Will I get accepted AGAIN?

[Handsome88]

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I applied to SGU this year and got accepted (I got lucky with the interview part, nice interviewer). But after several advises from people around this forum I was told not to go to the carib, yet. They say that I still have a chance at US/Canadian schools with my stats.

I am a canadian applicant with a ~3.58 cGPA and 26O mcat (9PS/7VR/10BS). So they are telling me to rewrite the MCAT and give it another try before going to the carib.

The thing is I'm afraid that I will still not get accepted at any US/canadian school, and will lose SGU acceptance.

Will I get accepted again if I reapply after rejecting them this year? Anyone had to do that and got accepted?

Any honest opinions are appreciated, this is a big decision for me!

Thanks

PS. Before anyone mentions it, I'm not interested in DO schools.

 

[ChairmanMao]

I applied to SGU this year and got accepted (I got lucky with the interview part, nice interviewer). But after several advises from people around this forum I was told not to go to the carib, yet. They say that I still have a chance at US/Canadian schools with my stats.

I am a canadian applicant with a ~3.58 cGPA and 26O mcat (9PS/7VR/10BS). So they are telling me to rewrite the MCAT and give it another try before going to the carib.

The thing is I'm afraid that I will still not get accepted at any US/canadian school, and will lose SGU acceptance.

Will I get accepted again if I reapply after rejecting them this year? Anyone had to do that and got accepted?

Any honest opinions are appreciated, this is a big decision for me!

Thanks

PS. Before anyone mentions it, I'm not interested in DO schools.

I don't think getting accepted again to a Carribbean medical school (even the Big 4) is going to be a problem with a 3.6. Look, those schools are for-profit and it's highly unlikely that they'll turn away someone who seems qualified.

That being said, I would absolutely exhaust all of my options before going to Carribbean school (or any foreign medical schools) if I wanted to come back and practice in the US or Canada. I have friends and I have relatives who went to medical school in their native countries, and it's difficult for me to explain to the casual observer how difficult it is to get a residency spot as an FMG or even a Carribbean graduate. What I don't understand is why anyone would make it harder on themselves by going to a foreign medical school if all they have to do is take a year or two off and nail the MCATs. You look like you could be a competitive applicant if you scored really high on the MCAT (33+) and applied broadly to US medical schools. Besides that, if you don't ace the MCAT, what makes you confident that you'll do well on the USMLE or in medical school? From what I've heard, the USMLE is even more difficult than the MCAT and most medical school exams resemble the MCAT in that they're multiple choice or computer based.

Finally, I do have to point out that regardless of how you feel, American DO graduates still get priority in terms of choosing residencies and fellowships over FMGs and Carribbean graduates. We can go on and on and debate how competitive the student bodies are and how similar their MCAT and undergrad GPAs are, but at the end of the day, DO graduates received their education on American soil and face far less discrimination in terms of residency matching than foreign medical school graduates.

And if you're going to say that you don't want to do DO because you want to "practice internationally" or feel that the DO degree is unrecognized in other countries, I'd like to point out that very few American trained docs end up actually practicing in other countries. The people who say that they want to practice in another country almost invariably end up abandoning that idea after realizing how difficult it is to get a license in another country once they've completed their residency training in the US or Canada. Unless you plan on practicing in a 3rd world country with no medical licensing body, you are almost always going to end up repeating portions of your residency training in the country that you plan on practicing in. And believe, getting a license in a Western European country or Australia (or any other first world places) is almost as tough as getting a residency in the US.

 

[ChairmanMao]

Repeat post

 

[JMT]

I do believe it is better to go for a DO degree than a Caribbean degree if you want to stay in the states. It is hard for a FMG who studied in their own country to get residency in the US because they need a Visa and many residency programs require US clinical experience or don't apply. In that aspect, the Caribbean is a good option because most students are from the US to begin with and have no visa issues and they provide US clinical experience. One of the biggest question is should you start now or just wait another year and try again. Well you can wait a year and end up not getting in again. Then you would've wasted a full year. If you go to the Caribbean except SGU which is only 2 semesters a year, you can be done in the island in 1.5 years. Then you will be back in US soil doing rotations and be with your family. For many people, they go to the Caribbean because they do not want to waste more time and still not know if they would get in and want to get started with their dreams.