DO School or Caribbean School with girlfriend?

[Crici294]

Hey all, I just wanted to hear some different perspectives about my situation. I love my girlfriend and we have been together for years and lived together the past 2 and it has been great. We work very well together and have even talked about marriage after school. Her parents love me and my parents love her and its just a great situation honestly. The issue is we both were hoping to get into medical school together and I know chances of that are slim. I have a 3.35 GPA with a high upward trend in my harder science classes for the last 2 years. I messed up and received poor grades early in undergrad not really realizing what I wanted to do at that point but I matured as time went by. I received an MCAT score of 507 (125 126 129 127). Unfortunately my girlfriend received a 492 on the MCAT although she has a stronger GPA then me (she has a 3.6). I applied to my state MD schools and multiple DO programs. Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal. I've shadowed many doctors and surgeons and I really enjoyed Cardiology, GI, and neuro the most and I find the physiology fascinating. I really don't want to do anything surgery related. My girlfriend has been set on being a pediatrician ever since we met and that has not changed either. What do you guys think? I think I'm pretty competitive for DO programs and am just finishing up secondaries and I know I would probably get into a caribbean school right away as well. Her parents are kind of pushing her to go to school as soon as possible it seems. I talked to them a bit about poor match rates which is what people have told me but they say they know caribbean grads at the hospitals they work at in fellowships. I'm just really unsure of what we should do. Thank you to anyone that answers honestly.

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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

1) do not go to the Carib unless you have tried at least 2 cycles in the US

2) yes, going to the Carib hurts your career prospects; the chances of going, competing school, and matching are very low

3) upwards of 80% of med students change their specialty choice

 

[premeddestiny]

1) The father graduated from the Caribbean at the time the Caribbean schools were competing with less med schools; now it's even harder to get matched let alone into a rigorous specialty

2) Improve the MCAT (esp for girlfriend) then try 2 non-consecutive cycles including low-mid-tier MD / DO before considering Caribbean.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

Am I really hurting my career by going there

Yes.
Girlfriends come and go, closed doors (because you went Carib) are forever. If you really commit to each other, you’ll make it regardless of being in different places.
Go DO and don’t look back.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[allantois]

Idk do you want a 95% chance at matching into residency or 50%?

Actually, your gf (or anyone for that matter) should really not go Caribbean.

 

[JeSuisUnDoc]

Save her and save yourself. She’s making a mistake and you’ll be making a huge one if you follow her.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Lucca]

If you love her, you will both retake your mcats an apply Md/Do

 

[Govols22]

I was in a similar position with me and my girlfriend. But we never once considered Caribbean. We both struggled with our MCAT (500 for me and 496 for her). We did the right thing which was to take a year off to restudy and retake the MCAT. I made a 506 and she made a 505 and we both eventually got accepted to MD schools.

So yeah taking that year off was totally worth it. Going to the Caribbean right now would be a huge mistake. I’m not saying you don’t need to be with her, but you both can make an effort to improve the strength of your application.

 

[deweystrontium]

Stay away from Caribbean. And do everything you can to prevent her from going.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

If you love your girlfriend you probably don't want her to have to support your broke unemployed and employable ass with $500k+ debt. Go DO duh.

 

[subdermallight]

The problem is here you’re going to have to convince her father how bad it is to go to Caribbean schools. Show him data on matching, etc. and explain to him how the situation has changed and how it really is not a good idea anymore. Obviously explain this to her too but I think you’ve got to get to her dad if she’s going to fully change her mind.

You apply, do you best, and hopefully she can follow you to the city your med school is in while she takes a gap year to study on MCAT and get into the same school. She can also start doing research at that school or shadowing doctors to try and meet some adcom members. Maybe she can even do early admission there if that would make sense for her.

A good girlfriend, and one who understands the risk of Caribbean schools, wouldn’t want that for you just because she’s doing it.

