Are DO or Caribbean medical schools a good option?

So you’re considering Caribbean or DO schools as an alternative option to allopathic U.S. medical schools.

Maybe you applied last year and didn’t get into any MD schools (it happens) - or you want to apply to a few DO or Caribbean schools as a backup the same year that you are applying to MD schools.

So which one should you pick if you get into one or both? Watch my video now about it all:

The truth is that DO schools are generally a much better option for most people because they are on U.S. soil, and put students through a rigorous training that is virtually identical to U.S. allopathic schools, and as a result they are significantly more respected than Caribbean schools.

Graduating from a Caribbean school is still a potentially viable option, it just won’t give you access to as many career options as a DO school. You also won’t have the unfortunate stigma that is associated with Caribbean med schools.

One of the only reasons why you should consider a...

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Are European Medical Schools a Good Option?

European medical schools come up a lot as an option that some of my students are considering.

 

I break it down and explain whether you should consider European medical schools or not in a recent video:

 

[VIDEO] – Are European medical schools a good option?

 

The long and short of it is that you don’t want to go to a European medical school if at all possible, because in America, for better or worse, we are bourgeois - we have high standards for medical graduates, and to have the best chance of getting a great residency, you’ll need to go to a U.S. medical school.

 

With that said, it doesn’t mean that all European medical schools are out of the question. You are just going to have to do your research if you are seriously considering one, and make sure that you’re going to be able to use your medical degree from that school in the state that you plan on practicing in.

 

Otherwise, it will be a lot of effort and money without a...

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Do MCAT scores expire? Everything to know about why you should care!

So, a big question that many students have is whether or not MCAT scores expire, and if they expire when do they exactly?

 

Technically they never expire, but in the eyes of medical schools they absolutely do!

Watch my video now where I explain more:

 

 

The reality is that most med schools won’t consider MCAT scores that are any older than 2 or 3 years max. Many schools are set at around 2 years – so what does this mean for you?

 

Well – here’s a big tip, you NEVER want to take the MCAT until the rest of your application is fully ready for submission!

 

Otherwise you put yourself at risk of getting a great score on the MCAT and then having to wait over 2 or 3 years before you can apply to med schools and not having that score considered.

 

That means that your GPA needs to be competitive, extracurriculars good to go, research experiences, etc. Once all of that is ready, only then should you be considering taking the MCAT.

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Can you reuse MCAT passages? What you might not be thinking about.

A few students have asked me if they can reuse their MCAT passages if they are close to “running out” of them. The short answer is: yes, but the long answer is that if you are running out of questions, you probably aren’t utilizing your MCAT questions to the maximum potential.

Watch my recent video where I explain what I mean:

My approach to the MCAT incorporates question based learning so that you increase your score not just by going through questions, but reviewing them thoroughly and effectively so that you understand what you got wrong or right and why.

You should be taking enough time to review your questions so that you aren’t just mowing them down ineffectively and not really breaking down your thought process. Understanding the why behind your right and wrong answer and developing critical thinking skills to

It’s not about the content - knowing or not knowing the question, it’s about learning an approach that will provide maximum gains...

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Are you blissfully ignorant about it takes to get into med school?

Ignorance is bliss - but that bliss comes at a cost. If you’ve seen the movie, “The Matrix” you remember the scene with Agent Smith and Cypher - where he’s eating a steak in the matrix and knows it’s not real, yet admires how pleasant it tastes.

Meanwhile, in the “real world” - there’s a lot of hardship, struggles, and battles that his friends are facing.

They’re going through a lot of turmoil, but at the end of the day, they get to know and understand reality better than anyone else. And most importantly, they are genuinely free as human beings.

While the people who are stuck in “the matrix” are really weakened and enslaved as a result of their ignorance.

A similar thing can happen in college - where you feel blissfully ignorant about the future - whether that future is the med school application process, or the hard work it’s going to take to find a great job after college, or getting into grad school.

Watch...

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Do you wonder if you can get into med school with a low GPA?

So you feel like you messed up in undergrad and got a low GPA, maybe around 2.8 or even lower. Does that mean that your dreams of being a doctor are gone forever?

