<p>Hi, so as title asks, which path would be best for a Caribbean student (more specifically Jamaican) who may eventually want to practice in the U.S. as a surgeon (unaware of what type as of now)?</p>
<p>A) Stay home (Jamaica), go to University of the West Indies (UWI)- Mona, and enter the faculty of medical sciences and earn an MBBS?</p>
<p>B) Go to a Caribbean university/med school such as SGU, Ross, AUC and get an MD there? More specifically the BS/MD program a.k.a. the PreMed->Med program?</p>
<p>C) Try as hard as possible to get into a U.S. undergrad & med school (almost impossible, or so I’ve heard) despite the fact that the vast majority of U.S. med schools don’t accept internationals and of those that do, 1/2 accept approx. 3 (out of thousands) per year and the other 1/2 that claim to accept intl’s haven’t accepted any within the past three or four years? Not to mention the fact that if you are accepted you basically have to show the university $250,000 upfront before you are allowed to matriculate.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your responses and I would also be very grateful if you could also expound on your choices (if you want to, don’t have to). Once again, Thank You.</p>
<p>C is without a doubt the best option despite being the most difficult. I would then vote for B because at least then you have a degree that will let you work easily in Jamaica if worst comes go worst.</p>
<p>Thank you 
I figured C would be the best option but while getting into undergrad is plausible, the big hurdle comes in when you’re talking about med school as it is almost impossible for internationals to get into a U.S. med school, and for the available spots, I heard that Canadians fill up almost all of them, especially since they are accredited by the same board, the LCME.</p>
<p>I have thought about what you said though, where if for some reason one doesn’t make it into the U.S. system, he/she could always go back to his/her country of origin to practice, no? And I guess going to SGU for example would probably open more opportunities for practicing outside U.S. & Jamaica than going to UWI would, right?</p>
<p>Have you looked at [ECFMG®</a> | Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates](<a href=“ECFMG”>ECFMG) </p>
<p>I believe that the licensing process that a graduate of any foreign medical program goes thru to get licensed to practice in the US is the same whether he attends a school that grants a MD or MBBS.</p>
<p>Yes, thank you I’ve seen that however, in terms of residencies, which would give you a better chance at being matched? An MBBS from UWI or an MD from SGU, AUC, etc.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t expect that it would matter terribly. URI is well known carribean school, it just isn’t usually a big us feeder school. If you can’t get into a us school you should go to med school in the country you want to live in most AFTER the US, because foreign graduates have as hard of a time getting into residency as medical school. So if that is Jamaica stay with C, if it another country look into their international applicant reqs. If UWI can get you into a Jamaican residency and that is where you want to be in the short term at least it really doesn’t matter if sgu is a better choice for other countries that are less desirable.</p>
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<p>I know that foreign graduates still face challenges in gaining residencies but I don’t think it’s as bad as med school is it? I mean there are about 100-200 spots in all for international students applying to med school in the U.S. and the majority of them are taken by Canadians. However when you look at matchings for offshore U.S. med schools such as Ross and SGU quite a good number of their students match into competitive specialties. Websites such as [2011</a> Ross University Residency](<a href=“http://www.rossu.edu/medical-school/residencyappointments.cfm]2011”>http://www.rossu.edu/medical-school/residencyappointments.cfm) and <a href=“https://baysgu35.sgu.edu/ERD/2010/ResidPost.nsf/BYPGY?OpenView&RestrictToCategory=PGY1&Count=-1[/url]”>https://baysgu35.sgu.edu/ERD/2010/ResidPost.nsf/BYPGY?OpenView&RestrictToCategory=PGY1&Count=-1</a> illustrate this. Granted a sizable portion of them are things like Family Practice and Internal Medicine, but isn’t this the norm for American medical schools as well? And I’ve also heard that around 25%-30% of persons in the medical field in America are IMGs/FMGs (Is this claim correct?). Don’t get me wrong, I know you have to work very hard and your board exams are extremely important (i.e. USMLE’s Step I, II, etc.) but it seems there are quite a number of spots available for those who graduate from foreign schools, right? Or wrong? Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>Move here when you are nine(jk!). That’s what my husband did!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>It’s tightening up! Move fast!</p>
<p>There is also option D: Get a permanent resident card (green card) and then do your postsecondary education in the United States or Canada. That might take quite a bit of time though.</p>
<p>That takes at least 10 years doesn’t it? And I also heard that if one is filed for as a minor (under 18 or 21, I don’t remember) and it comes through when the person become an adult (e.g 25 y-o, 27 y-o), that the person would not be able to get his/her green card. Is this true?</p>
<p>Ohh and please remember that I am still looking for answers for the original question, as well as questions asked later on such as the one above this post. It is amazing how you can ask about one thing in a thread and the topic slowly changes into a totally different thing. Thank you for all the responses so far as they have been very helpful.</p>
<p>go4, there are indeed more spots available for residency relative to medical schools for international students, but take a few things to heart:</p>
<p>1) There are also many more people applying to residency from abroad
2) Many of those applicants that are accepted are american FMGs or FMGs from Canada and western europe. The others tend to be among the best medical students from their respective countries. Many are already practicing physicians that are going through residency again so that they can come to the US.
3) While most US medical schools have a sizable chunk of family and internal med folk, the difference is that FMGs struggle to get anything besides family and IM. Plus, the programs that they match to are the ones no one in the US schools wanted.</p>
<p>No one else has anything to add? :(</p>
<p>Jamaican to Jamaican…I’d say go the UWI route…UWI will get you where you need to be faster and cheaper, be it to the US or otherwise…You’ll just have to ensure that you study really hard for the boards, exercise initiative and you should be fine.</p>