St. George's chances?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Praporshchik

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Hey guys, quick chances question.


Univ of Chicago student here, 3.2 overall GPA, 3.1 science. 30Q on the MCAT. EMT, volunteer work, shadowing, fluent in 3 languages, TA experience, minimal research experience. Took some rather advanced courses at UChicago (immunology, virology, cancer biology). BA in Russian with honors, BA in Biology with a specialization in immunology. Career changer, decided to do pre-med 3rd year.


Thoughts? St. George's? Other of the big 3? Any and all help is appreciated!

Members don't see this ad.
 
go to a DO school or better yet get a masters and apply to US MD schools. your mcat is right where you need it for US MD schools the GPA is a little low but you can bring that up with a 1 year masters or a post bac program. try for a US MD school first then a DO school. the carib should be your last resort. unless you plan on going into primary care than go where ever you want. you'll have no problem getting into SGU. the earlier you apply the better.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Primary care all the way. With regard to the time, I meant what quarter/semester/trimester should I apply for?
 
it doesn't matter. the jan semester will give you more time to prep for the boards or take an extra vacation. I still say try getting into a US school either MD or DO you'll save yourself the hastle and the headaches of going to a foreign school. Especially if you want primary care DO is a great way to go, they are more inclined for primary care.
 
If you don't like to be a DO then go to SGU. If you just want to be a doctor, then go to a DO school and benefit from their osto & allo options at match time.
 
go to a DO school or better yet get a masters and apply to US MD schools. your mcat is right where you need it for US MD schools the GPA is a little low but you can bring that up with a 1 year masters or a post bac program. try for a US MD school first then a DO school. the carib should be your last resort. unless you plan on going into primary care than go where ever you want. you'll have no problem getting into SGU. the earlier you apply the better.

I just got into a US D.O. program, but submitted my application for St. George. Which one is "better" and why
 
I just got into a US D.O. program, but submitted my application for St. George. Which one is "better" and why

The one that fits you is better because it is a better fot for you
 
I just got into a US D.O. program, but submitted my application for St. George. Which one is "better" and why

I think DO is slightly better only if you got accepted by one of the older DO schools like NYCOM or PCOM. if your school is brand new I would go to SGU. DOs have it slightly better because they're US grads and not foreign grads, these means less paper work to fill out and smaller fees for board exams. Also I have heard of some programs starting to be more DO friendly because they're trying to get a better rank and the only way to do that is to take less foreign grads. they feel that if they fill their spots with DO's eventually they'll be able to get US MD grads into their programs at least that's what one program's thoughts are. Also being trained in the US means that people are more reluctant to know what kind of training you received. you're trying to work in the US it's only logical you finish your grad school/training in the US.

but then again people say if you're a smart, sociable, person who scores well on the boards you'll have equal opportunities. So I guess maybe McGillGrad is right. pick what you want, or what will make you more happy. doing well in med school will depend on how happy you're. if you're always sad that you're far away from your friends and family on an island then you'll do poorly, if weekend swims in the caribbean ocean help you relax and get back to studying rejuvenated then pick SGU. both are equally hard, both are equally respected.

However as a DO you can apply for both allopathic and osteopathic residencies thus i feel that your chances are slightly better at matching and on average osteopathic residencies are easier to get into because an allopathic residency is the gold standard.
 
regiment -agree with Russian joo's post.
DO has the advantage of you not having to leave the US, and not having to explain why you went abroad for school, and also being able to definitely do all your clinical rotations in the US, and probably not having to set them up yourself, which could be a hassle. Also, DO's have their own residencies, such as derm residency, which only DO students can get into. I think you should be comparing individual schools at this point (i.e. Do I think St. George will give me a better education, or U of X DO School?), rather than just saying, "Do I want SGU or a DO school?". Maybe you need to investigate various schools a little more before you make your decision. I mean, if you want to practice in a particular state/region and your DO school is well known there, that might be helpful to you later on. Ditto for SGU (for example, if you live in New York and a lot of hospitals there let SGU students rotate there). Another thing I would consider is cost...if it's 20k difference/year for one route vs. another, that's significant.
 
