Just to clarify, SGU and AUC DO NOT forcefully send people overseas. It's more of an option to their students, which, as Daniel alluded, is an advantage rather than a drawback.

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"Bart, having sex on prom night is as American as our fifty-first state, Saudi Israelia!" -The Simpsons.

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There you go people.. All you hear from Ross students it complaints of how poorly organized their clinical department is. I am sure SGU's department isn't that much better but there are less complaints. The biggest reason why I picked SGU over Ross was that people on the SGU forum complained a lot less then Ross students. I felt that if by paying $50K more will cause me to have less problems and less headaches it's money well spent. The quality of life is important to me, especially when you have to study really hard, thus I felt that if I waste less time looking for food or not dealing with the ** of the island I would have more time to study.

after spending a little over a year in Grenada, I feel that the living conditions aren't that bad, but there are still food shortages every now and then and you get sick of eating the same thing everyday. I can't imagine what it would be like if I lived in Dominica. That's probably the main reason why I picked SGU.

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SGU-SOM, Class of 2010
Due to the high volume of private messages, I can only answer questions that are posted in a forum. Private messages will be ignored.

pardon my vulgarities, but i can't sum it up better than:

"Ross doesn't give a **** about you"

and keep in mind, suk graduated years ago. The situation is worse now with all these extra students.

I had a similar experience. Ross told me that I could look for my own cores or withdraw from the school if I was not happy.

I dont think I was asking too much...asking for all ACGME cores. If you call the school and ask to schedule a Peds core and they make you wait 15 months, there is something wrong.

As for RussianJoo's post about unhappy students and alumni...look at the SOURCE and JUSTIFICATION.

Complaints about the food and the Island are truly secondary to becoming a physician. As bad as Island life is (large classes, rude people, lack of US amenities), some people think Miami is worse (traffic, El Nino, disorganized, etc). After Miami, when the grades and "face-time" with attendings matter the most, Ross leaves you to fend for yourself to find State Rules and Regulations about licensing issue concerning important nuances like having a Neurology core/elective, all ACGME cores in certain States, etc.

In any case, whatever experiences may have shaped or molded a person, I find that the complaints by Alumni (Attendings and Residents alike) and current 9th and 10th semester students (those who are on the verge of graduating and have been through all the crap firsthand)...I find those complaints much more valid and hard to dismiss. They have been through it all and know the difference between minor irks (occasional loss of electricity on the Island, food on the Island) versus justified major complaints (telling 3rd and 4th years to withdraw if they didn't like the fact that they have to wait for ACGME cores).

Although I do not find myself agreeing with Dr Sukhtinder on everything, I do find myself giving similar advice to all prospectives...if given the choice, goto SGU or AUC. But to all those current Ross students, please persevere, study hard and I wish you all the best!

Although I do not find myself agreeing with Dr Sukhtinder on everything, I do find myself giving similar advice to all prospectives...if given the choice, goto SGU or AUC


Wow...all this talk makes one think twice about Ross...but at the same time, so many have gone through it and have made.

No offense but this is a very dumb post.Ross admits all the students it knows will complete the course and then a bunch more it knows who wont. Student X gets weed out after 1 term. 50 such student X's. 35 K tuit. per student X. = 1.750 million $$ extra just in weedout income. And I know that 1.8 mil isnt going to the computer labs for new dells.

it's not a smooth ride. that's for sure.


oh hell no. those computers are like 10 years old. and the slightly newer 7 year old pc's at miami take days to boot up.

i guess money can't buy extra clinical rotations huh.

so for these certain states, ALL of the rotations, including electives, have to be done at green book sites??? i looked up hospitals from the list on Ross' website and out of all those sites only 5 have residency in pediatrics and all are in NY.

Alright,

I just got home from picking up a new laptop, checked in, read all of your replies. I'm glad to see that none of this has turned ugly.

As someone mentioned. There are some training sites affiliated with Ros that are only ACGME certified for certain rotations, while others are certified for all cores and electives. The catalog does specifiy this. Thanks for pointing that out.

Someone questioned the reasoning behind placing an upper limit of 100 students to what I consider to be an effective, small class setting. True, I didn't really qualify it did I? All I'm really saying is that there are two different dynamics when comparing small and large classes. Small classes are unique in that they allow for better dialogue between the class and the professor, this gets a lot more difficult to do with increasing amounts of students in a given class. At around 100 that dynamic seems to be lost. Whether that be due to people's apprehension of saying something dumb or whatever in front of that many people causes this or something else, I'm not too sure.

Again any class beyond that point has a similar dynamic which is altogether different from the dynamic of a smaller more intimate setting. If you don't agree based on your personal experience that's fine. But at least now my position is qualified.

In terms of the original post. I understand that there are certain core electives that are hard to land at ACGME sites. That's fine, I'm not refuting that. What I am saying is that the way, I think it was Zao... yeah, he really exaggerated whether knowingly or not, that Ross did not have legitimate, accredited training facilities.

I haven't attended Ross yet I've made this clear. I'm glad that others who have are letting us know in advance what to look out for. A big thanks to all who have. My qualms are with the way people are saying it and where, I mean what do you really get out of trashing the school that granted you the most important degree that you're likely ever going to hold. Have some self pride. Trashing the school you went only makes you look bad. On that note, trashing other offshore schools makes us all look bad.

We all know the ride isn't going to be perfect, it's to be expected. Think about how long mainland medical schools have had to establish the level of education they have. A lot longer than thirty years I'm sure.

Respect to Ross, SGU and others for being where they are.

texas has that issue or had recently; may have changed.

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Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.