New students beware. I am a 3rd semester student currently at Ross and there are a few things you should know.

1) The Ross administration will NOT reimburse you for flight changes you the student must make when the last day of school is pushed forward by the administration in mid-semester. The Ross admin will tell you that the schedule is not set in stone and that you took a gamble when you guessed at your return date. HOWEVER Dominica is a foreign country and you MUST have a return ticket when you originally book, so you plan according to the school schedule they provide you. The Dean has point blank told us that this is not his problem and that we just have to deal with it. Nice attitude.

2) This semester the 3rd semester class has had 2 exams thrown out b/c of suspected cheating. One exam was an ICM quiz worth 4% the other a PATH LAB FINAL exam worth over 10% of your final grade. The administration has taken no action and made little effort to identify the guilty parties. In fact up till now no one has been identified and the whole thing just smells fishy. We will apparently be recieving an INCOMPLETE on our transcript this semester for our Pathology grade. Have you ever heard of anything so asinine in your life.

3) Last semester (Jan-May 2005) Every class sat for a NBME shelf exam. The administration LOST a shelf and all of the scores from this testing were thrown out leaving every student with grades that were determined out of 85/85 since the shelf exams are worth 15% of our grade. Some will say students were involved in this issue. If that is true then I would certainly hope that the admin would toss these bums out. But that has not happened leaving me to believe that this is an internal problem that rests with the proctors of the exam.

4) The electricity has been out more times this semester than in the last 3 semesters combined. The schools water has been out for most of this month for what reason I do not know. The financial aid department has given us mis-information regarding our loans. Just this past week they finally gave us the loan amount that we could apply for for NEXT semester, which is less than a month away. The loan amount has changed from what they originally told us 30 days ago and now students are having to cancel federal and signature loans for the new loan amounts that the Financial Aid office has conjured up.

5) You will just have to wait and experience the Behavioral Science dept for yourself in person as words cannot describe the experience. Example: The head of the dept will habitually show up late to class, professors will not show and classes within this dept will be switched around the entire semester.

This is just the tip of the iceburg. I thought I was at a Medical school but apparently this is just a disorganized sinking ship that needs some serious help.

you serious? i slept through that meeting with the dean. you sure he said that?

I don't know a school in the world that will reimburse you for plan tickets - no matter what the excuse is. The University publishes the last day of the semester usually almost a week after the last day of exams. However, students have determined that they can leave the same day of their last exam -- and usually that works out fine. I guess you did take a gamble leaving before the published last day of the semester. Ross isn't the only school in the world that has schedule changes - and its time you figured out that everybody isn't out to get you.

Cheating really messes things up. You're right. I guess you need to speak with the students in your class who cheated. Most students in the class usually know who they are. According to the honor code, it is your responsibility. Either you speak up or the whole class pays...That's life. I think I'd rather the school attempt to make things fair (pass those who deserve to pass, fail those who deserve to fail) instead of knowing that I attended a school that turned an eye at cheating.

Electricity out? Yeah, I agree, that's annoying. Maybe you should ask Ross to reimburse you for the studying time you lost during that time? My power has gone out three times here in the states this month - I wonder if Ross will reimburse me for that? A few months ago on my way to the hospital my car slipped on the ice and and hit another car. I wonder if Ross will reiburse me for getting my car fixed?

POINT: You are responsible for yourself and your own choices.

Yes, the Financial aid department has adjusted the amount of money they allow students to borrow. In most cases they have adjusted it upwards (ie you can borrow more money if you wish). They have also greatly improved the system by allowing all applications online so that the whole process is done in a week. If its a month early you should have no problem getting your money on time - especially if you already had your online application completed. The school does the rest. The new FA Director is great and the office has been very responsive as of late.

-M

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MitchDC/MD
RUSM 2006 Graduate

mercy mercy.

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Please un-ban Preppystud, Woodbridge, Bob2k, and Rajpatel, they were the most elite members of valueMD...sbturner is my hero

I can only speak about the plane tickets. If you get an open ticket like my son did he actually got a flight 5 days later with no problem when the rule was changed to extend the semester and the time for the final tests. If you try to get out the afternoon of the exams its a risk.

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When you become my age you will realize all of the hard work and studying was worth the effort.
"60 years young" another 60 to go if my doctor sons keep me alive with free prescriptions!!

Looks like a pattern is starting to develop with this school. Things are starting to look really bad

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"Peace through strength." Ronald W. Reagan

hmmm ure the first person who said that the water's gone out... i wonder how much truth there is to that statement... do ureself a favor n' stop expecting ure life to be handed to u in a silver platter... if ure gonna be expectin that then u might as well retire from this field cuz its gonna get worse... when the ins. company comes up to u n' tells u that u can't give a certain medication to ure pt. cuz they just dont feel like payin for it... then u can complain... until then SHUT UP... ive had my application to my dream school turned down 2x cuz the university i attended didn't feel like sending my committee letter in...that's wat u call administrative issues...even than i should have known better and followed up on them...quit blaming everyone else and take some actions if ure this worried about it... if a "water" and power outage is all it takes to scare you or have u complaining... than uve got some serious reconsidering to do... now do everyone a favor and quit scaring people...

The problems mentioned have all happened in the past. You learn to deal with it and anything else (incl. the cheating!!!!!)....

Just be concerned for yourself, pass exams, don't cheat, study study study, and get off the island ASAP.

The road ahead is golden....clinicals, residency, a future as a doctor....

Stay focused....stop worrying, start studying!

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Ross University Forum Moderator

Dr.A.
PGY-3 Pathology Resident

That sounds good.....school's respecting people's efforts by addressing possible cheating and responding. the occasional power outs, and flight issues are normal for the schools in the islands..... and another flock of grads got jobs this year. So everything's on track. This is normal. Keep your head in the books and see you stateside.
Geoff

i guess i can understand the concern you guys are having. Living on the island and no one to complain to or turn to for support regarding school issues. I lived on the island as well and I too had to deal with the same issues of schedule changes, power outages (especially the weekends before the minis), people cheating, water outages, EARTH QUAKES etc, etc, etc. I mean you cant imagine how the power would turn off like clock work the whole weekend of the minis, i hated it.

Anyhow, regardless of all this i did notice that the people that complained about all this were the ones that were not doing so great in school. They would rather complain and whine rather than just studying against all odds.

Just stay focused, study on school campus when the power is out, buy a whole bunch bottled water, let the cheaters cheat, and let the school change their schedule a million times over because all that will just seem hilarious and miniscule when you are getting good grades. And thats the honest truth.

Good luck.