I find it hard to believe that a lot of people in the medical profession do not even know what a DO is. But I guess I believe you if you say so. I have never lived in NYC.
Are you saying you want to live and practice only in NYC in the future? If that is the case and they all appear familiar with SGU, then it might be an OK choice. Perhaps the better way to answer the questions you have about Carib MD vs. DO is to craft a short, polite email to program directors (i.e. doctors who administer various residency programs such as internal medicine or surgery, etc.) and send it to several people in the New York area. Ask them the question of whether they would rather accept
a) a DO graduate from a US DO school, or
b) an MD graduate from a Caribbean medical school, or SGU specifically
into their residency program if the people had identical USMLE scores.
Some of them might not answer, but I bet some would.
I am almost 100% positive that if you asked this question in the Midwest, the answer would be a DO graduate. But I am not discounting the fact that it might be different in NYC, particularly since I know that St George rotates their students through the New York area on clinicals.
IMHO, I still would not go to Ross because the USMLE board pass rate is too low. US DO schools have a generally lower USMLE pass rate than US allopathic schools, but it's still much better than most of the Caribbean schools, and that's even after a bunch of them flunked out tons of their students or didn't let them take the test at all. The DO's also have their own licensing exams, so they don't even HAVE to take the USMLE if they don't want.
I think there is a difference between one DO school and another as well...some are more "pro-DO" I'll bet, and might not like students to go into nonprimary care areas or do residency in non-DO schools. A lot of them probably won't care if you do, honestly, and might even help you set up clinical rotations at allopathic/MD residencies when you are a 4th year med student. I also think that a lot of US academic medical centers will accept visiting US 4th year med students (either MD or DO) to do elective rotations in their last year of school, and I'll bet they have more restrictions on taking IMG's (including from st George).
Speaking from 20/20 hindsight, I also think you are underestimating the importance of having a larger choice of residencies to do. You (premed) don't really know what specialty you're going to end up wanting to do, and it would be frustrating to get shut out totally. People from Carib schools basically cannot do things like derm, plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery because they can't get in. A DO probably would never get those residencies in an MD institution, but they have their own residency system so one could do ortho, etc. in a DO hospital. I can't comment on the training there but I have met DO dermatologists before but never saw a Caribbean graduate who is one.
Either way (as a DO or Carib grad from SGU) if you do well in your clinical rotations and your USMLE, you'll end up with a US residency if you're a US citizen. Primary care residencies or psych would not be a problem and quite a few other specialties would be within reach also.
