Does this "Mexican/US" School look familiar to VMD folks?

[Genossa maximillian]

That is our job, to help people, Iswilthshire and I bump heads once on a while or often, but we do it for the sake of keeping things alive not boring and for the sake of helping others in a rather weird way you may think. Anyway, I don't think you should give up but try in one of the most established programs in the Caribbean if U.S did not work out. I mentioned Windsor, but there are many other programs out there.

Good luck mate!

Originally Posted by Ijustwanttobeadoctor

To Iswiltshire and Genossa: I thank you for your helpful feedback. I wish I had this information a few months ago, but better late than never.
It is certainly possible that I do not have an aptitude for medicine, as evidenced by my inability to gain acceptance to a US medical school, but I am committed to pursuing this. I had a 3.4 GPA from a small, but respectable university and my last MCAT score was a 22. It was my professor who encouraged me to keep trying. Although it is possible that she does not know enough about the process, I don't think she is falsely encouraging me.
I did talk to 2 of the current students, but I have not spoken to any of the former students. I also spoke to the Dean (long distance ?), but he may be someone different because he is there everyday teaching. He did point out some of the school's shortcomings, although not as fully as you have. Thank you again.

[lswiltshire]

Ijustwanttobeadoctor

I did not mean to discourage you from your desire to be a doctor. I admire your commitment to become a doctor. I agree with Genossa’s advice to you to try a Caribbean option. JBGDL is an extremely poor option for you Sir!


Note also that Genossa's comments on the legal aspects of the school and its likelihood to be IMED listed etc must be taken seriously. This information is a very serious issue. I have respected his legal advice on many matters pertaining to offshore schools for almost six years. I have always found him to be spot on.


You may very well have the personality or caring nature that I prefer to see in medical students. Such students tend to make better doctors because they tend to pay more attention to detail than the cocky bright students. So you need not give up. Perhaps the professor who has encouraged you has perceived something special in your personality or aptitude that is desirable in a physician.


A major problem at JBGDL is that school is convened for 20 hrs per week, and they do not present the material to the students. You may be capable of learning what is required but it must be at least presented to you.

I have taught many weak students that have passed USMLE, at schools that presented the correct syllabus at the correct pace, and where a group of students would sit on weekends for 12 -20 hrs to discuss and do a 100-120 take home mock exam. At JBGDL students are out of there at 3 pm. When they do that on Thursday evenings you have no contact with either staff or fellow students.

THE AMBIENCE IS POOR both physically and academically
THE CURRICULUM IS STILL NOT ADDRESSING THE USMLE OBJECTIVES PROPERLY
THEY DO NOT HAVE THE REVIEW PROGRAM IN PLACE AS THEY HAVE AT ESTABLISHED SCHOOLS in the islands. At some of the island schools this is a big part of their program, because they expect that their longevity as a school will be a function of USMLE passes.

The administration at JBGDL is not interested in medical students- look how they treated the students from the Cooks. They do not care about education- this is the second time that they have had a distance Dean. They do not listen and try to learn how to improve things.

You will have NO HOPE at JBGDL.

[lswiltshire]

I received this information recently, and have decided to pass it on.

This prospective student wrote………

I found out about JBGDL from an open house lecture given by the Dean, who teaches there. I had never heard of JBGDL before the open house. The open house was held at a community college in south Texas. I don't know for sure, but I think they have them at other places as well. I was given a flyer and a PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Dean, but I did not keep them. I don't remember the content exactly, but it contradicts much of what I have been told about the school on this site.

At the lecture, I also met and spoke to 2 of the current students there also, but I don't remember their names. At the time, I felt they were fairly honest with me, but they did not discuss any of the issues raised on VMD. When I looked at the myriad of schools, I admittedly was drawn to JBGDL because of its location since I assumed that my success would largely be the result of my own efforts anyway.

However, based on what I have learned at this site, I am prepared to cut my losses with them, and I have already begun to look into other schools. I have learned more about this school on VMD than all my previous efforts combined.


