'Why Thousands of Doctors in America Can't Get a Job?'

[Splenda88]

'I Am Worth It': Why Thousands of Doctors in America Can't Get a Job

Dr. Kristy Cromblin knew that as the descendant of Alabama sharecroppers and the first person in her family to go to college, making it to medical school might seem like an improbable dream. Her parents watched in proud disbelief as she inched closer to that goal, enrolling in a medical school...

www.yahoo.com

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[FalconSlice]

'I Am Worth It': Why Thousands of Doctors in America Can't Get a Job

Dr. Kristy Cromblin knew that as the descendant of Alabama sharecroppers and the first person in her family to go to college, making it to medical school might seem like an improbable dream. Her parents watched in proud disbelief as she inched closer to that goal, enrolling in a medical school...

www.yahoo.com

@gonnif posted the same thread today over in preallo that's been getting a lot of traction

Xxx

Xxx

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[drducky.]

I read the first sentence “making it to med school might seem like an improbable dream” to a caribbean school....

ya might be true if you dont have a pulse or a checkbook

 

[Ho0v-man]

Seen this story popping up everywhere. She went to a Caribbean school and took 7 years off in the middle. The system didn’t let her down here. She made multiple poor choices.

 

[DameJulie]

"Students graduating from American colleges choose to go to medical school abroad for many reasons. Some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don’t rely on MCAT scores for admission; others are attracted by the warmth and adventure promised by schools based in the Caribbean, which tend to have acceptance rates that are 10 times as high as those of American schools."

where are their pre-med advisors??

 

[deleted1082375]

“I am worth it”

clearly not if you can’t get hired.

 

[SunBakedTrash]

Sad cringe. Don’t go to a for-profit diploma mill kids. Better to not be a doctor than one of these chumps.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This article confused me. As far as I know, HPSP doesn’t apply to foreign schools. How did she “enlist” in the military? Did she actually enlist at some point? Commission in a non-medical corps job?

Also big cringe on the whole appeal to emotion on programs being evil for wanting to take people who have good test scores and went to an American medical school.

She certainly didn’t help herself by taking 7 years off after medical school. Not sure what happened in her divorce, but that was basically career suicide especially for an IMG with low step scores.

 

[MICKY MANTLE]

"Students graduating from American colleges choose to go to medical school abroad for many reasons. Some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don’t rely on MCAT scores for admission; others are attracted by the warmth and adventure promised by schools based in the Caribbean, which tend to have acceptance rates that are 10 times as high as those of American schools."

where are their pre-med advisors??

Interpreted....The hard truth is that they are not competitive enough to get in US schools. What they should be saying is that these mills are accepting students, quite honestly that should probably not be going into medicine, not all, but a majority. The last part about the warmth and adventure further takes away their credibility. Medicine is not for everyone and trying to circumvent the rigors of medical school by going to a Caribbean school that is not preparing you for residency and more worried about taking your money is just wrong.

 

[YCAGA]

Students graduating from American colleges choose to go to medical school abroad for many reasons. Some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don’t rely on MCAT scores for admission; others are attracted by the warmth and adventure promised by schools based in the Caribbean, which tend to have acceptance rates that are 10 times as high as those of American schools.

Hahahahaha...because "warmth and adventure" are the most important thing when you are in the hospital or studying for 60-80 hrs/week for 4 years. Then you can also be unemployed when you graduate.

Not to mention this "some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don't rely on MCAT scores for admission" line--it is arguably more ridiculous. Yeah, it is a great idea to avoid taking the medical school entrance exam...only to then be faced with dozens of in-house med school exams, 3 difficult USMLE board exams, yearly exams in residency, and then board certification exams. Oh, and re-certification exams every 5-10 years as an attending. But, sure, it isn't sketchy at all to get into a medical school that lets you skip out on an exam because you get a little nervous in your tum tum when you are under pressure. If someone has issues with anxiety as a pre-med, they absolutely should see a physician and get that worked out. Same goes for any mental illness; treatable, well-controlled mental illness should not keep anyone out of medical school. But going to a Caribbean medical school because you are a "bad test taker" and/or have anxiety is just horrible decision making and kicking the can down the road.

