Thread: Please Help Choose!!!!!!!!!AUC or Ross

If you were offered admission at AUC or Ross, where would you go and why. Thank you.

about tolerating a less developed country and the living conditions at Ross, you have to remember, you are ONLY there for 16 months. I have talked to so many Ross grads and they all tell me time flys like you wouldnt imagine. Also, yeah Ross has tougher living conditions, but its up to you to get a nice apt with all the proper amenities. There are some really nice ones there, but you have to search. The Ross buildings look shabby from outside, but really high tech inside (ross puts all its money in the inside of the building). Look at the anatomy lab, its the closest to looking like an anatomy lab like the US medical schools.

Actaully better than most anatomy labs in US schools... US facilities aren't all that amazing, they excel in their infrastructure...

Originally Posted by scorpion4lif

aside from distrations (clubs, casino, strip clubs) at AUC, i think the biggest reason I chose Ross is b/c i didnt want the word "caribbean" in my diploma. i know residencies all know FMG is FMG, but when it comes to a patient and you have your diploma in your practice and they glace over and they see american university of caribbean, thats what i didnt want. i know its picky and dumb to a lot of ppl, but im paying so much money and putting in all this effort that i should be picky. also, with Ross medical school, it sounds like any other US school, such as Rush Medical School in Chicago. Once your a doc, and if you choose to have your own practice, then reputation and what the patient thinks is all that matters sometimes.

Actually, I'm really not very happy about AUC's name either. I think it was a pretty stupid idea to put the word "caribbean" in the name. However, the more people I tell I'm going there lately, the more I hear the opposite response than what I've expected. I expected everyone to question why I'm going to the caribbean. But instead, almost everyone winds up saying "wow..must be nice, can I come visit?" Most people don't know very much about medical schools...they just think it's pretty cool that I'll be spending nearly 2 years in the caribbean.

Besides, nobody is going to care where you went to medical school once you're done residency and likely, very few patients would know or ask anyway.

I won't argue which school is better..........the big 3 are just that, the big 3. Ross and AUC both get you where you want to be, can both provide US clinicals, etc etc. Being on the rock, however, is not only condusive to studying - ask yourself - Do I have what it takes? Medical school is not joke and if you serious and going to be one of the successful ones location should not be an issue. Even on the rock you can find a nice apt with air conditioning, US brand foods in Rosseau, and drivers to deliver anything you need. Its no St. Martaan, but are you there to study or to worry about eating gourmet food and gamble at night?

Something else to take into consideration is residency placement. AUC will get you there but the truth is their match does not compare. There are the successful students who get where they want to be but at the very competitive residencies, and the competitive states, you will see more Ross and SGU. Take internal medicine alone for example (which is not as competitive as other specialties), you will find two to three SGU and Ross grads in each of the following: UConn, UMass, Drexel, UMDNJ, SUNY Downstate, SUNY Stonybrook, and the University of Southern California just to mention a few off hand. There are only 125 university programs in the US and I just mentioned 7 of them, how many AUCers are there? From personal experience interviewing, I saw a total of 1 AUC student at any of my interviews.........and I went to quite a few. Of course, they may have been there on other days, but I saw a ton of SGU and Ross students. That says something in itself.

Before this starts any arguements, I am not saying these other schools are better than AUC. I have rotated with AUC students and they are very capable, hardworking, and, in my experience, more motivated than some Ross students. However, you can't argue with fact...........it is what it is. In terms of residency placement there is not the same equality.

Just my two cents.

"AUC will get you there but the truth is their match does not compare. There are the successful students who get where they want to be but at the very competitive residencies, and the competitive states, you will see more Ross and SGU. Take internal medicine alone for example (which is not as competitive as other specialties), you will find two to three SGU and Ross grads in each of the following: UConn, UMass, Drexel, UMDNJ, SUNY Downstate, SUNY Stonybrook, and the University of Southern California just to mention a few off hand. There are only 125 university programs in the US and I just mentioned 7 of them, how many AUCers are there? From personal experience interviewing, I saw a total of 1 AUC student at any of my interviews.........and I went to quite a few. Of course, they may have been there on other days, but I saw a ton of SGU and Ross students. That says something in itself."

you gotta look at it logically from the numbers, i saw more ross and sgu students while interviewing too but could that possibly be because of the difference in class sizes? what is the avg graduating class size per year at ross? don't they boast that they place the largest number of residents per year than any school? US or otherwise? the graduating class size at auc is roughly 150 per year? that is half of one semester at sgu.

