Under what circumstances should a pre-med matriculate in the Caribbean?

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Not going to lie, but I know SGU/Ross grads who matched better than US grads.
 
Cyberdyne 101 said:
What sample of US grads are you referring to?
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Pick a US school at random. SUNY Downstate, TCMC, Ohio State, Tufts, NYCOM, Touro, whatever. There are always a subset of people at the bottom no matter what.
 
Here we go again.

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Let's take this a step further. For-profit US MD (North state) vs. carribean.
 
The prevailing sentiment around these parts is that attending medical school in the Caribbean is literally the worst thing a human being can do and those who do it are destined for a life of failure and shame. However, if you want a realistic answer, then it would only be worth it if you have at least some connections in the medical field. In other words, if you have a single doubt heading into it that medicine may not be for you, then don't do it. Medical school in general is pretty intense from what I can gather, and so I can imagine the pressure to perform/not fail in the Caribbean would only be even more intense. I know many physicians/medical students who are FMG's/Caribbean graduates. Doesn't make them any less of a doctor in my opinion.
 
Officer Farva said:
Pick a US school at random. SUNY Downstate, TCMC, Ohio State, Tufts, NYCOM, Touro, whatever. There are always a subset of people at the bottom no matter what.
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.

The lowliest US grad has better residency options than a Carib grad. The difference is the bottom people at the Carib didn't even make it to the match.

The people from the Carib who match competative specialties usually have connections or have taken research gap years.
 
If you plan on practicing in the United States stay in the United States for medical school. The only conceivable reason I can think of going to the Caribbean's is if you plan on practicing outside of the United States.
 
mimelim said:
On the other hand, we are more than happy to interview strong FMGs. We do not interview Caribbean grads.
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That is the ignorant bias of you're hospital....Just because a student pre med scored a 32 on an mcat test doesn't make him a better doctor, wake up
 
Is there not a thread on this already? Ok, I'll play.

Things might get rough for Caribbean grads in the next few years so the answer may slowly be approaching "never"

Most people that are in the Caribbean right now shouldn't be there.

If you're A) old B) need more than a year to get a decent application together C) have lots of money and it doesn't matter D) don't care if you actually get to practice E) just like to gamble F) some combination of A-E... then fine
 
laricb said:
That is the ignorant bias of you're hospital....Just because a student pre med scored a 32 on an mcat test doesn't make him a better doctor, wake up
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They should have gone DO. Carib grads usually have fairly significant red flags and that is why they are there. FMGs are a completely different ball game.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
They should have gone DO. Carib grads usually have fairly significant red flags and that is why they are there. FMGs are a completely different ball game.
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Officer Farva said:
I love the self-proclaimed superiority of American grads, get off your high horse.

Edit: Not you you, but you know what I mean.
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75% of the comments come from students who haven't even started MD School yet...
 
With DO grade replacement existing, the answer is really never. However, impatient and misguided premeds go to the Carib year after year; many will end up in a different career.


People can post all day about some Caribs matching in the US, but the fact of the matter is those individuals are the very top of the Carib (and to an extent lucky) and in all likelihood those same individuals would have been accepted into a DO school with time.
 
laricb said:
Or DO Students who hate the idea of a carib graduate having the MD status while they walk around as DO's
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IDK if you are a Caribbean student, but if you are, I have your back! I knew some pretty good students from my undergrad who did well there.
 
Officer Farva said:
IDK if you are a Caribbean student, but if you are, I have your back! I knew some pretty good students from my undergrad who did well there.
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I have a friend right now at NYCOM, I just read a lot of negative bias from DO Students...
 
Caribbean has high attrition and low percentage residency placement. We are talking about 25 to 30% chance of becoming a doctor as compared to 98% from a US allo school. So that's not zero but it's not even as good as putting all your tuition money down on a hand at a casino. Which all of us would agree you should never do. Yes there are great doctors who have come out of offshore schools and some who have become quite rich but they are exceptions to the rule -- you won't be the exception, you will be the rule.

So that's why everyone is saying there really isn't a great reason to go this route other than as a last ditch Hail Mary chance of being a doctor after you have tried multiple times to fix your credentials for US. If that's you, good luck, but go into it knowing odds are you are going to come up short. If your eyes are open and you have money to burn, go for it.
 
Law2Doc said:
Caribbean has high attrition and low percentage residency placement. We are talking about 25 to 30% chance of becoming a doctor as compared to 98% from a US allo school. So that's not zero but it's not even as good as putting all your tuition money down on a hand at a casino. Which all of us would agree you should never do. Yes there are great doctors who have come out of offshore schools and some who have become quite rich but they are exceptions to the rule -- you won't be the exception, you will be the rule.