I just got into a US D.O. program, but submitted my application for St. George. Which one is "better" and why
I am from SGU and the reason I ended up there was because I graduated college a half of a semester early and SGU had 2 semesters so at the time it seemed like a good idea. A friend of mine got a 23 on his MCAT and was accepted by NYCOM but SGU asked him to retake his MCAT so he re-took it got a 25 and SGU accepted him. My SGU friends and I just finished applying for 2009 match and are awaiting the results. I applied for surgery and got 14 interviews out of 52 programs that i applied into. My other friends applied into ER, Anest, Neuro and Neurosurg and every single one of us had more than 5 interviews. A friend of mine from NYCOM was applying into surgery as well and she only got 4 interviews and she applied into 64 programs. She just matched into a DO only residency in a REALLY ****ty hospital. SGU can work for you if you are willing to work for it. The beauty of DO schools is that they have their own residencies. So DOs that LOVEEEEEEEEE the OMM can apply into MD residency and DO ressidency. As an MD you can only apply into an MD residency. So in all fairness the DO school seems to be really the same thing as MD school so the DOs need to stop preaching about alternative medicine saving lives.
By the way NYCOM and SGU do all their rotations together in all the ****ty hospitals of NY.
Grenada was awful while we lived there but to be honest its an experience i would not trade. Indeed Grenada is a 3rd world country but it is cleaner than NYC and people are much frendlier!
 
I am from SGU and the reason I ended up there was because I graduated college a half of a semester early and SGU had 2 semesters so at the time it seemed like a good idea. A friend of mine got a 23 on his MCAT and was accepted by NYCOM but SGU asked him to retake his MCAT so he re-took it got a 25 and SGU accepted him. My SGU friends and I just finished applying for 2009 match and are awaiting the results. I applied for surgery and got 14 interviews out of 52 programs that i applied into. My other friends applied into ER, Anest, Neuro and Neurosurg and every single one of us had more than 5 interviews. A friend of mine from NYCOM was applying into surgery as well and she only got 4 interviews and she applied into 64 programs. She just matched into a DO only residency in a REALLY ****ty hospital. SGU can work for you if you are willing to work for it. The beauty of DO schools is that they have their own residencies. So DOs that LOVEEEEEEEEE the OMM can apply into MD residency and DO ressidency. As an MD you can only apply into an MD residency. So in all fairness the DO school seems to be really the same thing as MD school so the DOs need to stop preaching about alternative medicine saving lives.
By the way NYCOM and SGU do all their rotations together in all the ****ty hospitals of NY.
Grenada was awful while we lived there but to be honest its an experience i would not trade. Indeed Grenada is a 3rd world country but it is cleaner than NYC and people are much frendlier!

Congratulations on the interviews.

I have a lot of interest in surgery and SGU. Would you mind telling us your USMLE score and if the interviews are for categorical or preliminary positions?

If you don't want to get specific, maybe you could just ballpark it.

Thanks.
 
Congratulations on the interviews.

I have a lot of interest in surgery and SGU. Would you mind telling us your USMLE score and if the interviews are for categorical or preliminary positions?

If you don't want to get specific, maybe you could just ballpark it.

Thanks.
i got 238 (step 1) and 243 (step 2)! all my interviews were categorical! i didnt apply for pre-lim surgery because i just figure that i dont want them to jerk me around for a year and then screw me and go through all this over again.

SGU prepares you pretty well for the boards

all my friens got in the high 80s-90s on their boards. We all went to interviews and they only asked me the question "why SGU?" on one interview.

Good luck
 
Members don't see this ad :)
i got 238 (step 1) and 243 (step 2)! all my interviews were categorical! i didnt apply for pre-lim surgery because i just figure that i dont want them to jerk me around for a year and then screw me and go through all this over again.

SGU prepares you pretty well for the boards

all my friens got in the high 80s-90s on their boards. We all went to interviews and they only asked me the question "why SGU?" on one interview.

