Medman - How do you feel now that you are in medical school...do you feel very stressed out about making a stellar application for residency or is the overall atmosphere a little less intimidating?
Proteinpowda - I think I want to go the Carib. now after how much it sucked not to get an acceptance last week. Are you still seriously considering that route?
DrOrganic - Can you tell us how you made yourself one the most desirable candidates for the UA?
I applied to St. George's twice...and am embarassed to say I was rejected by them twice. They are the Harvard of the Caribbean and going there is a great option! The campus is amazing (
www.sgu.edu) and most of your clinicals will be in NY with the NYU, Cornell and Einstein people. You also have the option of going to England for your rotations which I think would be a great experience (see how medicine is practiced under socialized conditions with more emphasis on physical histories rather than tests). And there are some cool electivs you can do during your basic sciences like going to Prague for clinicals. They have on-campus housing, accredation in 50 states and with their new clinical agreeements you can possibly do all of your clinicals in one hospital vs. having to jump around.
So if you want to go Caribbean that's your best although most expensive option.
Since I didn't get in there and most of my advisors advised going offshore with my GPA I applied to Ross to try and start in September. Ross is the same thing as going to St. Georges except for the trimester system (they start 3x a year, January May and September while St. Georges is just January and September). I applied too late for September and was accepted for January. Then I decided to give UA one more go and have deferred it until May. You also spend a pre-clinical semester in Miama and they just opened a new campus dedicated to PBL in the Bahamas if you want to go there for your third and fourth semester.
So yes if I don't get in anywhere (and I applied to Midwestern and NYCOM as well) I'll be headed there in May. There are pros and cons to it. It's definetly tougher to get a coveted residency spot...but only if you're looking for orthopedics or something along those lines. There are plenty of students from Ross and St. Georges that place into EXCELLENT programs for internal medicine, pediatrics, anesthesia, etc.
American University of the Caribbean is another option. Like the other two mentioned it has 50 state accredation and full federal loans but the match list isn't as impressive as the other two nor is it as well known.
And honestly...the whole Caribbean stigma is a misnomer...I've met quite a few American med students who were jealous of how well the Caribbean people knew their stuff. They know how to teach the boards. And with Ross you're pretty much on the island for 16 months straigh and then it's back to the US for 23 months of clinicals.
So here's the question you need to ask yourself:
It's going to be tougher to get that really good residency spot unless you're shooting for Peds or something...but do you want to spend an extra year proving you're qualified to enter medical school or graduate a year sooner and spend that proving you're a good doctor?
