Wow really blew up here.... Umm they said I should take loans and stuff just to be on the safe side... But they will be helping me along the way :/
Paid for all of college so far 👍
And ya I got into Ross also but that sounded even more shaky, sorry to offend anyone here !! Just in the sense of living conditions and the island itself. And every one else also said SGU>ROSS now between SGU and DO.
Ya I preferably want to do DO also, but always wondered how some rurals schools compare when it comes to matching in per-say Northeast... (New York/Tri-State Are) Been a Queens Guy my whole Life so eventually do wanna settle down around here.
OP, you're fine. Apply DO right now. Apply broadly and wait for interviews. If you're worried about SGU, contact them and ask if you can start in the fall while you are preparing for the move (they'll let you).
SGU is the best school in the Caribbean, but its still a foreign med school. Going in Jan means you won't finish to match in 2018, you'll have to spend 6 months waiting (if you don't decel, take longer on boards, or take a leave before you graduate). That means you won't match until 2019 at the earliest anyways (so really waiting until Fall 2015 makes no difference anyways).
Not only is GME placement for DOs much higher than for IMGs (yes even SGU grads), attrition is also much lower. On top of that, you'll be paying a premium to attend SGU. For that money, you could attend almost any US school and save a ton on trips back home and other living expenses.
Now I have a good deal of friends that have gone to SGU (and Ross and AUC for that matter) and they have been lucky and managed to both graduate and match. They have told me that things on the islands have gotten much worse. More people are struggling to match in the same field that their predecessors matched in and many more people are SOAPing. And honestly the truth is, Carib schools are always there and always willing to take students, so worst case scenario you can just start a little later.
If any of these aren't argument enough, the fact that an SGU 4th yr is saying that if they were applying now they'd go DO should give you an idea of what is probably wiser at this point in time.
Lots of med schools rotate in/near NYC. Heck even my school (LECOM) has a year-long (you can do all your core rotations there) in Far Rockaway (St. Johns Episcopal). They take almost 10% of LECOM's students for cores, and they even have GMEs as a part of LECOMT (the LECOM affiliated osteopathic post-doctoral training institution) with GME in FM, GenSurg, Derm, OB/Gyn, and ophtho (and obviously TRIs). And that's just a school that is on the way other side of PA (and costs half as much as SGU by the way). I'm sure schools actually in/near NYC (NYIT-COM & Touro-NY) have a ton of other rotations there.
If you get into a NY DO school you'd be able to spend all 4 yrs near NYC, and I'm sure that would only increase your chances of doing your GME there. If you need more help, DocEspana could give you some input on Touro and being a DO in NYC if you ask him nicely, next week after he gets back from his vacation.