 

[Medic741]

Hey all, I just wanted to hear some different perspectives about my situation. I love my girlfriend and we have been together for years and lived together the past 2 and it has been great. We work very well together and have even talked about marriage after school. Her parents love me and my parents love her and its just a great situation honestly. The issue is we both were hoping to get into medical school together and I know chances of that are slim. I have a 3.35 GPA with a high upward trend in my harder science classes for the last 2 years. I messed up and received poor grades early in undergrad not really realizing what I wanted to do at that point but I matured as time went by. I received an MCAT score of 507 (125 126 129 127). Unfortunately my girlfriend received a 492 on the MCAT although she has a stronger GPA then me (she has a 3.6). I applied to my state MD schools and multiple DO programs. Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal. I've shadowed many doctors and surgeons and I really enjoyed Cardiology, GI, and neuro the most and I find the physiology fascinating. I really don't want to do anything surgery related. My girlfriend has been set on being a pediatrician ever since we met and that has not changed either. What do you guys think? I think I'm pretty competitive for DO programs and am just finishing up secondaries and I know I would probably get into a caribbean school right away as well. Her parents are kind of pushing her to go to school as soon as possible it seems. I talked to them a bit about poor match rates which is what people have told me but they say they know caribbean grads at the hospitals they work at in fellowships. I'm just really unsure of what we should do. Thank you to anyone that answers honestly.

DO NOT GO TO THE CARRIBEAN.

I hope all the colors below highlight the intensity of the advice here... cause you might be about to make the worst decision of your life.

If you couldn't compete against med students now (low GPA) what makes you think you'll be able to compete while in/after med school? *ESPECIALLY* after receiving a substandard education in comparison to your peers. The answer -- you won't. Do not do this. Talk your gf out of the Carribean or let her sink, do a post-bacc for yourself and go to an American program. CONSIDER YOUR ECONOMIC FUTURE before getting married to someone headed to the Carribean. It could destroy your economic stability *FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE* if you match & she doesn't but still has $300k of debt that you're now responsible for as a spouse.

With an MCAT like that you have the intellectual capacity to *earn* a better UG GPA to apply with... the question is do you have the maturity to follow through on bettering your app and making it to an American program?

The Caribean is a *terrible* decision and your girlfriend's father is giving you piss poor life advice (always, always beware the in-laws). A REALLY important life rule: NEVER THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY FOR A GIRL.

 

[Ms Procrastinator]

Do Not go to the Caribbean, (and I hate to be that person but...) do not go there just because of your girlfriend either. If she was your wife, it would be different but she's not. Like everyone else has said so far, try a DO cycle and if that doesn't work out try to improve your app. Your girlfriend has a good enough GPA so all she needs to do is at least try to get a better MCAT score. It's really hard to watch someone with a GPA like that go to the Caribbean.
Unfortunately, your girlfriends dad went to the Caribbean and he obviously had some success so it's going to be reeeeally hard to convince them that it's a horrible idea to go there. He's not gonna believe that that much has changed since he graduated. I wish I could say that it's going to be an easy conversation to have but be prepared for things to go sour with them.

 

[FreeRadicals]

do not go to the Caribbean

 

[Goro]

Hey all, I just wanted to hear some different perspectives about my situation. I love my girlfriend and we have been together for years and lived together the past 2 and it has been great. We work very well together and have even talked about marriage after school. Her parents love me and my parents love her and its just a great situation honestly. The issue is we both were hoping to get into medical school together and I know chances of that are slim. I have a 3.35 GPA with a high upward trend in my harder science classes for the last 2 years. I messed up and received poor grades early in undergrad not really realizing what I wanted to do at that point but I matured as time went by. I received an MCAT score of 507 (125 126 129 127). Unfortunately my girlfriend received a 492 on the MCAT although she has a stronger GPA then me (she has a 3.6). I applied to my state MD schools and multiple DO programs. Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal. I've shadowed many doctors and surgeons and I really enjoyed Cardiology, GI, and neuro the most and I find the physiology fascinating. I really don't want to do anything surgery related. My girlfriend has been set on being a pediatrician ever since we met and that has not changed either. What do you guys think? I think I'm pretty competitive for DO programs and am just finishing up secondaries and I know I would probably get into a caribbean school right away as well. Her parents are kind of pushing her to go to school as soon as possible it seems. I talked to them a bit about poor match rates which is what people have told me but they say they know caribbean grads at the hospitals they work at in fellowships. I'm just really unsure of what we should do. Thank you to anyone that answers honestly.

Please get your GF and her dad accounts on SDN so we can explain what a precipice she and you are about to fall off of if you go through with this foolish decision.

 

[DrElliotReid]

Just show her (and her father, if need be) the reactions in this thread. I agree with everyone else. Do not go to the Caribbean unless you have tried absolutely everything in your power to get accepted to a US MD or DO school. Even then, you'll have to think wisely about whether medicine is worth the risk of going Carib.