I don't know how people continue to pay for a NYT subscription. This isn't "journalism". If their reporting for this story is this bad, imagine how bad their reporting is for stories when we not are familiar with the background facts.

 

[YCAGA]

Oh, also, it is a blatant lie that anyone at a Caribbean school will apply for the match and only then find out that their chances as an IMG are like 50-60%. The biggest conversation for all 4 years on a Caribbean campus is "will I match?", not "what specialty will I match?" like US MD/DO schools. So lying to the NYT that you didn't know you were gambling with $300k of debt until M4 year doesn't exactly make me feel a lot of sympathy for you. If she wasn't lying about when she "found out" that IMG's are at a huge disadvantage, she stuck her head in the sand so frequently when anyone at her school talked about matching difficulties that I question her ability to think critically as a clinician.

 

[Lawpy]

NYTimes readers made interesting claims that it's harder to get into Caribbean schools than NP/PA schools

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

NYTimes readers made interesting claims that it's harder to get into Caribbean schools than NP/PA schools

I mean, it probably is for NP schools. I know of at least one person rejected from SGU. A lot of NP schools have 100% acceptance. Definitely not true for PA schools though.

 

[YCAGA]

NYTimes readers made interesting claims that it's harder to get into Caribbean schools than NP/PA schools

This is probably a less controversial claim on SDN than other parts of the internet and in real life, but if a black American citizen can't get into a US DO school and has to resort to the Caribbean, their undergraduate performance was so bad that they would barely be eligible for an online NP degree. Back in 2013-2016, 56% of black/Africian American students got into MD medical schools with GPA 3.2-3.4 and the equivalent of a 498-501. Back when the students in the article were applying to med school, average stats were even lower and DO's schools were even easier to get into. It isn't unrealistic to say they could have gotten into a low ranked DO school with a 2.8 and 495.

 

[Ho0v-man]

This is probably a less controversial claim on SDN than other parts of the internet and in real life, but if a black American citizen can't get into a US DO school and has to resort to the Caribbean, their undergraduate performance was so bad that they would barely be eligible for an online NP degree. Back in 2013-2016, 56% of black/Africian American students got into MD medical schools with GPA 3.2-3.4 and the equivalent of a 498-501. Back when the students in the article were applying to med school, average stats were even lower and DO's schools were even easier to get into. It isn't unrealistic to say they could have gotten into a low ranked DO school with a 2.8 and 495.

Tbf, this person may have not known DO was even a thing.

 

[YCAGA]

Tbf, this person may have not known DO was even a thing.

That is possible and it is hard to know what the Google results were like 10-15 years ago, but it doesn't take more than a few hours of research to find out that there are 3 options to become a doctor for US citizens: US MD, US DO, or IMG. A lot of places talking about IMG's talked about IMG vs DO.

 

[Chibucks15]

That is possible and it is hard to know what the Google results were like 10-15 years ago, but it doesn't take more than a few hours of research to find out that there are 3 options to become a doctor for US citizens: US MD, US DO, or IMG. A lot of places talking about IMG's talked about IMG vs DO.

A few hours? Literally takes a 30 second google search. There really isn't an excuse for having your head in the sand about it all. Its pretty cut and dry. But the sympathy card plays well now a days, and if you spin your narrative like she did you get points from people who have no idea what they're talking about

 

[YCAGA]

A few hours? Literally takes a 30 second google search. There really isn't an excuse for having your head in the sand about it all. Its pretty cut and dry. But the sympathy card plays well now a days, and if you spin your narrative like she did you get points from people who have no idea what they're talking about

Well I have had other people argue with me that 30 seconds isn’t enough because you can “be tricked by the Caribbean ads that pop up at the top of Google.” The pity card works so well that no one stops and asks these doctors…”wait, you didn’t look into this before you spent $300-400k?!" Well no one with a “journalism” degree asked that.

 

[Maimonides1]

Hahahahaha...because "warmth and adventure" are the most important thing when you are in the hospital or studying for 60-80 hrs/week for 4 years. Then you can also be unemployed when you graduate.

