By Benji Ho - February 13th, 2014 | Updated May 14th, 2019
When applying for residency, especially as an international medical graduate (IMG), it is important to apply broadly beyond the state or region that you want to end up, to maximize your chances at getting interviews and matching. Looking at the number of IMGs that match into residency in different states, it is clear that some states are more IMG-friendly than…
By Benji Ho - February 6th, 2014 | Updated November 26th, 2014
The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), formerly known as the “Dean’s Letter,” is a major component to your residency application. As its name suggests, it is a multiple page evaluation of your performance during all four years of medical school, including the good and the bad. It is put together by the school and sent to all the residency programs…
By Benji Ho - February 3rd, 2014 | Updated February 11th, 2014
During your third and fourth years of medical school, it is very important to establish good relationships with all the attending physicians you work with during your clinical rotations. Not only would it reflect positively on your rotation evaluations, which eventually show up on your MSPE letter, but also it would make it much easier to ask your attending for…
By Benji Ho - January 1st, 2014 | Updated March 15th, 2014
With a world as diverse and fascinating as ours, Irene and I want to see as much of it as we can in our lives. Despite our busy study schedules during the past four years, we’ve managed to squeeze in quite a few trips exploring the Caribbean as well as Europe. When your medical school is in the Caribbean and…
By Benji Ho - November 20th, 2013 | Updated November 20th, 2013
As many of you know, I have recently finished medical school, passed the Step 2 CK exam and am in the process of applying to residency programs in Family Medicine. I have almost two-thirds of a year before starting residency (fingers-crossed). In the meantime, I have moved back to my hometown of Macon, Georgia, and started working full-time with my…
By Benji Ho - November 18th, 2013 | Updated November 26th, 2013
Got my diploma in the mail. 🙂
Although there are several graduation dates per year when diplomas are issued out, there is only one graduation ceremony each year, which takes place in May on St. Maarten. I always thought that it was beautiful to end your journey where you began, on the island, but now with a different perspective. As…
By Benji Ho - November 15th, 2013 | Updated July 9th, 2016
“PASS” … I can’t explain how relieved those four letters made me feel when I opened my USMLE Step 2 CK exam score report on my computer screen. After countless hours of study, an ever-receding hairline, and lots of patience and support on my wife’s part, I’ve passed my last exam in medical school, and my last requirement for graduation.…
By Benji Ho - September 14th, 2013 | Updated September 22nd, 2014
In order to practice medicine in the US, all graduates must go through an ACGME-accredited residency program at a US teaching hospital after graduating from medical school. There are two main ways to get a residency:
1. Match Most US hospitals and students participate in the Main Match. To participate in the match, during our 4th year of med school,…
By Benji Ho - August 30th, 2013 | Updated November 17th, 2013
After 72 weeks of clinical rotations, taking me from hospitals and clinics across the country to those overseas in England, from college town Gainesville to urban under-served Bronx, I have finally finished my last day of medical school! It has been quite an adventure, and I feel I have grown much not only as a physician-in-training but as a person.…
By Benji Ho - August 29th, 2013 | Updated November 19th, 2013
For my last four weeks of clinical rotations for medical school, I headed back up to Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) in Long Island to complete a rotation in Emergency Medicine. I wanted to do this rotation for several reasons. To begin with, I really like Nassau University Medical Center and had a good impression of the clinical site when…
By Benji Ho - July 8th, 2013 | Updated August 30th, 2013
For those of you who are planning on going to the UK for clinical rotations, the UKBA has recently made some changes regarding visas for spouses that are important to know. Thank you to AUC Spouses Jamie Grove and Melissa Hollingsworth for providing the following post regarding these changes:
Attention All Spouses
All spouses considering pursuing clinical rotations in the…
By Benji Ho - June 13th, 2013 | Updated November 16th, 2013
After nearly 2 months of waiting, today I finally got the official word that I passed the clinical skills portion of the USMLE Step 2 exam!
This is a huge relief, especially after such a long wait, and I celebrated today by going out with my brother Jimmy and my sister-in-law April to explore the cute little town of Micanopy,…
By Benji Ho - May 15th, 2013 | Updated May 15th, 2013
We often think of ourselves as our personalities, as personality is often the one thing we feel we can control. We cannot change the color of the skin we are born into, nor can we change the genetic dice that was rolled onto us. However, we can work on cultivating good character and choose how we express ourselves. But meeting…
By Benji Ho - May 5th, 2013 | Updated March 5th, 2014
Hi Folks,
A big hello from sunny Gainesville Florida! At last, I have completed my last core rotation, which was surgery in London, and am now finishing off my medical education with a few more elective rotations. I’ve decided to do Neurology, Nephrology, and Cardiology (4 weeks each) at the University of Florida’s Shands Hospital because I heard great things…
By Benji Ho - April 30th, 2013 | Updated November 17th, 2013
With the opportunity to see a wide range of surgical procedures, experience living and working in a different culture, and travel on the weekends, coming to Romford for surgery rotation is a popular choice among AUC students.
The approach to education at Romford is somewhat different than from other clinical sites I’ve been in the United States. In Romford, you…
By Benji Ho - April 2nd, 2013 | Updated December 9th, 2015
Irene and I never had a honeymoon after we got married. I was in the middle of my psychiatry sub-internship rotation at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami and she was in the middle of her clinical training as a physician assistant, and I was grateful that my attending gave me a day off to celebrate. When it came time to…
By Benji Ho - March 21st, 2013 | Updated March 4th, 2014
I have always had a fascination with remote places, places far different from what I’m familiar with growing up in the warm Deep South. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t mind going all the way down to a tiny island in the middle of the ocean for medical school. To commemorate my 29th birthday, and to take a break from my…
By Benji Ho - March 19th, 2013 | Updated March 20th, 2013
In the mornings when I arrive at the operation theaters, I see a list of different surgeries happening that day. There may be a cholecystectomy in one room, or a knee replacement surgery in another, a thyroidectomy happening now, or a brain biopsy scheduled in a few hours. If I hadn’t seen a particular surgery before, I can decide to…
By Benji Ho - February 17th, 2013 | Updated March 10th, 2019
Recently on a Friday evening in the ER with the resident I was following, I met an older gentleman in his early 70s who had come in complaining that he felt that his abdomen was pulsating with his heart. He had mild pain around his abdomen but was otherwise feeling fine elsewhere. After laying him down on the patient bed…
By Benji Ho - February 5th, 2013 | Updated February 5th, 2013
“I want to see your basketball dunking skills” my attending said to me, handing me the laparoscopic surgical tools that stuck halfway out of our patient’s abdomen. I was hesitant. I had never done anything like this before. I’ve always been used to using my hands, and trusting my fingers to directly carry out my commands seemingly without thought. But…
My name is Dr. Benji Ho and I am a family physician and 2013 graduate of the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC), located on the Dutch side of the beautiful island of St. Maarten. My time at AUC has been quite a worldwide adventure, studying two years of Basic Sciences on the island, then completing my clinical rotations in the US as well as the UK. I completed my family medicine residency at Mercer University School of Medicine / Navicent Health in Macon, Georgia. Today, I am a board-certified family physician practicing outpatient family medicine in Macon, Georgia. I hope you enjoy my site as I share with you my journey. Thanks for visiting Diary of a Caribbean Med Student!
When applying for residency, especially as an international medical graduate (IMG), it is important to apply broadly beyond the state or region that you want to end up, to maximize your chances at getting interviews and matching. Looking at the number of IMGs that match into residency in different states, it is clear that some states are more IMG-friendly than…
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Benji