Clear, but not correct IMHO.

A school that is not a caribbean school does not have a caribbean stigma. Being a foriegn grad has a stigma of its own and that is unavoidable.. no doubt. but I would avoid an additional stigma, as I said before. Hence, why if I had to do it all over again, I would still not go caribb.. except SGU.

__________________
BTS4202
St. Christopher's COM
4th Year
http://www.mdparadise.com

"If there really is a God, He has a lot of explaining to do"
- Dennis Leary

are you for real? you think there is an "additional" stigma from the carib? you truly believe that you are avoiding some negative stigma by attending st chris?

hello justification!

you go to a senegalese school, in england. your school has an entire host of issues that have yet to be resolved. yet, you really think that because some PD was nice, and made an innocuous comment about your school being located in england, that you are avoiding some "additional" stigma?

well, all the real evidence tends to disagree with your "additional" stigma logic. the carib schools are miles ahead in terms of grads, licensure, success on the usmle, etc...so, i think it is blatantly misleading, once again, to allow people to think you attend an english school, and to imply that there is some sort of advantage to attending this school. clearly, the evidence puts you at a disadvantage to most of these schools with the "additional" stigma

Thank you for your well thought out opinion. It is ill informed, but you are entitled to that.

__________________
BTS4202
St. Christopher's COM
4th Year
http://www.mdparadise.com

"If there really is a God, He has a lot of explaining to do"
- Dennis Leary

I guess I'm just a little confused at what you posted earlier:

Noone even mentioned anything about matching. ******* expressed his opinion based on his experience with his residents and attendings with respect to being given more responsibilities during clinicals.

I can't say for sure if St. Chris students are getting any sort preferential treatment (read: more responsibilities) because they aren't from the Caribbean...but if, as you say, not many programs have heard of St. Chris, I could easily see how residents would offer St. Chris students more responsibility than Caribbean students in light of the negative stigma many of them attach to Carib students, no?

__________________
-z

how is it ill informed?

what is your evidence that there is less stigma? a PD being polite?

well, i stand by the real evidence...the lack of licensed grads, the fact that you cannot work some states (and who knows where you will be able to work!), the fact that other schools have thousands of grads working in all states, the fact that the carib schools get folks into uber competitive residencies....

so, it looks like the evidence is not in favor of your "additional stigma" theory, and it looks like you are basing your comments on your anecdotal experience, which frankly means squat.

talk about ill-informed...you are actively spreading mis-information!

drzed...

i am replying to these threads based on the statements others have made about some implied advantage st chris students may have because there school is not located in the carib. this is nonsense. there is no advantage when it comes to matching or responsibility level in clinicals.

and, as far as st chris being better off because nobody has heard of it...well, i doubt that is the case. if somebody has a negative experience with an offshore student, then they will be very likely to paint ALL of us with that same brush. so, the PD that had a bad experience with an AUC student will likely be shunning ALL offshore students. the exception will be when programs have had good experience with grads/students. then, likely they will continue to have those students on board, and offer them spots as residents.

in short, the entire point of my multiple tirades is this: st chris has NO ADVANTAGE based on its geographical location. no matter what current students want to believe, nobody is fooled into thinking that you attend an english school. so, by getting on here and stating to a potential student "well, so and so PD said thank god i wasn't from the carib, so we have less stigma" is misleading and stupid.

neil, don't get me wrong, but you just always come across so negatively towards stchris. it's fine, i understand you've have a bad taste in your mouth from how this forum and the old forums used to be, but in case you haven't noticed - this forum is MUCH more balanced now. we have students giving both sides of every situation and everything in between.

they shared their experiences about attendings who probably didn't know that st.chris is very similar in structure to the other carib schools, save for its physical location in uk.

not ALL, in fact not many, of our students are the promoters and agents you make us out to be. seems very much like you've developed a stigma of your own of all stchris students...

