MSK9's Medical School Thread & Guide

[MSK9]

..defensive post with double-speak

Also,

I think adults here can research things for themselves and make a decision without being scared with red letters of doom and gloom, biases against the very theme and reason for being that this forum exists on, and accusations that don't align with fact.

I've said my piece.

I think by now a reply-for-reply response is not practical for time, but your post essentially defends not taking a certain position while taking that exact position. Now you're trying to split hairs to validate your point while also distancing yourself from it by stating "I make no claims" and so on. Interesting dichotomy.

You're also trying to draw a link between my opinions on online medical education with general online education, which is lunacy and would make me an utter hypocrite given how I got through my undergraduate degree. It looks like someone (you) ran out arguments.

For all your "there was never anything to prove or defend" nonsense, you still haven't presented evidence of anything. Keep trying to convince whomever and I'll keep cautioning.

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Although my brother is a PGY-1 in Emergency Medicine, I am not very knowledgeable on medical school education outside of the United States.  Is St. George successful at placing students in US Residencies? How are their USMLE passing rates? Are they respected in the United States or seen as inferior since they are a Caribbean medical school?

Great question. I'd say yes based on my own personal research but I would encourage anyone to seek out the information for themselves.. don't take my word for it. The placement rate for US-eligible international medical graduates (generally American citizens) is  93%. In 2018, the USMLE pass rate was 96% but I'm not sure if this was the first-time pass rate or if it were based on passes, regardless of attempts.

Many pre-meds, especially online, bad mouth St. George's for a few reasons. 1.) It's a for-profit, private school (and expensive) 2.) It's a Caribbean school, 3.) The attrition rate is higher than in US-mainland schools. The same students often refer to NRMP MATCH data which shows MATCH rates somewhere in the ballpark of 56% which is only accurate if you account for the fact that among those applying for the MATCH are foreign international medical graduates, i.e. people who came from countries outside of the United States who applied to the United States MATCH. Like I mentioned earlier, the MATCH rate for US international medical graduates (from SGUSOM) is 93%, a figure that is technically higher than many mainland schools.

There are some legitimately bad Caribbean and international medical schools, but the "big four" (St. G, Ross, AUC, and Saba) have respectable MATCH rates when considering American international graduates coming back to the States.

When considering international schools, I think the best one can do is talk with attending physicians who have worked with Caribbean grads or Caribbean grads themselves who are now attending physicians. The Caribbean route, as I understand it, requires a little more grit and sacrifice. At the end of the day, medical school doesn't make the physician.. residency does, or so the attendings tell me.