Good luck

Great Job. Thanks for sharing. It's encouraging to hear your experience.
 
Yeah there are a lot of experiences like that at SGU. to be honest I haven't met anyone yet who had porblems getting interviews or didn't think they would match. A lot even prematched.

I personally loved the island, maybe it's because I know and love to cook so food was never an issue for me. That and I had no problems downloading tv shows and movies while on the island.

Dr2009 is absolutely right. if you put in a little bit of effort and have some sort of personalilty you'll match without a problem.

My DO experience is kind of biased I guess cause I have only met DOs that were ENT's Neurosurg. or Anesthesia residents so it kind of seemed to me that you might have better odds from a DO school. But then again those guys could have been the cream of the crop from their school.

Either one you choose as long as you work hard you'll get the residency you want. DOs have their own residencies but there aren't too many of them and I heard that some are really really bad and don't teach you anything. Also all the DO's I know don't use that OMM bs.

I guess you just have to ask yourself if you want to be in a tropical 3rd world country or the US.
 
Hello,

Stats:

GPA - 2.93 BA Biochemistry
MCAT - 20
200 Hrs volunteering at Hospital
2 publications

I know my stats are pretty bad, just wondering what anyone would do in my position.

Thanks
Apply at Ross.
 
I really did think about DO schools quite a bit too when I was considering SGU. It ended up not being the right choice for me, but it is good for some people.

Some of the positives of a DO school are:
1) Most are cheaper than SGU
2) They are in the US so there isn't that "culture shock" that many students feel going to a foreign school
3) They have some of their own residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine (maybe other fields too) which are reserved just for DO students.
4) DO students can apply for DO and MD residencies, FMG students can only apply for MD residencies.

Some negatives of a DO school are:
1) Almost all DO's end up in MD residency programs and thus have to take the USMLE exam in addition to the DO exam (COMLEX). DO's tend to do worse on the USMLE exam than SGU students (but sometimes better than other Caribbean schools) since their curriculum is geared towards passing the COMLEX and not the USMLE
2)Many patients do not understand that DO's are "real" doctors too and when they see DO on your ID they always ask when the doctor will be in to see them (this may not bother you but it is worth mentioning)
3) When entering an MD residency, they are sometimes required to do an extra year which is not the case for FMG's (this is true for Emergency Medicine, I am not sure about any other fields though)
4) Some of the most competitive fields are impossible to get residencies in as a DO but still possible as a FMG if you are an outstanding student.
5) D.O. is not recognized worldwide, while M.D. is. Within the US, I think there is more of stigma in the South with regards to D.O.

Here are some "neutral" points on DO schools:
1) A lot of the DO schools have even lower grade/MCAT standards for admissions than SGU (I considered this to be a negative point, but some students think it is a positive).
2) Some residency programs will take DOs but not FMGs and there are about an equal number that will take FMG's but not DO's
3) For most fields, you are equally likely to be successful in gaining a residency if you are an FMG or a DO if you are a good student
4) The "stigma" surrounding FMG's and DO's is about the same (Although once you are an M.D. after training no one really cares where you went to med school).
 
4) The "stigma" surrounding FMG's and DO's is about the same (Although once you are an M.D. after training no one really cares where you went to med school).
Not necessarily. This is some of the grouping I've spoken about lately where people on this forum are putting every FMG school together as if they are all created equal, or in an effort to incorrectly and laughably try to rank them as inferior to US schools and/or rank some of the world's top medical schools that are not in the US with Caribbean schools. The people putting together the matches and other stuff for evaluation know which schools are which, but apparently, med students and residents look to get one over on others by grouping some of the world's top schools (and some higher than most of the US schools) together wtih the caribbean because they'll be eventually competing with them for jobs post residency. Also, provided they're great students, it will also be another person competing with them for matching because the top students still take priority, even if the statistic doesn't show it due to being a simple overview.

I will agree about the second part, however. People do look for the "MD".
 
Last edited:
I really did think about DO schools quite a bit too when I was considering SGU. It ended up not being the right choice for me, but it is good for some people.