I am happy that prospective students have found and are reading the posts on VALUEMD on this school, because it is not going anywhere soon or ever! MA & MB (former top officials of the school, I.E Prausnitz made that very clear last year on the forum. They were the ones working on the charter for 8 months in 2006).

I hope that prospective students now see how important VMD is, and why we put in the time to warn folk about bogus schools like JBGDL, MILIK and others like CMU and St Theresa.

CURRENTLY ON VALUEMD TRINITY & UHMS HAVE JUST RECENTLY STARTED ADVERTISING--- YOU WILL NOTE THAT BOTH HAVE RECEIVED THEIR CHARTERS, AND THAT UMHS IS LISTED. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE. SO THEY ADVERTISE IN THE FORUM. WHY YOU MUST ASK DID JBGDL HIDE THEIR WEBSITE AS IT WERE AND DIDN’T ADVERTISE IN THE FORUM. BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT THEY CANNOT REFUTE ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT ITS NEBULOUS PRACTICES.

Other threads on the organization that runs JGGDL are
International Medical School of America on bottom of page 3 with 27,168 hits

Govt to probe new medical school in middle of page 2 with 13,027 hits

[lswiltshire]

Early in January 2007, two mothers and one student that had travelled from the Cooks of the then SPSOM (now closed by the Cook’s government) met with the Founder and CEO and the financial guy at a meeting-in-a-Starbucks.

In that meeting early in January 2007 two mothers and one student on meeting with the Founder and CEO began their conversation saying "You have not delivered what you promised" and for the next two hours pummeled them with all the ways in which they had failed the students.


During this meeting with the mothers and the student, as has been reported on this forum by Prausnitz, the Founder and CEO and the financial guy were unable to deal with the issues raised by the mothers and the student. In addition, the Founder and CEO and the financial guy were unwilling to answer Dean question about the money to operate the schools.


THE QUESTIONS that are now pertinent include…
Have JBGDL (the new name for the failed and closed down SPSOM and IMSA) been able to deliver what they promised the new students last September? Does anyone there has the testicular fortitide to testify on this forum to the effect that things have improved, and that there is evidence that money has been available since Sept 2007 to run the school efficiently?

We were told last summer by JBGDL officials that delivered what you promised
"1.The students at SPOSM were treated fairly according to written agreements that the signed. The details of the personal situations of each one of them are not going to be exposed publicly because it is neither right nor necessary. Their time was not wasted in any sense of the word."

We were told last summer by former top officials of IMSA (now JBGDL) that
after the owners and senior managers of IMSA/JBGL/SPSOM had demonstrated IMMORAL CALLOUSNESS by first protecting themselves by owning IMSA/JBGL/SPSOM through a LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (LLC) then sought further protection by having their students sign a letter giving away their rights.


We were told last summer by former top officials of IMSA (now JBGDL) that
the students that enrolled in Guerrero were also to have signed the same letter that the SPSOM students were conned into signing, but that Dean Daffy forgot to instruct the official who was in charge of enrolling the students, that they were to sign this letter which signed away their rights, until after they were enrolled.

Note that the person that exposed this inside information, was of course the student enroller.

When Dean Daffy discovered what he had forgotten, he could not then ask the students to sign a document designed to further protect the owners, already protected behind an LLC, from the consequences of what has now become much too real: IMSA/JBGL is a FAILURE!!!!
So when SPSOM folded in less than a year, officials who started and operated that school in the hope of getting a charter to run IMSA- now JBGDL wrote in this public forum thus….”.The students at SPOSM were treated fairly according to written agreements that they signed. The details of the personal situations of each one of them are not going to be exposed publicly because it is neither right nor necessary. Their time was not wasted in any sense of the word.”


This same official wrote on this public forum “The amount of money that the Cook Island students payed was minimal because they were not charged tuition and their trips and rooms were payed for by IMSA-SPOSM.”
After spending almost a year in the Cooks islands, these students, and those at IMSA, found that both schools were closed and that none of the 11 students had completed anything that could be called a legitimate medical course, and even what they were taught incompletely could not be transfered anywere.

