Should I apply now or wait a year?

[Eric01]

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[Isoprop]

You need a year to finish prereqs, take MCAT, and do ECs.

The most common successful way to get some good ECs is to do some hospital volunteering or hospice volunteering. This is almost mandatory unless you have some other clinical experience. Other ECs you can do is work at a homeless shelter or whatever else you are interested in.

 

[NickNaylor]

Absolutely don't apply this year. Your application won't even be complete until October, which at that point would just be a waste of your money even if you were a competitive applicant (which you basically admitted that you aren't).

 

[courtnes]

Absolutely don't apply this year. Your application won't even be complete until October, which at that point would just be a waste of your money even if you were a competitive applicant (which you basically admitted that you aren't).

I second this.

You need to get some ECs under your belt, particularly volunteering and clinical experience. Take the year to round out your application, you'll get much better results than you would this year. Though I suppose if you don't, the Caribbean schools would be happy to take your money.

Out of curiosity, why were you going to go Caribbean from the get-go? This seems like a terrible idea, for many of the risks that have been repeated ad nauseum all over SDN. Why not even give yourself a chance at making it into a US MD or DO program? Your GPA isn't too bad to apply.

 

[common man]

I'll try to make my situation as concise as I can.

I have a 3.65 GPA. I graduated BS in physics this spring, still have to take 2 pre-req classes (which I'm doing this summer). I'm currently studying for the MCAT and will take it in September.

However, the deadline for Texas medical schools is October 1st, so I doubt I'll have time to get everything prepared for then.

Additionally, I have no ECs.

I'm planning on applying for the Carribbean med school, St George this year.
I'm wondering though if I should wait a year, build up my ECs (how?) and apply next year.

3.6 on physics is very respectable. i know they don't care about the major but still a 3.6 is definitely competitive. don't apply this year. don't apply to caribbean because you're too good for that. if you can, take the mcat by september to get it out of the way. then spend the next year doing activities and getting letters of recs. i hope that you can get strong recs from past professors you've already had rather than take more classes since tuition is expensive. apply broadly + to your dream schools and celebrate. you'll be fine. don't sell yourself short.

 

[Eric01]

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[courtnes]

Well the benefit of applying to a Caribbean school for me is that I can start in January of 2012. If I wait a year, I won't be able to start until fall of 2013. 1.5 years difference. (That's assuming I get accepted) I'm also only interested in family/internal medicine, which Carribbean schools do ok with matching (especially St. George)

I'm also looking for a private sector job in the meantime, if I get one I'll just save money I suppose. I do want to see if I can get into a U.S. school and you're right I shouldn't sell myself short.

I mean what does it matter if one becomes a doctor at 26, 27, or 30 years of age?

We can't all be Doogie Howser. You're going to be a doctor, and if you're smart and the financial terrorists aren't right about medicine payments going completely down the drain, you'll be okay financially. Heck, I'm going to graduate at the ripe old age of slightly above 30, and I'm not stressing out about it. If it matters that much to you, look into the 3 year DO programs for people who know they want to do IM/FM and into the loan repayment programs or do NHSC from the get go - they'll pay and you give a couple years back in an underserved area. There are also tons of other programs that do this, a lot of them sponsored by individual states.

 

[deleted357625]

Don't apply this year with no EC's and late MCAT.
It would be late and you have no EC's.

Build up resume with:

volunteer work clinical/non-clinical
shadowing
research
community service
Get a nice job

 

[Tapepsi]

Why do so many people keep falling back on caribbean med schools? With the number of U.S. med schools increasing and the number of US residency spots staying the same, it's becoming more and more difficult for caribbean and foreign students to get a residency spot in the US.

Go D.O. if you must, but don't have SGU as your fallback.