Some of the positives of a DO school are:
1) Most are cheaper than SGU
2) They are in the US so there isn't that "culture shock" that many students feel going to a foreign school
3) They have some of their own residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine (maybe other fields too) which are reserved just for DO students.
4) DO students can apply for DO and MD residencies, FMG students can only apply for MD residencies.

Some negatives of a DO school are:
1) Almost all DO's end up in MD residency programs and thus have to take the USMLE exam in addition to the DO exam (COMLEX). DO's tend to do worse on the USMLE exam than SGU students (but sometimes better than other Caribbean schools) since their curriculum is geared towards passing the COMLEX and not the USMLE
2)Many patients do not understand that DO's are "real" doctors too and when they see DO on your ID they always ask when the doctor will be in to see them (this may not bother you but it is worth mentioning)
3) When entering an MD residency, they are sometimes required to do an extra year which is not the case for FMG's (this is true for Emergency Medicine, I am not sure about any other fields though)
4) Some of the most competitive fields are impossible to get residencies in as a DO but still possible as a FMG if you are an outstanding student.
5) D.O. is not recognized worldwide, while M.D. is. Within the US, I think there is more of stigma in the South with regards to D.O.

Here are some "neutral" points on DO schools:
1) A lot of the DO schools have even lower grade/MCAT standards for admissions than SGU (I considered this to be a negative point, but some students think it is a positive).
2) Some residency programs will take DOs but not FMGs and there are about an equal number that will take FMG's but not DO's
3) For most fields, you are equally likely to be successful in gaining a residency if you are an FMG or a DO if you are a good student
4) The "stigma" surrounding FMG's and DO's is about the same (Although once you are an M.D. after training no one really cares where you went to med school).

some other AOA residencies that i have seen are ENT, Ortho, NeuroSurgery, Anesthesia, Derm, Radiology, OB-GYN, Peds, Urology and like you said you can apply to any ACGME residency. So as a DO you can be the same type of doctor an MD would be.
http://opportunities.osteopathic.org/search/search.cfm

Also a lot of ACGME residencies that aren't top university programs(places that IMGs and FMGs apply to) will take COMLEX scores instead of USMLE scores so there's no need take both exams. Although a USMLE score will help it's not necessary.

I don't think the COMLEX is that much different than the USMLE they just have an extra section on manipulation to learn otherwise the curriculum is exactly the same and many DO's use USMLE books to prep for the COMLEX. IF you do well on the COMLEX you'll do well on the USMLE.

Patients in the hospitals don't really see your name tag (if you're in clinicals you should know this.) and when you introduce yourself as Dr. Smith than they don't ask you when the doctor is coming cause they know you're their doctor. but when you're asked where you went to medical school which people still ask and will always ask you say Grenada they'll ask where's that or why did you go there? I have had that happen to me multiple times. While if you tell them I went to med school in NY as a DO they'll be like oh cool, my cousin lives in NY. Also with the fast rate of growth from the DO schools pretty soon everyone will know what a DO is and you won't have to say anything to them, while they're still not going to know where Grenada is.

I know DO's in some of the most competitve fields. And most of the "competitive" specialties DOs have their own residencies so they can apply to both and almost double their chance of admission in them. I mentioned them at the beginning of my post. So I think FMGs are at a huge disadvantage there.

If your goal is to practice medicine in the US why would you care that as a DO you can't practice in Zimbabwe or anywhere else in the world? And with the almost exponential growth of DO grads and DO schools pretty soon everyone in the US will know who DOs are.

lastly I feel like you will have a much better chance to match in the US if you did your training in the US, i.e. went to DO school. in the 2009 match nrmp said the match rate for DO's was 70%, compared to the FMG match rate of around 50%. Although SGU's match rate was 80% the chancellor did say that he was concerned that the rate was declining.

