Caribbean grad here from SGU who matched into emergency medicine at a pretty good program. I'm gonna throw in my two cents regarding matching from a Caribbean school, particularly into EM and then Ross vs SGU at the bottom. *Ended up being a lot more than two cents, sorry for the long post* If anyone wants to talk to me personally about SGU or matching EM, shoot me a PM and we can chat.
First off, don't listen to people on SDN. Most people base their opinions on false information/misinterpretation of data and blogs written by the very few Caribbean students who did exceptionally poorly, nearly always because of their own poor study habits, who then go on to write things that are either blown way out of proportion or are outrageously false.
That being said, I'll be the first person to tell you that if you can get into a US med school, go for it. It's always the best option. But if you just can't get in and you're a person with good work ethic the Caribbean is a great option as long as you're not trying to go into something ultra competitive like neurosurgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, ortho etc.
And now I'll give my little spiel (with an emphasis on matching emergency medicine) that I give to students who have questions about Caribbean schools and matching (I volunteer as a mentor for SGU because there is soooo much false information out there).
Regarding matching from a Caribbean school. Residencies can essentially be broken down into three levels of competitiveness.
Low - specialties like psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine, PMNR etc. From a Caribbean school you should have no problem matching into any of these fields. The reason being is that there are more spots available than there are people applying, therefore, programs aren't going to be very picky. The only people from the Caribbean that don't match are usually those with very subpar Step 1 scores, they're just weird, or some sort of red flag. Bottom line - if you plan on going into these specialties, I wouldn't worry about going to a Caribbean school.
Medium - emergency medicine, OBGYN, gen surg, etc. You are a bit of a disadvantage going to a Caribbean school for these specialties, but in my opinion, it's not a big disadvantage (may for gen surg, that's a tough one, but doable). Because these are more competitive, programs are looking for reasons to discriminate and whether or not they screen you out based on going to a Caribbean school is entirely dependent on the program director. Some really don't care, some do. So do your homework, find out which programs have taken Caribbean students in the past and apply there.
Side note about emergency medicine. Programs generally (not all) screen you based on your Step 1/2 score. If you hit their minimum score the next most important part of your applications are your SLOE's. Remember, EM is a team sport that requires a particular personality and whether or not you fit the bill will largely be determined by your SLOE. Killer step 1/2 score but average or subpar SLOE's? You're not gonna match. I asked program directors during my interviews what it was about my application that got me the interview (specifically so I can pass that on to people like you) and they all unanimously said it was my SLOEs (apparently I had really good SLOEs). I got a 248 on Step 1, not one person mentioned my step score, they didn't care. And I think, for the most part, the kind of person that goes into EM is the kind of person that really doesn't care if you went to a Caribbean school. They just want to make sure you're a cool person they can drink a beer with and that's willing to work hard. And I quote the APD during an interview, "You like to drink? Good. We expect our residents to be able to drink until 2am and come to work ready to rock and roll." I had 13 interviews (and I totally failed my standardized video interview, long story). My girlfriend got a 240 on step 1, no research, no extracurriculars, stellar SLOEs and got 16 interviews for EM. She had quite a few university program interviews to boot and successfully matched into EM. She also applied internal medicine for back up and got over 20 interviews, some of them at top notch university programs. All that is to say that you don't need to absolutely kill step 1 like everyone on SDN would have you believe. I'd say shoot for a 240+ (not that hard to obtain if you put in the work) and, presuming you do well on your EM rotations, you should be able to match EM.
High - Neurosurg, derm, ortho, ophtho, etc. If you have your heart set on one of these specialties, this is when I'll agree with everyone else and say you should try for a US school. Can you do it from a Caribbean school? Sure, but you better be in the top 0.1% of the nation in everything.
Regarding SGU vs. Ross. Both are good schools, both will get you where you want to go if you put in the work. As far as the match numbers they put up, be careful if you're planning on going into EM. Numbers that aren't reported, by either school, are how many people apply for EM vs how many people matched. I've talked to SGU about this, they simply aren't provided that data. But if 100 people applied and only 30 matched, that's not a very good match rate. So the best you can do is look at each school's match list and see how many people matched into EM. SGU usually matches around 30 per year, this year we matched a record high into EM at around 50 people. I can't say how many people applied, but anecdotally speaking it seemed like almost everyone I knew that applied for EM was able to match EM. Ross matched 24 into EM this year.
If you can, try to reach out to Ross graduates and get their opinion. Rumor and hearsay, so I say it cautiously, is that Ross doesn't setup your 3rd year clinical rotations, which can lead to a lot of headache, frustration, and in some cases completing some of your core rotations in 4th year. I don't if it's true, but I'd look into it.
Can't remember where I read this otherwise I'd post a link, but I remember reading that after DeVry bought out Ross they simply couldn't turn a profit and were hemorrhaging money. Might be worth looking into.
SGU is more expensive, but you get what you pay for
And I hear SGU has much more attractive students.
Lastly, gonna go on a rant about some rumors that bug me and get thrown around a lot (speaking only for SGU of course).
The attrition rate is not sky high. These rumored attrition rates of 30% are simply ridiculous from a common sense stand point. The school is a business and losing 30% of your business is not sustainable nor nearly as profitable. The real attrition rate is about 12% per officials. 4% drop out in the first semester for whatever reason (family member died, they changed their mind, can't handle the island etc), 4% fail out academically and 4% transfer to a US medschool after step 1. I double checked this with the roster for each class from the first semester to the last semester and the number I got seemed to match up with their report.
There are no "weeder" classes. If the school wants to weed people out they would grade classes on a curve, because grading on a curve is the best and most accurate way to weed people out. None of the classes are graded on a curve and the exams are all adjusted to have an average of roughly 80%. Hard to make a claim that a class is a weeder class when it's not on a curve and the average exam score is 75-80%.
At one point you did have to take an exam before you could take step 1, but honestly, if you failed that exam then you probably shouldn't be taking step 1 in the first place. The school was doing you a favor in my opinion. Anyways, they did away with that exam.
