New owner's Q&A session

[IMG Reality]

Today the students met with the new owners in a question and answer forum. The turnout by the students was very profound which shows we all have the same concerns about the schools future. Just by the fact that the new owners organized this session shows much promise. The session lasted about 1.5 hrs and the majority of the questions were answered. The new owners stated they were not aware of some of the major problems that continue to exist and promised change asap. I usually take the realist perspective and conclude from the forum that all promises may not be kept initially because there is much work to be done. I will say this though, they were as honest as possible and this can only bring positive change down the road.

If anyone has any other comments about this.. feel free to give your feedback.

[Bubkas1]

I am a student for the September term. What did they say about loans? It is an important issue for all of us.

[Mano54321]

If you're gonna put your money into the hands of the old guys, or the three new guys, definitely the three new guys. they have experience, connections, they are all Doctors and have been working in the health organization for some time now, Also they do not tolerate excuses, as they have already laid off everyone working for Xavier working in Worcester, and have hired new coordinators working in NY...that is all, but overall i'm optimistic

[xlntxs]

as of right now...all possible financial aid options and avenues are being pursued by the new board.

until then, they are working on a deferment plan for tuition for the remainder of this semester (may - august), and have said there is a high chance of something being in place for september.

[XSMENO]

I have the check from my loan with Xavier, that I recieved from TERI when I applied for Winter Semester. They only gave me 9,000 for last semester.
I haven't recieved my reimbursement yet for this semester. And the registrar here is knocking on my door every second for money. What do you say to that?
Maybe choose a school with more professionalism?? think about it. goodluck guys!

[WPW]

if someone can post a little bit more detail on what happend in the meeting with the new owners would be appreciatable.

thanks

[IMG Reality]

I arrived late to the meeting so I wasn't able to witness all of what went on. The setup was, that before the meeting started, the current students would write down questions on index cards to be answered by the new owners. Each index card was categorized into specific areas including: immigration, faculty, housing, school facilities, etc.. It was mostly for getting a baseline idea about what the current status of the school is from the perspective of the students. So, most of the answers to the questions were promises.

In one part of the meeting they asked the faculty to go into another room so there wouldn't be any fear on the part of the student elaborating on faculty specific questions. The meeting seemed optimistic because this approach was definitely proactive. They kept the index cards of questions, which there were many of, and i'm sure are compiling them into a list of trouble areas to fix. Newer schools have to start out like a business and in any business you have to cater to the clients (students). Hopefully, like other businesses, they will invest financially to see long term gains in the future.

[bestmedicine]

Are the new owners American doctors or are they foreign doctors?

Does this mean that GMC is no longer the owner of Xavier and Dr. B is not the owner anymore?

How many current students are actually there on the island?

Did the new owners say anything about clinicals (i.e. whether all clinicals must be done through GMC in Atlanta, or can students complete clinicals in other cities, such as N. Y. or Chicago, etc)?

[IMG Reality]

The new owners are American doctors currently in practice. Dr B. is still the CEO of GMC and I believe he is on the executive board of Xavier too. He spoke at the meeting about the types of clinical rotations offered by GMC. GMC has their main clinical sites in Atlanta, but I believe students can rotate in Chicago too as long as they pass step 1 prior to rotating. Until the school gets NY approval I don't think GMC will rotate students in their NY locations due to >12 week rule. There are currently around 175 students on the island spread through premed1-MD4.

[WPW]

school does have rotations for 12 weeks in NY if you wanan do.

[playahatergameplaya]

people its a long term investment for the new owners. they have taken out a large loan to buy this school and at the end of the day...its not the students its all about profit.
the meeting was simply to prevent a mass exodus of students. there are no loans available but only payment plans. new students and any existing students who didn't apply to TERI need to pay out of pocket. they are looking but its not easy to secure a large loan for a foreign medical school.
my solution. if the owners have money to spend on a new building. stop any construction and put it back into students that really need it.
have a tuition deferrment option...not chasing poor students to pay with 8% interest charges on any balances.
is this the best remedy? you decide for yourself.

