Thank you all for your comments to this thread. The answer I was looking for actually came in the first few posts. It seams the rest of the posts were just a recap of the same arguments that have been circulating around on the rest of the forum and with the usual contributors.

Who are you people?

I am wondering who the people are that seam so angry about these foreign schools. Are you ex students of a foreign school that turned out to be a bad med school? Are you graduates of American medical schools who have worked with foreign doctors who are poorly qualified? Are you med school drop outs that are blaming the world for your short comings? Or are you just uncomfortable with foreign cultures?

My turn to stand on a Soap box and shout

We as a nation can not escape the fact that we are loosing our edge in the world of science education. More and more the great minds in this country are the minds of immigrants who did the vast majority of their education in another country. I have read that as high as 20% of our incoming physicians are being trained at foreign medical schools.

Our criticism of foreign training is astounding especially here in California were we have fallen to the bottom of the list for the quality of our k-12 education. While we may still be at the top of the list for university studies we owe a huge amount of our success to foreign students whose grade school education included multiple foreign languages advanced mathematics and science education. Many of our European counterparts speak 2, 3, and 4 languages often including Greek and or Latin which are key components to the languages of science disciplines. While I agree our colleges and universities are turning out some of the most highly educated professionals in the world a shrinking percentage of those great minds are actually American born.

In fact it may be that the reason our schools are so successful has more to do with the foreign educated students than it has to do with anything else. If you need proof just look are the first time pass rates on the MLE’s for foreign students’ verses American born students. Foreign students have a higher pass rate.

Before we get to high on our horse we may want to take a step back and appreciate the excellent education systems around the world that are contributing their talented students to our universities and ultimately our society.

My plans as a mold breaker

I personally have not decided which medical school I will attend. I am in the process of applying to several. As an avid SCUBA diver and life long sailor I would be a fool not to look into the possibility of living in the Caribbean for a few years. It is clear that there are now 4 medical schools in the Caribbean that are basically US medical schools. Those medical schools started out just like AUA. They were small and they struggled to gain acceptance. Eventually they did gain acceptance and we as US citizens are better off for it.

While AUA may not be right for me as a Californian I support what they are trying to do and I hope they succeed. We have a shortage of seats in US medical schools and we have a shortage of skilled MDs around the world.

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your discussion.

For those of you who are in this forum to help people get the information they need thank you.

For those of you who are harboring angst and anger about these Caribbean med schools please watch your blood pressure.

I hope those of you how seam addicted to value MD eventually find what you are looking for.

Thanks again,

Tyson

Well, some are self-styled consumer advocates who are trying to protect people from newer Caribbean schools. Whether or not anyone likes it, new schools in this region tend to not be successful. Posters on this site may be among the reasons that AUA no longer tells prospective students that they can practice in California or lists California hospitals on their clinical sites page. So, some of this outpouring is actually good.

Then, there's the arrogant crowd that makes things up about the school and tries to belittle its students or teachers. Yeah, it may be a good idea to choose a more established school that AUA - but once you've decided to go here, you could not possibly ask for more, especially in terms of teaching or facilities. There are so many legitimate criticisms to be made against AUA that it's mindboggling to me why people even bother to make things up.

Finally, there are people who are uneducated about Indian teachers and the Indian educational system. Chances are they'll end up working alongside Indian medical graduates in the future, and will change their minds.





My biggest motivation for graduating and leaving Antigua this April is that I never have to ever log into ValueMD again. And, I pity the next guy who ends up moderating this place!


Good luck with your search.

__________________
Sree

Don't know what a Greenbook rotation is? Click here.
Preliminary list of state licensing requirements here.

Cali....who cares.

__________________
http://www.hornafrica.biz/index.html

probably the OP who is from california?

__________________
OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

nice post, its good to see aua students holding their school responsible for their actions. i do wish aua good luck in succeeding, i just dont like some of their tactics and shadiness. hopfully those shady days are behind them, and it was a good move dumping that fasfa twinning scam and the cali delussions.

all i wish is that the current students hold the school responsible for their actions. they will get more results that way.

when the school behaves with high standards, you get results. look at saba as a prime example.

__________________
Dr. Scott
Internal Medicine
PGY-1

AUC Forum Moderator

it is still advertised as such. here is the ad from today
<IMG height=1 alt="" width=1>Kasturba's 1st US Campus
AUA-KMC Twinning Prog for MD Degree Guaranteed U.S. Clinical Clerkships
www.auamed.org

__________________
OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

well i guess the school continues to be shady and misrepresents itself.

__________________
Dr. Scott
Internal Medicine
PGY-1

AUC Forum Moderator

What is the point of all of this? Everyone knows that AUA is not accredited/certified/recognized/whatever other word you want to use in California. And considering the numerous, mind-numbing posts on this same topic, anyone who starts a new thread about it should not even be accepted to medical school, because it is evident that they do not know how to read or do a little research.

Things that should be addressed here as issues such as how Atlanta Medical Center will no longer, as of January 1, allow any foreign medical students to even enter their hospital. Or how med students associated with GMCGroup are getting screwed because of this loss of affiliation, and also because GMCGroup does not have all green book rotations. The Director of Operations at GMCGroup wrote that “’Green Book’ rotations are a simple and inaccurate notion.” These are the things that NEED to be addressed and corrected immediately.

This forum has been degraded from a helpful link for current and prospective students, to a worthless pit full of angry and bitter students trashing their school and others. The 2% of people who have something intelligent to contribute do not contribute, for the simple fact that it will just be turned into more trash. The school that you are attending is the result of your personal decision, and you must live with that. If you publicly trash your school, you might as well post that you are the same as the school, and trash yourself. After all, you are affiliated with that school, and the diploma that will someday hang on the wall in your office will let everyone else know that very fact. The person who graduates last in their class from the worst medical school in the world and passes every exam with the lowest score acceptable, is still a doctor.

Somebody please make this site worthwhile again. Why does it matter if there are cows close to campus? Does anyone really care? Are you going to choose a different school if there are? We are all short on time and it is ridiculous to spend what precious time we do have on this stupid and irrelevant rubbish.

Pure redundancy.

When offshore schools exist for the purpose of producing American physicians, it makes sense that they are evaluated with far greater scrutiny and held to far higher standards than other foreign schools. Just as you misused race in your previous flood post, you misuse politics to justify your very weak arguments. Taiwan's medical schools are, for all practical purposes, unrelated to those in the PRC. Wales is a country and isn't one, just like Scotland. I don't feel like explaining. Look it up.

We have our NY site visit in nine days and the school has made breathtaking improvements in areas of infrastructure, academic standards and student life to meet New York's standards. I hope that we continue to improve to meet California's standards someday.

__________________
Sree

Don't know what a Greenbook rotation is? Click here.
Preliminary list of state licensing requirements here.