Thread: INTO St George's, University of London (UK)- Courses for Int'l Students

Hi-

St George's, University of London in partnership with INTO University Partnerships is offering degree programs in International Medicine (Bsc/MBBS- 6 years), International Graduate Medicine (MBBS- 4 years) and in Biomedical Sciences (BSc Hons) that are exclusively for international students. This means that there are programs with spaces for students who are not UK or EU citizens to study in London at the St George's, University of London campus with is co-located with St George's Hospital.

The International Graduate and International Medicine courses are beneficial to students who wish to be exposed to both the UK and US medical systems as two years of US clinical experience is built into the curriculum.

Staff from INTO St George's, University of London are currently holding seminars and attending student fairs across the US, Canada and internationally. Check out INTO SGUL : INTO UK to learn about the upcoming events as well as the available course options.

If you have any questions about these programs please feel free to reach out to an INTO staff member by emailing: namerica(at)sgul.ac.uk or you can submit an inquiry through our website at INTO SGUL : INTO UK.

Best Regards,

Shannon Smith
INTO St George's, University of London

Dear hopeful_med,

Thank you for sending these questions over!

For the INTO SGUL programs, we have reserved spaces for clinicals for all students in that program. INTO SGUL students just have to make sure that they complete the academic requirements needed in order to transition into the clinicals. There are 25 spaces in our 6-year MBBS program for INTO SGUL students and we still have spaces available in it for the Fall 2012 start date. What makes an applicant competitive is having a solid
combination of academics, community/work experience and a good interview. It's really about the whole package per applicant. Be sure to highlight any experience you've had in the health field and you'll need to be able to demonstrate what you learned from it.

Best Regards,

Shannon

This program gots some serious issues. For one Washington Adventist aint even a teaching hospital. It may teach nursing students but they definitely don't educate doctors. A university with a strong reputation like St. Georges London should have been able to secure affiliation with a top US teaching hospital. Something like George Washington University Medical Center or Georgetown University Medical Center or any hospital that is associated with a US med school. Adventist is used for clinical rotations by some of the lowest tier Caribbean medical schools (research AIMU) and not even the four good ones. St. Georges Grenada utilizes a better teaching hospital and for the same money you should probably go there instead. Dis London school is likely just selling u to the lowest bidder for US clinicals. It seems quite clear that is the case. Adventist is a small hospital, less than 300 beds. I used to volunteer there in UG when I was at the University of Maryland (before transferring to VCU).

Second, for the non-US citizens they haven't even named the site of clinical rotations?! and the application deadline is the end of the month!? How half baked is this program? Imagine asking somebody to apply to a program and that kosts $200K without even telling them where their clinical rotations are going to be? They cant be serious.

This program is going to run into serious state licensing issues since it clearly isnt even fully developed yet. Stick to the Carib AUC, SABA, ROSS, or SGU (Grenada) they'll get you where you want to go and the curriculum is designed around the medical board exams.

This program is new, it takes time to develop clinical rotations, and it's SGU-London, for crying out loud. I disagree with your assessment. This university is well-established and will have absolutely no problems with licensing, because it is already world-renowned. Heck, at least they are honest about the situation in their curricular development, which is more than we can say about lots of places. If they had been around a few years ago, I definitely would have applied. SGU-London makes a much more impressive CV entry than most foreign medical schools.

Besides, for anyone starting now, the numbers for foreign grads matching after graduation are expected to plummet anyway... no matter where you go to school. If I had to do it all again, and I was trying to start now, I honestly don't know whether I would -- unless I was OK with the fact that I was probably going to spend my medical career outside of the US system.

Originally Posted by devildoc8404

This program is new, it takes time to develop clinical rotations, and it's SGU-London, for crying out loud. I disagree with your assessment. This university is well-established and will have absolutely no problems with licensing, because it is already world-renowned. Heck, at least they are honest about the situation in their curricular development, which is more than we can say about lots of places. If they had been around a few years ago, I definitely would have applied. SGU-London makes a much more impressive CV entry than most foreign medical schools.

Besides, for anyone starting now, the numbers for foreign grads matching after graduation are expected to plummet anyway... no matter where you go to school. If I had to do it all again, and I was trying to start now, I honestly don't know whether I would -- unless I was OK with the fact that I was probably going to spend my medical career outside of the US system.

