In response to McGillgrad's
"BTW- I would love to hear why some crazy guy randomly attacks students in a car. The whole story was probably not told by ABC."

If an islander runs into your car, and its their fault, some will attack you as a recourse. His options are A) to be honest, apologize, and pay for your car. or B) to go apes#!^, threaten to kill you, and try and get you so scared you'll leave before the police arrive. The CRIME is the fact that these students did the right and brave thing to wait for the 'police', only to find the police trying the same third world tactic the islander was trying.
McGillgrad is right on one account, ABC doesn't know half the story. I know of quadruple the amount of violent attack/ racist police response situations that happened to students and foriegners on St Maarten. One of which I was there to witness, but thank god, was not involved in. Many of the police here are terrible, openly racist, and at best corrupt. (At least corrupt is predictable)
St Maarten is still as safe as most cities in the US, but crime still happens, and since the current police mission is to do nothing- you're s#!^ out of luck on 'the rock'.
Lock your doors, don't be out alone at night, and if you get hit by another driver at night- don't stop!- drive to a well light open establishment like a casino with security guards. Still, you can't prevent everything... you just can't.
DaMoose

Guys, I'm currently applying to AUC and I'm getting a little bit scared listening to these types of stories. i chose AUC becaue I was told it is one of the most reputable school in the Caribbean furthermore located in a very touristic island with more things to do than another islands with reputable medican schools. Should I these things seriously or should I assume it is one of those things when the press only covers the bad part? Do you guys go out at night on weekends? In conclusion.. Do you think after having lived there for awhile now, do you recommend me to apply and go there??

I would like to be in contact with current students.. I have a lot of questions I would like some of you guys to answer. If you would like me to know something important abou the school or the island, please write me at michel_b2@hotmail.com I also have AIM. My screen name is Zeppelin900

thank you very much

So if you're a female, given this recent incident... would you suggest living with someone, as opposed to going it alone? Thoughts? I'm in the Fall '06 class and I've been getting increasingly worried flipping through these posts. I realize that there is crime on the island, and that no place is ever completely safe -- but if all the necessary precautions are being taken (i.e. walking home w/a buddy at night, not opening the door for strangers, being generally vigilant etc etc) and students are still being attacked... then that is definitely cause for concern. I'm from Baltimore, so I think I have a good grasp on what it is like to live in a city, but if all the safety measures I take here no longer apply in St Maarten, that sort of... well, freaks me out. If anyone has any solid information regarding the safety of the island, as well as surrounding living quarters, could you please PM me? I just want to get a feel for what different students' experiences were like, because I am getting all sorts of conflicting opinions on the subject on the forum.

Thanks.
-D

One thing that you have to realize is that if ever there is a problem, the police will not respond or be helpful in any way. With that in mind, I've been as reckless here as anyone could possibly be and I've never encountered a problem. I go out most weekends and I travel alone at night all the time. These stories do happen, but in my opinion, they happen to a small number of people here.

There are some things you can do to help yourself. One thing is to choose where you live very carefully. I don't believe that anyone has gotten their house broken into without it having been watched first. Choose where you live carefully. Another thing, I wouldn't ever stop if anyone bumped me on the road.

It isn't so bad.

Bottom Line = This is a third world country despite being one of the more 'advanced' islands in the Caribbean. AUC students make good targets because compared to the locals we're filthy rich, have lots of nice things, here all year round when the tourists are not, always know where to find us, they consider us rude, arrogant, etc.. and so on.

I would imagine these problems exist elsewhere, and not to mention any medical school in the states in a large city.

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Hey

There was mention of police being racist. What is the ethnic makeup of SXM? To avoid stereotyping a particular race, please PM me.

THanks.

Ethnic groups:

mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian

Hey guys,

To anyone looking at this article and rethinking your choice to come here, don't let it be the major deciding factor. Yes things happen here, and yes those things did take place. It seems to have been a few choice events in a short period of time and it has gotten better around here.

I wont down play the events, but I will say take the precautions dont do anything to stupid and you should be ok. The island has a lot of things to offer, but your gonna be busy with school most of the time. It's fun to go out and forget school and that's something this island can give you. Plus its nice to have a movie theater that relatively modern, places to eat out, a "decent" grocery store, so its not half bad. Just remember look at the whole picture, not just the bad things.

things happen like this. usually they luckily aren't as violent or as common but there are many minor altercations. use the same pre cautions as any big city in the US... other than those stated above don't draw attention to yourself by having a 20 gig ipod around your waste playing a psp, sporting the rolex, putting your $800 worth of change from your $1000 weekend spending money (how the locals see us)while getting hammered at bamboo bernies then staggering to your car.we were talking about these things yesterday and a wayne student said his car was car jacked in detroit, police made fun of him while taking a report and called him 7 months later to let him know that the car was found 2 days after it was reported and had been 'sitting' in an inpound lot. apparently it was 'sitting' there with the wheels spinning because it had 10,000 more miles on it than before and they wanted him to pay a 7 month storage fee.....just to show that you will not be safe from corruption, racism, and human greed anywhere but remember that it is far worse anywhere outside the states now because we are the most hated nation on the planet.....

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