I'm starting med school in September... I got into Ross (Caribbean), but I'm planning to transfer to a CONUS school after my 1st year...

How hard is it to transfer? Any advice/tips?

Have you looked at what will be required to transfer and what the odds of acceptance are? My understanding is that things rarely work that way.

I have no idea.  It's probably something I would have looked into beforehand.

In the end, it won't make a difference if you pass USMLE I, II and III unless you're looking to match in a more competitive residency.  What kind of medicine do you want to practice?

How are your undergrad grades, MCATs, and extracurricular activities? As long as you don't have a 2.6 GPA, I would think everything else is fixable and I would take a year or two off to get your stuff up to par in order to get in a stateside allopathic. That is what I did and I think that being a bit older is an advantage when going through something as tough as medical school. Also, where do you live? If you live in a less populated "flyover" state, your state medical school shouldn't be as hard to get into as some of the elite privates and state schools in places like California. Finally, I would really get in contact with the admission people at your schools of choice and discuss with them the ways that you can improve your resume. It really shows that you are interested in their school and it might give you a better chance of admission. If answers are not forthcoming here, I would check out student doctor network forums. It is the Arfcom of health professions and there is a ton of good information there!

I Right now, I'm going for surgery, probably plastics...

To be clear, I don't HAVE to transfer... This is an american school, and only the 2 year classroom part is down in the island... I just feel more comfortable being back in the States sooner with my wife and kids instead of down there... I had a physician in my Reserve unit mention that to me this weekend, so I wanted to see if anyone here had a similar experience...

That's gonna make a difference... without stellar board scores and awesome rotation evals.

I would NOT go down there with your heart set on transferring back. Most likely (and realistically) you should expect to finish your first 2 there before being sent back to the US on rotation. It can be done, but I don't personally know anyone that has, or for that matter know anyone that knows anyone that has.

Can you defer? It might be worthwhile putting off for another year while you try your apps again.

Good luck.

You mention that this is an American school with only the classroom part in the Caribbean - where does the next two years take place?



My son looked into Ross at one point, but didn't get a good feeling about the matching process later.










 

The school will have all the info you'll need and the schools that will take your credits.






 

Had a guy in my med school class who transferred out of St George's which is in Grenada. He had to repeat his first year of school for the transfer to work, but otherwise didn't have a problem. His family loved the island. He was ambivalent about the quality of the education as those schools tend to have fewer resources (i.e. a lot fewer cadavers for gross anatomy, fewer research opportunities). He went into Family medicine and didn't have any problems finding a nice residency.

Something like plastics, which is one of the most competitive specialties out there (even for top US school grads), is going to be a different story. You will probably have to kill your USMLE Step 1 and will still probably be pretty dependent on connections you make during your 3rd and 4th year rotations. Depending on where your school sends you, you may or may not have the opportunity to make those good connections. You will need to work at 110% of everyone else because right or wrong, there is some stigma associated with being from the Carribean schools. If you are dead set on plastics, you may have to consider going the long route by doing a full 5 year general surgery residency and then a 2-3 year plastics fellowship. You may have to agree to do an additional research year as part of the deal.

I second the advice to go over to studentdoctor.net and get information from people who have been there and done that.