REDEFINING THE CONCEPT OF "THE BIG...IN CARIBBEAN MEDICAL SCHOOLS"


I HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY REQUESTED TO VOICE WHAT I THINK, AND DEFINE WHAT THE CONCEPT OF "THE BIG...." BLA BLA BLA MEANS, IN REFERRENCE TO MED SCH. IN THE CARIBBEAN REGION.

HERE IS MY ADVICE TO ALL NEW APPLICANTS TO MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN THE CARIBBEAN REGION.

I WOULD DEFINE *** *** ******S IN THE CARIBBEAN REGION OR "THE BIG..." SO TO SPEAK, AS THOSE WITH A PERFORMANCE OF ABOVE 78% ON USMLE I, WITH A PRIORITY CONSIDERATION OF THOSE THAT HAVE THE PERFORMANCE OF 80% AND ABOVE, AS THE REAL McCOYs OF THE REGION AND ARE COMPARABLE TO THE BEST OF U.S.A.

EDUCATION IS ABOUT ACADEMICS & PERFORMANCE NOT INSTITUTIONAL PROPAGANDA AND CERTAINLY NOT BUILDINGS...AS STUDENTS NEVER OWN THESE BUILDINGS BUT THEY OWN THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.

SO YOU WANNA APPLY TO THE BIG SEVEN OF THE REGION, CHECK THEIR USMLE 1 RESULTS. SIMPLE!!!AFTER ALL YOU ARE IN THE REGION FOR JUST A FEW MONTHS AND THE REST OF THE YEARS ELSEWHERE.

MAGEN-MD
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CALLING A SPADE A SPADE

The two digit scores are neither percentages nor percentiles. The percentile can be calculated from the three digit score.

There is no guarantee that a school is not lying about its reported USMLE pass rate since there is no official data. Some schools provide a total pass rate regardless of the number of times attempted, which is obviously going to be inflated. Some of the smaller schools rely on self-reporting of scores by students rather than requesting an official USMLE transcript from the ECFMG.

So, while the classification of the schools as "Big X" is not perfect, at least there's an official unbiased report on the school from an American State Medical Board to back it up.

__________________
Sree

[X]FM [X]IM [X]Ob[X] Surg [X]Psych [X]Peds
Electives [X]1 [X]2 [X]3 [X]4 [*]5 [ ]6 [ ]7

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Hey Sree,

How are you liking Emergency Med rotation?

Anyhow, I do know nothing is perfect. Perfection is for God. Not human endevours. I am aware of that. I know AUA very well, and I truely believe ASUSM is unique in many ways. If you wanna me to intellectually compare the two, let me know. For Mona, I have nothing to say to your posting... Coz I do not believe it would make any difference.

Regards,

Magen

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i agree with sree having a medical board to back it up is something big and am not going to compare ASUSM to AUA, every school is different many in our school argue "AUA got new york approved fast, and we should have the same" well i look at it this way AUA started the their school with strong finiancial backing and lots of experience as the owner happened to be DR.Ross's son ( correct me if am wrong, thats wat ive heard so far), Allsaints for the most part had sustained on student tutions. But am sure sree would agree every school needs time to grow, and the rate of growth will differ from school to school this can be due to various reasons, but wat new students dont realize is when they come to a new school, they want things put in place fast and want to see an exponential growth, sadly thats not how things work they take time, ASUSM is been open for 2yrs now, the growth it has achived in these 2yrs can only be appreciated by the ppl who started with the school, theres always room for improvement certain things could been done better or sooner, but no school is perfect, i believe in this school and thats the reason am still here, i know NY accredation might or might not happen during my remaining time here, but i see the effort the school is making to get us there. I've repeated this in all my post, potential students who choose newer school, need to understand the pros and cons of a newer school, before they go there to make their time on the island a enjoyable one.

mona i understand ur concerns, u have every right to speak out, but if u feel this way about the school my only advice to you is transfer to another school, my only request is try to keep your critisicsm and comments constructive, if u feel theres cheating going on and no action is being taken just post that info, not who u think so and so is on valuemd and which individual cheats in class, b/c its not going to help the ppl on this forum, just let them know wats happening, so lets keep the drama inside the school and not the forums.

what ever make you happy and sleep at night.

correction, the former president (and most of the faculty) are from Ross before the Devry take-over. AUA is in no way affiliated with the Ross family.

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I'm like Internationally-known

Yeah I've gotta throw my 2 cents on on this **. A 78 or 80 on the USMLE step 1 is just barely passing. Its like making a D- on a test thats graded from A to F.

75 is the passing two digit score correlating with a 175. Making an 80 is still under 200.

If you are graduating from a foreign medical school and you make under an 82 (200) on step 1 you better have cured cancer or something on your CV cause your chances of landing a residency program are in the toilet.

this is completely wrong on many counts. true, the chances of landing something like rads, gen surgery, etc are diminished...... they can easily obtain non competitve residencies. i know someone who failed step 1 and then just passed "barely" according to your standards.... but still got quite a few IM interviews and matched at a great program (university too).

i also know somebody that failed step 1, step 2 ck and cs once but still got quite a few IM and Neurology interviews and matched into a neuro program.

lastly, i know another person that got "barely passing" scores (once again... your standards) on both steps.... but still managed to match at a texas IM program.

heck, people i never thought would ever match winded up matching this year.... but they did. strange, huh? no cures for cancer were needed for them and they didnt even have any research experience.

you just cant make blanket statements like above because it simply is not true and all you will end up doing is make somebody freak out that they will not match at all in any specialty if they get numbers around an 80 or lower. its simply not the case.

ps.... what year did you take the step 1?..... i took it in the begining of 2006 and the pass score then was set at 182 (75). i think it was raised recently (last year) to 185 (75) now.

edit: i just did some research on it.....on may 1st 2003 the pass score was raised from 174 to 182.

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Dr. Scott
Internal Medicine
PGY-1

AUC Forum Moderator