THE QUESTIONS that are now pertinent include…
Has anything really changed at JBGDL?
Have the current students signed away their basic rights again?
Are they being really truly treated fairly this time according to written agreements that they signed?.
We know that most of the current curriculum still can not be considered legitimate medical courses or that they cannot be transfered anywere.
When will JBGDL close again, and move on to start at a new location?

[lswiltshire]

This short note is to acknowledge the thanks of the several folk who have written by PM recently to say that the information supplied on VMD forum with respect to JBGDL has caused them to stay far from this place.

It is encouraging to know that one's faithfulness is not in vain.

[lswiltshire]

On : 04-11-2007 dgjomo12 wrote do you think anything has improved by now, number of teachers, etc? maybe those teachers are no longer there? I guess i just had kind of high hopes... maybe i shouldn't... ??
On O4-09-2008 I LSW wonder Has anything improved by now? Number of teachers? More students? Better facilities? More students? A NON –long distance leader perhaps? A correct interpretation of the USMLE perhaps.

Can any one truthfully enlighten us.

[weatherman]

A friend of mine was in Nuevo Guerrero last week. According to him, nothing has changed.

Weatherman (aka thundercloud)

[lswiltshire]

After almost a year after the CEO of JBGDL POSTED IN THE IMSAONLINE WEBSITE THAT HE WOULD HAVE THE CHARTER OF THE SCHOOL FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMAULIPAS BUT HE HAS SHOWN US NOTHING!!!!!

May 21, 2007

Dear Prospective Student;
Med School Group A.C. or the International Medical School of America, currently located in Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico, has just completed a series of very successful meetings in the State Capital of Ciudad Victoria with high governmental officials both in the Departments of Education and Health. The goal of these meetings was to secure our legal status as a Mexican medical school, Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara School of Medicine. The good news is we fully expect to be in possession of that document within the next two weeks. This means that our future graduates will be able to return to the United States to practice medicine.



We know that MB was told by two different members of the staff of the Governor of Tamaulipas, on many occasions, that the Government of Tamaulipas had received a directive from the Federal Government in Mexico City instructing it not to grant a charter to the many-failures-in-its-track-record IMSA/JBGL. So why is it that JBGDL is still pretending that it is a medical school.

Prospective students ought to be careful about enrolling at this place until you know that the Mexican Federal Government has lifted its directive.


You could waste a lot of money and time by attending classes at a fake institution which is unable to deliver a proper medical education. Note that VIVA imsa confessed that the members of the IMSA/JBGL senior management were learning how to fix IMSA/JBGL last summer by reading what was posted by Prausnitz on 06-27-2007on the thread IMSA (now on page 5) of VMD


Prospective students, you can judge for yourself. The IMSA administration and its assigns are not men of reason or logic. How can they really expect to run a medical school? The IMSA administration and its assigns have not yet come to grips with their errors and the cause of their failure. How can they really be expected to improve in order to properly run a medical school? It is clear that the methodology of these schools will not produce highly-disciplined or well-trained professionals at any time. Not in this world, or the next!

In any viable school good strong leadership and maximum effort from a professional staff is required. All the players must see the same picture of the future they want to create.
In addition, they must share similar beliefs, values and priorities.
They must all be highly motivated and reading from the same page and able to work harmoniously and productively.


Track records say a lot about an organization. When organizations are new, we have to take a chance – there a lot of unknowns. Once track records are established, we have something to study. We can get a better idea of what to expect. The problem that IMSA has is two-fold: their track record, and the fact that the train keeps jumping the tracks and changing the name of their train!

[lswiltshire]

Where are accurate and true photos of your facilities?
Where is your list of faculty?
When will you be listed by IMED?
Where is the American curriculum reflecting your preparation for the USMLE?
What about the situation where in you cannot prove you were out of country while taking basic sciences?
How about answering all the questions in all the posts that have not been answered.
Do your students still have a feeling of despair, disappointment, disillusionment, and dejection?
Seems nothing has changed at JBGDL over the last year.

[Ijustwanttobeadoctor]

According to a local newspaper in Guerrero, the school has received IMED approval.