Nich
03-30-2004, 11:39 PM
Incoming Students and Applicants,
This forum is always full of questions about SGU, but I've rarely seen someone just talk about their initial experiences and thoughts about the school. If yall' will indulge me, I would like to do this; I would've found the first-hand experiences of previous students useful before I came and I hope this post is of some use to upcoming students.
I have learned more this semester at SGU than I ever have before. Not just from books but from other students and their experiences as well. When you get to SGU you will realize that only about 50% of your class will be from North America. The diversity here is amazing. That was my first experience when I got here and we had our White Coat ceremony. You will have more chances to learn about other cultures and religions at SGU than you will probably ever experience again in your life. My two best friends are Muslim and Middle-Eastern (whereas I'm Christian and American) and I have learned so much from them about Islam and the Middle East. I'm actually learning Farce (very slowly) from one of them now.
SGU is exactly what every school in America (speaking moreso with respects to student diversity and "the University experience") is trying to become. It is an epicenter of diversity and opportunity. They have selectives in Prague, you can do clerkships in England or in the Carribean. They also offer other selectives in other countries as well. I feel like I have more opportunity here than I ever would've in the States. I feel that the education here is excellent too. From my personal experience, I had almost a 4.0 in undergrad but I have to work harder than I ever have before just to make a B here. Of course, I'm not qualified to truely gauge the education level here, but from my point of view its very good.
The professors here care and they try VERY hard to help you succeed. There are tons of review sessions from DES and the professors themselves and you have a lot of individual contact if you make the effort. I have Anatomy wet-lab hours with a professor almost every week (usually my lab group of 4 and 1 professor). You have to make the effort to make appointments but its easily done and the professors have ALWAYS been happy to help us learn. I have NEVER been made to feel like I was a burden to them. I won't say that they have never made me feel stupid (Dr. Brahim is very good at doing that) but thats just part of medical school.
The campus is very nice, and while there is constantly construction it is still maintained very well. The pictures you see in the literature are not perfected or touched-up, the campus is just as beautiful as the pictures. And, yes the dorms are acceptable. They are a bit small but they are pretty much the same as my dorms in US schools (except I have a stove top here..no oven though :( The air conditioners work everywhere I've been and I actually have to wear a sweatshirt in most of the study labs and lecture halls because its cold. You will not sweat to death in a bug infested, hot, cramped lecture hall. There are always rumors like these but there is plenty of room in the lecture hall, even when everyone attends class and even though the class sizes are large I get more personal attention here than I did at my undergrad college.
Something I didn't realize before I got here was that for any given class you have SEVERAL professors. So, yes you will have 300+ in your class but in Histology for example you will have 5 professors and 10-15 clinical tutors (who all are MDs themselves). In Biochemistry you will have around 5 professors, in Embryology you will only have 1 or 2 depending on visiting professors (which Dr. Persaud, the guy who wrote our book, taught us this semester), it is mainly taught by Dr. Raganathan. In Anatomy you will have 6 or 7 professors and then visiting lab instructors/professors. We've had a lot of visiting lab instructors this semester so I can't remember how many there have been. Bottom line, if you make the effort you will get a lot of personal attention, if you expect to be spoonfed; forget it.
Ok, so what about campus life and such. Forget it, you will have no life once you begin medical school. Well, let me rephrase that, your life as you know it will end. But, you will gain a new life. Its the same life that every medical student before you has had and the one that all of them after you will have. You will have to set priorities or you will not make it. If you don't make sleep a priority then you will not sleep because you are so busy that you will feel like you can't. If you don't make talking/emailing friends a priority then you will not talk to your friends anymore because you will be too busy. You will NEVER catch up completely here and you will NEVER be ahead of the game (some students can do this, but for non-genius ones like me its just not possible). You have to learn to shut the book and just go home and go to sleep. If you do not learn to be happy with you best effort then the stress will kill you. Every week you have table presentations in histology and oral/demonstration quizzes in Anatomy. You will constantly be put on the spot in small groups to see if you know information. Not a lot of your grade depends on this though and you will QUICKLY learn to just say "I don't know" when you don't know. Its ok not to know in medical school. If you knew it all then you would be a doctor already (and even they don't know it all).
