I could rattle off plenty of specialists that I've come across that are caribbean grads.

Here's some truths --

a prospective student's best bet is 1. American MD 2. American DO 3. Caribbean

some options are off the table if you do go route 3 barring some amazing connections... like rad onc, neurosurgery, ortho.

But to assume that because option three becomes available that they are destined for failure or some impossible journey is a load of shit -- It's a path to practice medicine. It's not the same hand holding path filled with support, electricity, clean water and administrative support that American schools are blessed with -- but it's a path.

I won't go into my story to far, but I have fucking loved getting to where I am at and wouldn't trade my experiences for sitting in the middle of Kentucky at a DO school for 2 years. I'm going to match into primary care and do sports medicine and my fiancee who I've been with way before school started has a pretty good shot at getting into Radiology. I got to live on the side of a cliff with an ocean view, scuba dive ever weekend, hike in a rain forest for my study breaks. I've done rotations and lived in NYC, Miami, and Baltimore. All the while learning medicine on a path to reach my ultimate goal.

Do a lot of people fail? Sure. Are the schools' priorities in money? You bet. But -- it's a means to and end and for someone who comes from where I come from... i'll take it, and i'll be proud of it.

It's just a little insulting when somebody tells you what you're doing isn't good enough when I've rotated with hopkins and georgetown residents that are fucking as clueless as can be and do not like getting their hands dirty (they were an anomaly, not the rule - but still).

He's getting the right advice -- as a general rule, if you are made to have to go to a caribbean school as a last resort, medicine may not be for him at all. But for people to blindly to discredit the route that thousands of folks do so successfully is just a load of piss.