<p>Thanks again BDM!</p>
<p>Just one question, can one go to a carribean medical school after undergrad and then after two years there, admit into a US med school? If not, is the tough thing about going to carribean being able to pass the intl’ USLME exam or getting a residency? Also When do you take the board exam and can you take it if your’re coming from the carribean or elsewhere? Btw if the board exam just one test or there many versions geared towards different specialities? TIA</p>
<p>1.) Caribbean medical schools often claim that you can do this, but some medical schools do not accept transfers under any circumstances, and those that do require “strongly similar” curricula (natch) as well as “compelling personal reasons” for the switch, i.e. if a relative gets cancer, I would strongly want to transfer either to Mayo, Cornell, Baylor, or UT-Houston. (I suppose I’ve just leaked four med schools that I do not go to, but oh well.) [See Tufts’ transfer policy.]</p>
<p>You have to decide for yourself whether you think medical schools will admit transfers from the Caribbean, but I must be honest that I think it’s unlikely.</p>
<p>2.) Both. In the US, passing the boards is a joke - everybody passes, and mostly in just one try. Int’l students have a much harder time, and I must be honest that I think it’s mostly the Caribbean kids dragging down the percentages. I remember BRM mentioning that something like 68% of Int’l kids pass the boards, and I’m pretty sure that London and Paris and the like would have much higher %'s than that, in which case Caribbean kids are much lower.</p>
<p>3.) Furthermore, if most kids are having trouble PASSING the boards, how many kids do you think hit the national average of 217, much less a “competitive” score?</p>
<p>4.) Finally, even if you do manage a competitive score, many residencies will not accept you, period (unless it’s actually your home country), and even those that do will hold you to a higher standard.</p>
<p>5.) Boards - at least Step I’s - are definitely universal.</p>
<p>It is DEFINITELY not impossible. There are probably many people who do well from Caribbean medical schools. The AAMC is so picky that many of them would probably make great doctors. But it’s a very uphill battle.</p>
<p>okay so someone applying from harvard has a 3.7 while someone applying from virginia commonwealth university has a 3.8 Mcats are the same extra cirric are basically the same…who do you think would get accepted?</p>
<p>Impossible to say. </p>
<p>Which med school are we talking about? Are these students in-state or out-of-state for this school? What is the minority status of each?</p>
<p>Are their interviews identicle too?</p>
<p>Are their MCAT scores 24, 27, 30, or 33?</p>
<p>If everything is the same and they are applying both as in-state to a state school with a MCAT scores of 30 or higher, then I think both get in (although BDM might need to talk about CA med school competition). </p>
<p>Really if there is that little separating them, even at most private schools they both get in. A 3.7/3.8 arguement all else being equal, regardless of the schools is miniscule. But this sort of question never comes up b/c no two candidates are that identicle.</p>
<p>However, that said: Med school admissions are ****ed up. I know a lot of people with good scores, good involvement and great passion for medicine get rejected the first go round. There are certainly people I look at in my med school class and question how they got in when these other people didn’t. (so far all my friends who applied to medical school a second time got accepted, one friend is applying for a second time this coming year).</p>
<p>Another question…</p>
<p>So is the USMLE I and II also a highly reading-comprehension oriented test just like the MCAT (although I realise it MUST also require a lot of prior memorization and a thorough grounding in A&P, biochem etc. etc…) ?</p>
<p>Also… I remember reading on some thread (maybe here or might be in SDN) that there is a ~90 % correlation between USMLE I scores and the MCAT VR (based on a Kaplan study…)? Now, if this is so…does that simply mean that people with stellar reading comprehension and critical reading skills DO tend to fare much better–in medical school, the USMLEs, and beyond…?</p>
<p>You’re right about the correlation between MCAT VR and USMLE step 1 passing. That’s something that Kaplan tells all their students, but I highly doubt that they carried out the study.</p>
<p>However, part of that is critical thinking ability and also part due to the fact that if you are good at one standardized test, you tend to be good at other standardized tests (lack of test anxiety, inherent skill at getting to a proper answer, ability to recognize incorrect answers not just correct ones, so on and so forth). </p>
<p>Step I questions are almost all clinical vignettes presenting a case. They typically present as a “…patient X comes into your office complaining of _____, ~~~~~, and %%%%%…you order ^^^^test which shows the following:…”
“Which of the following drugs is the best choice for this patient”</p>
<p>The thing about USMLE questions is two-fold: 1) the answer choices are for the most part all correct to varying degrees - so you must pick the BEST answer choice, not the ONLY correct answer (which is a fundamental tenet of every other standardized tests). Now in some cases, like a diagnosis, this isn’t difficult to sift out, though all the answer choices would likely show up on your differential diagnosis…but some questions ask you which is the proper reponse to a patient that expresses fear about X condition, and you can see yourself saying all the possible answer choices.</p>
<p>The other thing is all the questions are at least second order thinking questions. Most are third order questions and some are fourth. For example, They might tell you that a patient fractured their humerus at the surgical neck, and then ask you how they present in clinic. So you have to know not only which nerve is like to be lesioned but also what muscles it innervates, and what loss of those muscles will mean for hand position and so on. Will there be complete loss of movement or just weakness? What about sensory loss? So there is some reading comprehension, tons of critical thinking but even more application required.</p>
<p>Thanks BRM!! So how many ‘steps’ must one pass? and I remember that Kaplan had a course for at least one of these USMLEs…</p>