__________________
-z

i do have issues with st chris in general, and particular students of the school. however, you and many others are not in this group. i do find that it is getting better with the current students a bit more willing to vent concerns and questions. but, it still is the same few that come here with the hard sell, and the misinformation that keep me looking at the posts in this forum.

the problem is not that somebody is saying "an attending was happy with me" or something like that. it is that your salespeople, er i mean students, are trying to convince a potential student that attendings and PD's will prefer st chris students because they are not carib students. that is total misleading **. these conversations may have actually taken place, but they are surely taken out of context. i can understand that some starry eyed pre med might say "gee, the program directors are going to be so glad that i am not a carib student, and i will be better off" because of what is being portrayed. i would be super pissed if i was that pre-med, and was duped into attending this school, and then later found out that we were all in the same boat, and i was stuck with all the other limitations that st chris has!

again, i have no problem with the students that attend these schools, and try to do the best they can. that is great, we are all in a similar situation, and i wish you the best.

Sure, the "Senegal" listed on your transcript (ECFMG lists the country of charter)---<<SARCASM>>---, will make all the difference in the world. I believe that a PD will go with a school they are familiar with, rather than an "unknown" non-Caribbean school. Coming from AUC, which has Caribbean in the name, I can tell you I have seen no such problems. I think that statement is naive. Do you really think a PD is going to look at a school like Ross or AUC and say "those are Caribbean schools", and then look at an unknown like St. Chris from Sengal, and choose a resident based on that?? If they do, they are morons. There aren't too many morons running residency programs.

__________________
AUC Class of '99
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I may be a jerk, but I'm a Jedi jerk like my father.

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DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

"you went to school in the caribbean?, you're so lucky, i wish i had known we could do that"

ive heard this countless times from different attendings at institutions from AZ to OH to VA and places in between

does this mean i should skip out in going to a US med school these residents/attendings graduated from to go to the caribbean... absolutely not

all of these statements are meaningless. you cannot read more into them, they are dependant on an individuals specific knowledge about offshore schools..(or rather lack thereof) .. some know less.. some know more..

i completed all of my electives alongside US medical students.. only at one place was there 1 other caribbean student in the same hospital diff rotation (friend from my class)... i honored all of my electives, even had grades better than some us students ... what does that mean.. i was given more responsibility and i was at an advantage because "i was so lucky i got to go to school in the caribbean??" ..absolutely not.. i was on the ball and did what i needed to do, didnt have to do more work than than the us student with the same grade as me to prove myself, but was actually on par.. we were at the same level in terms of what we put into the rotation.. and we received the same grade.. us students werent given preferential tx over me...

can you really derive more information from a statement such as "thank god you didnt go to school in the carib" other than take it at face value that the one particular person is not familiar and knowledgable about the real facts... u cannot deny that SGU is far superior to st chris... if your attending knew the details i am sure he would be singing a very different song, but of course he does not know the details, and i dont expect a student studying in the "UK" to clear the situation up because the ignorance is advantageous to u..

for every attending thats said "good u arent in the carib" theres another doc out there at another hosp saying "wow u went to school in the carib u are so lucky." two very opposing attitudes, but both exist, just depends on which attending you talk to.

these statements are absolutely meaningless, they dont hold any weight.
if u want to pretend that PD's think st chris is better than sgu/ross/auc because thank god st chris is england and not in the carib..then one can go ahead and use those statements to justify that thought, but fact of the matter is, its not true. its a misrepresentation of the facts.

i dont think this was ever an issue of which students get favored in rotations (the attendings/residents know who is doin the work and reading and they know whose slackin off.. ) so if one is givin "more responsibility" i think it has to do more with ur work ethic, maturity, knowlegde, skills, something tangible that you have demonstrated during your time with the attending, something other students did not show, as opposed to u being "from" england.. i am very certain that if a student from "england" was in the hospital "screwing up".. and other caribbean students were on the ball.. then the other students would get treated better.. but this is neither here nor there..

if telling attendings " i went to school in the uk" gets u favorable tx during rotations, great more power to u....

bottom line is when u apply for residency or licensure its not going to matter how you were treated in clinicals, on ur app it will not list UK it will list Senegal so attending basic sciences in the uk is not going to give u the edge that "UK schools are superior to caribbean schools" because its going to be a matter of Caribbean school vs Senegalese school.

personally, being honest in acknowleding I didnt make it into an american/canadian school and never would have, and candidly discussing the reality of attending an offshore school catering to us rejects and actually making it through earned me a lot more respect with my attendings than pretending i was "lucky" and went to school in some "exotic place" as was their initial reaction to my choice in education.
misrepresentation can only get one so far, and then, at so me point, theres going to be alot of explaining to do