Not to mention this "some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don't rely on MCAT scores for admission" line--it is arguably more ridiculous. Yeah, it is a great idea to avoid taking the medical school entrance exam...only to then be faced with dozens of in-house med school exams, 3 difficult USMLE board exams, yearly exams in residency, and then board certification exams. Oh, and re-certification exams every 5-10 years as an attending. But, sure, it isn't sketchy at all to get into a medical school that lets you skip out on an exam because you get a little nervous in your tum tum when you are under pressure. If someone has issues with anxiety as a pre-med, they absolutely should see a physician and get that worked out. Same goes for any mental illness; treatable, well-controlled mental illness should not keep anyone out of medical school. But going to a Caribbean medical school because you are a "bad test taker" and/or have anxiety is just horrible decision making and kicking the can down the road.

I don't know how people continue to pay for a NYT subscription. This isn't "journalism". If their reporting for this story is this bad, imagine how bad their reporting is for stories when we not are familiar with the background facts.

Couldn’t agree with you more.., cheap journalism equals prostitution..

I despise they are trying to take down one of the last respected professions “Medicine” !

Now they created another “BLUR” category AP for Assistant Physician for some failed MDs at the price tag of 55K$/year.. obviously much lower than PAs that are getting prized much higher with expanding scope after two years of medical education !!

 

[Splenda88]

Couldn’t agree with you more.., cheap journalism equals prostitution..

I despise they are trying to take down one of the last respected professions “Medicine” !

Now they created another “BLUR” category AP for Assistant Physician for some failed MDs at the price tag of 55K$/year.. obviously much lower than PAs that are getting prized much higher with expanding scope after two years of medical education !!

Would you rather have AP...or online NP with 500 hrs shadowing who claim they are equal or better than doctors? Pick your poison!

 

[Goro]

I didn't even consider that! A common theme with these for-profit schools seems to be that students "did not know or were not aware of that" when she said she wasn't aware that many programs can filter out grads 3+ years out.

Do these people ever consider the downsides of taking these shortcuts? I certainly wouldn't want someone this shortsighted as my doctor.

On the DDx list for these students are the following traits:
bad judgment, bad advice, egotism, gullibility, overbearing parents, inability to delay gratification, IA's, legal problems, weak research skills, lust for the MD title vs "settling for DO", and high risk behavior.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I wonder what the deal is with the Georgetown grad.

 

[Banco]

I feel bad for her for sure - it sucks to be in that position even if she contributed to it herself.


Competition is really high and getting higher by the year. You go back 20-30 years and MCAT averages were much lower, as well as Step 1 for residency. Scores we consider DOA these days would be getting into medical school in the US and residencies. That theme really is problematic and will only get worse.

 

[Mad Jack]

This article confused me. As far as I know, HPSP doesn’t apply to foreign schools. How did she “enlist” in the military? Did she actually enlist at some point? Commission in a non-medical corps job?

Also big cringe on the whole appeal to emotion on programs being evil for wanting to take people who have good test scores and went to an American medical school.

She certainly didn’t help herself by taking 7 years off after medical school. Not sure what happened in her divorce, but that was basically career suicide especially for an IMG with low step scores.

2 years is suicide. 7 years is unthinkable. She was probably in a non-medical position and hoping to leverage that into the military giving her a residency, but given all the red flags she's got an application with nope written all over it.

The NYT is fairly irresponsible with this stuff. This should be a piece about the predatory nature of overseas schools, yet they craft it as an appeal to emotion that asks readers to look past that and feel bad for those that were taken advantage of while not asking who they were duped by or why it was allowed. The US government needs to stop offering student loans to Caribbean medical schools if their graduation and match rates are below a certain percent (perhaps 80% or so) to keep this from happening.

 

[Mad Jack]

I wonder what the deal is with the Georgetown grad.

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

 

[DarkHorizon]

Looked up the author. She went to Yale. I’m sure she knows the logistics of medical training and is purposely disingenuous, I’m afraid.

 

[Mad Jack]

Looked up the author. She went to Yale. I’m sure she knows the logistics of medical training and is purposely disingenuous, I’m afraid.