Watch this video now where I break it down for you:

As you’ll see, your doctor's dreams are still perfectly intact if you want them to be - even with a low GPA - but you’re going to have to work your tail off to raise your GPA.

A better question is - are you willing to put in up to 4 years of work to fix that low GPA to get into med school? If you’re willing to do that, then you should continue.

It may take up to 4 years, it may take even longer, but by taking as many courses as you need to raise your GPA, and taking other steps to strengthen your application and score competitively on the MCAT, you’ll eventually get to med school.

Be ready to put the work in - but more importantly, you’re going to have to learn the right study habits and skills that are going to ensure you don’t mess...

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What do you think it takes to meet Med School standard MCAT scores?

If you plan on taking the MCAT in the future, you’re probably concerned about what you need to score at minimum to ensure that you’ll be considered by your favorite medical schools. 

I covered that in a recent video:

First, you need to understand what medical schools are doing with your MCAT scores. Med schools have minimum mandatory cutoffs - you need to meet this cutoff score to even be looked at.

For most schools, the MCAT cutoff is in the 504-505 range - that is what you need to score at minimum to ensure that your awesomeness will be considered (extracurriculars, personal statement, GPA, etc.) Lower tier schools might be slightly below this for their cutoff, say around 502-504.

You shouldn’t shoot for this score however, you’ll want to aim to score at least in the 80th percentile which is around 510 to have plenty of space between your score and the cutoff, and also to show schools that you are an elite test-taker. Test-taking skills matter to...

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5+ Lessons About Pre-med and Getting into Medical School: Part 5- It’s easy to rationalize

People sometimes feel that I’m abrasive, harsh and that I’m one-sided about things.

We rationalize what we do when we don’t invest.

It’s not about buying a course. How many of you don’t spend on time working on yourself? How many of you know that you have glaring weakness but don’t put in any time to work on it because you rationalize?

It’s super easy to justify and rationalize your inability to do what’s required of you - whether it’s in investing in yourself monetarily or in terms of time or in the analytics.

I have a student who told me that he takes the time to analyze what he does every semester - and that was how he got better at studying.

He’s investing in himself by analyzing himself and being critical at himself. He smiles in his face, wait until he turns around and laugh at how stupid he’s been.

How do you give a hundred percent?

I had someone ask me how do you give a hundred percent - because he was...

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5+ Lessons About Pre-med and Getting into Medical School: Part 4- We’re eager to learn but we don’t know who to trust

How many of you are eager to learn how to be better, in whatever way it is?

You’re eager to learn how to get into medical school.

You’re eager to learn about the MCAT

You’re eager to learn all these things in your life but you don’t know who and what to trust when it comes to information. Who feels that way?

It’s hard to know who to trust in this day and age because it’s so easy to play the role. It’s so easy for people to say, “Hey, trust me” and throw up a fancy website and video like they’re legitimate.

It’s so easy for someone to tell you, “Hey, I’m a dean, listen to me”, “Hey, I’m a learning specialist, listen to me”, “Hey, I’m your paid counselor for the university for 25 years advising students, trust me.” It’s hard to turn away from them.

Because you think that they’re the people that should be bringing you the expert advice that you can trust.

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5+ Lessons About Pre-med and Getting into Medical School: Part 3-We always think we have a unique problem

Have you ever felt like you’re all alone with the struggles you’re going through - that no one else has ever experienced the challenges you have faced as a premed?

Although that feeling is perfectly normal, it can make it harder to find the help that you need to overcome your problems and reach out for guidance.

People are scared of letting the whole world know their problems because:
They fear other people judging them and seeing that they have some weakness,
Everyone thinks that their problem is unique, that their situation is something that no one else has been through or it is something that nobody has ever encountered before.

We’re scared to ask out loud.

But, guess what: your problems are not unique.

Do you have money problems? I did too - my financial problems were always on my mind as a premed, I was broke most of my undergrad and didn’t have the money for basic things sometimes like books.

Do you come from a family or go to a high school that...

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