Stress is not a guaranteed thing either. Medical school destroys some people because of the stress while other pass through almost unscathed. This is because you control how much stress you have. Like right now, I'm neglecting to work on the innervation of the leg to write this letter. If I don't get through with my post-read tonight then its ok. I'll get to it later, or if I don't then I have to really crunch time before finals. I refuse to stress over it. Don't get me wrong, its NECESSARY to be conscious of your studies and what you don't get done but there is no need to stress about it. YOU CAN ONLY DO WHAT YOU CAN DO, AND IF ITS NOT GOOD ENOUGH THEN ITS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. However, you'll probably find that if you prioritize well and stay really committed to learning then you'll be ok. You probably won't make all A's, but you'll hopefully pass. I'm very proud of one C I've made here because I had to work so hard to make it.
So, what about all the licensing in America and the residencies and USLME and all of that. Honestly, I don't worry about it. Stephew has given the advice over and over to NOT PLAY THE WHAT IF's game. This is EXCELLENT advice. I work as hard as I can and thats all I can do. It should prepare me for the USLME and residency, and thousands of SGU graduates are licensed in America, so why should I worry that I would be the exception to the rule. Two months ago I was trying to decide whether to come to SGU or not and I was sure I'd go to school, do Internal Medicine in my hometown and live a nice unconsequential life. Now, I don't know that I want to practice medicine in the U.S. all my life, I'm more interested in physiatry as a speciality and I think I will commit a substantial amount of my time to charity medicine. That much has changed because I started medical school and began to get a different understanding of medicine. The What If game is a waste of time, don't play it. You may end up being a yogi in Peru by the time you are 30, you never know so don't bank on your life going a certain route. Medical school (as well as Grenada) will change your thinking a lot. Then residency will change your thinking. Maybe you'll have children and your priorities will change dramatically. Its futile to hypothesize about your future life. Live the one you have today to its fullest.
Ok, sorry, I got on my soapbox...I will humbly get off now...
"You sure are positive about SGU. Is there anything bad about it?"
Well, here is my opinion on what I dislike about Grenada and SGU.
First, Grenada isn't really culture shock as much as lifestyle shock. Your lifestyle and priorities will really change once you get here. For instance, I'm much more concerned about whether my Mom ships me the right ink pens than I am about whether I fix my hair now. I would've never cared about ink pens before but now they are more a part of my life than my hair gel. Also, the food sucks here. That KFC, Subway, oh they have a buffet cafeteria, stuff is all true but the food still sucks. The only redemable thing about the food is that the fish here is really good. The water is ok too. The stores here cater to students so you will have a lot of the things you have back home but be prepared to pay for them. Oh, and my advice is to just let go and change the way you eat. Don't pay $16EC for prepackaged oatmeal or $35EC for beef patties. Eat the fried plantains and grilled swordfish at the buffet. Its different, but it ends up being cheaper, you metabolize it all the same (wait for Biochem....) and over time you get to kinda like it.
Yes, stomach problems are easier to get here because you are exposed to many different things. However, don't worry, most people get over the stomach problems after about a week. I have IBS and I don't have anymore problems than I did in the States (except around test time when the stress is crazy).
The one thing I don't like about SGU is the rumor mill and the high price. The rumor mill isn't mean like in high school, but you will hear crazy things. Like I heard yesterday that 50% of the class decelled. Get real and use your brain! I know at least 50% of my class and I know that very few of them have decelled so the rumor is just that. If you don't believe everything you hear here then you will do alright. I believe that the price is too high here too. Maybe I'm just from an impoverished state and don't have a good concept of the cost of things but when i'm in at a school that pays its store clerks $7-10EC an hour (about $2.10-4US), $30,000U.S. a semester (or roughly that) seems a bit crazy.
Lastly, I will just say that SGU was the right choice for me. I'm not saying that if I were presented other opportunities that I wouldn't think about them. If I were accepted to a U.S. school I'd probably go, BUT I would still maintain that SGU was a great school. We all have to be honest with ourselves and do what will be best for each of us, but just know that there is at least one satisfied student at SGU and that I'm sure you will be satisfied too if you come here.
I hope this helps someone, I did neglect the leg innervation for it and will have to lose a little sleep to go over it tomorrow morning ;)
If any of you have any questions feel free to ask me. I'm a first term student and so the new SGU experience is fresh to me. I only get to check this forum once or maybe twice a week but I'll try to respond to the best of my abilities. I wish you all the best of luck and hope that I see some of you in upcoming semesters.
