Accreditation of Carribean Medschools and which are safe to go to?

[hydrogen4]

Look here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medical_schools_in_the_Caribbean (it shows accredition on right-most column)

 

I've been trying to figure out which carib medical school I should go to. The most important thing I've heard is ACCREDITATION of school should be safe/good.

 

I can't seem to figure out though which accreditation I should look for and which schools are key word "Safe". The wikipedia page lists some accreditation. But people seem to speak of accreditation per state (like california, new york..etc). Can anyone provide information on this? Where to find this info?

 

I don't want to go to St. George or any other of the larger carib schools (unless I have no choice). They've become super competitive and the environment doesn't seem right.

 

So my goal is to go the smallest carib school with a good/safe accreditation.

Where/what should I be looking for?

 

Any help?

 

Thank you!

[leviathan]

Any school can get WHO/IMED accreditation as long as the country approves that school, which in most cases they will for the financial benefits of having the school rather than for its academic merit. Most US states only require IMED certification to practice.

 

The states of NY,Cali,Florida,Texas all require more than just IMED certification to allow graduates to practice medicine in their states. They have done site visits + evaluation of many schools and approved only some of them. The only schools in the Caribbean which these states have approved are SGU/AUC/Ross/Saba. Schools with only IMED certification offer you no guarantee of quality and would not be a good choice. Also you never know when Canadian provinces may follow the US' lead and start banning graduates from practicing medicine from these more dubious schools.

[macstjo]

Any school can get WHO/IMED accreditation as long as the country approves that school, which in most cases they will for the financial benefits of having the school rather than for its academic merit. Most US states only require IMED certification to practice.

 

The states of NY,Cali,Florida,Texas all require more than just IMED certification to allow graduates to practice medicine in their states. They have done site visits + evaluation of many schools and approved only some of them. The only schools in the Caribbean which these states have approved are SGU/AUC/Ross/Saba. Schools with only IMED certification offer you no guarantee of quality and would not be a good choice. Also you never know when Canadian provinces may follow the US' lead and start banning graduates from practicing medicine from these more dubious schools.

 

Thank you!

[hydrogen4]

Any school can get WHO/IMED accreditation as long as the country approves that school, which in most cases they will for the financial benefits of having the school rather than for its academic merit. Most US states only require IMED certification to practice.

 

The states of NY,Cali,Florida,Texas all require more than just IMED certification to allow graduates to practice medicine in their states. They have done site visits + evaluation of many schools and approved only some of them. The only schools in the Caribbean which these states have approved are SGU/AUC/Ross/Saba. Schools with only IMED certification offer you no guarantee of quality and would not be a good choice. Also you never know when Canadian provinces may follow the US' lead and start banning graduates from practicing medicine from these more dubious schools.

 

Man leviathan, thank you so much. You're usually like one of the first people to always take your time to help people with any type of international school questions. Please don't stop, because it helps a lot.

 

And the four states you named, they give different certification.. but there's like 48 other states out there. If those are all fair game with WHO/IMED certification, then what's the problem with going to carib schools without newyork/texas/cali/florida certifications?

 

Also, I had another random question. Are letters of recommendations of much importance when applying to carib schools? I'm thinking about applying to AUA currently and some other schools for 2012 fall admission. I don't have an mcat score yet, so I have limited choice. (Im taking it before summer next year probably..)

 

P.S. You should be a mod.

 

PPS. You should make a FAQ..seriously, because you're one of the few who can.

[leviathan]

Thanks for the compliments, hydrogen!

 

I guess you could go to a school without accreditation by those 4 states. What I'm saying is that for the most part, the accreditation by IMED/WHO is worthless if you are using it as a metric to judge the quality of a school. There's a bit of a conflict of interest when the government accredits a school that they have a huge interest in seeing opened for the financial benefits to their economy.

 

Only those 4 states have taken the time to go beyond IMED and actually visit schools and review the quality of the programs. It is the only way to know that the school is actually legitimate. I'm not saying schools that haven't received accreditation by all 50 states won't offer you a good education, but

 

1. You have no way of verifying the quality, and you would be taking a huge risk to study at those schools.

2. Most of those schools are usually brand new, are very unstable and can go bankrupt and shut down at a moment's notice, leaving you in deep debt without any recourse.

3. You never know if you might want to practice in the US, especially in those 4 states.

4. You never know when other states will start to adopt the same policies as those 4 states. Even Canada possibly could. If that happens, you will not be allowed to practice medicine.

