I got accepted into a Caribbean Medical school at age 47 any advise. Having problems Financing the school do anybody have any advice.
Which school did you get accepted to? Did you contact the financial āaidā office? Some schools have private lenders that have relationships with schools to provide funding. Others are cheap enough that students pay with excess funds from US based MBA programs with Davenport, Walden, etc. Private message me and Iāll give you some more information.
I got accepted at IAU in St Lucia and I am waiting to hear from Ross University. If you can help email me at herringgartha@yahoo.com
I got accepted at IAU in St lucia and I am waiting to here from Ross University. If You can help I am a veteran with a familiy looking for help please email me at herringgartha@yahoo.com
My advice is not to go to a Caribbean medical school. I believe matching will be problematic in the future and it is a financial gamble. Consider DO or another medical profession.
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I found this site that has some funding options, but none of them are very good in my opinion.
http://www.islandmedicalschools.com/financing-mediā¦
I think your best bet is to earn acceptance to Ross (if youāre set on the Caribbean). Ross, St George, and AUC are apparently eligible for federal loans.
To be blunt, you could not pay me to go to a caribbean medical school.
From what research Iāve done, they have insanely high attrition rates, MS3-4 clinical rotations can be a debacle, and their match rates are less than impressive. With the US MD & DO residency programs merging, matching as an international student may very well only get harder.
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I have a friend who went to AUC, is now a 3rd year resi in RI and will be done with her fellowship 2 years after residency ends.
I also have a colleague of mine on LI that is a fully licensed MD in anesthesiology from AUC.
Donāt be so quick to disparage AUC, Ross, or St Georgesās!
I think everyone in the field can find anecdotes about Carib grads but thatās not really they way to think about because it doesnāt reflect the reality āon the groundā.
As stated above, attrition is high, match rates are not good (and likely to get worse in the future) and financially it is a helluva a gamble.
If you have to go that route for a bunch of valid reasons, I would only consider the āBig Fourā (above + Saba).
I feel like I am going really negative here but I just want people to get a real sense of what they are getting into. AND to consider DO over carib.
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DO is fine if you want to ONLY practice in the US.
Any other aspirations, Philippines, Ecuador, South Africa, India ā¦ DO is not granted same permissions.
Therefore, Carib (AUC, Ross, St G, SABA) are valid choices ā¦ with, in my op, Ross/AUC be #1.
I would second what Adoc2be has said. Donāt disparage Caribbbean schools. Iāve met a few doctors who have gone the Caribbean route and have come out fine, although there are plenty of exceptions. One of my best friends could not get into any US MD school despite a 3.9 GPA from UCLA, so she went to AUC and is now doing rotations on the west coast. Another friend, a local doctor with whom I volunteer abroad, has a son who went to Ross. My brotherās GI doc went to Ross. And there are others.
As far as which schools, most people recommend sticking the 5 major schools: AUC, AUA, Ross, Saba, and St. Georgeās. AUC and Ross are sister schools, both part of the DeVry family of schools. However, I do know of one woman, an acquaintance, who went to the University of Medicine and Health Sciences at St. Kitts.
As far as DOās practicing outside of the U.S. ā they can do so in many nations, but some places still donāt recognize the degree, even though it is functionally equivalent and educationally-equivalent to the MD in most areas.
Thank you for your advice.Sometimes you just have to go for it. No matter how hard it is .Just have to trust the Lord and keep on moving.
We have 2 students from Ross doing 3rd year rotations at our small hospital in West Virginia, and ran into about 6 when doing a residency interview at a hospital in Lynchburg, VA, at which almost half the residents were Caribbean med graduates. SOME folks do find rotations and residencies.
Kate
Another option to consider: While Puerto Rico is physically in the Caribbean, it is also a US territory with four fully accredited medical schools (no passport required!). Yes, their MCAT averages are lower than those in Main Land schools, but you have to remember that Spanish is their first language and the MCAT is written for and by native English speakers, and the adcoms know this when evaluating their candidates. Just like in other schools, their students must pass USMLE Step 1 before moving on to the third year, and Step 2 before graduation. Preference is given to PR residents but out-of-state students are not uncommon in their classes. Nothing to lose by just looking into their schools: University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine; Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine; San Juan Bautista School of Medicine; and Ponce School of Medicine. Good luck!
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@Prodigal wrote:
From what research Iāve done, they have insanely high attrition rates, MS3-4 clinical rotations can be a debacle, and their match rates are less than impressive. With the US MD & DO residency programs merging, matching as an international student may very well only get harder.
My understanding is that the high attrition rates have to do wtih the fact that Carib schools accept a LOT of students that really shouldnāt be accepted to med school, IMHO.
For the focused super nontrad (> 35) whose days of partying a LONG since past, I think the Carib offers them an opportunity to become an MD by ANY means necessary.
The problem is the increasing number of US base graduates with little to no increase in residency which will continue to drop. It is projected to drop to about 3000-3500 matches for US Citizen IMG in 3 to 5 years
One thing that AAMC, AACOM, NRMP and all the other acronyms have is data. http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ADT2015_final.pdf (see Table 4)
In 2014, for US citizens who were graduates of International Medical College (IMG) here is a breakdown of the numbers
6,917 Total who submitted the ERAS application for NRMP.
691 Withdrew, which is mostly and automatically done if they did not pass STEP II exam
1,796 Did Not submit a ranking list, which is mostly done because they did not get any interviews at a residency program
2,354 Did Not match into any residency slot
2,660 Matched into a slot
The above indicates that upwards of 3,000 graduates of International Medical Schools who likely passed STEP II did not get a slot in the main match for residency. There is a supplement match (SOAP) for unfilled open slots which this year included 1,193 of the 1,306 slots. Yet there were 1,093 senior US-MD graduates who did not match and another 60 who did not rank. These students are automatically entered in this supplemental round, as I assume are the seniors at the international school . So you can see even in the SOAP match, there is intense competition.
I also like to note that this table includes DO graduates who matched in the āMDā slots. It does not include the DO graduates who matched in the DO/AOA slots. Combining NRMP, AOA, Military and Supplemental/Final Opportunity, DO match at 99.45% (see http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/medical-students/aacom_match2014_infographic_finalv2.pdf)