Dismissed from US DO school and looking to transfer to a Caribbean school...

[HopOntheBus_2022]

Hi everyone,

I was recently dismissed from a US DO school about a month ago after completing 3rd year and now looking to transfer to a Caribbean MD school. I was so close to finishing the marathon(aka move onto 4th year) but I managed to fail a remediation exam... I know would have regrets in life later on if I don't pick it back up and run with it for the last time.
I read some older posts about Caribbean schools and they sound like no joke: the high attrition rate, low match rate, schools being heartless money-hungry machines and not to mention the uncertainty of STEP 1 changing to P/F... For now, my plan is to study for STEP1 (I only have COMLEX score) this summer and continue my medical school journey by transferring (as an MS-3)to one of the Caribbean schools in the fall. I'm an international student and now that I'm an IMG it would make match harder... I'm shooting for psychiatry or FM.

Currently, I'm in the process of applying to
1. SJSM: waiting for interview invitation
2. Xavier XUSOM : waiting for interview invitation
3. Windsor WUSOMM : phone interviewing tomorrow
4. Trinity Univ
5. IUHS : something is fishy with their accreditation status... They said they're on "stage 2" what does this mean?

Can you comment to give me some advice on which schools I should weigh heavier than others or any schools I should avoid applying etc.
If you go/went to these schools, I would appreciate any honest comments on your experience.
Also can someone clarify this accreditation business of Carib schools and how that alters/imposes on the matching process of its students?

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[Gambino.]

Honestly, even if you do get accepted and graduate, the gaping red flag of flunking out of a DO school makes your chances of matching next to nil, doubly so as an non-US IMG.

You're not doing yourself any favors by applying to all the low tier Carib schools either, though I'm not sure how the big 3 go about with acceptances from failed DO students/how they allocate credit for your previous years.

to answer your IUHS question, they need WDFME recognition starting in 2024 and their current accrediting body (St kitts+nevis) isn't recognized by them so unless they get ACCM/CAAM-HP accreditation, they could be screwed in 3 years (kinda similar to SGU's situation with GMDC accreditation).

 

[HopOntheBus_2022]

Honestly, even if you do get accepted and graduate, the gaping red flag of flunking out of a DO school makes your chances of matching next to nil, doubly so as an non-US IMG.

You're not doing yourself any favors by applying to all the low tier Carib schools either, though I'm not sure how the big 3 go about with acceptances from failed DO students/how they allocate credit for your previous years.

to answer your IUHS question, they need WDFME recognition starting in 2024 and their current accrediting body (St kitts+nevis) isn't recognized by them so unless they get ACCM/CAAM-HP accreditation, they could be screwed in 3 years (kinda similar to SGU's situation with GMDC accreditation).

Ah the accreditation mess.. that makes sense. Do you know if IUHS was dis-credited by any governing body in the past? I found some negative posts about IUHS and didn't know what that was about...
The Big 4 or 3 wouldn't transfer my credits so that's why I'm going for the ones that do which happened to be these. But does the name of the school make a difference in matching?
Yeah I understand that matching would be harder now.

 

[Gambino.]

Ah the accreditation mess.. that makes sense. Do you know if IUHS was dis-credited by any governing body in the past? I found some negative posts about IUHS and didn't know what that was about...

No idea. Never even considered going there when better options were available.

The Big 4 or 3 wouldn't transfer my credits so that's why I'm going for the ones that do which happened to be these. But does the name of the school make a difference in matching?

Definitely. Also makes difference in quality of core rotation locations. Students match from lower tier schools but they also don't have the same conditions you do.

Yeah I understand that matching would be harder now.

Hard sounds like an understatement, I would honestly try to reach out to a PD or others in the place of choosing residents so they can provide specific insight for you.

