This is an open discussion thread for current students, past students, and graduates of the American University of Antigua College of Medicine. Whether you’re in basic sciences on the island, going through clinical rotations, navigating the residency match, or already practicing as a physician. Share your honest experience. What’s life really like at AUA? How rigorous is the curriculum? What’s the USMLE preparation like? Can graduates realistically match into US residency programs? What do you wish you knew before enrolling? All perspectives welcome, the good, the bad, and everything in between. This thread exists so prospective students get the real picture, not just the admissions brochure.
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okay so i’m currently in my 3rd year doing my clinicals rotation in new york and i can actually speak to this. basic sciences in antigua was no joke. like the first semester alone felt like drinking from a fire hose. anatomy, biochem, physio all at once and the professors don’t slow down for anyone.
that said the kaplan materials integration is legit for USMLE. i felt genuinely prepared going into step 1 and ended up scoring better than i expected. the library resources and question banks they give access to are solid.
clinicals are good too. my rotation sites in new jersey have been great and i’ve worked with attendings who actually care about teaching. i won’t pretend the caribbean img stigma doesn’t exist when you’re applying for residency but it’s workable if your scores are strong. just gotta put in more effort than your MD counterparts, simple as that.
AUA alum here, currently im resident at a community program in ohio. gonna be real with you guys. matching was stressful. i applied to like 80 programs and got maybe 12 interviews. but i DID match so yes it happens. what helped me the most was my step 1 score (245), a research abstract i picked up during third year, and two really strong letters of recommendation from attendings who knew me well. the nyc and new jersey clinical sites are actually really good, i worked with some excellent attendings who wrote those letters for me.
step scores are everything when you’re a caribbean img. programs literally use it as the first filter. if your score is weak you’re not even getting looked at. so prioritize that above everything else during basic sciences.
i’m gonna be the voice nobody wants to hear here. i left aua after semester 2. not because i was failing either, i was passing. i left because the administration was honestly one of the most disorganized things i’ve ever dealt with in my life. getting transcripts sorted took weeks. financial aid emails went unanswered for days. scheduling mix-ups that nobody took responsibility for.
i’m in a pa program now and much happier but i’m still paying off loans from those two semesters. so just know what you’re potentially signing up for. the academics might be fine but everything around it can be really exhausting to deal with. maybe it’s gotten better since 2019, i genuinely don’t know. just sharing my experience.
class of 2009 here, been an attending for over 12 years now. let me give the long view since most people posting are still in training.
once you’re in practice nobody cares where you went to medical school. genuinely. i have colleagues from harvard and colleagues from aua and the difference in patient care quality has nothing to do with the school name. what matters is how much you actually learned and how hard you work.
the path through aua is harder, that’s just true. the stigma is real during residency applications and you have to fight for interviews in a way that us-MD grads don’t. but the destination is the same if you stick with it. i wouldn’t trade my career for anything. just go in prepared mentally and financially because it is not a cheap or easy road.
admin has genuinely gotten better since then. i’m ms4 right now and yeah they’re not perfect but there’s a proper student services team now, emails get answered same day usually, and scheduling issues get resolved way faster. i think they went through a lot of internal changes post-covid.
for me personally aua was what i made it. the people who struggled academically were usually the ones who kept studying the same way they did in undergrad. you have to change how you approach it. once i figured out a system that worked for me my scores went way up. match day is coming up for me and fingers crossed but i feel good about where i’m at.
one thing i never see people talk about enough is specialty choice. this is so so important before you commit to any caribbean school.
if your dream is derm or neurosurgery, i’m not going to lie to you, that road as a caribbean International Medical Graduate is extremely difficult. not zero chance but extremely hard. but family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics genuinely very doable if your scores are solid and your Letters of Recommendation are strong.
i’m a family medicine attending now, aua class of 2015. i always wanted primary care so aua was the right fit for me. but i’ve seen classmates absolutely destroy themselves chasing super competitive specialties and not match for multiple cycles. be realistic about what you want and whether the math works out. don’t just assume you’ll figure it out later.
sorry to jump in but i have a quick question for the people who’ve been through it. how does aua compare to sgu or ross in terms of match rates? i keep seeing those three mentioned together and i can’t figure out if there’s a meaningful difference or if it’s basically the same situation with a different name.