 

[deleted103644]

Please get your GF and her dad accounts on SDN so we can explain what a precipice she and you are about to fall off of if you go through with this foolish decision.

Are the low tier DO schools really that much better than SGU? Obviously most of the rest of the Caribbean is garbage, but they were able to bribe their way into having rotations at some decent hospitals, even displacing US MD students from some rotations.

 

[BC_89]

Love is sacrifice: until you go Caribbean.....then it’s straight up stupid.

No.

 

[Goro]

Are the low tier DO schools really that much better than SGU? Obviously most of the rest of the Caribbean is garbage, but they were able to bribe their way into having rotations at some decent hospitals, even displacing US MD students from some rotations.

Even a graduate from WCU, Nov, Touro-NY or LUCOM has a > 90% chance of matching somewhere. No Carib school, not even the Harvard of the Carib, has stats like that.

Even if they say they do, they're under no legal obligation to tell the truth.

And that's not even discussing the ruthless attrition rate in the Carib.

Read this:
http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NRMP-2018-Program-Director-Survey-for-WWW.pdf

 

[DoctHouse]

Has anyone actually picked Caribbean over D.O before?

 

[raiderette]

Has anyone actually picked Caribbean over D.O before?

Too many.

 

[Ms Procrastinator]

Has anyone actually picked Caribbean over D.O before?

Yep. Unfortunately some people think that any MD is better than DO. Some people even think Caribbean schools are better than DO.

 

[mw18]

Another aspect of this conversation is whether your girlfriend has what it takes to pass boards and earn a residency, if her school even gives her the opportunity. By retaking the mcat and doing well then she can prove it to schools, to you and everyone else. Her mcat score is exceedingly low and I wouldn't be convinced she has the study skills/abilities needed to have success in the future.

 

[Goro]

Has anyone actually picked Caribbean over D.O before?

Oh yeah. Never underestimate the lust that people have for the MD letters after their name, even though the successful Carb grads will be most likely end up Primary Care in some small town...gee, just like many DOs!

Then there was the loose cannon Rhabdoviridae (now banned), whose family forced him (along with his own ego and MD lust) to leave his DO school to go to the Carib, after he passed Step I. I'll bet he's driving for Uber right now. An SDN legend.

Another legend is the guy who wrote this:
Million $ Mistake
I think he turned down one of the Touros for SGU or Ross.

Food for thought:
Medical School at SGU
"Why didn't I Match?"

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Your future FIL doesn’t seem to grasp that times have changed in regards to Caribb med schools. There was a time when Caribb-trained docs had a much easier time getting US residencies and getting competitive specialties.

Now it seems only the best Caribb students are getting US residencies, but even those seem to be limited to more-desperate community residency programs in primary care.

Go DO.

Have well-heeled future FIL pay for an intensive MCAT prep for his darling daughter....so she can go to a US med school, too.

 

[deleted103644]

Even a graduate from WCU, Nov, Touro-NY or LUCOM has a > 90% chance of matching somewhere. No Carib school, not even the Harvard of the Carib, has stats like that.

Even if they say they do, they're under no legal obligation to tell the truth.

And that's not even discussing the ruthless attrition rate in the Carib.

Read this:
http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NRMP-2018-Program-Director-Survey-for-WWW.pdf

I’ve read through that entire thing before, but if there’s a specific point you’re trying to make from it a page number would be appreciated.

There is zero quality control for Caribbean medical schools after the first 1-3, so any categorization lumping FMGs together isn’t really an honest comparison.

My question is best foreign medical school V.S. bottom tier DO, for an applicant with similar credentials. The way I see it, SGU might have lower admissions standards than DO programs, so the barrier to entry is really after preclinical years or wherever their cutoff is to remove the “ineligible” students they don’t let take the boards. If you are a strong enough student to get into a DO school, I would bet you’re also likely to make that cutoff.

There are also other foreign medical schools like Sackler which seem to match very well.

Obviously all of these options still are less than ideal, but I would definitely much rather go to SGU with half a brain than Liberty University (and from what I hear that’s not even the worst one). So I think the protestations here of any DO program over Caribbean are probably a bit hyperbolic.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Yep. Unfortunately some people think that any MD is better than DO.

Some people even think Caribbean schools are better than DO.

