Success and not-so-successful stories from those who went to Caribbean schools?

[Moko]

I'm not aware of anyone thinking that Caribbean schools are easier. In fact, I think most people would agree that it's a much harder route to take. Not to mention the additional stress knowing that there is no safety net with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt on the line.

No one here is suggesting that all Caribbean students go unmatched. We all know that there are success stories out there (some quite successful, including matches to university programs). However, an unacceptable proportion (majority) of each incoming class will drop out, be forced to remediate trimester(s), be unmatched, or "under-matched". Just compare the average outcome for an incoming student at a Caribbean vs a MD/DO school. The latter offers an almost guaranteed pathway to residency. Applicants should make their decisions based on expected outcomes and not be subjected to selection biases by looking at only the success stories.

While things seem to be working out for you (congratulations), there are also plenty of your classmates who are no doubt busting their butts off with no real shot at residency. These are the folks who should have never been accepted in the first place and be put in the unenviable position of being in debt with no real marketable skill set.. I'd argue that these folks' desperation and dreams were exploited for financial gain. If any school in the US were to have such a performance, they would be unceremoniously shut down by the LCME.

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[Isoval]

I had the roaster on but like six of you beat me to it.

 

[Peter Pan.]

Speak of the devil, got my first today!

View attachment 266039

lmao I've gotten several from trinity. Funny how I found most of them in my spam.

 

[907914]

lmao I've gotten several from trinity. Funny how I found most of them in my spam.

Should I read too much into getting them from Northwestern Masters programs even though I am an active MD applicant there....

 

[Peter Pan.]

Should I read too much into getting them from Northwestern Masters programs even though I am an active MD applicant there....

oh gosh I've gotten plenty of masters program emails as well.

 

[RNthenDoc]

Such a huge gamble going Caribbean. I’ve worked with plenty of great docs who went to school there, but the most competitively-trained one was a general surgeon who trained in the early 90s.

Never met a surgical sub specialist who went to Ross/AUC et al.

I think TC would best be served by speaking to *recent* Caribbean grads who have participated in the match process already.

 

[Select All That Apply]

@NerdyPotato If Caribbean schools only took "poor students" then I wouldn't have an issue. SDN actually takes a balanced stance on Carib schools. SDN actually features Caribbean advertisements and had some sort of special partnership deal with SGU (boy was that an awkward time to be on the site). When it comes to criticism of Caribbean students, all the adcoms focus on academic rigor and they don't touch the literal sociopaths that are accepted in with prior criminal convictions.

When Ross University accepted Henry Bello into their medical school program, he was already arrested and charged with sex abuse and imprisonment when he grabbed a woman's crotch and attempted to penetrate her through her underwear in Manhattan. When he was dismissed from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center for sexual harassment, he came back with an AR-15 and proceeded to shoot at hospital staff.

Tracy Tam, DO, a family medicine physician and graduate of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, was killed. Justin Timperio, MD, a first year family medicine resident and a graduate of the American University of the Caribbean, was shot and sustained injuries to the liver, stomach, intestines, and lung. Oluwafunmike Ojewoye, MD, a second year family medicine resident and a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine sustained a neck gun shot wound. A gastroenterology fellow doing a consult sustained a hand gun shot wound. Two medical students from Ross University School of Medicine were shot, one to the head and knee. A patient was also injured and was listed in stable condition while the others were deceased or in critical condition. Timperio was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Henry Bello isn't representative of Caribbean students, he is representative of the lowest admission standards that these schools have and how they see their own students. If you are a student with a 2.0 who wants to go to medical school and you get sold on the Caribbean, you aren't the worst student in your cohort. You may find yourself in a class of people with IAs and criminal convictions who were let through the door because of the focus on profits that these schools are driven by to cash in on federal income whether it is through student loans or the GI bill.