First of all let me just say that I am a former student who had an SGA (Student Government Association) postion and now am in a US Medical School. So ... I have no bitter feelings towards them at all. In fact I hope they fix any issues they have at the school atou present.

Now the there are several truths about Ross University that EVERYONE SHOULD BE AWARE OF ...

1) They have HAD a good reputation in the past, but their last class to take STEP 1 had about 46% pass rate. It used to be in the high 80's. Oh and of course they are not releasing this info yet - they have to spin it. How do I know? You have to know people in administration.

2) They recently as in the past semester failed the following numbers
1ST SEMESTER = 93 Fails 20 Withdrawls (Original class of 318)
2ND SEMESTER = 54 Fails (this usually is around 5)
3RD SEMESTER = 76 Fails (typical)
4RTH SEMESTER = 68 Fails (usually 10)

By the way the students were given their reports with just their final grades ... they were not given their scores on their shelf exams or their final just the course grade. And yes you fail 1 class you repeat ALL. BUT IF YOU FAIL 2 you subject for dismissal. You have to appear before a committee of 10 or so professors and state your case. THIS IS TRUE FOR ANY SEMESTER!

3) At ROSS they have this great that if your GPA by 4rth semester is below 2.9 you take a comprehensive shelf exam (which is rigged) CBT just like the STEP I. If you pass you go on to the 5th Semester in Miami otherwise back at ROSS for BMSI (Princeton Review) This past semester
5TH SEMESTER SHELF PASS = 6 (OUT OF 66)

4) WHY YOU ASK? Its obvious ROSS is trying to raise their standards. However. If thats the case why has MEDPREP (for those that don't know ... if you apply to ROSS for the 1st semester and don't get in they ask you to take med prep -- waste of time pre med classes -- which used to take a semester and was on the island giving students time to adjust to the island) moved to Miami and will be a year long course soon. Oh and by the way the rooms used to house med prep students (which used to number under 70 and is longer a guarantee that you will get into first semester and the class size is soon to be enlarged) is being used for a video feed for THE CURRENT 1ST SEMESTER because the 1ST SEMESTER CLASS ROOM WHICH SEATS OVER 340 STUDENTS IS FULL. -- THIS IS NOT RAISING STANDARDS PEOPLE. Its called economics.

5) In my previous 5 semesters at ROSS ... power outages and all the other crazy island rumors -- YEAH they were true -- not rumors.

6) The rumor about the girl getting sexually assaulted by a ROSS security guard --> yeah thats true too. A straigh A student during their final missed a bubble and tried to correct the exam but ran out of time and was told tough luck. AND PROBABLY THE WORST -- display during this past semesters GROSS ANATOMY LAB EXAMS students take the exam in sections of 7 and if pins were moved or removed they were told, "The problem is with you all not us. We did nothing wrong." (and then 50 people failed 2nd semester mainly in anatomy).

7) The only place near campus to buy american products ($4.00 for a ball point pen, $15.00 for a binder -- US) yeah its true.

8) DO THEY HAVE GOOD teachers? YES! Some of the best ... do they teach? Thats more of what you make of it.

9) Is ROSS developing? YES. Is it modernizing? Yes. But with a student population of over 1000 they have less than 100 PC's for student use on campus. You NEED A LAPTOP. They have wireless.

10) The bathrooms? DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED. Yet THE ADMIN bathrooms are nice. hmmmm.

11) BOTTOM IS ROSS A GOOD SCHOOL? Yes, if you can avoid all of these problems and make it out unscathed ... and people do. there over 100 people moving on the clinicals good for them ... the students are nice and helpful. BUT BEWARE! Hey this is the truth.

12) IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME GO TO THE ISLAND ... don't just ask someone ... if you don't believe what I said about future events ... just wait and see

13) I guess I can afford to say these things I used ROSS to start my medical career and transferred to a US school ("Go Catz"). But I still keep my ear to the ground and will let you all know if I find anything.

GOOD LUCK

i believe at least half of what you say. I have no experience with the other half.

yes. the classroom for 1st semester is overloaded, with a handful of students spilled over to another room. They really overbooked this year. I saw quite a few people who are repeating 1st semester. The crowdedness of the class is disconcerting, though this just means that you really have to be independent and get stuff done on your own. You get no personal attention here.

