The med schools that I've looked at so far are St. George's University, Saba University school of medicine, and the International American School of Medicine (or something like that). I am still looking at more caribbean schools. I've found info on admission and tuition but I couldn't find information on the schools' minimum GPA requirement and MCAT score. Can someone please give me links or something to where I can find information on these matters (for any caribbean med school)? thanx
Also, can someone tell me about caribbean med schools that have low admission requirements (such as low gpa etc.)? Also, is it a requirement that students applying to these med schools be in the faculty of science, specifically have a degree from a science program (eg. life sciences), or is that as long as the student fulfills the course requirements he/she is good to go (eg. be in humanities but still have all science courses needed)? thanx
And if someone wants to add in anything important about the admission requirements about any caribbean med school please do so. I want as much info as I can get here too.
thank you

...are you really that desperate?

Seriously though, there's probably a catch to a low-GPA school like that, unless you're content with practicing in the Caribbean. It doesn't seem like the agencies here would set a particular standard for Canadian medical schools and then leave a loophole open like that.

@Mahratta

The catch is that they have a super high tuition and overall cost of living....but your residency is in the states just fyi

Originally Posted by Mohit

@Mahratta

The catch is that they have a super high tuition and overall cost of living....but your residency is in the states just fyi

Oh, ok. I don't really know anything about this beyond the commercials one sees on OMNI...

"Do you want your child to be a doctor?"

if i recall watching documentaries carribean health care is like super amazing prob cuz its privatized, guess that is a reflection of their schools

There is Nevis Medical University of the Americas if you are interested. But why would you aim for Caribbean when you are in your first year? This question is usually a back-up plan employed by a 3rd-4th year student who realizes that there isn't much chance to get into the Canadian Medical School.

If I were you, I would aim higher than Caribbean, you still have a long way to go!

If you want to practice in Canada there are several options I'd consider before going Caribbean.

1) Apply to all Canadian med schools that you meet the requirements for. (Plan to meet the requirements for as many as possible)
2) Apply to American MD schools that accept internationals (unfortunately the American DO route is pretty much closed to Canadians who want to practice in Canada or that'd be number three)
3) Apply to Ireland or Australia
4) Big four Caribbean.

Why? Because if you do your med degree outside of Canada or the US you are limited to IMG residency spots as you are no longer considered a "Canadian Medical Graduate". Not only are there many more applicants per position, they often come with strings attached (i.e. having to practice in a certain area for a certain amount of time).

The reason why I'd suggest Ireland or Australia over the Caribbean is that Caribbean schools have very high attrition rates and apparently don't let you write your USMLE exams if they don't think you'll pass (and even then they have a relatively low pass rate)

Also it is far from guaranteed to get a residency in the US. It's hard to get a visa to do it and the number of US medical graduates is increasing making it harder for American graduates of Caribbean schools to get a residency spot, let alone foreigners who took the same route.

Originally Posted by arathbon

If you want to practice in Canada there are several options I'd consider before going Caribbean.

1) Apply to all Canadian med schools that you meet the requirements for. (Plan to meet the requirements for as many as possible)
2) Apply to American MD schools that accept internationals (unfortunately the American DO route is pretty much closed to Canadians who want to practice in Canada or that'd be number three)
3) Apply to Ireland or Australia
4) Big four Caribbean.

Why? Because if you do your med degree outside of Canada or the US you are limited to IMG residency spots as you are no longer considered a "Canadian Medical Graduate". Not only are there many more applicants per position, they often come with strings attached (i.e. having to practice in a certain area for a certain amount of time).

The reason why I'd suggest Ireland or Australia over the Caribbean is that Caribbean schools have very high attrition rates and apparently don't let you write your USMLE exams if they don't think you'll pass (and even then they have a relatively low pass rate)

Also it is far from guaranteed to get a residency in the US. It's hard to get a visa to do it and the number of US medical graduates is increasing making it harder for American graduates of Caribbean schools to get a residency spot, let alone foreigners who took the same route.

Not sure about the low pass rate, but you're 100% right about the residency spots available to Caribbean graduates. That being said, depending on the Caribbean school, although they are the "rejects" of the Canadian and American medical schools, I know some of them and most are actually really smart/hard working students and those ones usually (but not always) are able to obtain a residency spot. This doesn't hold for the more noob Caribbean schools, however, that accept students willy nilly because those schools are far less likely to produce excellent students.