She has a bachelor's in political science from Yale and a master's in gender studies from Cambridge. She is probably about as clueless about medicine as the average politician or gender studies professor is

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Saw this on facebook a while back. was disappointed that it did not talk about how predatory the Carib is. Really cannot remember anything else in the article besides "my life is going to suck forever".

 

[DarkHorizon]

She has a bachelor's in political science from Yale and a master's in gender studies from Cambridge. She is probably about as clueless about medicine as the average politician or gender studies professor is

When someone who went to Yale decries MCAT scores and mentions things like test anxiety and Caribbean warmth and adventure as reasons to attend Caribbean school, you know they are being disingenuous.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I have classmates who shared this story on their FB for their non-medical friends to read and garner sympathy. Like....why. As mentioned, this article makes no sense-- instead of critiquing the fact that these schools are allowed to exist in the first place, they write this article. Or, how about we write an article about how residents get paid less than NPs for 3x the work and education? Or how DRGs lead to hospital admin trying to get you to kick your patient out in 2 days instead of 4 because they get x amount of dollars either way, and the shorter the stay/the less workup done the more they pocket. There are a lot of problems in our field, this isn't one of them. It's frustrating how the narrative about medicine is never actually being controlled by physicians.

 

[Mad Jack]

When someone who went to Yale decries MCAT scores and mentions things like test anxiety and Caribbean warmth and adventure as reasons to attend Caribbean school, you know they are being disingenuous.

Not everyone who goes to Yale is a premed. Furthermore the grade inflation there is pretty generous, she probably never knew test anxiety in her life, especially with her two super chill majors that are largely essay and thesis based rather than test based

 

[DarkHorizon]

Not everyone who goes to Yale is a premed. Furthermore the grade inflation there is pretty generous, she probably never knew test anxiety in her life

I don’t disagree with you, but my point is that a person who went to yale and Cambridge is well aware of the competitive nature of higher education and standardized testing. They likely excelled at standardized testing, and so for them to argue that someone can just bypass mcat to be a physician in good faith is disingenuous. Also, the article is so poorly written and researched, almost feels like the writer has an agenda. It’s hard to believe that they are this naive.

Edit: I personally know one of the subjects mentioned in the article. I personally tried to dissuade them from attending a foreign school. That was 10 years ago. They disregarded my advice and went anyway. I sympathize with them, but it’s not like they didn’t know. I almost pleaded with them to reconsider.

 

[Mad Jack]

I don’t disagree with you, but my point is that a person who went to yale and Cambridge is well aware of the competitive nature of higher education and standardized testing. They likely excelled at standardized testing, and so for them to argue that someone can just bypass mcat to be a physician in good faith is disingenuous. Also, the article is so poorly written and researched, almost feels like the writer has an agenda. It’s hard to believe that they are this naive.

Their agenda may be as simple as writing a story they know will garner clicks and sympathy. It maybe she's someone that considered medical school but was put off by the difficulty of the process and wants to paint it as unfair and challenging. Or maybe she's a lazy hack of a writer and did no research to turn around a quick story for a deadline that would get eyeballs in the middle of a pandemic. Who knows.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Their agenda may be as simple as writing a story they know will garner clicks and sympathy. It maybe she's someone that considered medical school but was put off by the difficulty of the process and wants to paint it as unfair and challenging. Or maybe she's a lazy hack of a writer and did no research to turn around a quick story for a deadline that would get eyeballs in the middle of a pandemic. Who knows.

My money is on the last one.

 

[Goro]

When someone who went to Yale decries MCAT scores and mentions things like test anxiety and Caribbean warmth and adventure as reasons to attend Caribbean school, you know they are being disingenuous.

"Never attribute to malice that which can adequately explained by stupidity "

 

[Chemist0157]

There is a lot going on in that article.

It sucks that she went through a divorce. It does. However, being away for seven years and returning to medical school is crazy. I don't think I have encountered a time away as long as that.

No one, literally no one, told her it could be a challenge getting a US residency spot after finishing a medical school in Barbados? I find that hard to believe.

I don't see anywhere where the writer takes even just one second to consider that Cromblin is just a bad candidate.