if you look at the residency placements proportionally, they aree no different. the places that interview and rank foreign grads are well aware of our schools, BTW i got an IM interviews at Ucon, UI, Northwestern, UT, LSU, and UF that i cancelled after getting plenty of OB interviews so the type of interviews i got seemed comparable to the rossies and sgu'ers i've talked to.

now having caribbean in the diploma is annoying at times and i wish it wasn't there sometimes but in the end those of you that have worked private medicine know that:

1) it is rare to have patients in your office, you see them and talk to them in the exam rooms
2)no one says you have to hang your diploma in your office
3) anyone who has the time to read the first line with the name of the school will also probably read the next few lines that state who issued it
4)any patient that cares more about your school than your medical knowledge would probably end up getting turfeed by you for some other anal retentive reason anyway so you saved a headache

i actually met a ross resident that said he went to ross university in new york...pretty funny

I know I had similar concerns, however it was choosing between SGU and Ross, but when it came down to everything, I chose Ross. I think all 3 schools have what it takes, but I have to agree that I have heard more great things about the residency placements about Ross and SGU than any others, not to say that students from there don't get some great residency spots, but it seems like there is fewer of them. And, having worked with clinicians for a few years, I noticed that politically speaking, MD from non-US schools who finished residency in the US are more likely to get a "Chief-of-..." position than those graduating from a DO school in the states. I had the opportunity to do a DO in the US, and turned it down for an MD at Ross. Another thing, most foreign graduates don't bother putting up their diplomas in the office, they rather hang their residency and fellowship diplomas from the US. And trust me, from all my experience, maybe 1 in 1000 pts. will actually ask you where you have graduated from. Most patients will either like you or not based on the reputation you make for yourself through referals from other patients. When it comes down to it all, people will care more about the quality of services that you provide for them, than about your background.

As far as pure education is concerned, and not considering the islands, go to Ross for the good basic sciences, then transfer to AUC for rotations. AUC students have no issues getting their cores scheduled at good places back to back like Ross does

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

As far as pure education is concerned, and not considering the islands, go to Ross for the good basic sciences, then transfer to AUC for rotations. AUC students have no issues getting their cores scheduled at good places back to back like Ross does

BrotherMan, do you think that Ross's basic science program is superior to AUC's? I ask this because if you are suggesting transferring to AUC for rotations, why not complete the entire program at AUC. The transfer can be difficult for a number of reasons....would it be worth it?

AUCMD2006............For the record, I stated that it was possible the AUC people may have had interviews on other days. However, that being said, what are the odds of that being the case at every institution I interviewed at? Also, you may very likely be one of those few that I spoke of. Perhaps you excelled greatly in your class.

Also, when speaking of all those universities I was talking about residency placement, not interviews. Interviews go by a basic numbers screening......what matters is where you rank. AUC did not rank very well in the large universities. If I am wrong, please correct me. I don't want to state something that is not true.

If I may ask, where are you doing residency?

Again, no offense intended.

Originally Posted by LA2Ross03

AUCMD2006............For the record, I stated that it was possible the AUC people may have had interviews on other days. However, that being said, what are the odds of that being the case at every institution I interviewed at? Also, you may very likely be one of those few that I spoke of. Perhaps you excelled greatly in your class.

Also, when speaking of all those universities I was talking about residency placement, not interviews. Interviews go by a basic numbers screening......what matters is where you rank. AUC did not rank very well in the large universities. If I am wrong, please correct me. I don't want to state something that is not true.

If I may ask, where are you doing residency?

Again, no offense intended.

i said it was a numbers game, if you have a ton more grads from ross then you are more likely to run into another rossie because more rossies would equal more days when they would be scheduled.... if you look at the percentages they are the same quick run down auc had about 150vs ross at 350. a quick pertcentage breakdown of university programs:

1) anesth AUC 100% Ross 72%
2) ER 38% 46%
3) FP 35% 30%
4)IM 32% 35%
5) OB 50% 23%
6)Path 100% 80%
7)PMRH * 100% 38%
8)Psych 60% 75%
9)Rads* 100% 50%
10) Gen SUrg 60% 75%
11)Neuro Surg* 100% 0%

none of the above offer a huge disparity giving either one any huge advantage. the* for auc marks 3 specialties where only one matched. also the numbers were not double checked i just quickly ran through both lists so they are not 100% accurate but close enoug for this comparison....

btw- its great to have this much free time to be able to do this...i wonder4 how much vmd time i'l have in july