Dear Ace Doc, why people transferred to Statia a few years b

[MrScottyMD]

Statia, which by the way was formed from a splinter faction of Saba faculty was initially a 4 semester on-island program. There were many students on Saba who liked the idea that if they transferred to statia they could cut their island time down by nearly 4 months. There was a problem though for many of the students who transferred because of a discrepancy in the pathology credits for which statia was giving credit where credit for pathology should not have been given. To make a long story short some students tried to take a short cut and transfer to statia and they got burnt. In short dont do it. Saba is cheaper and more established. Not a good idea to even consider it. And there is absolutely no comparison between the two facilities. Good luck to all Scott Jones DC MS IV

[Neuro4u]

Dear Scott,

I transferred and have not had any problems. My reasons were not exactly what you say. I am a good student and was when I was on Saba, but I was displeased with Saba for many reasons.

Yes, several students transferred for many reasons. Short cuts were not top of the list. Most of the students were very displeased will the professors on Saba and the administration.

It is alright to give your opinion, but your opinion is not correct. I do not want to get into a debate with you, so I will not go any further.

I know of about two other females who transferred and everyone is doing very well. Personally, Statia is much more supportive and provides us with greenbook clinicals.

So us Statia students are very pleased with our choice to leave Saba.

[MrScottyMD]

Your point is very well taken but my opinion of what happened 4 years ago is fact, people left for that reason. Two of the gentleman were good friends of mine and one was a fellow chiropractor. I understand you are displeased with the faculty and I do not blame you for leaving if in fact you were not happy with saba. I had roughly 50 people in my class. Approimately 2 failed out, one was kicked of the island of saba and was taken in by yours truly, and one guy dropped out before he took his first black monday test. I hope your home office takes care of you the way that Gardner takes care of Saba students. I saw the island, I met faculty from statia (albeit not on the island of statia) , and I was told things from people in the know at statia (who by the way were faculty at that time and I wont use names) that were completely false. Whether they told me things out of ignorance or on purpose I dont know but if you dont know the answer to one of my questions Im the kind of guy that just wants the truth. (Tell me you dont know) Saba never mislead me with information regarding lincensure, clinicals, and so forth and statia when obtaining information about the school did mislead me. (maybe not purposely but dont tell me something if you dont know) Im not saying they do this regularly but I just wanted the facts as we all do when we take this giant leap of faith to go to a carribean medical school. This is my personal experience. Needless to say when you feel personally mislead you tend to steer clear as I did. I will say that on my pediatrics rotation I met a student who attended statia who was on the ball and kicked butt on the boards so I know they have attracted a good quality of student. Im just not sure why they at that time were charging 3000 dollars more a sememster than saba and did not have a doctor with a permanent license in the united states as of yet. Im not saying they wont (of course they will) but the cost difference made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I mean come on, to compare the facilities and the islands for that matter is ridiculous. Good luck to all, and by all means to all reading this post, go to every single island and look at every school and trust me the decision will be much easier and you will limit it to 3 or 4 schools. Everyone has accused me of working for Saba University because I am such a proponent of the school but believe me if someone decides to go or not to go to Saba I could really care less. If you wanna be an MD at a good price go to saba if not good luck to yah where ever you go!!! Sincerely, Scott Jones DC MS IV

[Neuro4u]

Many students transferred around May 2001, mainly this students were upset about the professors and lack of teaching. There was a Professor named Dr. Klir teaching physiology and it was an awful experience. We did not have anything against Dr. Klir, but he was a stroke victim, could hardly speak English, and nothing was gained this semester from Physiology.

Scott, I believe your class had Dr. Aarons and he was very good, but I am sure he has left by now.

It will be more productive for all carribean students to join as students and stop separating eachother by schools. Let's face the facts that they are all just carribean schools. I think if a student is not pleased with the school they are attending, it is best to look else where.

Many of us are going into the match this year and we are all in the same boat.

Oh yes, one reason Statia charges more is because they pay the attendings for teaching us. We have regular lectures and rotate along side US students. Saba does not pay the attendings for teaching. During clinicals we have mandatory meetings and lectures to attend for many different events. For instance mock CSA events, this is very benefical. They also provide books for us.