 

[QUCOM1]

Ask the hard questions to the schools you are interested in applying to. Take your time and make sure the school is a good fit for you. Just because a school may have all of the bells and whistles, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good fit for you. After you narrow down your list, narrow it down even further to customize it to your needs.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

This is a terrible idea. First, there's clearly more to your DO story. Its unlikely you get dismissed for failing a single remediation exam, chances are there's more to the story here. Plus. what exam is this in your 3rd year? If it's shelf / COMAT, again, unlikely to be terminated for a single exam. More likely there is some pattern of failure or issues.

Second, if scoring well on exams is not your strength, a poor S1 or S2 score will seriously hurt your match prospects.. In general the steps are more challenging than the COMLEX (although there is debate about that). I'm not even certain how you can take S1 if you're not actually enrolled in medical school, so I assume these carib schools would need to enroll you and charge you tuition just so you could take the exam.

Last, assuming all that works out, you're looking at poor performing carib schools. Their match rates are poor, and your prior termination from a DO program is going to give people pause. Programs are likely to want details about what happened from the school, and it will be difficult (if not impossible) to include that in your application.

Best of luck, but this is a bad plan. Likely to end up with more debt and high risk to not get a residency. But I guess one could argue that if you've already got a ridic amount of debt you can't possibly pay back, there's little risk to increasing that debt. If unsuccessful, you'll spend years trying to get it discharged no matter how much it is. Sad system of educational funding at it's best.

 

[FutureDoctor5000]

This is a terrible idea. First, there's clearly more to your DO story. Its unlikely you get dismissed for failing a single remediation exam, chances are there's more to the story here. Plus. what exam is this in your 3rd year? If it's shelf / COMAT, again, unlikely to be terminated for a single exam. More likely there is some pattern of failure or issues.

Second, if scoring well on exams is not your strength, a poor S1 or S2 score will seriously hurt your match prospects.. In general the steps are more challenging than the COMLEX (although there is debate about that). I'm not even certain how you can take S1 if you're not actually enrolled in medical school, so I assume these carib schools would need to enroll you and charge you tuition just so you could take the exam.

Last, assuming all that works out, you're looking at poor performing carib schools. Their match rates are poor, and your prior termination from a DO program is going to give people pause. Programs are likely to want details about what happened from the school, and it will be difficult (if not impossible) to include that in your application.

Best of luck, but this is a bad plan. Likely to end up with more debt and high risk to not get a residency. But I guess one could argue that if you've already got a ridic amount of debt you can't possibly pay back, there's little risk to increasing that debt. If unsuccessful, you'll spend years trying to get it discharged no matter how much it is. Sad system of educational funding at it's best.

There’s something more to this story.. the only “exam” we took in M3 year was the COMAT(shelf), it’s very hard to fail the exams and it’s even harder to fail it multiple times especially if one passed the first two years of medical school and comlex level 1(like OP claims to have). Flat out dismissal from medical school due to failed comats is unheard of..

 

[marsmddo]

Questions to OP:
How you can be accepted as Transfer to M3 MD school when you were a DO student in USA , So you pass Comlex-1 but you still need to take Step 1 and Pass Step 1 to start Rotations. Best case scenario will be M2 and then Pass Step 1.

Any success with Interviews so far, Some low tier schools seems more friendly to Transfer students from USA as compare to Top 4. Top 4 want everyone to start M1 and then they filter out ~60% of the class during M1-M2.

I still not convince the transfer connection from DO to MD or vice versa.
I think SJSM accreditation is good till 5/2022 not sure they will get it renewed or not.

Let us know how it goes and Good luck...

 

[sah]

Ask the hard questions to the schools you are interested in applying to. Take your time and make sure the school is a good fit for you. Just because a school may have all of the bells and whistles, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good fit for you. After you narrow down your list, narrow it down even further to customize it to your needs.

New school, eh.
Your website looks partially completed. You may want to correct the picture of the chest X-ray which is backwards. Unlikely the speaker in the picture is talking about situs inversus.

https://qucom.edu.bb/academics/faculty-staff-3/