And some people still think the earth is flat.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Anyone who was following the disastrous fall-out after the hurricanes last year would know to stay the hell away from Caribb meds. AUC students landed in seats in England literally just hours before the eligibility deadline for their federal loans to fund. The students didn’t even know they’d be going to England until days before...and they didn’t find out the exact city until almost the last minute.

Now, those 3rd years that did pass Step 1 are scrambling for expensive housing for their Long Island hospital rotations.

If I recall, the “million dollar mistake student” was also trapped in some housing maze as he got moved around and around for rotations. I doubt that the housing merry-go-road horror ride is mentioned in any of the Carib brochures. #NoBrassRing

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

And some people still think the earth is flat.

Kyrie Irving

 

[DrRiker]

And some people still think the earth is flat.

True story: I discovered my barber believes the Earth is flat by ripping apart flat Earth theories while he was cutting my hair. I have never waffled opinions so quickly in my life.

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

True story: I discovered my barber believes the Earth is flat by ripping apart flat Earth theories while he was cutting my hair. I have never waffled opinions so quickly in my life.

My barber has some far out theories himself. Wonder if this is a barber thing?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

True story: I discovered my barber believes the Earth is flat by ripping apart flat Earth theories while he was cutting my hair. I have never waffled opinions so quickly in my life.

Why would you waffle your opinion on a flat earth? Were you afraid he’d **** up your hair on purpose? Lol

 

[DrRiker]

Why would you waffle your opinion on a flat earth? Were you afraid he’d **** up your hair on purpose? Lol

I will pretend to be interested for the sake of placating the man with sharps above my head. That is a stance I will not waffle on!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I will pretend to be interested for the sake of placating the man with sharps above my head. That is a stance I will not waffle on!

Smart!

 

[deleted103644]

True story: I discovered my barber believes the Earth is flat by ripping apart flat Earth theories while he was cutting my hair. I have never waffled opinions so quickly in my life.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

If you love your girlfriend you probably don't want her to have to support your broke unemployed and employable ass with $500k+ debt. Go DO duh.

He should go DO.

He also won’t want to pay off her big Caribb med school loans since she’ll likely be unemployable.

 

[Goro]

I’ve read through that entire thing before, but if there’s a specific point you’re trying to make from it a page number would be appreciated.

There is zero quality control for Caribbean medical schools after the first 1-3, so any categorization lumping FMGs together isn’t really an honest comparison.

My question is best foreign medical school V.S. bottom tier DO, for an applicant with similar credentials. The way I see it, SGU might have lower admissions standards than DO programs, so the barrier to entry is really after preclinical years or wherever their cutoff is to remove the “ineligible” students they don’t let take the boards. If you are a strong enough student to get into a DO school, I would bet you’re also likely to make that cutoff.

There are also other foreign medical schools like Sackler which seem to match very well.

Obviously all of these options still are less than ideal, but I would definitely much rather go to SGU with half a brain than Liberty University (and from what I hear that’s not even the worst one). So I think the protestations here of any DO program over Caribbean are probably a bit hyperbolic.

Go take a look at, say, page 7 (All Specialties Figure 5 Program's Interview Activities). Then look at the bottom bar graphs on that page. It has how PDs likelihood of interviewing (left) and ranking (right) candidates based upon where they went to med school.

US IMGs are the 2nd bar on the right in each figure.

Now note that 57% of PDs will interview a DO, but only 32% of PDs will do so for an IMG. 12% will never interview a DO, while 16% will never interview an IMG. Thus, a DO will be interviewed nearly 2x as much as an IMG.

If your choice is between LUCOM and SGU, then take a year to fix your app and apply to US MD and/or DO.

The attrition rates at the Carib schools are horrendous...about 25-50%. If any US medical school had rates like that, they would be shut down by COCA or LCME.

 

[dr.grenouille]

Here’s what you do:

1. Do absolutely everything in your power to convince your girlfriend and her family that the caribbean is a terrible option. If you succeed, then your girlfriend goes with you wherever you get into medical school and she studies for the MCAT, volunteers, shadows, does research, etc., whatever necessary for a better application next year.

2. If you are not successful in convincing them and you absolutely must be reunited with your girlfriend in 2 years, apply to medical schools in a state that your girlfriend could potentially rotate in once she’s done in the caribbean. That way, you’ll both be back together in a couple years.