Will this be the first semester that they randomly give one shelf exam? I really don't like this idea because I can't test my knowledge in all the other subjects that I'm not gonna be tested on....

It's pretty obvious Ross has a new business plan to make more money: Accept 75 more people who are likely to fail, pocket that money. Make them repeat the whole semester, pocket another $10500 per person.

Regarding the other petty details...
yeah, the power goes out. There was a city-wide outage last night. It was a clear night. no hurricane or anything either. Only one bathroom on campus has soap. But that's life. You get used to it. It's not gonna affect my studies.

Texaspride:

Just put of curiosity when you indicate 46% pass rate on USMLE part 1, is that the percentage of the students from their original 1st semester class or is it the percentage of the students that sat for the exam after 5th semester?

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you listed more people in any one semester then failed in 5 semesters from my class total. and why would they make more money by failing people? that makes no sense whatsoever. on average, half the people who fail leave. so for everyone they make an extra 10 grand on, they lose 90 grand for the one who left. your math sucks. dont know about the latest pass rates on USMLE. my opinion? move 5th back to the rock. miami is a tough place to study. as fro the fail 1 class, repeat the year, fail 2, get booted? thats standard procedure in most US schools too(including the one i now teach at).

I am in first semester, but my situation is kinda unique in that I originally started in Fall 2001, made it through first and 2/3 of second semester before I had to leave because of a tragedy in my family back home. I am starting over because of the time gap between then and now. Anyway, my point is I think i am in a decent position to judge whether, and how, Ross has changed and/or progressed. It definitely has progressed. It is much more professional, and much more organized...everything from the PBL program to how printing is handled in the computer labs is much better, not to mention the better physical facilities, with classrooms 4 and 6 etc. Plus, first semester seems to involve much more class time than it did back then. Back then the faculty thought that the PBL program would be a substitute for class time...now it seems they view it as a supplement to class time. As for problems, yeah it is WAY more crowded here than it was. It's a pain sometimes, but when you get right down to it, it really is between you and whatever textbook you are buried in at any given moment, or whatever seat you are occupying in class. 16 months here, keep it professional, and get on with your education and your life back in the US, or wherever you call home. My three cents at least.

what school did you transfer to??? was it difficult? i'm currently trying to do the same, but am running into a ton of red tape...thanks for any information you have........

Prices on Caribbean Islands (on ANY island, for that matter) are usually higher. The reason for this is because they usually don't have pen and binder factories, and they have to import most commodities.

Congratulations to TexasPride for transferring to a school on US soil. He/she probably could not have endured the rigors of island life.

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HUH? regardless of whether this texaspride person is real or not, if a student transfers from ross to a US school, they would be doing so AFTER their semesters in dominica have been complete. nobody transfers after 2nd semester, or something similar. the only thing that COULD have happened in those regards is if the student was still completing semesters in dominica, but had applied via AMCAS to start fresh at a US school. since the OP mentioned (s)he transferred, they do that AFTER dominica is done, thus having endured all that the others have to endure down there.

Honestly, a lot of what you say regarding our school as being "bad" is also present at many, MANY US schools. many of the students at ross DO have friends/family attending schools in the US, and no single school is perfect from what we hear from these individuals. Sure, Harvard has its problems...but I am referring to the 120-something other schools that are in the US, all have their list of problems. Some of their problems DO coincide with the problems we too have. Picking at things like "only 100 computers" or students who were sexually harrassed are not things that only happen in Dominica. These things happen ALL over the world, including the US of course. Stop isolating things and inflaming them trying to make Ross look bad. Its not the best school out there as of yet, but I'm sure you too will run into problems/shortcomings with the school you have transferred to. Why did you refrain from mentioning which school you did transfer to?

Alimentary, my dear Watson.

They want to increase the step1 pass rate which means reducing the percent of people who make it to semester 5. But they want to keep up the 5th semester enrollment. So they increase semester 1 enrollment. and medprep too.

With the larger sample size starting, more people fail out (thanks for your money). But despite the lower percent who succeed, enough of them do to fill up the 5th semester spots and these will have higher step1 pass rates.

Q.E.D.

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