[IMG Reality]

people its a long term investment for the new owners. they have taken out a large loan to buy this school and at the end of the day...its not the students its all about profit.
the meeting was simply to prevent a mass exodus of students. there are no loans available but only payment plans. new students and any existing students who didn't apply to TERI need to pay out of pocket. they are looking but its not easy to secure a large loan for a foreign medical school.
my solution. if the owners have money to spend on a new building. stop any construction and put it back into students that really need it.
have a tuition deferrment option...not chasing poor students to pay with 8% interest charges on any balances.
is this the best remedy? you decide for yourself.

I agree the new owners need to not only focus on future students, but the ones that are already here too. Many students that I talk to, including me, are on some type of financial aid. The payment plans they offer are lacking because they still require getting money from somewhere to pay over a short period of time. Student lender loan options are better because you can defer payment over time (till post graduation/residency) and most of the interest rates are reasonable.

What I don't agree with is an idea of the new owners to not construct a new building. The current buildings the school uses for MD and premed are rented space and with anything that is rented it is presumed to be temporary. If for any reason the new owners wanted to they could pack up there things and leave though not take a huge financial loss. Construction of facilities shows a financial commitment for something long term.

I mean say you are a student that passed all 3 steps and completed residency and were in the process of applying for a state license. The state in question wants a transcript of your basic sciences coursework, but you are unable to produce them because the school you went to closed down and the records were lost. I personally would rather take some financial hardship with tuition payments over the longevity of the school.

By the way, as I stated before, the new owners said construction should begin in December, but as with anything here time will tell.

[bestmedicine]

Let's say, for some reason, if the school should close down, then isn't there a central credential agency where one can send all the transcripts to, so that in the future, if one needs them for licensure, etc. you can request from them? Most of the U.S. universities are using some sort of centralized service for transcripts.

If the school doesn't come up with a loan program, a lot of students will transfer to schools where they have loan programs (i.e. the big 3), and there will definitely be a decline in application to Xavier, or any of the schools that do not have a loan program.

[IMG Reality]

Previously, I posted that all of the new owners were American doctors currently in practice. This is only partially true. It seems that two of the "new owners" are actually old owners that are on the new board, these are the practicing American doctors.

The third owner is an entrepreneur that it seems has overseen many successful projects throughout his career. How do I know this you ask? Well, all it takes is a little research. If you look on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts website under the entity name XAVIER ADMISSIONS ARUBA, LLC you will see the LLC (limited liability company) and all their activities. If you look under the all filings drop menu at the bottom you can see that the power was transfered from the manager Dr. CB (CEO of GMC) to the new manager Mr. RB via a certificate of amendment.

It quotes "THERE IS CHANGE IN THE OWNERSHIP THE LLC HAS BEEN SOLD AND THE RETIRING MEMBERS NAME HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT AND NEW MEMBERS NAMES HAV EBEEN ADDED.THANKS" SIGNED UNDER THE PENALTIES OF PERJURY, this 9 Day of May, 2008

Why have an LLC out of Massachusetts still active when the new offices are setup in NY? well.. that's for someone else to look into

[bestmedicine]

Is the new owner a doctor, or just an investor? Is he a foreigner or American?

There seems to be some major changes in the administration as well, right?

Are there any changes in the basic sciences personnel in Aruba? It seems like there are changes on the clinicals administration.

Dr. C, who used to be the academic dean, is no longer there, and some new guy, Dr. Z is now the clinical dean, and a lady who used to be with GMC is the new clinical coordinator.

Does this mean this is an improvement over the last personnel or not?

[IMG Reality]

From what I see the new owner is an investor, not a doctor which he may have mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. The two other new owners are doctors.

The point here is that it doesn't matter if they aren't all doctors.. just because someone has an MD,DO,etc.. doesn't make them capable of organizing and running successful medical school. Yes, if they are US physicians they should be aware of what it takes to receive a degree in medicine in the US and mirror a curriculum towards that, but what if they didn't receive their degree in the US? What help would that be?? The fact that they have an investor that seems to have management experience from the projects he's worked on hopefully translates to better organization in the school.

