If the match lists are comparable to the less competitive US MD schools, wouldn't it be worth it then?
I would be debt free because my medical school would essentially be paid for.
My father is also a family physician, and I wouldn't mind doing what he does. (many who go to this school end up becoming family physicians)
I'll take a shot at this. Keep in mind the following while you read: #1 I knew nothing about this school until today. #2 Schools are notorious for playing with their statistics to entice students to apply. US schools are notorious for this as well. My wife's Law school (top 3) pulls the most ridiculous things with their graduation stats that are just plain abhorrent. Caribbean have extremely misleading match lists and dubious claims about the success of their students.
#1 You are going to need to do your own in depth research about this specific school. My questions: When they list people on their match lists, how many are pre-lim (single year contracts rather than full training) positions? What exactly do they mean by "accredited"? They aren't listed by LCME. What exactly is the pathway into the ACGME match? Do you have to do what most FMGs do as far as securing US residency positions? As
LizzyM asks, how many students do they bring in vs. graduate. They claim "96% match rate", but is that 96% of students that applied for the match? 96% of graduating students? 96% of students that matriculated on Day 1? On face value (ie in the 10 minutes that I searched for stuff), this is very similar to Sackler in Israel, which is a good thing from a training perspective and Ochsner (the health system) is a pretty big name in health care, at least here in the South. But, you have to really look long and hard before committing to this to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's crossed. What bodes well for them is that at least their website is pretty upfront about their stats and who they are, no obvious shenanigans.
#2 My biggest concern is that you have a certain level of apathy toward medicine. I am always concerned when someone says, "I wouldn't mind being a physician." Being a physician is quite different from being a dentist as it is quite different from most professions. There are people out there that genuinely could be extremely happy doing any number of different things, personally, the more I see my wife practice law, the more I think that I should have gone into the DA's office like her. (Also, my father went MD --> research --> pharma executive --> Wall Street --> retired (at 50) --> Full time human rights activist.) But, in my limited experience, most people aren't like this. Usually, when someone is apathetic, they are making decisions based on things they shouldn't (like salary) or ignorance (little to no clinical exposure).
This school sounds like a reasonable option, especially considering your financial constraints. Assuming that the stats are at least reasonably close to what they are representing and someone else is footing the bill, I think that it is actually a pretty good option. If you will not be able to get federal loans in the US for dental or medical school, I think that it is your best option.
I think that I am on solid logical footing here, but I am out of my depth experience wise and ask
@Goro @gyngyn and
@LizzyM to double check me.
