Another Ross? ..think twice

[Usmleman]

It seems we have another Ross University on our hands. In fact, it may be worse! It seems that SMU is failing a lot of there students lately. Although you don't have to repeat the whole semester like Ross, you will have to do do all 5 semesters again. If that is the case, one should go to Ross since they have better clinical sites, passing rates, and residency positons. I know for a fact that many of SMU's professors may even tell you that you are passing, then you end up with a failing grade. Then the professor says it is not in his hands. Well, so much for the integrity and authority of a professor, guess their all on leash's! Straigt up Liars!!!

At least Ross or any other school won't lie to you. Just think twice about going there, especially now since they don't even have an island anymore. The island and school have been destroyed. Most of the professors weren't even able to get into the states because of visas issues. I guess that's better for the students there, since many are foreign with heavy hard to understand accents. They are currently being taught out of a hotel in Maine where their Master's Program is at. Hopefully this school will be able to stand on two feet. They are not starting off in the correct manner for the longevity shared between St. George's and Ross. Good luck on your decision making process!!

[microphage]

Although you don't have to repeat the whole semester like Ross, you will have to do do all 5 semesters again.

uh.... yeah... right.

I'd like to see anyone believe you. If you believe this person, please reply(let's test the "a sucker born every second theory").

[tampanian]

Usmleman, I really don’t know exactly where to start because my experience at St. Matt’s has been radically different than you described. I was on the island a year ago and I felt that the courses were very fair and there was not an excessive amount of students failing. Things could have changed for the worse since then but I sincerely doubt it. I have been meeting students in the hospital, as recently as last week, that recently were in basic sciences and they report that the school is ever continuing to improve. I have also never heard that if a course is failed, the whole five semesters must be repeated. Fortunately, when I was in basic sciences, I did not have to repeat any courses but as far as I can remember, if a course was failed, only that course would have to be repeated. As far as how many failed per class, that varied depending on the difficulty level of the subject matter. I can only speculate, but from glancing over the grade postings, I would guess that the most difficult courses had around 20% fail, while the majority of courses had 5-10% fail, and the easier courses often didn’t have any fail. If you put the time in and studied, even the tougher courses were very doable. I know a few Ross transfers that are doing very well in clinicals and they feel as I do, that the basic sciences are very fair at St Matt’s and that the school always puts the student’s best interest first.

I found most are my instructors to be very good with my micro instructor to be one of the two best professors that I have ever had. (I have had quite a few good professors as I did my undergrad and a year of grad school, with a publishing in a national medical journal, at one of the largest universities in the country, located in central Florida.) You also stated that many professors are foreign with very hard to understand accents. Again, I can’t think of a single instructor that was difficult to understand. There were a couple of instructors with accents but they were easy to understand and it did not affect my ability to learn from them. You also stated that most of the professors could not get back to the states because of visa issues. This I don’t believe at all. I talked with most of my teachers about where they were from in the states, and heard from a friend of mine that is in third semester, that many of the professors headed back to the states. He named the few that he knew of that remained on the island.

You also mentioned the condition of the island and school. (It is very unfortunate what happened to Grand Cayman, and I sincerely wish the best to the admin, facility, student body, and Camanian locals that endured Ivan.) You stated that the island and school have been destroyed. Yes, the island was severely damaged. Fortunately, the island has a strong financial backing and governing body that will help it to rebuild as rapidly as possible. As I understand it, the school and the student dorms are not totally destroyed. The majority of the severe damage occurred due to flooding on the first floors of both those buildings. There is no doubt in my mind that SMU will get the school and the dorms restored as soon as feasibly possible. That island has strict building codes and this is why those buildings are still standing. This is not an island of shacks with tin roofs and plywood walls that can be commonly found on other Caribbean islands. (Please, I don’t want to insult anyone who lives in something like that, I think tin roofs and plywood walls are great, my point is that they just don’t stand up very well to hurricanes. Hey, it’s more than what I have, I’m still a student!)

Finally, you stated, “They are not starting off in the correct manner for the longevity shared between St. George's and Ross”. I beg to differ. I feel as though St. Matt’s has an excellent chance to have the kind of longevity as the former school mentioned. (As far as comparing St. Matt’s to Ross, I personally know a few students that have transferred from Ross and many Ross students that have been in rotations with me and without bashing the school, suffice to say, I would not advise anyone to go there over St. Matt’s.) St. Matt’s has an excellent administration that is constantly giving the students what they need to get quickly back to the states for clinicals, residency, and licensure. Being in clinicals, I get a chance to hear what students from different schools think about their respective program, and knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way. St. Matt’s is without a doubt one of the best options for a Caribbean medical education. Considering how far our school has come in such a short period of time, imagine where we will be in ten more years! I don’t believe that there is another Caribbean school with such a rapid rate of solid growth.

Usmleman, I really don’t know if you are from SMU and I don’t care, but I do know that I don’t agree with most of what you posted. Perhaps you should meet up JohnSGA as both of you seem to hold St. Matt’s with the same high regard.



MS3

[SMU_Information]

Everything the two above said, plus, how could you repeat the whole five semesters? If you fail 18 credits, you are excused from the program. It doesn'thappen a lot, but it does happen.

[teratos]

So what if there are a lot of failures. Let's face it, a lot of the people admitted to Carib schools are NOT the cream of the crop. Many really CAN'T handle the work, often because of lack of maturity or poor study habits. St. Matt's gives them a chance. I think you should expect to see a fair number of people fail out. It happens at Ross, It happens at AUC. I don't know about SGU, but they really screen hard. Ask yourself if the failures are as a result of something the professors do, or if the responsibility or deficiency lies with the students. G

[Usmleman]

Ok, listen, didn't want to get too specific, but here it is. I have heard by a number of students about a recent histology professor who was not acting properly. If asked a question, he couldn't answer it, instead, talked about something else. On written practicals, he would give 4 or 5 points to students with better handwriting or to those he favored. No points to those he didn't like with the correct answer. I believe 4 is the highest you could get, yet he gave 5's to those he favored more. Plus, I know of a lot of people who couldn't understand him. I know people had failed even though the professor said that you were fine.

