pre-med courses required for DR

[princesspikachu]

I was looking at Universidad Central de Este's website, and was just curious if all students need to first attend all pre-medical courses prior to enrollling in the medical (pre-clinical) courses?

How long is the academic year and how many months would I have to stay in DR? Does anyone know if the clinicals are done in the US? Lastly, does anyone know if any schools in the DR are NY approved?

Are these schools helpful in assisting students to pass the USMLE? I spoke with a carib. med school advisor, who mentioned that its only worth applying the the Big 3 carib. schools and possibly SMU and Saba. Do not consider anything else! Does anyone have comments on DR schools?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

[ojmdc]

Hello,

In short, the pre-med requirements for DR schools are the same as for schools in the states. If you have completed thos core courses and or a bachelor of science degree then you SHOULD be in good shape to enter directly into the medical program. On the other hand, if have gaps in your pre-med requirements or a non-science degree then you will likely have to take numerous premed reqs not required by american medical schools. Sociology, Anthropology, Intro to Computers. etc. In addition most students will have to take spanish unless you pass the placement exams and take a domincan history course as well as university orientation course.

In all the DR schools the entire program is in the DR. I believe at UCE you have the option of doing on clinical rotation in Puerto Rico and UNIBE I believe allows you to arrange one clinical rotation in the states. Otherwise your clinicals and basic sciences are all in the DR.

To my knowledge UNIBE and INTEC are approved in NY, I do not know about UCE, though I would be inclined to think that they are. As to the advice offered you by the caribbean advisor, I agree with it in part. I would expand his top three to include several DR schools. My list would include PUCCM, UNIBE, INTEC and UASD. These are schools with long track records and solid medical programs and worth considering. Unfortunately only UNIBE offers a program in english, effectively eliminating the other schools from most american's radar screens. Regardless they're solid schools and worthy of consideration. What's more you'd be a on vastly larger island! With global warming and rising sea level you should be careful on those tiny islands :-P lol Hope this helps. Take care and God Bless.
Ozzie.

[skull]

On the other hand, if have gaps in your pre-med requirements or a non-science degree then you will likely have to take numerous premed reqs not required by american medical schools. Sociology, Anthropology, Intro to Computers. etc..

Ozzie,

If you have a non-Science degree, the you are more likely than those with a science degree to have completeed those kind of courses. Do not you think so?

[ojmdc]

Hello,

Correct, a non-science major is more likely to include these "fluff" courses than a hard science major. My point is that if you have a non-science degree you will be forced to come up with these classes in some way/shape/or form. Why? beacuse without a science degree that includes the core pre-med classes you automatically become responsible for the WHOLE dominican pre-med curriculum. Either you have to already have completed these additional pre-med classes AND the classes you took must have at least 80% of course content in common with the corresponding dominican course, or you must take these classes here in the DR. On the other hand, if you have a ** degree that meets the core pre-med requirements (orgo, physics, inorganic chem, biology, calculus etc) then you wont have to take ANY of these other "fluff" classes. You are correct, non-science people are more likely to have taken some or all of these classes, however, I hope I've made abundantly clear in my posts that having taken a class and having that class actually transfer over are two entirely different things. Save yourself the trouble and have your degree include the core pre-med sciences and save yourself the rukus of transferring classes and scrutinizing your undergrad bulletin and transcripts.
Take care and God Bless.
Ozzie.