<p>Are the scores in these exams also based simply on a % of correct answers OR an actual ranking-curve-based scoring…? What’s the max score possible? and what is the average…? (Please forgive my immense curiosity in this matter…Err…and I do understand this IS the "PRE"med thread…haha…Thanks anyways though) Also,…does going to a highly competitive med school help train one better for these exams (due to peer pressure and a competitive and serious atmosphere) ?</p>
<p>BRM will take care of everything I don’t know, I’m sure, but:</p>
<p>Step I is after two years. Step II is after four years. Step III is after five years (i.e. after your internship). </p>
<p>For Step I: In theory, the maximum score is 300, but the top score in 2006 was a 259 (according to Tulane Med, which shows up high in google). The US average is 217. Passing seems to me to be 182. Specific medical schools DO have wildly divergent average scores - even within just a few spots in US News, average scores may vary by as much as twenty points. This may have a great deal to do with MCAT scores (i.e. student quality), but it might also indicate that some schools really do teach more effectively for the boards.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom says that you want a 230 for a reasonably competitive residency, and anything above 220 for a normally competitive residency.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.studentdoc.com/usmle-scores.html[/url]”>http://www.studentdoc.com/usmle-scores.html</a> (2002)</p>
<p>I have been interested in Forensics for quite some time and I just recently learned about the field of Pathology so I was looking to go into Forensic Pathology. I am really quite clueless as to the Med schools to start looking at. I am already going into my 2nd year in Undergrad(Dartmouth). My grades are quite horrible…but I have done well in the Pre-Med courses…its just humanities courses I have an immense problem with. I began looking for research this summer rather late so I am tutoring, helping kids out. Its rather fun watching the progress. Pays well too. (And for those of you thinking that I can be a teacher…I honestly do not have the patience to deal with Children let alone one child at a time). I plan on looking for lab research that I can do in my school later in August. Please give me some advice particularly in the area of schools to apply to…</p>
<p>Oh and I am still not sure whether to go directly to Med School or to take a year off doing something…My schedule for the fall term is as follows: Biology(Intro no lab), Calculus of Functions of one and Several Variables, Physics(this is the class I can remove from my schedule if need be) but it would also be the deciding factor for me going directly to Med School…</p>
<p>Confused…yea I am…Help!!!</p>
<p>just thought this might help someone, this is a log of my experiences as I apply to med schools and the journey till this point.</p>
<p><a href=“http://gettinginthef-1version.blogspot.com/[/url]”>http://gettinginthef-1version.blogspot.com/</a></p>
<p>I just have a few questions pertaining to activities a pre-med should consider during break/summer.</p>
<p>Which one is more merited in terms of med apps value: 1) shadowing, Volunteer or Research? I actually migh be able to persuade a few family friends to allow me to shadow them next summer but I don’t know if I should rather be researching or maybe even taking some summer classes; volunteering in the peace corps for one summer seems intriguingas well. Anyway what I really wanted to know was what to most people do during winter break as it’s only about a month. Also should I get involved in clubs I actually might care about (even if non-med related) or try to give into one’s realated to medicine etc and learn to enjoy it?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=214373[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=214373</a></p>
<p>I can’t imagine that most premeds use their Christmas breaks productively.</p>
<p>I don’t think that you can do the peace corps for just a summer. Everyone I’ve ever known has had a two year commitment abroad. The same goes for Americorps and Teach for America.</p>
<p>Recently, I’ve been thinking about where to practice medicine if I’m fortunate enough to get into medical school. How hard is it to get a job with a medical group in California (San Francisco area or Los Angeles area)? Also, how many jobs offers do MDs typically get after completing their residencies?</p>
<p>Generally MDs have a great deal of job offers - it’s usually not hard to find a spot, no matter where. It might be harder, relatively, in highly sought after places like CA, but generally speaking young doctors can usually turn a profit for their groups.</p>
<p>Bigredmed Your right about the peace corp commitment. It’s a minimum of 27 months; Good thing you pointed that out to me, guess I should rethink ( yet again) what do to for summer activities.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about University of Arizona College of Medicine. Including the percentage rate of applicants who are admitted</p>
<p>University of Arizona</p>
<p>1501 N. Campbell Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85724
(520) 626-6214 </p>
<p>Admissions E-mail: <a href=“mailto:admissions@medicine.arizona.edu”>admissions@medicine.arizona.edu</a>
Web site: <a href=“http://www.medicine.arizona.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://www.medicine.arizona.edu</a></p>
<p>Fall 2007 Admissions Information
AMCAS application accepted? Yes
Application deadline: 11/01
Application fee: $75</p>
<p>Fall 2005 Admissions Statistics
Acceptance rate: 28.4%
Average MCAT score (composite): 9.9 </p>
<p>Ranking
U.S. News research rank: 57
U.S. News primary-care rank: N/A</p>
<p>2005-2006 Expenses
In-State Tuition: $14,359
Out-of-State Tuition: N/A
Required fees: $103
Room and board: $9,070</p>
<p>Acceptance rate: 28.4% </p>
<p>GPA
Average undergraduate GPA: 3.67 </p>
<p>MCAT
Overall score (composite): 9.9
Verbal reasoning: 9.8
Physical sciences: 9.8
Biological: 10.2
Writing: P </p>
<p>Applicants who wish to be considered must be U.S. citizens (or have permanent resident visas) and residents of Arizona. Native Americans whose reservation land lies partly in Arizona and partly in an adjoining state and who are residents of such a reservation are also considered. In addition, consideration is given to highly qualified applicants who are residents of Montana and Wyoming, are certified, and will receive full and uninterrupted funding by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE).</p>
<p>Thank you for your help</p>