyy to go!!

Good luck with everything cause you are gonna need it!

Im highly against DO so that would not be a possibility for me thanks for the info though!

 

[medschool01]

Hey everyone,

I just want to say one more thing: There is nothing wrong with going to a caribbean school (I heard BIG FOUR are good schools) because I know some people who are there and they also work just as hard as every medical student here in US!! So I want to make sure that I don't offend students who went to caribbean schools - at the end of the day, they are also doctors but it is getting really tough to get into residency positions for Foreign medical graduate especially if you want to become a plastic surgeon. So all I am saying is try as hard as you can to try to get into DO or MD schools before you go to caribbean. I am sure many students tried their best to get into DO or MD schools before they went to caribbean schools.