So that's why everyone is saying there really isn't a great reason to go this route other than as a last ditch Hail Mary chance of being a doctor after you have tried multiple times to fix your credentials for US. If that's you, good luck, but go into it knowing odds are you are going to come up short. If your eyes are open and you have money to burn, go for it.
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Get you're facts right SGU and ROSS sit around 75%
 
It's currently 4 degrees and snowing where I live. The Caribbean sounds pretty dang great right about now!
 
laricb said:
Get you're facts right SGU and ROSS sit around 75%
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Not sure but 75% is probably the match rate of students that were actually allowed to participate in the match. A ton fail out or are kicked out so they don't make the school look bad.
 
Lannister said:
Not sure but 75% is probably the match rate of students that were actually allowed to participate in the match. A ton fail out or are kicked out so they don't make the school look bad.
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Thay super doesn't work though, seeing as we can interpret numbers and see just how naff the school is.
 
yeezuswest said:
The prevailing sentiment around these parts is that attending medical school in the Caribbean is literally the worst thing a human being can do and those who do it are destined for a life of failure and shame. However, if you want a realistic answer, then it would only be worth it if you have at least some connections in the medical field. In other words, if you have a single doubt heading into it that medicine may not be for you, then don't do it. Medical school in general is pretty intense from what I can gather, and so I can imagine the pressure to perform/not fail in the Caribbean would only be even more intense. I know many physicians/medical students who are FMG's/Caribbean graduates. Doesn't make them any less of a doctor in my opinion.
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I think you're onto something here...

If your family connections are strong enough to make you a LOCK for a residency program, and you have significant red flag that keeps you out of US MD or DO, and you have strong enough academic credentials to have been admitted except for that red flag --

In that particular case, it probably makes sense.
 
Lannister said:
Not sure but 75% is probably the match rate of students that were actually allowed to participate in the match. A ton fail out or are kicked out so they don't make the school look bad.
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I have no problem with them kicking students out in the first and second term.. Many students make it threw the interview process but cant handle living on an island for 2 yrs
 
laricb said:
I have no problem with them kicking students out in the first and second term.. Many students make it threw the interview process but cant handle living on an island for 2 yrs
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How can you be okay with this? It's a scam. They admit students they know won't make it, take hundreds of thousands of dollars from them, then kick them out. It's not that they can't handle living on an island, they can't handle med school, and the med school knew that when it admitted them.
 
laricb said:
That is the ignorant bias of you're hospital....Just because a student pre med scored a 32 on an mcat test doesn't make him a better doctor, wake up
Click to expand...

laricb said:
Get you're facts right SGU and ROSS sit around 75%
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laricb said:
I have no problem with them kicking students out in the first and second term.. Many students make it threw the interview process but cant handle living on an island for 2 yrs
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Bruh you can't even read.

(More specifically, write or utilize grammar.)
 
laricb said:
I have no problem with them kicking students out in the first and second term.. Many students make it threw the interview process but cant handle living on an island for 2 yrs
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I have heard horror stories about people living on these islands without A/C or access to decent food, etc. But I'm skeptical about that being the primary reason. I'm more inclined to think it's because the admissions at Ross, AUC, et al. are illegitimate and are more interested in securing $$$ than finding and recruiting candidates who have a high likelihood of succeeding. That's why they don't offer much help to students, I imagine. You're in danger of failing out? Then you won't match which makes us look bad so we won't waste the money on trying to remediate you. Thanks for the first two semester's worth of tuition money, see ya. *proceeds to brush data under the rug to preserve facade of legitimacy*

It's all very sketchy, I think.
 
Lowest still have guaranteed rotations, and a >90% match rate compared to the miserable match rate of the Caribbean.

Perfect example:
When epic was being rolled out in the hospital, lot of the clinical support staff were Ross/SGU grads. These guys scored >75/80% on the UMSLE and couldn't match in a respectable Family Medicine/Internal Medicine specialty 2-3 years in a row and are now left with $$$ loans without a real plan.
 
laricb said:
I have no problem with them kicking students out in the first and second term.. Many students make it threw the interview process but cant handle living on an island for 2 yrs
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Yes and that's why the percentages end up where I said they were. But for the 50% that don't make the cut in the first two terms that's a lot of $. And worse for the next 25% who get past that point but don't match. Which is why putting it all down on red at your local casino might be a better use of your tuition $.
 
It is only justifiable if you are smoking some killer grass from the Rockies. Maybe coupled to a glass of scotch. I am either weak sauce or that combo is kuh-razee.
 
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