Amount of Spanish needed to enter the Med Program

[rajatm]

Hi, I have been doing pre-med for three years in america. i really wanted to go to UNIBE because i dont think my grades are good enough to get into a medschool here, and UNIBE is much cheaper as well. I have all the requirements to get into UNIBE (will finish organic 2 in fall). I was wondering, how much spanish will I need to live down there, will I have to take spanish there? I took 2 years of Spanish in highschool, I barely remember anything.

Thanks,
Rajat 8)

[eenie]

The are clinical rotations done in the DR if you go to UNIBE..and you will need to speak spanish well enough to communicate with the patients...and you will need to know enough spanish to talk to the locals so in my opinion the more spanish you know the better!

[ojmdc]

Hello,

As was said, you'll only NEED enough spanish to be able to communicate with your patients in your clinicals and to communicate with the locals. You will probably have to take a couple of spanish classes during your first couple of semesters. Spanish classes will only give you as much as you put into them, you don't have to put much into them to get a passing grade, but then you'll not likely get much vocabulary/grammar and reading ability if you don't really work it. Once you're down here you'll quickly get a feel for how much you will need to improve your spanish to feel comfortable in the DR. As the basics sciences pass you'll get a better appreciation for how much your professional spanish will have to improve in order for you to feel comfortable communicating with spanish speaking patients. Bear in mind that at UNIBE you'll likely be rather "insulated" from the spanish speaking world as the majority of american students go there, making a nice english speaking enclave in the DR. As a result you may find that you'll need less spanish than you might think to have a decent social life with your fellow student, something that would be harder for someone struggling with the language in a spanish speaking school. In general, Dominicans are terrible with english, very few people here speak it, and even fewer speak it passably. Hope this helps. Take care and God Bless.
Ozzie.

[MSalwan]

I was wondering, does AP courses from high schools on the US have anything to do with the UNIBE program?

I am very interesting in going there as my grades weren't so great here in the US.

-Manish

[ojmdc]

Hello Manish,

I would imagine that AP courses are only of use down here in so much as they were already accepted by whatever university in the states you did you undergrad work in. If you university back home gave you university credit for AP courses tekn then your transcript should show those as university level classes. Otherwise I highly doubt that schools here would be too keen on the AP exam and scores and such. I would certainly be worth your while to ask the school you plan on attending. But if these classes don't already appear on your college transcript then I wouldn't count on their being accepted for credit by a med school down here.
Take care and God Bless.
Ozzie.

[MSalwan]

Whats up Ozzie?

Thanks for letting me know about that. I am thinking of attending UNIBE and trust me, if the ap courses count or not, doesn't matter to me.

I don't care as long as I get accepted, haha!

thanks again

regards!