The best students SC has to offer probably would have significantly overshot the SGU requirements had they applied when they started medical school... it is egotistical, narrow minded, and short sighted to think that the single solitary reason students attend SC is because they've received a rejection letter form SGU... there have been a significant number of Asian, EU, and African students who don't even know SGU is on the map. Additionally, my own 3.3 GPA in bioengineering and 32 MCAT would have been adequate for SGU had I applied (the MCAT is actually higher than the average MCAT of the matriculating classes into all but 12 of the LCME schools for the year I started med school, per AAMC). And my 251/99 on step 1 should reflect that the training received at SC is at least superior to NOTHING. The issue here is not lowering the standards of SGU; it's giving a tuition break to capable students who would otherwise be too financially crippled to start over. In effect, SGU will poach the cream of the crop from SC, while giving them the chance to practice in places they otherwise couldn't... it's both honorable and a savvy business move. Be proud of your school for doing it.

But just to reiterate, I am staying with St. Chris as I am at a very advanced stage of my training and I believe that there is a light at the end of this tunnel...

Put yourself in an undergraduate students shoes who is not aware of all the intricacies with state licensing, foreign medical schools, etc. Then they see an option of attending a school in England as opposed to the Caribbean. Some might lean towards the school based out of England. I know many students who applied to St. Christopher's and had no clue about the charter issue and it being a Senegalese school. Not only that, many students were flat out lied to by Mr. L a few years ago. Saying that we are approved by NJ and NY will happen very, very soon. Lastly, many of the St. Chris residents recruited students (at least that's how I heard about St. Chris.) Now if you have a physician telling you that this school is great and will be the next sure thing. You might be inclined to attend.

No one on this forum will argue that the idea of St. Christopher's is ingenious. Only if Mr. L was a decent and sensible man, this school could have been a success.

The amount of information on the net about St. Christopher's at the present time was not as abundant 2-3 years ago. I still agree the student is partially to blame because he should have researched all these things before applying, but many students may have thought a medical school is a medical school. At 22 years old, people do make mistakes, I think instead of patronizing the students for a mistake they made, people should be more understanding. But hey, that's just my opinion.

I hope prospective students learn from this and thoroughly research all schools before applying.

..............

Axe-murderers with a history of academic dishonesty? Have you seen their transcripts and official MCAT score reports? Hyperbole is not appropriate here.

Your MCAT figure is inaccurate. I can think of over 20 schools off the top of my head where the average MCAT score of matriculants was higher than 32. Sorry, your 251 proves nothing unless it is the average, "de rigeur" USMLE score among Lutonites, which I highly doubt. PD's know that high scores can be achieved by comprehensive, robotic study; but good for you, your score will open many doors. You can't judiciously use USMLE scores to demonstrate the strength of a school. There are most obviously other factors involved. Unfortunately (?), the success of students in off-shore schools seems largely a factor of auto-tutorial and self-initiated education.

You make a good point about the "poaching" of the best students, it's going to be really interesting to see the SCCM diaspora. I am inclined to believe that some SCCM students are of high caliber simply because the school is in England-- students who value the British cachet much more than the Caribbean stigma are probably pretty decent students, who were borderline for US schools but didn't want to go Caribbean, since everyone expected them to matriculate stateside.

Good luck to you. If you get licensed, all of this will be behind you.

Dean Lambert failed to mention that SGU had a similar situation with kigezi school last year when Kigezi's administration took the students' money and ran. Kigezi has been closed for a year now. SGU gave the same partial tuition offer to Kigezi students.

Kigezi students applied and got accepted into SGU, Ross, SC, and other schools. There was not any advertisement about SGU's offer to Kigezi students. Why now SGU decided to advertise this offer in the public forums?

SGU had dealt with the similar situation with the closure of Kigezi school last year. So, please do not waste your breath on telling SGU admission office how to do their job.

I'm with you 100% on this one. No doubt, I would pick the one who has completed all of his or her medical basic science courses with a passing step 1 score OVER someone who has just finished 4 years of undergraduate college with a good MCAT score.

scores are only part of the equation, what if they had been kicked out for honor code violations, sexual harrassment of students, cheating, etc all of which happened during my short stint at AUC BTW.

your scores are not indicative of SC as a whole. the scores at either fringe of the curve are NOT indicative of the avg at any school... great scores BTW, will open many doors for you and so on.. by your same logic Ross had the highest score in the US a few years ago so you should not go to any other school based on a score at the end of the curve?

its not right to make a generalization saying all SC students don't have pre reqs etc, as pointed out many were misled by the cheerleaders and the lies or the 'stigma' of the caribbean.. those are the people that i truly feel for.. can someone post the paypal info again? i was looking for it to donate a few ducks

word is that you were a super bright student while at auc and like most people who scored in the 90's would have scored high no matter where you went.

there are interviews and academic records for a reason. there are some people who are bright and have no personality and are difficult to work with, then there are those who know they are smarter than everyone else are arrogant, thinks the school owes them for the grace of their presence, refuse to follow rules agreed to, and refuse to take responsibility for actions taken..eitehr way they are a liability to a program and specifically pther residents working with them....

off topic rant off

__________________
OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

Typo: it was supposed to say 12 (I edited it).

From the first result of a google search for "average MCAT scores" - http://www.washington.edu/students/u...ng/gpamcat.pdf

32/3 = 10.7

I couldn't find the data from my year (1999), but the following 17 schools had averages higher than 10.7 in 2001:

UCSF, Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, University of Michigan, Mayo, Wash U, Columbia, Mount Sainai, Cornell, Duke, U Penn, Vanderbilt, Baylor, & UT Southwestern

When I looked back in 2000, it was exactly 12 schools.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that there are some excellent students at SC who would have gained admission to SGU (and maybe to US/UK schools if they'd applied back when they started med school)... I think that's a pretty reasonable assertion.

Isn't that the whole point of the Admissions Application? I think the reason they have the "Personal History" section is so all these issues are addressed.

And at the end of the application where the student certifies that all the information provided is true, are we just not suppose to believe a St. Chris student's signature? Can't anyone lie on that part of the application? I am also assuming an admissions office of over 27 years of experience has ways of finding out the truth.


I agree scores alone are definitely not indicative of medical students as a whole. That's why there are many other factors the Admissions Committee consider (LORs, interview, personal statement, etc.) I think people are missing the point. No where did SGU say they will accept ALL St. Chris students. They will accept the students who they feel are qualified and meet their admissions criteria. St. Chris students aren't getting a free ride, if they are accepted, they would have to start from semester 1. SGU has already stated they are not giving any advanced standing to students, unlike some other Caribbean schools (some which are even in the big 4).

If the SGU students truly oppose this tuition break, they should raise this concern at their next SGU meeting. If a St. Chris student who is qualified to meet the admission criteria (like TAFKA) and also probably 100K - 200K in debt, if you guys still feel they should not receive any tuition break, then the St. Chris student's would humbly turn down this noble offer by SGU. I'm sure no student at St. Chris wants to step on anyone else's shoes. All these students want is to finish their pursuit in a dream which seems to be fading away.