Admittedly, the slots for foreign grads is expected to decrease as the United States is producing more doctors. However, the number of spots for IMGs isn't going to disappear overnight. There should be a good number of residencies available to IMGs until about 2020 because residency programs are expanding at about the same rate that US class sizes are expanding and US schools opening, for the near future at least. But America is trying to limit its dependency on foreign trained doctors however it will be at least a decade before they can accomplish that.

A bigger issue here is California recognition. Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont all use California's list so not having California approval takes away licensing possibilities from 1/5th of the US. It's also a bit of a damper that Washington Adventist isn't a teaching hospital. Which means they don't have any residency programs. This will hurt grads as a good amount of a program's graduates usually match into a residency at the hospital where they rotated as medical students but that just isn't a possibility. However, SGUL is exploring other hospitals for clinical rotations so perhaps those hospitals will be teaching hospitals which will make the program more attractive by increasing graduates' possibilities of landing a residency at that hospital.

I read that the numbers are anticipated to approach 1-to-1 around 2015/16 according to the AAMC report, but yeah. I think overseas med school is getting to be a bad idea for anyone who wants a US match, anyway.

Hi GRAMnegativebacteriumLPS,

I welcome all feedback about our program, however, I can confirm that SGUL did take into great consideration where clinicals in the US are held. As you mentioned in your posting, there are a wide variety of medical schools out there. If you feel like this program isn't right for you, then that's okay.

The INTO SGUL program is a new growing program that has the full support of the SGUL administration behind it and the intentions behind the program are to provide students with the best opportunities to obtain an education in medicine so that they can go onto a successful pathway to being a practicing physician.

As to your question about where non-US citizens will be doing clinicals, we do have a site and we're just finalizing the contract with them now. If a non-US/Canadian citizen has questions about where this is they're welcome to reach out to me directly or via PM. Our application period has been open from September 2011 and is closing on May 31, 2012. So if someone is just looking at our program now for Fall 2012 admission then yes, the application deadline is approaching quickly, however, we're not responsible for when students decide to begin applying for medical school. All I can do is make it known what our admission requirements are so that any interested students in the program are aware of all necessary requirements.

Our curriculum is designed around the USMLE exams and we're working on getting approval from the CA and NY medical boards for this program.

I wish you the best of luck in your med school search, and if you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at either intosgul@valuemd.com or via phone at +1-310-251-6937.

Best Regards,

Shannon

Originally Posted by INTO- SGUL

Hi GRAMnegativebacteriumLPS,


The INTO SGUL program is a new growing program that has the full support of the SGUL administration behind it and the intentions behind the program are to provide students with the best opportunities to obtain an education in medicine so that they can go onto a successful pathway to being a practicing physician.

Our curriculum is designed around the USMLE exams and we're working on getting approval from the CA and NY medical boards for this program.

I wish you the best of luck in your med school search, and if you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at either intosgul@valuemd.com or via phone at +1-310-251-6937.

Best Regards,

Shannon

That's clutch! Be sure to keep us posted on the progress!

Hi Targaryen,

I definitely will be posting any updates here!

Thanks!

Shannon

Hi Shannon

I am preparing an application for INTO SGUL. I heard from a friend at SGUL that the validation had run into major problems and was delayed and there was a chance that the course would not run. I think there was a problem with the clinical attachments. I am now concerned about applying. Any information would be great. Is it still worth applying?

Thanks
WannabeMedic

Hi WannabeMedic,

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm glad to hear that you're interested in our program! I'm not sure where you got your information from about our validation so I'm glad that I can correct any misinformation.

The validation of the INTO SGUL program didn't run into major problems. It will still be running this Fall as scheduled, and our validation will come through at the end of July.

If you're looking to study at a med school that's going to give you a solid UK based education with exposure to US clinical rotations and that will support you on your pathway to residency in the US then the program is a great option.

Ultimately, attending med school is a huge decision for any student no matter what country you're looking to study in. The faculty and staff of the INTO SGUL program feel that we've created a great program for students who are looking for a unique medical education experience. If you end up deciding to attend another med school then there's no hard feelings on our side. Students should feel comfortable and confident in whatever decisions they make in regards to where they're going for their medical education.

Please do send any more questions my way.

Best Regards,

Shannon