Offshore medical schools are medical institutions outside the United States that mainly cater to international medical students, most of them U.S. or Canadian citizens. These schools tend to attract students in large numbers who have failed to gain admission to accredited North American medical schools, whether because of low scores on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), low undergraduate GPAs or a combination of both. Distinguishing offshore medical schools from other (public) academic institutions in the Caribbean is the fact that the former offer programs that are geared almost exclusively towards U.S. medical students while the latter mostly train domestic students.
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Caribbean Medical Education – the Process
The business of educating aspiring U.S. medical professionals internationally, and in the Caribbean in particular, has exploded in the last decade. By and large, the schools that cater to overseas students in the Caribbean are considered a last option for those who have been rejected by accredited medical schools in the United States and Canada.
The Process
Those studying in the Caribbean typically seek a route to a medical career in North America through a certification process overseen by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) that involves, among other things, that students pass Step 1 and Step 2 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) within a specified period of time, upon meeting eligibility requirements for those exams.
