I will be attending UNIBE CR in Jan. in the english program. I am looking to meet anyone that may be going down also. I would like to find friends to study with during the semester and spearfish and scuba with during the breaks.

I have never had a problem with the NY office nor the school in CR returning emails/calls or answering the phone. I have been approved for the loans.


PM me anytime for my email address.

How much was your loan approval for?

How long did it take the admissions committee to accept you?

Initially the approval was only for 8500/academic year which is two semsters. I had filled out the application with some errors, but thankfully they were corrected and I will get the 18,500. I think there is also a way to get 22,500, but we are still waiting for the official answer.

The loan amount you are approved for has nothing to do with whatever school you attend. It has to do with how many credit hours you have and what year student you are/will be. Best thing is to call the US Dept of Student Aid and get it straight from them. The school is also very eager to help. The school's financial aid dept in CR is a great source of info. You can get the contact info from the NY office.

The addmission process took a few days. I applied back in the summer so please forgive if I am off a day or two. From the time they recieved my application in NY, held the phone interview, then called me back with a follow up interview and said that they would be sending the official letter was over a span of about 4 days or so. It wasn't just a 10 minute phone call and asking, "so why do you want to be a doc?"

I am looking forward to starting in Jan. Are you serioulsy considering Jan? Have you asked if there is a chance you could get in by then?
Have you filled out the housing application form?
Where are you in the process?

Cheers

First, I wanted to find an affordable school 6K per semester, (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but UNIBE CR offers a three year program which cuts my education cost of attending other schools by 25%. Next, they offered Federal loans which means a lower interest rate, easier approval, and the Fed's pay my interest on the first $8,500.00 of each disbursement. Finally, they offer US clinical rotations. This is why I decided to apply.

I am working with the IEFC regarding Federal and supplementary loans. I can get $20,500.00 from the Fed loans. You may want to check out their website Welcome to IEFC.

I didn't complete the housing application. I went to the campus last month and there are available apartments listed on the corkboard in the back of the cafeteria. The apartment owners post them there, they were less expensive than offered through housing. I also met a student there from Miami that said get Vonage (internet telephone service), activate it in the US before leaving for CR then when you arrive in CR connect it to your internet there. He get all his calls on a US number and none of his family or friends get charged for internation calls (Very cool).

I don't know if I can make it for January (family stuff) but I will try. If I can't I'm there in May for sure.

I am just curious about the MD degree that comes with the 3 year English program. Is it really a "Doctor of Medicine", a postgraduate degree?

After going through the program, does one still need to do the internship year to get "Medico Cirujano" equivalent kind of degree?

If one doesnt do that internship year will the MD ("Doctor of Medicine") be awarded by UNIBE-CR and recognized by USA, Canada and elsewhere come licensing time?


I was thinking about this because if you check IMED it only list "Medico Cirujano" degree that requires 5 years of study (plus 1 year internship) for it to be recognized by the CR government. The MD degree is not listed.

But if one gets the 3-year MD degree, will Costa Rica recognize the degree?

Also for the 3 year program (that's 9 semester, 3/year)...

The basic science curriculum consists of 5 semesters. This means that clinicals semesters are only 4 semesters long. Is 4 semesters of clinicals enough (especially since 24 weeks of the 4 semester are electives)? I am concerned about the length of the cores.

Yes it is recognized but it's 10 semesters (I think) the final two semesters of electives are 12 weeks not 15. The year internship is only needed if you plan to practice in CR, they don't require a 3 or 5 yr residency. You should call IMED B. K. for confirmation. It took me a while to understand but they complete 1.5 academic years in one calendar year (the math is pretty easy, even for me).

9 semesters, from here:

UNIBE - School of Medicine - About
That's 2 semesters (24 weeks) for electives, leaving 2 semesters for cores??
And the cores are: Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Obste./Gynec., Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Radiology

Can anyone really expect to feel equipped to be a MD in three years? --- my education in medicine lasts more than TWICE that -- and at no moment do i feel i could learn and understand these things at a faster rate. I feel maybe there is an unhealthy culture of seeking shortcuts. Looking around these forums, does nobody else feel like people care less about WHAT they will learn, and rather more whether or not they will be able to practice in the US (for example)?

.... PS.. im not referring specifically to anyone on this thread -- rather that, after perusing these pages for the past half hour i am a bit distressed by all the people who would consider studying in some tiny dodgy school.

carribean med schools have been doing this for along time and it very much works good for them. I mean those students work really hard, have no breaks and above all spend way too many hours, days and months doing nothing but studying in far island with less distraction. I wonder why you started with this as your first thread.... fyi it doesn't matter how long it took you to get there....it is how you used that time to get there..hope this helps!