I think pretty soon i.e. a few years from now with the growing number of both US MD grads and DO grads it will be very hard for US-IMGs to match, and if you need a visa then your chance will be almost 0%. The US Program directors don't trust the education that we get in foreign med schools, they think that foreign schools are inferior to US schools, this might not be the case for SGU, but it is for most other carib schools. So US PDs will prefer those students that went to school in the US i.e. DO's and MDs. and besides if you can be virtually any type of doctor as a DO why would you risk going abroad? just cause you're so stuck up that you want an MD behind your name? That's a pretty dumb reason if you ask me.

I picked SGU because when I was applying to med schools DO's didn't have those specialty residencies that they do now and i didn't want primary care so I went to SGU. if I was applying now I would have totally gone to a DO school. letters behind your name don't mean anything to me as long as I can get my dream specialty, and if it's something competitive you have a better chance from a DO school because 1) they have their own residencies and 2) they don't attend a foreign school (US medical school is the gold standard if you want to practice in the US, and both DO's and MD's go to medical school.)

So you were slightly off in some of your info but for the most part as of now you're correct. DO's and IMGs are both lower on the totem pole than US-MDs. and both have their stigmas.
 
Last edited:
I applied to DO programs but I have had some concerns about them. I have spoken to a lot of physicians and and I get mixed reviews on them. Some physicians say it doesn't matter when others tell me DO's are pretty much just for FP. I have shadowed two DO's both gave me good reviews. I still think MD is more credited than DO and accepted in more countries. I just applied to St. George's and AUC because of this. Also, I am worried about practicing outside of the US, I have friends that are DO's students and they do travel. Every doctor that I have spoken to has told the Caribbean Schools( Ross, St. George, and AUC) are fine
 
do you plan on practicing outside the US? are you serious about that or just saying well it would be nice to retire to the caribbean or the coast of spain when i am old and open up a little clinic just to supliment my spendingd or do you really know that there's a good chance you'll be working outside the US?

I know i am not. even though it sounds nice to retire to another country and have a little practice for some extra dough i know it will never happen. and to be honest i don't want to be a doctor anywhere but the US. so for someone like me being a DO wouldn't matter because in the US DO's can be whatever doctors they want to be. I know of DO neurosurgeon's, ENT's, anesthesiologists, general surgeons, family practice docs, personally. none of them have issues with being a DO or have ever had an issue of not being able to do what they were trained to do because of being a DO.

so the fact that DO's aren't recognized in many other countries should not even be a concern, at least for me, because i don't care what other countries think because i am not a citizen of those countries. So unless you're 85% certain that you'll be working outside the US as a doctor when deciding DO vs. Carib MD you shouldn't even think about what the policies are in other countries. now of course if you're a triple citizen of France, Spain and the US and have houses in those countries and will one day want to move there and work as a physician there then by all means the DO thing won't work for you and you should go to the caribbean.

also are the doctors you're talking to attendings in university medical settings? are the program directors who pick people for residency? or are they just regular old docs in private practice? if they're the later, which i am sure they are, then they have no clue what's going on in terms of residency and medical school. Things have changed dramatically since they graduated from medical school so unless they're dealing with medical students and residents on a daily basis their statements are based on outdated data. the current data.
 
do you plan on practicing outside the US? are you serious about that or just saying well it would be nice to retire to the caribbean or the coast of spain when i am old and open up a little clinic just to supliment my spendingd or do you really know that there's a good chance you'll be working outside the US?

I know i am not. even though it sounds nice to retire to another country and have a little practice for some extra dough i know it will never happen. and to be honest i don't want to be a doctor anywhere but the US. so for someone like me being a DO wouldn't matter because in the US DO's can be whatever doctors they want to be. I know of DO neurosurgeon's, ENT's, anesthesiologists, general surgeons, family practice docs, personally. none of them have issues with being a DO or have ever had an issue of not being able to do what they were trained to do because of being a DO.

so the fact that DO's aren't recognized in many other countries should not even be a concern, at least for me, because i don't care what other countries think because i am not a citizen of those countries. So unless you're 85% certain that you'll be working outside the US as a doctor when deciding DO vs. Carib MD you shouldn't even think about what the policies are in other countries. now of course if you're a triple citizen of France, Spain and the US and have houses in those countries and will one day want to move there and work as a physician there then by all means the DO thing won't work for you and you should go to the caribbean.

also are the doctors you're talking to attendings in university medical settings? are the program directors who pick people for residency? or are they just regular old docs in private practice? if they're the later, which i am sure they are, then they have no clue what's going on in terms of residency and medical school. Things have changed dramatically since they graduated from medical school so unless they're dealing with medical students and residents on a daily basis their statements are based on outdated data. the current data.