[macstjo]

Thanks for the compliments, hydrogen!

 

I guess you could go to a school without accreditation by those 4 states. What I'm saying is that for the most part, the accreditation by IMED/WHO is worthless if you are using it as a metric to judge the quality of a school. There's a bit of a conflict of interest when the government accredits a school that they have a huge interest in seeing opened for the financial benefits to their economy.

 

Only those 4 states have taken the time to go beyond IMED and actually visit schools and review the quality of the programs. It is the only way to know that the school is actually legitimate. I'm not saying schools that haven't received accreditation by all 50 states won't offer you a good education, but

 

1. You have no way of verifying the quality, and you would be taking a huge risk to study at those schools.

2. Most of those schools are usually brand new, are very unstable and can go bankrupt and shut down at a moment's notice, leaving you in deep debt without any recourse.

3. You never know if you might want to practice in the US, especially in those 4 states.

4. You never know when other states will start to adopt the same policies as those 4 states. Even Canada possibly could. If that happens, you will not be allowed to practice medicine.

 

So..

are you NOT planning to come back to canada after all?

where did you do your undergrad?

 

thanks!

 

edit:

also, do you happen to know what percentage of caribbean grads make it back to the US?

 

edit2:

thanks to what you have said, i might change my mind to go to one of the four schools you have mentioned, then come back to US

i heard a lot about difficulty getting a reference if you go to caribbean in order to secure a residency in US, and if this is the case, how are you planning to solve this dilemma? (also i heard you might fly back and forth between school and US for clinical research purposes in 3rd and 4th years, is this true?)

thanks!

[leviathan]

I'm definitely coming back to Canada, but obviously I don't know yet if that will be for residency or afterwards. I did my undergrad at UBC. I can't tell you what percentage of grads match in the US because it depends on the school. My school claims we are matching in the 90% range and I don't have any way to verify that, but based on the match lists it seems like it isn't too far fetched.

 

If you're a strong student you won't have any trouble getting letters of recommendation from attendings. But if you aren't a strong student, it would be hard for you regardless of whether you were at a Carib or US or Canadian med school.

 

Depending on which med school you attend you may have to travel around for your rotations. I've basically spent most of my 3rd and 4th year rotations affiliated with one US med school in the midwest. That said I have to leave for 2 core rotations and I'm doing some electives elsewhere for the purpose of getting my name out there at different programs in the US and Canada.

 

As everyone has mentioned numerous times be careful before attending any international school because of the poor future prospects of matching. Read more in the international forum if you want to know why.

[hydrogen4]

I'm definitely coming back to Canada, but obviously I don't know yet if that will be for residency or afterwards. I did my undergrad at UBC. I can't tell you what percentage of grads match in the US because it depends on the school. My school claims we are matching in the 90% range and I don't have any way to verify that, but based on the match lists it seems like it isn't too far fetched.

 

If you're a strong student you won't have any trouble getting letters of recommendation from attendings. But if you aren't a strong student, it would be hard for you regardless of whether you were at a Carib or US or Canadian med school.

 

Depending on which med school you attend you may have to travel around for your rotations. I've basically spent most of my 3rd and 4th year rotations affiliated with one US med school in the midwest. That said I have to leave for 2 core rotations and I'm doing some electives elsewhere for the purpose of getting my name out there at different programs in the US and Canada.

 

As everyone has mentioned numerous times be careful before attending any international school because of the poor future prospects of matching. Read more in the international forum if you want to know why.

 

Why do you "Definitely" want to come back to canada? Are the job prospects not good in the US?

 

Also, I was just going to begin to look for the process to come back to canada since I recently decided I'll go to a carib school. Can you tell me what you know of it? (I actually think your knowledge of the process will be quite extensive since you're already in clerkship and everything).

 

I hear the process to come back to canada is like... the most difficult thing ever. But I don't know a single thing about the actual process...

 

P.S. Seriously, where do you find all this info. Do you just have to read a crapload of stuff from official websites...

 

PPS. One other question.. Do people ever get rejected from carib medschools after applying? (if their gpa is too low, or if they didn't give a good reference) I'm applying to AUA and they seem like they're pretty serious about their admissions (even though I thought they just usually admit everyone because it's more money for them).

[shikimate]

You can have a glance at CaRMS to get an idea as to requirements and also past stats:

 

http://www.carms.ca/eng/r1_eligibility_e.shtml

 

http://www.carms.ca/eng/r1_eligibility_prov_e.shtml