I don't think a Caribbean medical school graduate from Alabama is going to bring much diversity to a residency program. They are IMGs, but it's not as if she is from a significantly different culture. Maybe I'm wrong, but that seems like a hard sell.

Increasing residency spots should certainly be part of the conversation but not necessarily so everyone who goes to medical school can have a residency spot. There still needs to be some degree of screening out poor candidates. I don't know what the answer is, but it is a bad optic if we don't have enough residency spots to continue to train people who could go on to be successful physicians.

The student debt is more of an issue with how student loans are managed. Bankruptcy laws could be changed.

Students graduating from American colleges choose to go to medical school abroad for many reasons. Some have test-taking anxiety and prefer to apply to schools that don’t rely on MCAT scores for admission; others are attracted by the warmth and adventure promised by schools based in the Caribbean, which tend to have acceptance rates that are 10 times as high as those of American schools.

This is a joke.

Again, I don't see a second spent even considering maybe it's a problem Caribbean schools have fairly open doors.

The US medical education system puts A LOT of emphasis on medical school acceptance. Once one is in, one is 90-95% likely to ultimately land a high paying job. If a person chooses to circumvent the system, there is more risk of failure in the future. I'm pretty appalled by the couple places the writer notes the graduates had no idea this is how Caribbean schools worked. Huge red flag. Huge times away from school. Huge red flag. Failing boards. Huge red flag.

There is something to be said about the US having a physician shortage and the system not doing a better job training more physicians and being more openminded with non-US schools, BUT this article does a pretty poor job presenting the entire situation.

 

[Maimonides1]

Looked up the author. She went to Yale. I’m sure she knows the logistics of medical training and is purposely disingenuous, I’m afraid.

The crappy journalistic author OR the failed MD went to Yale..?
Who is running away from American test anxiety to the warmth and adventure of Caribbean islands to diversify our cultures in medical education !!

 

[Maimonides1]

2 years is suicide. 7 years is unthinkable. She was probably in a non-medical position and hoping to leverage that into the military giving her a residency, but given all the red flags she's got an application with nope written all over it.

The NYT is fairly irresponsible with this stuff. This should be a piece about the predatory nature of overseas schools, yet they craft it as an appeal to emotion that asks readers to look past that and feel bad for those that were taken advantage of while not asking who they were duped by or why it was allowed. The US government needs to stop offering student loans to Caribbean medical schools if their graduation and match rates are below a certain percent (perhaps 80% or so) to keep this from happening.

The money managers of these mills are the same lobbyists for US Gov

2 years is suicide. 7 years is unthinkable. She was probably in a non-medical position and hoping to leverage that into the military giving her a residency, but given all the red flags she's got an application with nope written all over it.

The NYT is fairly irresponsible with this stuff. This should be a piece about the predatory nature of overseas schools, yet they craft it as an appeal to emotion that asks readers to look past that and feel bad for those that were taken advantage of while not asking who they were duped by or why it was allowed. The US government needs to stop offering student loans to Caribbean medical schools if their graduation and match rates are below a certain percent (perhaps 80% or so) to keep this from happening.

The money managers of these offshore mills are the same lobbyists in the US for their continuous educational federal loans qualifications and clinical sites agreements in cities where it will provide economical activity in a predatory way at the expense of American tax dollars..!

 

[joshuamarcus]

Someone should write an article about how unfair it is that the new york times hires a lot of ppl from yale and other top tier schools but not a lot of ppl from for-profit degree mills.

 

[Mad Jack]

Someone should write an article about how unfair it is that the new york times hires a lot of ppl from yale and other top tier schools but not a lot of ppl from for-profit degree mills.

Or that the NYT is xenophobic because they publish articles trying to force America-first policies in medical education that would take away our chance to bring the best and the brightest here, policies which would strip away the American dream from thousands of potential foreign medical graduates each year

 

[hallowmann]

That is possible and it is hard to know what the Google results were like 10-15 years ago, but it doesn't take more than a few hours of research to find out that there are 3 options to become a doctor for US citizens: US MD, US DO, or IMG. A lot of places talking about IMG's talked about IMG vs DO.