The new office is in NY, so I assume there are many admin changes. Just because the admin changes doesn't necessarily translate to improvement. It will take some time to see if the change is in the right direction.

[omnamahashiva]

-1- Currently, the financial records remain in chaos-- Moultrie et al demanding money with the threat of denying access to take midterm exams without providing a written statement of monies received or charged. Surely no one in their right mind would pay any bill based solely on the verbal demand of someone who has previously demonstrated they can not do the most simple accounting of accounting tasks- eg recording revenue. Every student be warned to keep excellent and complete records of payments and charges because the school only cares about getting more money and their records are a shambles.
-2- Again, at least one class in each semester of study has no instructor/professor for the first month of classes. some classes will lose their instructor for some latter portion of the term and the instructor will not be replaced. The claim is made that the lost lessons will be made up, which is patently absurd, impossible. Since this occurs every semester for each level of students it appears to be a method of extorting full fees from students while providing a partial "product" at reduced cost to the school. Such a pattern of misconduct constitutes fraud in most civil or criminal courts. -3-only one of the instructors has practiced medicine in the US. -4- none of the instructors are a graduate of a US medical school. -5-Only one of the instructors has had a liscense to practice medicine in the US. -6- English is a second or third language for all of the instructors and it is obvious in the construct of questions and interpretation of answers for every lecture and exam. -7-None of the instructors has a PHD as would be the case in a US school. some Xusom graduates will pass their USMLE's and eventually obtain liscensure however few will be competent physicians because their education is not adequate. A US trained RN will be more knowledgeable than a Xusom graduate.

[IMG Reality]

1- True, the financial bookkeeping at the school is laughable and is prob as good as the local 24hr K-wit down the street from where I live.
2- True, the lack of faculty is a big problem and students should get what they pay for. It is inexcusable for the school to not have staff to proctor the classes.
3- Doesn't matter if they didn't practice in the US, the material taught in the basic science years should be universal.
4- Again, doens't matter.. and even if they did do you really think they would
come here for anything other than vacation?
5- Again, doesn't matter.. we are the ones trying to practice there not them.
6- I agree this is a big problem.. but what do you expect for a Carib medical school especially one that is 5 years old. It's not a US medical school so shouldn't be surprising at all. The undergrad school which i graduated from is over 100 years old, i'm sure it was a rocky start for them in the beginning too.
7- Again, not a US medical school.. no big surprise there.

Students coming to a school such as this should not be expecting to get spoon-fed. One could argue that the basic science years can be mostly self-taught. In essence these classes are just masters level courses that are clinically based. I have heard stories from students from other schools, like Ross, who didn't feel the instruction they were given in classes was adequate so they taught themselves. The end result was they passed the step 1 with a high score and continued onto clinicals.

Students need to get out of the undergrad pre-school mentality that everything needs to be handed to you in your lap. As a doctor you are going to have to do much on your own so why not get into that mentality. You gotta work really hard if you wanna make it coming from any Carib school.. The clinical years and residency are in my opinion the bulk of your training as a physician because you implement what you learned in all those heavy textbooks.

So, I do agree there needs to be much change here, but try not to get sidetracked from the only reason your here.. to study to pass step 1.

[Daniel123]

Hello. I am new to all this.

I am planning on visiting on July 7 and would like to meet some people and talk to them about the school, etc.

Can anyone give me some guidance and/or assistance on things like where to stay, etc?

I am only going for 2 days to look around.

Thanks

David

[Southerndoc]

Hey David, aside from students(which I'm sure would be extremely helpful), I think you should get in touch with the new student coordinators and let them know you are coming for 2 days. Maybe they can set up an appointment with you to give you a detailed tour of the campus, meet professors, talk to the owners, etc. Just a thought.
Are you starting this fall? Which program?