Originally Posted by jeboi7

There is Nevis Medical University of the Americas if you are interested. But why would you aim for Caribbean when you are in your first year? This question is usually a back-up plan employed by a 3rd-4th year student who realizes that there isn't much chance to get into the Canadian Medical School.

If I were you, I would aim higher than Caribbean, you still have a long way to go!

This is also sound advice. You're in first year - protip: if you know you can't get into a Canadian school after your first year of university alone, don't bother trying to become a doctor. I'm not saying give up entirely, but try improving your GPA and extra-curricular activities in the next couple years.

If you don't end up with a 3.8+ after the next two years (and that's still not very high, I would say 3.9+ to be truly competitive in terms of GPA) then don't bother. Unless you like being $200,000 in debt and have trouble securing residency in the states.
EDIT: This is assuming you're a normal student without insane volunteering in different countries or participation in tournaments and such.

I have a friend who went to Windsor School of Medicine in St. Kitts...basically, she needed a full year of first-year chem and bio to get in. There was also a brief phone interview that apparently was something along the lines of, "Have you ever done drugs? No? Welcome to Windsor". She went after first year, and it's school year-round for two years or something like that, and then internship/residency or whatever in the US. It's a US-accredited med school, so not super-sketchy.

I would try to get on the McMaster Medicine & Health Society's mailing list. They host events and tell you about information settings. There were some Carribiean MD schools' representatives presenting some things just recently, in March.

http://www.studentdoctor.net /2009/...a-good-option/

A good article on the subject.

I draw your attention to the quote

When evaluating schools, it is important to ask what percentage of students who initially enroll in each class actually take and pass the USMLE Step 1 and successfully proceed to clinical rotations.

Also I'd take a look at the pass rates by country. Grenada (St. George's) is highest and after that they just start getting uncomfortable.

Also its impossible to have a US accredited med school outside of the US or Canada as the LCME does not license foreign medical schools. http://www.lcme.org/faqlcme.htm

Also from the sounds of it many people are confusing Residency/Internship with Clinical Rotations. Clinical Rotations occur during your MD program, while Residency is where you train in your specialty. You'll be able to do rotations anywhere but getting into residency is a different beast.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

If you don't end up with a 3.8+ after the next two years (and that's still not very high, I would say 3.9+ to be truly competitive in terms of GPA) then don't bother. Unless you like being $200,000 in debt and have trouble securing residency in the states.
EDIT: This is assuming you're a normal student without insane volunteering in different countries or participation in tournaments and such.

I wouldn't say that high at all. If you have >3.6 you definitely have a shot (particularly if you also have residency in another Province. That doesn't mean its not a much lower shot but its a shot none the less. Also a few Ontario schools have weighting formulas. Ottawa's favours your upper years, U of T drops 2 marks for each year of study if you carried a full courses load every year, Western takes your two best years and Queens looks at your two most recent if you don't meet their GPA cut off for interviews otherwise. (Also Queen's doesn't consider academics once you get to the interview stage)

Originally Posted by jeboi7

There is Nevis Medical University of the Americas if you are interested. But why would you aim for Caribbean when you are in your first year? This question is usually a back-up plan employed by a 3rd-4th year student who realizes that there isn't much chance to get into the Canadian Medical School.

If I were you, I would aim higher than Caribbean, you still have a long way to go!

I'm asking about caribbean because I know three BSc graduates (with a CA of 96% or so) who didn't get into any canadian med schools and im not sure about the US schools either but they went to the caribbean and did their medicine studies there and are now doing residency in the states. It seems like canadian schools are hardest to get into.

Don't go to Carribean med schools if you want to do residency here in Canada. If you are lucky enough to get a residency, it won't be in a location or type of your choice.

Caribbean schools are aimed at the US students that don't make it. As a Canadian, you're going to have to think about consequences like:

-Residency will be very, very, very difficult to get, probably at a lower-tier school and probably not in a specialty you've chosen. You need ridiculous marks to have a shot at a residency in a Caribbean school (or any at all) - as in, if you are capable of getting those marks, you should have gotten in the hard way

-Your will have an * at the end, designating you were trained in a Caribbean.

-Money, moving away, etc. All that stuff.

Caribbean is a last ditch effort. Don't bother until you've been rejected from at Canada and the US multiple times. Preferably, also check out Western Europe/UK and Australia. If you're going somewhere foreign, go somewhere that is reputable across the board - UK, Australia, etc. Some of a Caribbean schools are probably decent, but there are so many for profit schools it tarnishes the reputation.