I would say that I am about 60% sure that at one point in my life I will practice medicine outside of the US. I really want to practice in developing countries. The doctors that I have spoken with range from university setting to private practice. I have spoken with a few that are residents and some that have been practicing for who knows how long. In general I get the same message. Most say that either one will work but I always seem to get a group that tell me to aim for MD even if it is outside of the country.

The numbers I came across online said that 25% of practicing physicians in the US are foreign and 40% in NY. I am not sure how accurate it is.
 
Russianjoo are you in a DO program or Caribbean?
 
i am a 4th year at SGU. and i would strongly recommend going to a DO school. it's getting harder for foreigners to match even in the last year SGU's match rate dropped considerably and it will continue to drop simply because US MD schools are accepting more students, and new schools are opening up also a lot of the DO's are taking away residency spots from foreigners as well. Wanting an "MD" vs. a "DO" behind your name is a stupid reason not to go to a DO school, especially when you will have a better chance of doing the residency specialty you want as a DO and most likely not as foreign MD. US program directors prefer their residents to be educated in the US, they know the US system and know exactly the education that you'll get. going to the caribbean a lot of the program directors will tell you they don't look at your basic science grades because frankly they don't trust the education that you get down there and don't know how you're being taught. That's why USMLE scores are super important if you go down to the caribbean.

You say you want to work for developing countries and all that stuff, it will quickly change. when you're over $200K in debt and the developing country is paying you $40K a year to work there how will you pay off your debt? also don't forget about your wife, or future wife, do you really think she's going to want to live in a poor dirty city or a rural country side in some random country? You have to be realistic, we're not the medical school admissions board, you don't have to tell us how you're going to move to Zimbabwe and live in a hut made out of cow crap.. I laugh at all those that say that, because it will never happen. you're going to be so in debt that the only way to pay off your student loans is to become specialized and work in private practice in the US. But hey with obama as our great leader, you might end up making more in Zimbabwe no one knows.

all i know right now is that it's getting tougher every year to match as a foreign grad, and DO's have their own residency programs which are very easy to get into right now and many of them match into MD residency programs at a similar rate as most Carib schools. SGU's match rate for US citizens this year was 80% that means 20% didn't match out of a class of over 600 people that means 120 people are have an MD degree but it's useless because they failed to get a residency. And it will only get worse, like i said by the time you start US schools will increase their enrollment and new MD schools will be open plus the exponentially expanding DO schools. I would definitely stay away from carib schools if i were applying right now, especially if you already got into a DO school.
 
Last edited:
look kid.. this is a very tough decission i know. but to be honest no one can predict what will happen in the next 3 or 4 years when it's time for you to apply to residency. especially with obama trying to make major changes to the healthcare system. buttom line is if you're a US citizen and do well above average on the USMLE exams and in your classes and clinical rotations you should match somewhere. however, you'll have to be probably in the top 15 to 20% of your class to match in a competitve specialty, i.e. anything but Family Med or Internal Med or Psych, or Peds. But you don't know for sure you can be in the top 15% of your class or what's going to happen in med school. That's why going to a DO school is a safer bet because it's in the US, you'll have a US diploma and get a US education which will always be looked at more favorably than some foreign degree. And as a DO you have more oppertunities in the Match because they have their own residency programs and can apply to ACMGE (MD) residencies as well. That's why you can be an average or even slightly below average student at a DO school and still be able to be a surgeon or anesthesiologist or something other than just a regular primary care doctor. That's why I say go to the DO school it's just more garunteed that you'll have a job even if you screw up in med school, which does happen. When I was applying the only DO's I knew were in primary care and they didn't tell me that I could do other things besides primary care and back then I probably couldn't. But now you can be any kind of doctor with a DO degree, if I had to do it all over again I would pick DO hands down and stay in the states. Others still want that MD behind their name, but for me the letters don't matter what matters is that I can do the profession I love, and if going to a DO school gives me a better chance then i would go there. IF you're really stuck up on the Whole MD thing go to only one of the top carib schools that way at least you won't have licensing problems when the time comes. but remember that you will have to work much harder and have much better grades then your counterparts in US schools to get the same residency as them.
 
