What to Know About Caribbean Medical Schools

"PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS who dream of becoming a physician but are worried about getting accepted into a U.S. medical school, where it is exceedingly difficult to get in, may want to consider attending a high-quality Caribbean medical school that takes a more forgiving approach in the student selection process.

St. George’s University, which is home to a med school and has its main campus on the island of Grenada in the West Indies, considers applicants that U.S. medical schools might not, says Bob Ryan, dean of admissions.

Those applicants may include students who had a rocky start in college but did much better later, and students who worked through college and whose GPAs suffered as a result, he says." …

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/articles/what-to-know-about-caribbean-medical-schools

Before considering Caribbean medical schools look at US osteopathic medical achools.

Caribbean medical schools are a high risk proposition. These are for-profit schools whose business model is based on a large percentage of students failing out, decelerating for 1 or more years, or quitting because these schools do not have enough clinical US placements sites for all entering students.

Their graduation rates are quite low compared to US medical schools (MD and DO) and their placement rates into residency are just so-so.

AMCAS reports less than 60% of US IMGs matched into a residency in the most recent cycle.

See: https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Charting-Outcomes-in-the-Match-2018-IMGs.pdf

US students are generally advised not to apply to Caribbean schools unless they have failed at 3 rounds of US MD and DO applications, with sufficient time in between each application cycle to allow for application strengthening/MCAT retake/GPA repair.

And before accepting a position at a Caribbean medical school, a student should also consider the Oschner School of Medicine at University of Queensland (Australia). And Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University and Technion University in Israel. All four of these programs offer substantial advantages over Caribbean medical schools, particularly in terms of graduation rates and US match rates.