Which schools to avoid

[Surge]

I'm new to this whole Caribbean med school thing and would appreciate if a few seasoned veterans could tell me which schools to avoid. Just a bit about me: I'm wanting to transfer from a European school to the clinicals (third year) at a Caribbean school. So I suppose what I'm asking is which schools I should avoid transferring to for the clinical program. Right now I'm looking at UNIBE and MUA.

Please PM me if you don't feel comfortable talking about it on here since I don't want this to turn into a typical shouting match where people diss each other's schools, thanks.

[neilc]

you should avoid transfering, period. you are almost always better off sticking it out. i can't think of any realistic situation that would lead me to believe that a transfer is a better idea than staying. you seem to be looking for more us clinicals, which is great. but, if that is the only reason, i would say reconsider. a transfer may look bad to many PD's which would offset the benefit of having US clinicals. remember, there are thousands of matches each year for people that have zero US clinicals. get a few, and you will be in great shape. your school should allow you to have 3-6 months of US clinicals, no problem. do them in the summer if you must.

if you MUST transfer, go to an established school, with licensed graduates. schools such as sgu, auc, ross have the best track record. saba is newer, but doing very well. mua and smu are on the right track....

schools i would stay away from: spartan, iuhs, antigua, st chris, aua, grace, st james, etc...anything new, with no fully licensed grads is a crap shoot. anything old with very little improvement (ie spartan) should raise a red flag as well. they may well get you where you want to be, but the risk is pretty large, and you likely will be limited in where you can practice.

[wolfvgang22]

Neil is right, as usual. 8)

[peacefuljourney]

I spoke to St. Georges a year ago about transferring- not my main reason for calling - I was calling about where their students get money from - we were looking at transferring because we were struggling with funding. Anyhow, they said that you can transfer but that you must do 1 year on the island before they will let you do the 2 years clinical work stateside. Fair enough. So even if you are in 4th year here (or wherever you are) then you must drop back into year 2 on the island then progress to the clinical years. Sounds like a good policy. But you can call and ask the schools you are interested in. This was just St. Georges. I didn't speak to any others. S-

[dt]

Neil is right, as usual. 8)

yup, too often it seems. ;-)

[johndoe456732]

schools i would stay away from: spartan, iuhs, antigua, st chris, aua, grace, st james, etc...anything new, with no fully licensed grads is a crap shoot. anything old with very little improvement (ie spartan) should raise a red flag as well. they may well get you where you want to be, but the risk is pretty large, and you likely will be limited in where you can practice.

Beautiful point.. A lot of the schools that Neil mentions will telemarket you if they get your phone number. Trust me. So, if you call them, block your caller id.

[johndoe456732]

schools i would stay away from: spartan, iuhs, antigua, st chris, aua, grace, st james, etc...anything new, with no fully licensed grads is a crap shoot. anything old with very little improvement (ie spartan) should raise a red flag as well. they may well get you where you want to be, but the risk is pretty large, and you likely will be limited in where you can practice.

Beautiful point.. A lot of the schools that Neil mentions will telemarket you if they get your phone number. Trust me. So, if you call them, block your caller id.

[EvanH]

How does everyone feel about Ross Med. ?
any stories?