i am a 4th year at SGU. and i would strongly recommend going to a DO school. it's getting harder for foreigners to match even in the last year SGU's match rate dropped considerably and it will continue to drop simply because US MD schools are accepting more students, and new schools are opening up also a lot of the DO's are taking away residency spots from foreigners as well.

:( Stop saying that RJ... you are depressing the HELL out of me.... every post is like a nail in my heart..... I REFUSE TO BELIEVE that mathing will be impossible ... harder... maybe.... in "popular specialties" ... however if you study well and don't mind primary care you will be able to make it (this last one was for the OP). And hell... if primary care is your goal.... GO FOR SGU... you will make it..no problem
 
You know that I am honest when I post, so don't worry about "most" people when thinking about your future. It is obvious that you are a qualified person judging from your McGill undergrad who has been accepted to SGU and an irish med school.

Statistically, the match will become MUCH harder for weak students with low step scores. Quality students will match if they make sure to apply widely and to a specialty that is noncompetitive (relative to your stats).

Worry about doing well in basic sciences and doing very well on step 1. That is your golden ticket. You are not like the average SGU student. You have more life experience and motivation because of your background. That is your strength so never forget that.



:( Stop saying that RJ... you are depressing the HELL out of me.... every post is like a nail in my heart..... I REFUSE TO BELIEVE that mathing will be impossible ... harder... maybe.... in "popular specialties" ... however if you study well and don't mind primary care you will be able to make it (this last one was for the OP). And hell... if primary care is your goal.... GO FOR SGU... you will make it..no problem
 
:( Stop saying that RJ... you are depressing the HELL out of me.... every post is like a nail in my heart..... I REFUSE TO BELIEVE that mathing will be impossible ... harder... maybe.... in "popular specialties" ... however if you study well and don't mind primary care you will be able to make it (this last one was for the OP). And hell... if primary care is your goal.... GO FOR SGU... you will make it..no problem

yeah what mcgill grad said.. basically just make sure you're above average. it will be harder. but saying don't worry just go to the carib graduate and you'll match is wrong. you have to do well. so as long as you're not naive and prepare for the worst and hope for the best you'll do ok. but at the same time we have no clue what will happen in the future and change is now coming more than ever, people voted for it. So right now things are looking ok but no one knows what will happen in the future. who knows what obama will do. it could turn really ugly really fast or it could turn really awesome really fast, but i doubt it will get better anytime soon.
 
Thanks RJ and McGillGrad for having my moral back :) ... of course I agree with your statements...hard work you and always IS the golden ticket....and both of your frankness (although sometimes hard to swallow) are on target....most of us are realists....some more optimistic ( guess it's a girlish character :p) and some more pesimistic ... :D

:luck::highfive:
 
Thanks RJ and McGillGrad for having my moral back :) ... of course I agree with your statements...hard work you and always IS the golden ticket....and both of your frankness (although sometimes hard to swallow) are on target....most of us are realists....some more optimistic ( guess it's a girlish character :p) and some more pesimistic ... :D

:luck::highfive:

yeah i'd rather get surprised at how well things turned out in the end rather than disappointed at how poorly they turned out. if that makes sense at all..
 
yeah i'd rather get surprised at how well things turned out in the end rather than disappointed at how poorly they turned out. if that makes sense at all..

yes, yes, it makes sense, we all have different approaches ... have it your way, don't wanna argue .... I think you need a hug or something to brighten the day :p
 
Top