Deciding Between the Tibial Nerve and Bed,
Nich
This forum is always full of questions about SGU, but I've rarely seen someone just talk about their initial experiences and thoughts about the school. If yall' will indulge me, I would like to do this; I would've found the first-hand experiences of previous students useful before I came and I hope this post is of some use to upcoming students.
I have learned more this semester at SGU than I ever have before. Not just from books but from other students and their experiences as well. When you get to SGU you will realize that only about 50% of your class will be from North America. The diversity here is amazing. That was my first experience when I got here and we had our White Coat ceremony. You will have more chances to learn about other cultures and religions at SGU than you will probably ever experience again in your life. My two best friends are Muslim and Middle-Eastern (whereas I'm Christian and American) and I have learned so much from them about Islam and the Middle East. I'm actually learning Farce (very slowly) from one of them now.
SGU is exactly what every school in America (speaking moreso with respects to student diversity and "the University experience") is trying to become. It is an epicenter of diversity and opportunity. They have selectives in Prague, you can do clerkships in England or in the Carribean. They also offer other selectives in other countries as well. I feel like I have more opportunity here than I ever would've in the States. I feel that the education here is excellent too. From my personal experience, I had almost a 4.0 in undergrad but I have to work harder than I ever have before just to make a B here. Of course, I'm not qualified to truely gauge the education level here, but from my point of view its very good.
The professors here care and they try VERY hard to help you succeed. There are tons of review sessions from DES and the professors themselves and you have a lot of individual contact if you make the effort. I have Anatomy wet-lab hours with a professor almost every week (usually my lab group of 4 and 1 professor). You have to make the effort to make appointments but its easily done and the professors have ALWAYS been happy to help us learn. I have NEVER been made to feel like I was a burden to them. I won't say that they have never made me feel stupid (Dr. Brahim is very good at doing that) but thats just part of medical school.
The campus is very nice, and while there is constantly construction it is still maintained very well. The pictures you see in the literature are not perfected or touched-up, the campus is just as beautiful as the pictures. And, yes the dorms are acceptable. They are a bit small but they are pretty much the same as my dorms in US schools (except I have a stove top here..no oven though :( The air conditioners work everywhere I've been and I actually have to wear a sweatshirt in most of the study labs and lecture halls because its cold. You will not sweat to death in a bug infested, hot, cramped lecture hall. There are always rumors like these but there is plenty of room in the lecture hall, even when everyone attends class and even though the class sizes are large I get more personal attention here than I did at my undergrad college.
Something I didn't realize before I got here was that for any given class you have SEVERAL professors. So, yes you will have 300+ in your class but in Histology for example you will have 5 professors and 10-15 clinical tutors (who all are MDs themselves). In Biochemistry you will have around 5 professors, in Embryology you will only have 1 or 2 depending on visiting professors (which Dr. Persaud, the guy who wrote our book, taught us this semester), it is mainly taught by Dr. Raganathan. In Anatomy you will have 6 or 7 professors and then visiting lab instructors/professors. We've had a lot of visiting lab instructors this semester so I can't remember how many there have been. Bottom line, if you make the effort you will get a lot of personal attention, if you expect to be spoonfed; forget it.
Ok, so what about campus life and such. Forget it, you will have no life once you begin medical school. Well, let me rephrase that, your life as you know it will end. But, you will gain a new life. Its the same life that every medical student before you has had and the one that all of them after you will have. You will have to set priorities or you will not make it. If you don't make sleep a priority then you will not sleep because you are so busy that you will feel like you can't. If you don't make talking/emailing friends a priority then you will not talk to your friends anymore because you will be too busy. You will NEVER catch up completely here and you will NEVER be ahead of the game (some students can do this, but for non-genius ones like me its just not possible). You have to learn to shut the book and just go home and go to sleep. If you do not learn to be happy with you best effort then the stress will kill you. Every week you have table presentations in histology and oral/demonstration quizzes in Anatomy. You will constantly be put on the spot in small groups to see if you know information. Not a lot of your grade depends on this though and you will QUICKLY learn to just say "I don't know" when you don't know. Its ok not to know in medical school. If you knew it all then you would be a doctor already (and even they don't know it all).