Second, according to the Dean, you may have to spend an extra semester now if you even failed only one class. Because the rest of semesters are catered to you, and the 5th consists of no basic science, only patient-doc relations and review for usmle. I am just reiterating what was said by the Dean. Listen, I know people from both schools, and I know how these operate. And with the way things are going, it does not look good. I just said think twice, there's nothing wrong with the other schools either, if one is to risk an education with one school, it should be a solid one! I can go further with other things, but don't care to discuss them. Why hasn't the school got California after years of application work? People(CA) see through lies, that's all I have to say. Why can't they get cadavers yet? Enough plasterized shit! This is med school, not show and tell!! I had to disect for 3 hours a day in my anatomy class! We had 60 cadavers to look at if ours didn't have what we needed.

When SMU sells themselves to you, they offer tutoring and extra help, long office hours!! I believe a professor should help his student pass not lead him to believe he is, then fail him. Unless, yes of course the student is a screw off, doesn't attend classes, doesn't have the desire, and has a poor track record in all his classes, ok, he doesn't belong there. But there are certain cases when a professor can hold a good student back, and that isn't fair!
For the person who said the "cream of the crop" statement, you are wrong! My friends from foreign schools were in the paper for getting the highest Usmle scores! I, myself (a foreign grad) also did honored all my classes and was helping NYU students at Kaplan centers during our review courses of which didn't have sh(&t on us, trust me! I believe foreign students work harder, want it more, especially if they are tested, and the hard life of the carribean can test you!! Not having the best conditions, library, sources, professors, can test your skills as a student!The competion with yourself against the world is your best challenge!!

-No spoon-feeding here brother!!!

Good luck to all of you, I hope SMU can shape up a bit. And to those of you who comment and aren't there now, or not a student or affiliate with them, you know nothing.
-MD

[microphage]

Good luck to all of you, I hope SMU can shape up a bit. And to those of you who comment and aren't there now, or not a student or affiliate with them, you know nothing.
-MD

So you're saying that "you know nothing" either since you said you are a foreign grad (thus you aren't a student and aren't there right now nor are you affiiliated with SMU)...

A whole lot of talk for someone who knows nothing. 8)

[Usmleman]

You obviously have a life with 2000 posts here!!!

[SMU_Information]

OK, Chief, you're showing your ignorance.

The dean told you you'd have to repeat a whole semester if you failed one class? When were you chatting with him, if you are already a graduate from another school? And if you heard from students about our evil professors, when? Are they in clinicals now? Wouldn't that make their histo class almost two years ago? Assuming you're correct (not that you are), what makes you think that this was still happening when CA visited? Or are you one of AAIMGs ninja site inspectors?

The Dean, nor anyone else told you that students who fail one class have to repeat the whole semester. It's this thing called a catalog. We have to go by what it says in there. Florida, New York, our board of trustees, and our our accrediting body all approved it. You know the ACCM, right? It's the same accreditation body that oversees Saba and AUC. And speaking of the board of trustees, Dr. Armstrong (along with our Dean of Basic Sciences), helped design the new curriculum, You can check out her qualifications here www.stmatthews.edu/boardarmstrong.html. So, I have a sneaking suspicion that fifth semester is just fine the way it is.


You hope we shape up and get some real cadavers? Would you do me a favor? Could you also contact U of Michigan, and UCSF, and let them know, since they use the same cadavers. Do a google search for plastinated (not plasterized) cadavers, you'll find the article where more and more schools are moving to them. Dang technolological progress. Let's ban fire too.

You can go further with our "lies", but don't care to discuss them? My six year old nephew does something similar. "I know a secret, but I'm not telling..."

And the person with 2000 posts has a lot more credibility than a username created specifically to come on to the SMU forum and bash the school. It shows an agenda.

Whoops, I guess I slipped back to the dark side. Trolls have that effect on me.

[teratos]

For the person who said the "cream of the crop" statement, you are wrong!


No, I'm not. I'm talking about "cream of the crop" in terms of MED SCHOOL APPLICATIONS. People who go to the Caribbean don't have the highest GPA's, or the best MCAT scores. Getting into med school has nothing to do with your performance on the USMLE.

I think it's great that St. Matt's has tutoring etc. Shows they are interested in helping their students.

I have over 2000 posts. I am also Board Certified. I post because I enjoy it, and it gives me something to do while waiting for lab results.
You are the one with an agenda, I would say you need to get a life. G

[Sebastien Guilbard]

Hey,

I don't know who had to repeat a whole semester at SMU, but in three years with the school, I have never seen that. If so, it means, you have failed all credits in that semester.
In that case....well, may be another choice than medicine would be appropriate....

just thinking out loud

S.G

[wolfvgang22]

Ok, listen, didn't want to get too specific, but here it is. I have heard by a number of students about a recent histology professor who was not acting properly. If asked a question, he couldn't answer it, instead, talked about something else. On written practicals, he would give 4 or 5 points to students with better handwriting or to those he favored. No points to those he didn't like with the correct answer. I believe 4 is the highest you could get, yet he gave 5's to those he favored more. Plus, I know of a lot of people who couldn't understand him. I know people had failed even though the professor said that you were fine.

Ok, so you're mad at a crappy professor, who may be on a power trip. We've all been there.
If you wanted a better grade from such a prof, you probably just need to work on your *** kissing skills....and if you think you don't need such skills, well, nobody can help you.

So, where are you transferring to?