St James Medical School

[Siefer1322]

Slashsev, you are about to graduate from carribean school?

[Slashsev]

no

[Edict]

Thank you everyone for your input, there is definitely a lot to think about and consider. 

Yes, there is a lot of advertisement in Toronto and in the universities about the Caribbean medical schools, all of which make them sound great and like you won't have any issues down the line.

When I had my interview with St James I did ask about residencies and matching, although I would take this with a grain of salt, the interviewer told me that last year they had a student match to surgery NY. However, this is coming from a board member so take it as you will. 

My main concern of course in getting a good residency placement afterwards, especially if I want to pursue a more competitive field, I don't want to be at a disadvantage. I did however email the PD at Mass Gen and told her I was considering St James, that it was in the Caribbean and she told me that they look at the whole package. ie. USMLE scores are the first thing they looks at, they also look at letters of recommendation, schools and whether you do a sub-I ... so its not impossible, but I don't want to rely on maybe being the exception to the rule.

 

The PD if they told you that probably gave you the generic reply. I can assure you that Mass Gen doesn't take people from the Caribbean, they literally pick and choose from people anywhere in the world. 

[uoit101]

Thank you everyone for your input, there is definitely a lot to think about and consider. 

Yes, there is a lot of advertisement in Toronto and in the universities about the Caribbean medical schools, all of which make them sound great and like you won't have any issues down the line.

When I had my interview with St James I did ask about residencies and matching, although I would take this with a grain of salt, the interviewer told me that last year they had a student match to surgery NY. However, this is coming from a board member so take it as you will. 

My main concern of course in getting a good residency placement afterwards, especially if I want to pursue a more competitive field, I don't want to be at a disadvantage. I did however email the PD at Mass Gen and told her I was considering St James, that it was in the Caribbean and she told me that they look at the whole package. ie. USMLE scores are the first thing they looks at, they also look at letters of recommendation, schools and whether you do a sub-I ... so its not impossible, but I don't want to rely on maybe being the exception to the rule.

 

NY has a "12 week rule" that applies to schools in the unapproved list. If you do more than 12 weeks of rotations outside your country of medical school, you aren't eligible for applying to a NY residency. In other words, the only way that person matched is by doing most/all of their rotations in the island. You can't do the whole "2 years of rotation in USA" thing and get a NY residency if you're graduating from one of the unapproved schools.  

 

This is something many Caribbean schools purposely don't advertise. The other factor to consider is whether or not the person matched to a Categorical or a Preliminary surgical position. "I matched into Surgery" means nothing if it's a preliminary position. It's just much simpler to go to one of the 50 state approved schools in my opinion.

[Slashsev]

PDs lie about everything...thats their game...they are used car salesman