Don't Cut Yourself Short (Postbacc vs. Caribbean Schools)

My aunt Alma, who is a nurse, gave me the number to a student who attended UCLA/ Charles Drew Medical School.  Alma's coworker, also a nurse, is the mother of the previous medical student, Susan, who is now doing her residency at Kern Medical Center.  When Alma informed her coworker that I would be attending medical school in the Caribbean, she replied with, "I'm so sorry to hear that."  She gave Aunt Alma her daughter's phone number so that I would contact her and hopefully change my mind.

I ended up calling Susan to figure out why she was so unreceptive towards Caribbean medical schools.  She mentioned a few reasons including: her experiences alongside IMG's have shown they are not as prepared, her friend from the Caribbean had over $300,000 in debt, thus concluding that Caribbean schools are 2X as expensive, you won't be able to get a good residency, a postbacc would prepare me better for medical school.  There was a conference at my local school where a UCLA medical school student said that the Caribbean students he rotated with very well prepared.  The median debt for Ross students is $232,743 in federal student loan debt, as posted on their website.  A quick look at the residency placements posted on the Ross website will indicate placements into very prestigious hospitals and specialties.  Therefore, don't simply rely on the opinion of one person when making a decision.

Ultimately, I didn't want to be 30 when entering residency.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I would prefer the opportunity to do it at 26.  The only way I would consider doing a postbacc is if I either didn't feel academically prepared to enter medical school or if I was set on getting to an extremely competitive residency.  Going to a U.S. medical school does give you a much better chance to get into a very competitive residency, but it is still very much possible from a caribbean medical school.  NRMP.org provides very detailed statistics on the % of residents that are IMG's.

My point in saying this is to do your own research, in some situations a postbacc might be a better option for some, but some will discourage you based on outdated information.  For me I wanted to get done as soon as possible and am fairly certain that I want to go into a primary care practice.  In essence you are pushing your med school education back 2 years with a postbacc: 1 or more years of classes and a year application process, not to mention the stress of not knowing if you will even get into a U.S. medical school as they are unbelievable competitive.  I made the decision to start school earlier, which means less loans, and a quicker opportunity to pay off the loans I do accumulate.  Medical school is a long enough process in itself, I did not want to lengthen the process.