3. If all else fails, suck it up and go to medical school in a long distance relationship like many of your classmates. Some of us are away from our husbands and wives, some away from our children, and some separated from loved ones by an entire ocean. If your relationship is strong enough, it’ll last, and if not, it wasn’t worth it to begin with. Never sacrifice your dreams for someone else, you’ll always regret it.

 

[efle]

Just adding to the list of people against the idea.

You should go MD/DO and she should skip this cycle and prep for an MCAT retake. If the retake also goes very, very poorly (like 490s again) then her next move should be something like PA, NP, optometry, etc. The debt involved and the low match rates make Caribbean a terrible option these days, especially when they are notorious for attrition and she would be heading in with a bottom-quartile MCAT score.

 

[deleted926959]

Hey all, I just wanted to hear some different perspectives about my situation. I love my girlfriend and we have been together for years and lived together the past 2 and it has been great. We work very well together and have even talked about marriage after school. Her parents love me and my parents love her and its just a great situation honestly. The issue is we both were hoping to get into medical school together and I know chances of that are slim. I have a 3.35 GPA with a high upward trend in my harder science classes for the last 2 years. I messed up and received poor grades early in undergrad not really realizing what I wanted to do at that point but I matured as time went by. I received an MCAT score of 507 (125 126 129 127). Unfortunately my girlfriend received a 492 on the MCAT although she has a stronger GPA then me (she has a 3.6). I applied to my state MD schools and multiple DO programs. Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal. I've shadowed many doctors and surgeons and I really enjoyed Cardiology, GI, and neuro the most and I find the physiology fascinating. I really don't want to do anything surgery related. My girlfriend has been set on being a pediatrician ever since we met and that has not changed either. What do you guys think? I think I'm pretty competitive for DO programs and am just finishing up secondaries and I know I would probably get into a caribbean school right away as well. Her parents are kind of pushing her to go to school as soon as possible it seems. I talked to them a bit about poor match rates which is what people have told me but they say they know caribbean grads at the hospitals they work at in fellowships. I'm just really unsure of what we should do. Thank you to anyone that answers honestly.

Don't make a decision based on a girl. Plain and simple. If she loves you she will want what is best for you, not the relationship.

 

[precisiongraphic]

It's possible/probable that the girlfriend's dad will foot the tuition bill in the Caribbean. If that is true, these arguments are less likely to sway dad/girlfriend. However, OP should save himself and stay in the US - either DO or after resume improvement - MD. In no case should he follow here there or marry her until and unless she matches to a US residency. But she should try hard to get into a US school for 1-3 cycles. I'm very much anti-Caribbean but I concede that those students who apply to US MD/DO 1-3 times unsuccessfully AND have parents who can easily part with the dollars without impacting the parent's wealth are the only people who should go to the Caribbean. Anyone who has to borrow money (or liquidate 401K/IRAs) to go Caribbean has no business going there.

 

[eaglebaseball4]

Just adding to the list of people against the idea.

You should go MD/DO and she should skip this cycle and prep for an MCAT retake. If the retake also goes very, very poorly (like 490s again) then her next move should be something like PA, NP, optometry, etc. The debt involved and the low match rates make Caribbean a terrible option these days, especially when they are notorious for attrition and she would be heading in with a bottom-quartile MCAT score.

I agree with this poster, and would like to add that AA would be a good option also. I know some AA programs will accept Mcat scores, and her current score would make her competitive for these programs.

 

[dr_kateb]

 

[Robin-jay]

Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal.

Someone with a 507 MCAT should not be so blinded by infatuation (yes, not love).

I told my gf to take a hike for the next 2 weeks because I need to catch up on my anatomy in medical school. If she leaves me because of that, then there was never "love" in the first place. If you can't make long distance work, then how much "love" could there have possibly been to begin with?

Everyone will tell you going to the caribs for your gf is extremely stupid. Beyond illogical.

It would take me 100 paragraphs before I explained all the things wrong with you going to medical school there.

 

[deleted103644]

Go take a look at, say, page 7 (All Specialties Figure 5 Program's Interview Activities). Then look at the bottom bar graphs on that page. It has how PDs likelihood of interviewing (left) and ranking (right) candidates based upon where they went to med school.

US IMGs are the 2nd bar on the right in each figure.

But no column for SGU only, so doesn’t actually address my point.

Now note that 57% of PDs will interview a DO, but only 32% of PDs will do so for an IMG. 12% will never interview a DO, while 16% will never interview an IMG. Thus, a DO will be interviewed nearly 2x as much as an IMG.