Best Wishes and Peace.

[studentMD]

Im at MUA and theres a number of statia students here as well as SABA students. They are not getting any more special teaching/lectures/events/mandatory meetings that us MUA and SABA students are not getting.

Im not against or for Statia. In my opinion its another way to the same end and diff schools work for diff ppl.

I am saying that the difference in tuition is not due to the quality of rotations because I am doing the same rotations along side statia students and receiving the same quality of teaching as they are.

[bigrock]

I would like to comment on the question. I was in the class that had the transfers and knew everyone very well. Although Scott is correct about the situation on the island now, he dropped in after a lot of changes and simply doesn't know what went on before his time. His class did not have the same experience. In my opinion, knowing the others, most were unhappy living on an island in the first place and wanted to get off. At least, that is what many told me. Most also had very valid reasons to be angry about the teaching at that time. As I continued on through clinical rotations I never heard of another class having the problems we did.
I would also like to add two points:
When the others left, those of us that stayed were relieved for the most part; when they left the level of bitching/whining went way down.
Second: The Saba admin really made an effort--too late--to improve the quality of instruction after our class, and in my opinion the school has improved ever since.

[MrScottyMD]

This has always been my argument, if the clinical rotations are the same why pay more. Unless you want to practice in California and perhaps Idaho or Kansas then why not save 50K. I liked MUA also and beleive me in the long run it will attract better faculty and become a superior school. I was very happy with the faculty on MUA for the one semester I was there and felt it to be every bit as good as the faculty on Saba. Yes we had a few so so profs and at least one lousy one on Saba but in all there were was an overwhelming majority of satisfied students all of whom will be in the match this year. I truly want every foreign trained student to succeed because lets face it, ultimately we are a reflection of each other. If some monkey foreign trained doctor gets licensure and screws up we all look bad. The carribean stigma fortunately is slowly dissapating and most programs now consider foreign graduates in some capacity. Yes some specialties are out, or really hard to get but these are competitive even among US graduates. Thru ERAS I have applied to 36 programs competitive and moderately competitive (esp. in terms of geography because I refuse to train in any frozen tundra) Only 10 programs have downloaded my application as of yet and in 5 days I have 4 interviews. By the way 3 of these programs have filled every year in match but the one program fills but usually needs the scramble to top it off. This is pretty good considering all 4 programs in their brochure say they dont start selecting for interviews until at least OCT 15th. So basically this means programs are not holding it against me for being a foreign grad. (good news for all of us) ERAS only opened on Sept. 2nd. You would think that these programs would at least wait before inviting anyone for interview, that they would at least wait to get all the applications, especially from US students first. So the bottom line is being a foreign graduate is not that bad. My fear from the beginning was getting a residency and now I realize my only fear is getting a residency where its 80 degrees all year round 8) . WE WILL ALL GET RESDIENCIES THE QUESTION IS WHERE??? If your dream is to become an MD then Im sure most of us if we had to would go to Anchorage if we had too, Hey we went to saba so if we can do it there we can do it anywhere. Our future is bright, good luck to all. Scott Jones DC MS IV

[GucciMD]

I transferred in the group Big Rock is talking about and I was simply disappointed in the education at Saba.

My situation was different than the others in my class, I am a single mother and took my 7 year old daughter with me. It was tough and having professors with such poor skills was a major problem for me.

When I was on Saba attendance was mandatory, but it was a waste of time. So I became frustated with Saba and transferred to Statia.

My mother has a rare cancer and I took some time off with her, until I could arrange returning to clinicals. Statia was very supportive and I am finishing by clinicals in Georgia.

Things are going well for me and I plan on going into the match in 2004.

As medical students and future doctors we should try to respect eachother and be supportive of eachother. It is not about the schools, it is about being successful doctors.

Best of Luck.

[acedoc]

Looks like I started a good debate!! Thanks for all your responses!!

[DermGirlMD]

I was under the impression that the "accelerated"-16 month curriculum was only for students with a 3.6 GPA and above?
Everyone else is placed in the regular 20 month (5 semester) curriculum on the island.