Thread: Do not come here

Reasons NOT to come from experience:
1. The school is part of shopping building, and the school only rents the 3rd floor
2. School says they new campus is under construction, but it has been 2 + yrs and nothing. They just expand the building across the street, another shopping mall.
3. The library is the size of 2 classrooms put together with maybe 500 books, but not updated.
4. The library is loud, busy, and not enough tables and chairs to accommodate majority of students.
5. There is no set “cafeteria” it’s another room that only seats roughly 30 people
6. The “cafeteria” is surrounded by the 3 classrooms as well as the library (there’s only 3 classrooms) so if people are talking it is heard all around the building and no quiet studying is possible
7. Be prepared to smell of eggs every morning when going to the 3rd floor of the building because a local restaurant supplies home cooked food in the middle of all the classes.
8. The school chooses to put couches right next to the classrooms and every class takes breaks at different times, so anything spoken over a whisper and the other professor will scream down your throat, yet the school put the couches there.
9. Campus has a handful of robberies and the school promises a police patrol, but that promise not yet been implemented.
10. The Internet does not work consistently, preventing fluid studying.
11. Final is the NBME and that is 70% of the grade, so in-house exams don’t really matter all that much
12. Many students have the NBME, so if in-house exams are amazing but NBME score doesn’t add up the NBME cheaters they will fail you, so advise… find someone who has the EXAM
13. The professors as well as the dean are aware of the cheating that occurs during NBME yet; do not do anything about it. How does a student who makes 20’s-30’s end up making national average on the shelf?
14. Every other Monday is when the in-house exam is given, but don’t be surprised if the grade isn’t posted till that Friday if not the next week.
15. Being that majority of the professors don’t speak translatable English, it takes more time deciphering the question than actually answering the question.
16. This school actually has a dress code policy, ex: no flip-flops.
17. Don’t be distracted when the dean of the school comes into the classroom while you are taking an in-house exam to give you a paper stating your dress code violation.
18. If you are a student not well liked and that is not hard; be prepared to get caught with a dress code violation while all the other students around you get told nothing.
19. The handbook is changed every 2 months verbally without prior notice. So the rules are not always quite understood. Really unnecessary!
20. IAU has purchased a grading system, which is great if the classes were more that 100 students. Exams are usually 40 questions. And the program disqualifies (thrown out Q) roughly half of them so at then end the student is graded for the 15-20 questions that are probably wrong.
21. The faculty is all under paid if paid at all. And that is shown by the attitude of the professors.
22. Because the teachers are not being paid well they obviously don’t want to teach and a few of the professors have left mid semester so then the student is left to self teach and still take the NBME that is 70% of the total grade.
23. The school gets roughly 2 million a year. Where is this money allocated? Even if a million goes into expenses, where is the rest of the money going? The school increases the tuition, yet the quality of the professors remains sub-par, if that.
24. Even if a professor is complete crap, the school will not get rid of he or she because the dean is a best friend with that said professor.
25. The professors will never do what is right for the student and will only do what is right for the other professors.
26. Wring an appeals letter at the end of a semester is directly rejected. It is just a formality that the administration has to follow.
27. No ones appeals letter has been approved, do they even read it, what’s the point?
28. The School says they have New York approval yet it is still not in writing and it has been 16 months +. Even if they say we have NY approval there are no seats/spots available for the school to purchase, so a student going to NY is irrelevant.
29. IAU fails students a lot of the time not based of academia but based on if there is enough room to place students in the next classroom/semester.
30. IAU only purchases a few seats for ICM a semester so instead of sending students home after 4th semester and telling them to wait until a seat is available in ICM they will fail you just to get the tuition money.

Question about your comment on appeals, is this actually true?? No one has had one approved??

I am sooo coming to this school !!

Originally Posted by Sheila503

Question about your comment on appeals, is this actually true?? No one has had one approved??

when the school was alot smaller. with the class of 10-15, if a student failed and submitted an appeals letter then the promotions commitee would grant it, but thats because they wanted students to get out of basic sciences so they would take the STEP 1, hence making the school more creditable.

now that the school class size is bigger, the promotions commitee does not have the problem of getting students out of the basic sciences. the first largest class at IAU was Sept 2010, after that semester the number of students the school receives continues to increase. but the key point to acknowledge is that while the school has new students coming in, current students are transfering out.

for the last 5-6 semesters, no appeals letter has been granted.