Stress is not a guaranteed thing either. Medical school destroys some people because of the stress while other pass through almost unscathed. This is because you control how much stress you have. Like right now, I'm neglecting to work on the innervation of the leg to write this letter. If I don't get through with my post-read tonight then its ok. I'll get to it later, or if I don't then I have to really crunch time before finals. I refuse to stress over it. Don't get me wrong, its NECESSARY to be conscious of your studies and what you don't get done but there is no need to stress about it. YOU CAN ONLY DO WHAT YOU CAN DO, AND IF ITS NOT GOOD ENOUGH THEN ITS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. However, you'll probably find that if you prioritize well and stay really committed to learning then you'll be ok. You probably won't make all A's, but you'll hopefully pass. I'm very proud of one C I've made here because I had to work so hard to make it.
So, what about all the licensing in America and the residencies and USLME and all of that. Honestly, I don't worry about it. Stephew has given the advice over and over to NOT PLAY THE WHAT IF's game. This is EXCELLENT advice. I work as hard as I can and thats all I can do. It should prepare me for the USLME and residency, and thousands of SGU graduates are licensed in America, so why should I worry that I would be the exception to the rule. Two months ago I was trying to decide whether to come to SGU or not and I was sure I'd go to school, do Internal Medicine in my hometown and live a nice unconsequential life. Now, I don't know that I want to practice medicine in the U.S. all my life, I'm more interested in physiatry as a speciality and I think I will commit a substantial amount of my time to charity medicine. That much has changed because I started medical school and began to get a different understanding of medicine. The What If game is a waste of time, don't play it. You may end up being a yogi in Peru by the time you are 30, you never know so don't bank on your life going a certain route. Medical school (as well as Grenada) will change your thinking a lot. Then residency will change your thinking. Maybe you'll have children and your priorities will change dramatically. Its futile to hypothesize about your future life. Live the one you have today to its fullest.
Ok, sorry, I got on my soapbox...I will humbly get off now...
"You sure are positive about SGU. Is there anything bad about it?"
Well, here is my opinion on what I dislike about Grenada and SGU.
First, Grenada isn't really culture shock as much as lifestyle shock. Your lifestyle and priorities will really change once you get here. For instance, I'm much more concerned about whether my Mom ships me the right ink pens than I am about whether I fix my hair now. I would've never cared about ink pens before but now they are more a part of my life than my hair gel. Also, the food sucks here. That KFC, Subway, oh they have a buffet cafeteria, stuff is all true but the food still sucks. The only redemable thing about the food is that the fish here is really good. The water is ok too. The stores here cater to students so you will have a lot of the things you have back home but be prepared to pay for them. Oh, and my advice is to just let go and change the way you eat. Don't pay $16EC for prepackaged oatmeal or $35EC for beef patties. Eat the fried plantains and grilled swordfish at the buffet. Its different, but it ends up being cheaper, you metabolize it all the same (wait for Biochem....) and over time you get to kinda like it.
Yes, stomach problems are easier to get here because you are exposed to many different things. However, don't worry, most people get over the stomach problems after about a week. I have IBS and I don't have anymore problems than I did in the States (except around test time when the stress is crazy).
The one thing I don't like about SGU is the rumor mill and the high price. The rumor mill isn't mean like in high school, but you will hear crazy things. Like I heard yesterday that 50% of the class decelled. Get real and use your brain! I know at least 50% of my class and I know that very few of them have decelled so the rumor is just that. If you don't believe everything you hear here then you will do alright. I believe that the price is too high here too. Maybe I'm just from an impoverished state and don't have a good concept of the cost of things but when i'm in at a school that pays its store clerks $7-10EC an hour (about $2.10-4US), $30,000U.S. a semester (or roughly that) seems a bit crazy.
Lastly, I will just say that SGU was the right choice for me. I'm not saying that if I were presented other opportunities that I wouldn't think about them. If I were accepted to a U.S. school I'd probably go, BUT I would still maintain that SGU was a great school. We all have to be honest with ourselves and do what will be best for each of us, but just know that there is at least one satisfied student at SGU and that I'm sure you will be satisfied too if you come here.
I hope this helps someone, I did neglect the leg innervation for it and will have to lose a little sleep to go over it tomorrow morning ;)
If any of you have any questions feel free to ask me. I'm a first term student and so the new SGU experience is fresh to me. I only get to check this forum once or maybe twice a week but I'll try to respond to the best of my abilities. I wish you all the best of luck and hope that I see some of you in upcoming semesters.
Deciding Between the Tibial Nerve and Bed,
Nich