This is both specialty and region dependent. In mine was definitely not the case - saw occasional US IMGs and FMGs, almost no DOs. Personally would also rather have to take part in a death match on Grenada than pretend osteopathy is real (not trying to be inflammatory here, just being honest).

If your choice is between LUCOM and SGU, then take a year to fix your app and apply to US MD and/or DO.

You don’t actually have evidence to back this up... (will resist urge to mention osteopathic manipulation)

The attrition rates at the Carib schools are horrendous...about 25-50%. If any US medical school had rates like that, they would be shut down by COCA or LCME.

This is the point. I would not want anyone to go to the Caribbean being naive - they should expect to work hard and not to be coddled.

I haven’t read all of the horror stories, but that first link you posted does not inspire much sympathy from me - went to a top US MD program and our anatomy lab was not much better than his description. Most of medicine is self-taught, even more so in residency and as an attending.

SGU might be a trial by fire, but think it’s more fair to have someone not qualify to sit for the USMLE than burn out in residency when no longer spoon fed and coddled.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

But no column for SGU only, so doesn’t actually address my point.



This is both specialty and region dependent. In mine was definitely not the case - saw occasional US IMGs and FMGs, almost no DOs. Personally would also rather have to take part in a death match on Grenada than pretend osteopathy is real (not trying to be inflammatory here, just being honest).



You don’t actually have evidence to back this up... (will resist urge to mention osteopathic manipulation)



This is the point. I would not want anyone to go to the Caribbean being naive - they should expect to work hard and not to be coddled.

I haven’t read all of the horror stories, but that first link you posted does not inspire much sympathy from me - went to a top US MD program and our anatomy lab was not much better than his description. Most of medicine is self-taught, even more so in residency and as an attending.

SGU might be a trial by fire, but think it’s more fair to have someone not qualify to sit for the USMLE than burn out in residency when no longer spoon fed and coddled.

Wow this is spectacularly dumb.

 

[deleted103644]

Wow this is spectacularly dumb.

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

I think it’s selfish of the Dad and your GF to even ask you to do this.

 

[FutureSurgical]

Your girlfriend could increase her MCAT and be a good candidate for state MD schools. Is she being pressured to take the SGU acceptance by her father rather than take time from school to improve her app? Does her father hate the "DO" title?

Hell, what I'd do is take time off to work in an ED or research lab and study the MCAT one more time. Maybe take a few more science classes after the MCAT to continue showing an upward trend in GPA, even though a 3.6 isn't terrible. That's just my $0.02

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[Med Ed]

Hey all, I just wanted to hear some different perspectives about my situation. I love my girlfriend and we have been together for years and lived together the past 2 and it has been great. We work very well together and have even talked about marriage after school. Her parents love me and my parents love her and its just a great situation honestly. The issue is we both were hoping to get into medical school together and I know chances of that are slim. I have a 3.35 GPA with a high upward trend in my harder science classes for the last 2 years. I messed up and received poor grades early in undergrad not really realizing what I wanted to do at that point but I matured as time went by. I received an MCAT score of 507 (125 126 129 127). Unfortunately my girlfriend received a 492 on the MCAT although she has a stronger GPA then me (she has a 3.6). I applied to my state MD schools and multiple DO programs. Her father is a very respected cardiologist who actually graduated from a caribbean medical school (SGU) and he thinks we should go there together. I would love to be in school with my girlfriend by my side but everyone keeps telling me it is not a good idea to go there. Am I really hurting my career by going there if I want to do Internal medicine followed by a fellowship or Neurology because that is my goal. I've shadowed many doctors and surgeons and I really enjoyed Cardiology, GI, and neuro the most and I find the physiology fascinating. I really don't want to do anything surgery related. My girlfriend has been set on being a pediatrician ever since we met and that has not changed either. What do you guys think? I think I'm pretty competitive for DO programs and am just finishing up secondaries and I know I would probably get into a caribbean school right away as well. Her parents are kind of pushing her to go to school as soon as possible it seems. I talked to them a bit about poor match rates which is what people have told me but they say they know caribbean grads at the hospitals they work at in fellowships. I'm just really unsure of what we should do. Thank you to anyone that answers honestly.

If she goes Caribbean with a 492, and you marry her, you will likely be paying off her 2-3 years of SGU debt. Just something to consider.