Everything stated under black beauty's posts are true. Don't listen to that lying admissions director who is nothing more than a salesman paid per student enrolled. Spartan is right up the street, is cheaper, has a campus, and a long history of matching students.

I am currently in IAU; here are some facts as of August 15, 2011:
1) This school is all about competition; you are told by the DEAN (Dr. M) that 1/3 of you will fail 1st semester; if you want to go to a school where you pass based on how social you are and fast you can get the NBME from upper classmen, this is the perfect school to go to (very sad)
2) 2 Professors are leaving which is an average per semester here; Physiology class can be taught better by some students here; Professor can't teach but can read off slides; and also, don't ask to see him during office hours, apparently he's only available 9-5 (during classes)
3) This school is not that whole building (it's just 4 rooms on the top floor)
4) Try the tuna bageutte at the Reef and definitely go to Delirious for the parties in Castries and Tequila Joes for food
5) Go down the street to Spartan, apply, and settle there

Originally Posted by KiddhanSaliya

I am currently in IAU; here are some facts as of August 15, 2011:
1) This school is all about competition; you are told by the DEAN (Dr. M) that 1/3 of you will fail 1st semester; if you want to go to a school where you pass based on how social you are and fast you can get the NBME from upper classmen, this is the perfect school to go to (very sad)
2) 2 Professors are leaving which is an average per semester here; Physiology class can be taught better by some students here; Professor can't teach but can read off slides; and also, don't ask to see him during office hours, apparently he's only available 9-5 (during classes)
3) This school is not that whole building (it's just 4 rooms on the top floor)
4) Try the tuna bageutte at the Reef and definitely go to Delirious for the parties in Castries and Tequila Joes for food
5) Go down the street to Spartan, apply, and settle there

Spartan has its advantages over IAU. But if you are leaving IAU because of professor turn over, then think twice before jumping ship to spartan. Spartan has lost all of its top teachers and is loosing even more instructors. Teachers are dropping in and out of Spartan like there is no tommorrow. So, in this respect, Spartan is not any better than IAU. We also have a lot of new teachers reading from the powerpoints, so nothing new there.

The BOTTOM LINE difference between Spartan and IAU is the difference in the care for the students. For a dean to tell people that the a certain number of people will fail, that by studying too much you will, or that studying past 10 pm will make you fail, these are not encouraging works for 1st semester students. The dean at Spartan supports the students 100% and wants them all to do well. Spartan is not super competitive, so the students in all the classes help each other study and share resources. At IAU because of the competition and the fact that they fail a certain number of people purposely, there is constant pressure not only to do well, but it makes students have hate for each other knowing that some people are keeping resources to themselves in order to be above the curve. Whether a super competitive school like IAU or a supportive one like IAU is better is debatable, but let's look at results. Over the past few years, Spartan has had more matches then IAU. I know you all will say "oh Spartan's been around longer" but when you consider the small class size at Spartan and the number of people they still manage to match compared to IAu, there is not comparison. The fall 2010 class from IAU was 55 plus, and of that only 13 have made it through to 3rd semester. The fall class at Spartan still has their majority and they are all supporting each other for USMLE prep. Don't believe the hype from IAU sales people. The school does not even deserve too be called a school.

correction, supportive school like Spartan.

I firmly believe that everyone should take the MCAT and try their hardest to get into a US medical school, and only if that fails then consider the option of a medical school in the Caribbean. The MCAT is used to measure success in medical school, and a medical school that does not require the evaluation of MCAT score is clearly out to make money, because they want quantity over quality. Take a look at medical schools in the Caribbean which require some decent MCAT score and look at their percentages of pass rates, residencies, etc. You will see a vast difference. One should do proper research before going into any medical school, because it is quite expensive, and once you go through it all and fail out, sometimes you might not have enough to start over again. Proper research before jumping into any medical school is essential. I would go for SGU or AUA personally now if I do end up going to the Caribbean because they are more well known. I did not even know about Spartan until I came to this post. I used to want to go to IAU but after hearing so much I opted out and I do not want to have anything to do with St. Lucia. For anyone on advice about what I am doing.....I am trying to get into a US medical school and if that doesn't work I will try for one of the top schools in the Caribbean, regardless of how much it is, because I care about the quality of my education. A school that is cheap isn't always the best option. I hope that all of you have success in your medical dreams.