Fortunately, war is far from being the only experience which changes, deepens and broadens. AUCMD2006 mentioned a few others, the possibilities are limitless.
I gave that example because I thought it interesting and it involved relatively large numbers of people- a whole generation almost.
As I said before, I don't want to prohibit all 18 year-olds from med. school. But living in a country where entry at 18 has been the norm I see too many examples of people poorly prepared for medicine; encouraging the majority to wait seems to me to be best for them, the profession, and society as a whole.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho", 1983

you know that if you guys don't cut it out.. this may actually turn into a civilized and semi interesting forum....

and just to through my 2 cents into the mix...

i'm strongly against going straight from High school... for the reasons i mentioned above..

plus if you look at the growing trend in medicine... its to increase the length of schooling required.. and increase the length of residency...

some of the medical schools are going to 5 year programs and incorporating a mandatory research year and making it an MD/PhD -->eg Case Western

90% of the people i've met in the more competitive specialties/residencies have multiple advanced degrees including but not limited to MPH, PhD, MSc, MPT, etc...

Several more competetive residencies are increasing their length of residencies by a year to include a mandatory research year...

So things are getting more competitive every year... and going straight from high school handicaps you from something more competitive... the MD now a days is the bare minimum... i'm actually contemplating how i can weasel in a PhD or MPH in my spare time...

From what I've heard med school is pretty intense. If you put 100 - 18 year olds in a room who felt they were ready to go to med school....I wonder how many of them would actually be able to handle it. Older probably is better.

Swinging the conversation back over to Azrealist. I asked you about students tranferring back to St. Chris and you didn't feel they should right now. So that makes me wonder who should go to St. Chris now? US students? Senegal students? Students from other foreign countries?

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Pending the arrival of hordes of new students with relevant issues to discuss- who's dating whom, the answers to this week's micro test etc.- perhaps this will be a forum for discussion of general med. school issues as above, a not-so-relaxing lounge.
I can't see Senegalese going there- not without generous scholarships which I doubt the admin. are about to provide. Besides, those who could afford it would probably go to more established schools and I would guess that there are still a fair few Senegalese in French med. schools.
Likewise, students from other countries who could afford the fees are most likely to opt for a safer bet elsewhere.
Which brings us back to the need for rehabilitation of the school in the U.S./U.K. I include the U.K. because it does look, from what Azrealist has said about Oregon, as if regaining GMC approval would help enormously to sway those American states who have dis-approved the school.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho", 1983

It is a subjective appreciation, nothing wrong with that.The straight from high school model seems to be working pretty well for the countries I mentioned with no major problems. Besides they have been doing it for decades, more than our total age combined. Bassed on the facts that it has been done and worked well for so long in these countires, I don't see a sustaining argument that "going straight from high school handicaps you from something more competitive".

Peace to all.

Max

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...."Beyond jealosy and betrayal; beyond hate and desire; beyond pain and death; lies the ultimate revelation; the final choice; the end; because the fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth" Neon Genesis Evangelion

I guess it's a waiting game for now. All we know for sure is the school is still open and they are working on getting the GMC's approval back. Lots of students want to go to school in England so they shouldn't have trouble getting students once everything falls in place. They did it before so they can do it again.

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to answer max first... outside of the rare exception (and yes there are some) most of the people in specialty like plastics, ortho, radio, IR, etc.. all have advanced degrees, or have connections (ie mom or dad works there)

yes the model works great in those countries... but i can tell you from experience since i've lived in the UK and europe... MD's are not respected or paid the same anywhere else in the world like the US...

in the UK... if you want use a great pick up line at a bar... tell them you're an engineer or computer programmer... because they make the money.. MD's make no money and have little respect there... that why the HS kid going in works..

In the US people have this perception that MD's live like rock stars and don't do work.. and pretty much the "money grows on trees" mentality... proven by the 1000's of FMG's that try to come to the US... little do they realize that the streets aren't really made of gold.. and MD's work 80+ hours.. as a side story i rotated at a hospital in the US where "real" UK students also rotate on ocasion, and this was a surg sub-specialty.. his first day he asked what time do we start.. we said 5am.. and he laughed... didn't show up til 8, he actually thought we were joking... needless to say he didn't finish the 2 months he signed up for because the hours were "rediculous"...

so the point is.. you can't compare the US/can med school model to any other in the world.. the media has turned medicine in the US into a rock star fantasy... so everyone wants to be an MD... not true anywhere else...

.... as for empathy... who should come to SCIMD now... senegalese can come.. but not sure why because they have their own campus there.. and their own hospital.. and their own university in dakar... so unless they want to come and spend the extra money just to live in the UK.. no point...

and as of this moment I would reccomend SCIMD to those students who couldn't get in to US/Can/UK schools and know the specific state that they want to practice in, and its one that we're eligible in... you can't live on the promise that "we're working on xyz state and it'll be fixed by xyz date"... can't live on those.. because we got screwed by that before... only come if you want to practice in x state.. and we're good right this moment in x state... if the state you want is one that we're not good in right now find a school that is... DO NOT TRUST any school that tells you that they WILL BE ok in anything until they actually are... because as we learned your world can crash in very quickly...

India and places like that? Would it make sense for them to come to St. Chris?

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Sorry, duplicate post. Deleted.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho", 1983

In a word- no. See this from the Medical Council of India regs.-
Primary Medical qualification" means a medical qualification awarded by any medical institution outside India which is a recognized qualification for enrolment as medical practitioner in the country in which the institution awarding the said qualification is situated
This and the other considerations previously mentioned (affordability, recognition by various U.S. states etc.) will make St. Chris. unattractive at the moment.
If they sort out U.S./U.K. recognition then they might be in with a fighting chance in some more countries. But cost will still be a big factor. U.S./U.K./Canada remain their core market.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho", 1983