Thread: Should I wait?

Hi there,

I have been accepted into Saba. I scored 13 in both physical and biological sciences, R in writing, but a 6 in verbal. My GPA is 3.9 on a 4.0 scale.

I was not accepted into any of the Canadian schools that I have applied for this year due to my MCATs.

In your opinion, would you wait, or would you go to Saba?

Thank you so much in advance.

i am shocked a 32 and 3.9 didn't get you in anywhere. i guess i could understand the 6 holding you back a good bit, but man, that is still unbelievable.

Do you think you can pull similar scores in the first two and at least get a 9 in verbal? could be a 35 and a 3.9 and if that doesnt get you in the gods must be crazy.

Honestly, with those stats, Saba or any other island school would be a waste. It's true, your VR kept you out of Canadian schools, but there's nothing stopping you from going DO, rewriting your MCAT or taking another year. All would be much better options than starting at a Carib school right now. Believe me, with your stats, if nothing else works and you decide to come here anyway, your spot is guaranteed.

For what it's worth, if I were you, I would retake the MCAT. No question about it. Take a couple of months off to do nothing but study and maybe volunteer, kill it, get accepted to a Canadian school, and enjoy life.

So no, you shouldn't wait. You should already be running in the opposite direction.

Yes, wait and apply to us schools.

But just fyi....there were people in my class with 35+ MCATS and others on the waitlist for Ontario med schools multiple times. It's such an unpredictable process for Canadian med schools it's hard to gauge. Your MCAT verbal is definitely not sufficient. Try the Us and rewrite the MCAT to increase that verbal. Maybe vebal examcrackers etc.....like others have said use the Carib as a last resort

Originally Posted by benevolo

Don't even think of Saba with 13s on your ** and PS and a 3.9 GPA. Rewrite the MCAT, apply to the US MD and DO schools and get your MCAT up no matter what it takes. Going to Saba instead of waiting an extra year would be the biggest mistake of your life.

To the original poster. The above is nonsense. I had 36S (13,12,11) on my MCATs and failed to get into Canadian schools 3 years running. I went to Saba, graduated and am doing a residency in Internal Medicine.

My honest advice depends on where you are in life. If you're willing to wait it out a bit more, I'd retake the MCATs and try the Canadian schools again (add in some US schools if you're willing). If you want to get started now, retake the MCATs anyway, go to Saba, reapply while you're there. I have two friends who were accepted while at Saba. There a year behind me, but they'll get a great residency in Canada without worrying about step scores.

Originally Posted by jennaopa

Hi there,

I have been accepted into Saba. I scored 13 in both physical and biological sciences, R in writing, but a 6 in verbal. My GPA is 3.9 on a 4.0 scale.

I was not accepted into any of the Canadian schools that I have applied for this year due to my MCATs.

In your opinion, would you wait, or would you go to Saba?

Thank you so much in advance.

In addition to all the other advice you have received try UK or Ireland or a medical school in West Europe

Originally Posted by Evereadyclassic

To the original poster. The above is nonsense. I had 36S (13,12,11) on my MCATs and failed to get into Canadian schools 3 years running. I went to Saba, graduated and am doing a residency in Internal Medicine.

My honest advice depends on where you are in life. If you're willing to wait it out a bit more, I'd retake the MCATs and try the Canadian schools again (add in some US schools if you're willing). If you want to get started now, retake the MCATs anyway, go to Saba, reapply while you're there. I have two friends who were accepted while at Saba. There a year behind me, but they'll get a great residency in Canada without worrying about step scores.

Sorry, but this is terrible advice. What was your GPA? If you had a good GPA with a 36S MCAT, you should have gone to school in the US. Yes things worked out for you because when you applied for residency there were about 6000 surplus residency positions in the US that you could apply for. By the time this person graduates there will be 0, unless O (or whoever the next president is) increases the number of medicare funded spots.

There's absolutely no reason for OP to attend a Carib school when those grades will get them into an American MD or DO school. They will basically have a 100% guarantee of a residency in the US and be treated as a CMG when applying to Canada. If they go to Saba they have a 50% chance of being expelled, and even if they make it through the program they will have a hard time finding a residency without excellent board scores.

Originally Posted by benevolo

Sorry, but this is terrible advice. What was your GPA? If you had a good GPA with a 36S MCAT, you should have gone to school in the US. Yes things worked out for you because when you applied for residency there were about 6000 surplus residency positions in the US that you could apply for. By the time this person graduates there will be 0, unless O (or whoever the next president is) increases the number of medicare funded spots.

There's absolutely no reason for OP to attend a Carib school when those grades will get them into an American MD or DO school. They will basically have a 100% guarantee of a residency in the US and be treated as a CMG when applying to Canada. If they go to Saba they have a 50% chance of being expelled, and even if they make it through the program they will have a hard time finding a residency without excellent board scores.

The original poster is referring to Canadian NOT US schools. DO schools have more trouble than Carib in getting to Canada, because the degrees are for the most part simply not recognized.

Saba students that make it through do NOT have a hard time finding residency. You are misinformed. I refer you to the match lists on the Saba website.