I remember what it was like back then. There were DO and Carib MD schools kind of side by side. In 2008 when I was debating what to do with myself and my OK MCAT, but low GPA, I'll say that even I thought they were very similar as far as choices. I even remember people at my university talking about them like they were both potential paths if you couldn't get in to US MD, but DO was considered the more esoteric choice.

Over 2008-2012, I saw a pretty big shift, more DO schools, more overall acceptance of DOs, and worse outcomes from Carib schools. I'm pretty sure in that time SGU doubled in size, AUC, after its Devry acquisition, ballooned in class size and started adopting the churning diploma mill policies known to Ross at the time (another school that ballooned, but did so earlier), Saba started charging way more, and AUA, [a school that I thought was a joke, because I remember them sending me a postcard a couple years after they opened when I took my MCAT back when it was still pencil and paper (damn I'm old), asking to be a part of any exciting new school experience], was suddenly accredited and recognized by all 50 states.

I don't blame people who went into it back then. At the time things really didn't look bad in the Carib, and it was also harder to get the info we have now. I didn't know people that got kicked out. I didn't know people that didn't match. There were very few big blog posts detailing the horrible decision, etc.

Or that the NYT is xenophobic because they publish articles trying to force America-first policies in medical education that would take away our chance to bring the best and the brightest here, policies which would strip away the American dream from thousands of potential foreign medical graduates each year

Honestly, I keep seeing this coming up. Its really problematic. There's a whole other organization now popping up on social media trying to push this anti-non-US IMG policy. Its actually probably the same people who pushed for this article, because a lot of the names overlap. Its made up of people, who didn't match, mostly US-IMGs. I couldn't understand it because the much more reasonable argument would be to have a path to jobs, like AP, or to push back against NP FPA, but instead they are targeting non-US IMGs with some pretty significant xenophobic policy recommendations.

I tried to make sense of it, then clicked on some of their "affiliates", which were actually lobbyist groups trying to eliminate H-1B visas, push this policy of "progressives against immigration", and try to pitch it as "America is too crowded, and immigrants are ruining the environment," along with a bunch of other "they took err jawbs" rhetoric. The whole thing put a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Lawpy]

Or that the NYT is xenophobic because they publish articles trying to force America-first policies in medical education that would take away our chance to bring the best and the brightest here, policies which would strip away the American dream from thousands of potential foreign medical graduates each year

I remember what it was like back then. There were DO and Carib MD schools kind of side by side. In 2008 when I was debating what to do with myself and my OK MCAT, but low GPA, I'll say that even I thought they were very similar as far as choices. I even remember people at my university talking about them like they were both potential paths if you couldn't get in to US MD, but DO was considered the more esoteric choice.

Over 2008-2012, I saw a pretty big shift, more DO schools, more overall acceptance of DOs, and worse outcomes from Carib schools. I'm pretty sure in that time SGU doubled in size, AUC, after its Devry acquisition, ballooned in class size and started adopting the churning diploma mill policies known to Ross at the time (another school that ballooned, but did so earlier), Saba started charging way more, and AUA, [a school that I thought was a joke, because I remember them sending me a postcard a couple years after they opened when I took my MCAT back when it was still pencil and paper (damn I'm old), asking to be a part of any exciting new school experience], was suddenly accredited and recognized by all 50 states.

I don't blame people who went into it back then. At the time things really didn't look bad in the Carib, and it was also harder to get the info we have now. I didn't know people that got kicked out. I didn't know people that didn't match. There were very few big blog posts detailing the horrible decision, etc.


Honestly, I keep seeing this coming up. Its really problematic. There's a whole other organization now popping up on social media trying to push this anti-non-US IMG policy. Its actually probably the same people who pushed for this article, because a lot of the names overlap. Its made up of people, who didn't match, mostly US-IMGs. I couldn't understand it because the much more reasonable argument would be to have a path to jobs, like AP, or to push back against NP FPA, but instead they are targeting non-US IMGs with some pretty significant xenophobic policy recommendations.

I tried to make sense of it, then clicked on some of their "affiliates", which were actually lobbyist groups trying to eliminate H-1B visas, push this policy of "progressives against immigration", and try to pitch it as "America is too crowded, and immigrants are ruining the environment," along with a bunch of other "they took err jawbs" rhetoric. The whole thing put a bad taste in my mouth.

