Recent posts in Ross Vs. SGU threads were very misleading. People made a huge deal about Ross not having all ACGME rotation sites and this had me worried enought to do verify the facts and here are my findings:

According to the Ross University School of Medicine Academic Catalog for 2005/2006, Out of 49 total hospital affiliations only 3 sites are not ACGME approved training sites. One of these training sites is in Dominica. Which means that in the U.S only 2 sites affiliated with Ross are not greenbook.

Here are the sites:

US:
Long Beach Medical Centre (DO)
Peninsula Hospital Centre (DO)

Dominica:
Princess Margaret Hospital

For comparison, SGU only has 38 full hospital affiliations + 7 limited affiliations in the U.S. I haven't checked whether they are all green book but let's assume they are. What this clearly shows is that Ross has more green book clinical training sites than SGU - 1 more to be exact.

Let me remind everyone that Ross was the first Offshore school to have its graduates officially eligible for licensure in all 50 states. I'm not talking about case by case assessment either, or loop hole recognition, I mean fully recognized as LCME equivalent by all states with approval programs in place. Schools to follow Ross in this regard include SGU, AUC and UAG.

In closing, I'd like to say that most of the Complaints coming out of Ross's front seem to be linked to the backwardness of the island. Okay we get it. Dominica is not your quintessential caribbean hotspot. So what? You're not going to be there for that long anyway - 16 months total. Luxuries aside, Ross is as good as it gets in the caribbean.

--
UTG.

But if you aren't aware of the problems associated with doing non-Greenbook rotations, it can be a huge headache in the future. G

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DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

First i want to say that ross will get you where you want to go if you put the work into it. I know some fine docs have come from ross. I've had friends that have gone through ross and have had their share of problems, but eventually they made it. but it does have probs that have been reviewed before on vmd. Such as there lack of ped and ob/gyn rotations
http://www.valuemd.com/ross-universi...highlight=ross

Also i really don't like the fact that they admit so many students and pretty much weed them out first semester. I've heard attrition rates as high as 40%.

I know other schools such as sgu and auc have their problems too, but they are problems i'm willing to deal with. Good luck with watever school u decide to attend!

I am aware of the problems associated with doing non green book rotations. I guess my strategy will be to not do rotations at any of the three that aren't green book. I'll try and stick with the the other 46 available.

Haha, Ross doesn't 'weed' students out. Their curriculum is tough and some students aren't ready for the challenge.

Think about it from Ross' point of view. What do they get by weeding someone out? NOTHING! What does Ross get if you finish the curriculum and graduate? An extra 3 years of tuition!

Ross is a business, not a daycare. They do not profit from failing students. They profit from passing students. But, by failing students, they show that they don't baby you. Either you will do the work or you won't!

And by the way, nice research done utorontograd.

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Phil
Class of 2010!

The September incoming class is not that much larger than SGU's. Besides, from my experience at the University of Toronto, there is not much difference in learning experience from being in a class with 400 students as there is with 1400. My first year bio class was in our Convocation Hall which reminded me of a Roman gladitorial arena that was rammed with bio students.

An effective small class learning environment tops out at 100 at this level in my opinion. When people squabble over which is better 300 or 350 it is rather pointless.

Attrition rate is high. That is definitely true. My opinion on this is that Caribbean schools exist to give those deserving a second chance. Whether students decide to advantage of this tremendous opportunity or not is totally up to them not Ross faculty and staff. People need to take responsibilty for their own actions.

If anything the high attrition rates are a testament to the level of education at Ross and the high expectations the school has of its students.

By the way, the purpose of this post is to put perspective on things that have been said in other posts started by people who were trying to decide between the two schools. I have already decided to go to Ross. I just don't want people to be misled by exaggerated, or false claims.

Yes, a simple, yet effective, solution.

__________________
AUC Class of '99
Bored certified
I may be a jerk, but I'm a Jedi jerk like my father.

Some say I look like Buzz Lightyear....
(They're right)

DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

The Ross catalog is not accurate.

They count any hospital with an ACGME rotation as ACGME. Wyckoff has ACGME rotations in Family and Internal and is thus counted as an ACGME hospital. But OB-GYN and Surgery are DO there. St. John's is ACGME for Psych, but DO for everything else (I know- they tried to put me in a unaccredited DO Peds rotation there 2 years ago).

I'm a proud Ross grad, but that doesn't take away the fact that Ross has serious problems when it comes to scheduling people in all-ACGME rotations. I personally did all of my rotations at ACGME sites, but that meant not being able to de Peds and OB-GYN until September and October of the the beginning of my 4th-year, which screwed with my Step 2 test dates and the resulting match (I didn't want to take Step 2 until after I had completed Peds and OB-GYN).

SGU is superior to Ross when it comes to 3rd and 4th-year scheduling- no doubt about it.

Not to muddy the waters...and please correct me w/o attacking if I'm wrong....
A site may be ACGME accredited for a certain rotation, but not for another. For example, perhaps they are ADGME accredited for FP, but not IM. To accurately assess the program or site, you can use:
ACGME Accredited Program and Institutional Listing - Public Access

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