I had a 3.86 GPA. The fact that I had good stats is irrelevant to the issue. I did not get into a Canadian school, I was successful at Saba. You are right, I probably could have matriculated to an American school. My perception, is that as an international student, my debt load at a US school would be very high, and I would likely end up in IM which is what I'm doing from Saba at a fraction of the cost.

While were at it. What are your stats? Where are you in your medical career that you're offering such ludicrous advice?

Originally Posted by Evereadyclassic

The original poster is referring to Canadian NOT US schools. DO schools have more trouble than Carib in getting to Canada, because the degrees are for the most part simply not recognized.

No offense, but this post continues to show you are very misinformed. Not only are DO degrees recogizined in Canada, they are considered canadian medical grads and can apply through the regular CMG stream of CaRMS in the first iteration along with US MD and Canadian MD grads, at least in BC ONtario and possibly a few other provinces. Saba students have to apply in the IMG stream with the other 3500 Canadians studying in international schools.

Saba students that make it through do NOT have a hard time finding residency. You are misinformed. I refer you to the match lists on the Saba website.

You seem to have trouble reading my post and differentiating the past vs future prospects of Saba and other caribbean grads.

I had a 3.86 GPA. The fact that I had good stats is irrelevant to the issue. I did not get into a Canadian school, I was successful at Saba. You are right, I probably could have matriculated to an American school. My perception, is that as an international student, my debt load at a US school would be very high, and I would likely end up in IM which is what I'm doing from Saba at a fraction of the cost.

I would suggest, again, that you read more carefully next time you post. If you were starting at Saba now you may have a lot more difficulty matching into IM. I would agree with you if this was 5 years ago. Even then, nobody knows really what they want to match into before starting clerkship, so going to Saba when you could get into a US school means you are severely limiting your options for where and what specialties you can apply for.

Originally Posted by Evereadyclassic

While were at it. What are your stats? Where are you in your medical career that you're offering such ludicrous advice?

I do not think that Benevelo is offering "ludicrous" advice here. I agree that Canadian medical schools are extremely competitive and turn away well qualified candidates all the time. Hence, Saba does very well with this influx and those get thru the program quite well. What everyone is advising the OP is that given a choice (which is possible if the OP has the stats he/she has provided) one should always first exhaust all possibilities with North American Medical Schools before considering the Caribbean route.

You are correct that the higher tuition of North American Medical Schools can be a hindrance, but given the trend in difficulty to attain residency for IMGs and projection that the level of difficulty is to increase substantially with new D.O. schools and MD programs increasing seats, combined with the inherent weedout mentality of Caribbean programs....these aspects in my opinion combined far outweigh the tuition of US schools.

You may also say that if one is strong student coming into a Caribbean program, then the weedout process does not make a difference. To a certain extent I would agree with you. But the stress level is very high at these programs and given a choice I would not want to go thru it again. This is just another hurdle we faced on the islands that the OP will not face at a US school. Hard to get in, but once you're in....you're in.

As you said correctly, Saba has and still enjoys some very impressive placements, but the question remains how long will this remain? Time will tell.

Originally Posted by seattle

I do not think that Benevelo is offering "ludicrous" advice here. I agree that Canadian medical schools are extremely competitive and turn away well qualified candidates all the time. Hence, Saba does very well with this influx and those get thru the program quite well. What everyone is advising the OP is that given a choice (which is possible if the OP has the stats he/she has provided) one should always first exhaust all possibilities with North American Medical Schools before considering the Caribbean route.

You are correct that the higher tuition of North American Medical Schools can be a hindrance, but given the trend in difficulty to attain residency for IMGs and projection that the level of difficulty is to increase substantially with new D.O. schools and MD programs increasing seats, combined with the inherent weedout mentality of Caribbean programs....these aspects in my opinion combined far outweigh the tuition of US schools.

You may also say that if one is strong student coming into a Caribbean program, then the weedout process does not make a difference. To a certain extent I would agree with you. But the stress level is very high at these programs and given a choice I would not want to go thru it again. This is just another hurdle we faced on the islands that the OP will not face at a US school. Hard to get in, but once you're in....you're in.

As you said correctly, Saba has and still enjoys some very impressive placements, but the question remains how long will this remain? Time will tell.

Given my prior impression of you, I'm surprised to say that I agree with everything you say here.

I never felt the US schools were an option for me. But, for any Canadian students willing to shell out a lot more money, the return is definitely there. As you say, you're in the system, even if you're an average student during medical school in the US, better residencies are available than if you go to Saba. However, many Saba students do get great residencies. I believe the system is tough, but it works.

For the frugal student, frustrated with the Canadian system, unwilling to pay a large premium, who doesn't need to do a Derm residency, Saba gets you there. Yes, I agree its stressful. I know many students who would not do it again. That doesn't mean they all regret it though. Just that once is enough.

I would be careful attempting to predict the shortage in residency spots coming up. Going back in the forums here you'll find that these predictions have been made well before even I joined valuemd.

When I started at Saba there were the same predictions of IMGs being completely excluded from the pool of residency spots due to increased med school seats. As you say, time will tell if these ever come true.