This is one of the most bizarre ironies of this whole controversy, but NYT playing a part is striking

 

[zero0]

Seems like the plan to drive down salaries by drastically increasing supply was a resounding success in EM and radonc. I can tell the suits are already hard at work trying to destroy every other specialty. Only a matter of time until congress is pressured to open more residencies and what's left of this profession circles down the drain.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Seems like the plan to drive down salaries by drastically increasing supply was a resounding success in EM and radonc. I can tell the suits are already hard at work trying to destroy every other specialty. Only a matter of time until congress is pressured to open more residencies and what's left of this profession circles down the drain.

I have a hard time seeing Congress put enough money into residency spots for it to make a difference

 

[Neopolymath]

I have a hard time seeing Congress put enough money into residency spots for it to make a difference

HCA can self-fund all their spots and ruin all specialties by themselves.

 

[Fatalis]

'I Am Worth It': Why Thousands of Doctors in America Can't Get a Job

Dr. Kristy Cromblin knew that as the descendant of Alabama sharecroppers and the first person in her family to go to college, making it to medical school might seem like an improbable dream. Her parents watched in proud disbelief as she inched closer to that goal, enrolling in a medical school...

www.yahoo.com

As a graduate from a carib school and also as someone who needed a visa for residency and who successfully matched and got a job I can tell you:
1)as a carib grad you SHOULD know that your first mistake is your last; any blemish/red flag on your application is a reason for a place to screen you out
2)as other said, a lot of these stories pop up and it is mainly due to the student "not knowing" one thing or another. A decent amount of students that go to the carib think that "I paid so I should get an MD"...clearly not the case!
3) I really dont get why the times published this article in the first place; she took a HUGE gamble of going to the carib...took 7 years off and more over dragged 2 kids into it! Sorry but if you got 2 mouths to feed, you focus on THEM and wish that maybe one day THEY will go to med school. I really do not know what she expects...
4) "Why thousands of doctors..." Yes a lot of them wonder why they go unmatched. American grads SHOULD and WILL get first pick because guess what, it is THEIR system so it makes sense why they are favored first. Yes, I went through the same thing too; great board scores, CV, etc, applied to 200 programs and only got ~20 interviews. IT WAS TO BE EXPECTED AS I WAS AN IMG! In never ceases to amaze that the ones that play the victim card NEVER do their research and say that they "know the risk" when in actuality they really don't. All of my friends I went to med school with matched [some in competitive specialties] but we all knew the uphill battle against a machine gun nest we were facing. Anyone I know who didn't match had a BIG red flag and then wondered why they didn't match.
Let this be a lesson, IT IS possible however the odds are DRASTICALLY NOT in your favor! As many said before me and I heard 254545346 times while applying "seek any and every OTHER route besides the carib before going/applying". At the end of the day, NO ONE forced her to apply, pay tuition and go there and therefore she only has herself to blame! The mentality of "someone else needs to fix it and its not my fault" has been so absurd lately!

 

[zero0]

HCA can self-fund all their spots and ruin all specialties by themselves.

Freakin beat me to it

 

[Maimonides1]

Or that the NYT is xenophobic because they publish articles trying to force America-first policies in medical education that would take away our chance to bring the best and the brightest here, policies which would strip away the American dream from thousands of potential foreign medical graduates each year

Let it be evident..
That we are making a clear distinction between US-IMGs who failed to go through American medical educational system and FMGs.., who could have a unique backgrounds, overcame serious challenges and brought lots of talents and skills to American medicine which was proven over the years and kept the American dream alive for so many.., so true in other sciences like engineering, computer science, space & physics..!!

 

[VincentAdultman]

The line about the MCAT and test anxiety murdered me.

 

[Splenda88]

Why are the articles popping up everywhere?

Medical school graduate sees nearly all of his $440,000 in student loans discharged

A medical graduate who had about $440,000 in student debt saw 98% of his loans cancelled by a bankruptcy court in California, according to a recent filing.

finance.yahoo.com