Thread: new students, there two things that Ross did not tell you.

Someone asked a question about ross vs. aua.

I felt that I have to tell all the new students about things that Ross did not tell you.

1. Lots of students eventually transfer to other schools, such as smu, aua, etc. Of course some probably never make it, but some do. however, they will have a bad record. don't believe me, the current smu moderator is a transfer from ross. shocking, huh.

2. They fail about 15% for each semester. And now first and second semester students have to pass all six classes. If you fail one class, you will have to take all six classes again. And if you fail another different class the second time even if you passed it the first time, you still can't move on to the next semester.

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update: some of the things on this page is no longer accurate.

http://www.rossu.edu/med/academics/faqsaboutaca_061.cfm

1. "Ross admits approximately 250 to each incoming class."
When was that? maybe 3 years ago. Not any more, the biggest classroom doesn't even have enough seats for every student.

2. "The cohort student attrition rate continues to decrease from a median of 31% between January 1996 and January 2000 to a median of 20% between May 2000 and May 2002."
Since they start to admit more students, the attrition rate did not go down, it actually goes up and up.

3. "The student to teacher ratio is approximately 18:1."
That is not true any more.

In conclusion, during your time at Dominica, either you or someone else will fail some classes and transfer or just quit. so choose your school carefully.

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part II.

to answer the following person's question.

Remember the histology professor? He is the one who is in charge of the mps, or something like that. Remember what he told you? Just like T cells and b cells need to be educated in thymus and bones, only those who can successfully pass the evaluation can move on. You as medical students also have to reach certain levels before you can move on to the next semester. then he will say that each semester 15% students will not be able to move on to the next level, because they haven't reached tha competency. so I am not making it up, that is what he said. Of course, they are not put that on writing.

..................

Thanks for helicon's excellent message. That brings up another unknown topic to the new students.

Ross has random MPS, minimum passing score, it is not previously determined score. It is decided by the professors. They can randomly decide what the mps is for tha particular exam. They can decide how many people can fail or pass. And that is the reason why they can fail 15% no matter what the students do.

Just like they can give Dr. title to someone who is not a phd, they do it their own way.

Originally Posted by MylifeatDominica

Someone asked a question about ross vs. aua.

I felt that I have to tell all the new students about things that Ross did not tell you.

1. Lots of students eventually transfer to other schools, such as smu, aua, etc. Of course some probably never make it, but some do. however, they will have a bad record. don't believe me, the current smu moderator is a transfer from ross. shocking, huh.

2. They fail about 15% for each semester. And now first and second semester students have to pass all six classes. If you fail one class, you will have to take all six classes again. And if you fail another different class the second time even if you passed it the first time, you still can't move on to the next semester.

So choose your school carefully.

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part II.

to answer the following person's question.

Remember the histology professor? He is the one who is in charge of the mps, or something like that. Remember what he told you? Just like T cells and b cells need to be educated in thymus and bones, only those who can successfully pass the evaluation can move on. You as medical students also have to reach certain levels before you can move on to the next semester. then he will say that each semester 15% students will not be able to move on to the next level, because they haven't reached tha competency. so I am not making it up, that is what he said. Of course, they are not put that on writing.

Thanks for the heads up dude. I know its gonna be hard. You got any tips on what its gonna be like on the first day?

why care about what others say about the school...a previous posters said 300 started and 240 remained...what happened to the rest? who knows, but suck it up and make the cut...be confident cause if you are not confident in your abilities then how will you handle patients??? im sure the school and professors dont try to purposely fail students...if they the minimum passing grade of whatever really low, it just does the student an injustice! just my $.02

Mylifeatdominica:
"I am only here helping out the new students. They are clueless"
who made you helper? apparently you should get your facts straight
"If you fail one class, you will have to take all six classes again. And if you fail another different class the second time even if you passed it the first time, you still can't move on to the next semester." YOU WON'T REPEAT 6 CLASES.. ok? so now everybody, JUST STUDY HARD EVERY DAY. If you're not DONE WITH HEAVY PARTIES.. Don't go to medschool, here in the US or anywhere!!! good luck!

If I remember correctly (I graduated 3 years ago) but the way that they determined who passed or failed was based on the bell curve and the class averages. So if the class average was a 70 and the standard deviation was 8 the people who got 1 SD above the mean were A's the people who go 0-1 SD above the mean were B's the C's were up to 2 sd below the mean and then the ones that failed were below 2 sd of the mean(third and fourth semesters and then 1.5 for first and second semesters). For you math whizzes out there that is about 10 percent or so...
So all this stuff about failing this number or that number it is posted in the guidelines how the grades are determined. There is no magic to it just some basic math.

There is no random MPS. MPS stands for minimum passing score. The MAXIMUM minimum passing score will never exceed 60%. MPS can and often is below 60%. For example, the MPS on the last biochem mini was approximately 55%

Originally Posted by thecure4u

There is no random MPS. MPS stands for minimum passing score. The MAXIMUM minimum passing score will never exceed 60%. MPS can and often is below 60%. For example, the MPS on the last biochem mini was approximately 55%

ive often seen it higher than 60%

Originally Posted by MylifeatDominica

Someone asked a question about ross vs. aua.

I felt that I have to tell all the new students about things that Ross did not tell you.

1. Lots of students eventually transfer to other schools, such as smu, aua, etc. Of course some probably never make it, but some do. however, they will have a bad record. don't believe me, the current smu moderator is a transfer from ross. shocking, huh.

2. They fail about 15% for each semester. And now first and second semester students have to pass all six classes. If you fail one class, you will have to take all six classes again. And if you fail another different class the second time even if you passed it the first time, you still can't move on to the next semester.

So choose your school carefully.

---
part II.

to answer the following person's question.

Remember the histology professor? He is the one who is in charge of the mps, or something like that. Remember what he told you? Just like T cells and b cells need to be educated in thymus and bones, only those who can successfully pass the evaluation can move on. You as medical students also have to reach certain levels before you can move on to the next semester. then he will say that each semester 15% students will not be able to move on to the next level, because they haven't reached tha competency. so I am not making it up, that is what he said. Of course, they are not put that on writing.

I for one think that such a failure rate is "healthy" for a caribbean medical school. Caribbean med school's have much lower admission standard's than that of U.S. schools. Let's face it, the one's who fail don't belong in medical school (for the most part) and they proved that the U.S. medical schools are right in rejecting them. Also, the failure rate indicates the strength of the medical curriculum and that it is in fact identical to that of a U.S. medical school. There's a correlation between admission standards and attrition rate. I mean look at SGU's attrition rate; its the lowest of all caribbean schools because of its higher admission standards.

Just my take on it......

Now that is excellent insight and I couldnt agree more. I am 2 years removed from Ross and people are still pissing and moaning about the same things I used to read on the old PlanetRoss forum before I started school there in '01. The fact remains alot of the students ross takes dont belong there. maybe its because of maturity or intellect, whatever. I cannot think of anyone in my 4 years there who failed out that DID not deserve to. The school is sink or swim, you people should have known that when you signed up!!!!! There is no hand holding or personal advisors there, if you make it thru, its because of your own grit and determination, period. Ross will not give you anything, you must snatch it for yourself.
THe reason for this as Dr X. alluded to, is because on average, the school admits an inferior student than the US schools. Point of fact. I was not offended by this, nor should any of you, just take this opportunity and become what you wanted to become....a DOCTOR.