Top 3 Caribbean Medical Schools to Consider

After waiting for 6 weeks to get back your MCAT scores, the anticipation erupts when you finally get the email saying scores are in.  This moment is terrifying and can plot the course for your career in medicine and for some, the opportunity to practice anywhere in the United States is realized.  For others, scores are lower than you would have liked and your inbox is empty during the interview period.  At this point, you can either retry to take the MCAT or attempt to get your medical degree elsewhere and fight to get back into the US as an International Medical Graduate (IMG).

For those unfortunate enough to land in this category, most choose the Caribbean Medical School option and are faced with a number of volatile variables that can make their dreams of becoming medical doctors only drift further away.   Nevertheless, a low MCAT score is not a death sentence and if you are motivated enough to study medicine as hard as you have ever done in your life before, you can successfully come back into the US Medical sector.  Here are the top 3 Caribbean Medical Schools out there and a list of the most current statistics to help you decide if this avenue is the right choice for you.  Regardless of some of the negative stereotypes associated with Caribbean schools, a few schools in Puerto Rico and Cuba are ranked within the top 500 medical schools in the world but they will not be considered in this list because they are not easy options for non-natives to enroll in. I will present the last available drop-out statistics, tuition fees, availability of rotations, and class sizes when considering the rankings.  

Number 1:   Saint George's University 

Saint George's University School of medicine is a popular destination where students who dream of a second chance in Medicine flock in droves in order to obtain their medical degrees.  The last available statistic from 2012 stated that Saint George's has a 4-year drop out rate of 10% and is considered to be one of the most competitive options in the Caribbean market.  Students enrolled in this University enjoy the 10-year $100 million contract that Saint George's has signed with hundreds of hospitals in 98 American cities in 2008.  This translated to having 2,326 medical students having clinical rotations during their third and fourth years in the US in 2014. 

This does not discourage nearly 600 students that enroll at this school every trimester.  

If you are convinced that Medicine is your calling, you need to take advantage of these US-hospital contracts and pay for the tuition in order to get them.  Saint George's students have free tuition in most clinical rotations which cost me nearly $3,000 for a 3-month period so that is a good benefit considering the uphill battle you are already facing. 

Two Alternative Caribbean Options to the Costly Saint George's 

Number 2:  American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine 

This institution is just behind Saint George's University in drop-out rates and scores a solid 13% over the 4-year period.  Students who enroll in American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine are able to enjoy a fast-track route into hospitals in Florida and New York during their 3rd and 4th years and can even shadow during their second years in US hospitals to network with more doctors.  This school is less costly as well compared with Saint George's and will average $170,000 with class sizes at around 1,000 per semester.  IMGs generally populate a lot of the hospitals in New York and Southern Florida so it is a good stepping stone for some of these students to get an interview. 

From my conversations during my electives, I found out that this school is consistently expanding and absorbing smaller Caribbean medicals that collapsed.  Several of my peers stated that these schools as a whole are just considered to be money-making machines and will accept anyone as long as their checks clear.  The school does make some efforts to help top-students match into clinical rotations but with some many students that are able to start during their first years of school, the drop out rate during the first 2 years would be much closer to 50% according to the students.  

Another aspect of AUC and Saint George's is that both institutions are focused on teaching for the USMLE Step Exams. This is a good feature, to an extent, but does jeopardize some of the experience that students will not get.  During rounding, students were able to recall some minute details buried away in First Aid but when it came to Patient interviews and Physical Examinations, the lack of experience was evident. Students would not be comfortable interacting with patients and attending physicians would notice that instantly. This can affect letters of recommendation and make it even harder to get back to the States.  

READ Rebounding From Medical School Rejection

Number 3:  Ross University 

This is another school that I am quite familiar with because of the teachings of Dr. Conrad Fisher, the author of many Mastering the Boards series that you will tout around daily during your upper years of medicine. He is affiliated with Ross University School of medicine  and provides classes to students trying to master the material for their Step examinations.  The drop-out rate for Ross is much higher than the first two and averages nearly 50% a year. Students have a chance to get back into the US to do clinical electives during their 3rd and 4th years but the contracts are much more sparse with US hospitals than Saint George's or AUC.  Ross is also more costly than AUC and can run $180,000 in total.  Ross also has class sizes of over 750 per semester.   

The built-in USMLE-Prep course is beneficial because they can be costly expenses if you have to buy them yourself in a non-sponsoring school.  The fact that it is so hard for Ross students to even get back into the States to do clinical rotations makes the probability to Match much poorer than the other two institutions.