I have 2 questions:

1) I was accepted by both SABA and SGU and am seeking opinions from SGU students on their educational experience- if its in relation to what you might know about SABA, your comments would be appreciated. After much discussion I've gathered SABA offers a comparable ed but on a smaller campus/island scale, and at a lower tuitoin. I am familiar with licensing issues of both schools, rotation placements and will study their match lists shortly.

2) If someone would comment on a phenomenon I learned of which occurrs in some Carib school- does this happen @ SGU?: over enrolling which results in an eventual 'weed out' of a certain percentage of the class (20-25% ?).


Thanks. Sonya

I highly suggest that you not take anyone's view regarding a medical school that they haven't attended too much to heart. If the net show shows nothing else, it shows people have viciously strong opinions abour 1) things they know nothing about and 2) things that dont matter very much (see The Candian Versus American argument in the canadians forum)

So what youre really asking with question number one, I'm not quite sure. With regard to your second excellent question: SGU used to have about 10% of student either decel (mostly) or drop out or fail. This is now closer to 25% though sgu wont give me a hard number on it. They are taking in larger classes to begin with and more international students but the extent to which this impacts on those figures isn't know (and probably really doesnt). I think they are just more stringent with regard to what you need to get to promote to the next term (before it was more individualized). So while 25% or so do decel or dropout/fail (mostly decel) you should know that sgu has come out clearly to state that they dont "weed". That is they dont look to push back that proportion of the class because of lack of accomodation in the upper terms or for any other reason. There is not an automatic number of people that will fail.

as a general statement about the education, i suggest you look at the recent threads from first termers, but in general my feeling is that it is on par with most US schools. Some classes are weaker and some stronger but I find in my expereince at several us schools as either student or physician, this is true in general. Id say the top 1/3 of Sgu students are better than most medical students in general, the middle tier is about the same as most and the bottom tier weaker than most US students as a rule of thumb.

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Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Thanks for the response.
That clarifies the large 'weeding out' concern I had.

Yes you are right my first question was not clear, and as I have been reading posts on this web site for a little bit now- I have come to notice that there are plenty of opinions, some quite strong. And that's ok, its simply an opinion.

So I will attempt to clarify: I am definitely not seking anyone to slam another school, that would be unfair. The intention behind my question is to find out the factors which students accepted to attend SGU versus other schools. That might help me identify features about SGU which I may have overlooked.

I Do however have a few specific question regarding the effect of the class size:

How large are lectures?
Do current students feel that the class size is a drawback of the program, and how?
Do students feel resourses are affected by class size?
Does this create competition amongst students?

Thanks again.

hows nyc? I miss home.

I think that when people favor sgu it tends to be for a couple of reasons; excellent history and its well-established. Program directors "know" sgu and tend to be more comfortable than with some other schools. For this reason, sgu has some of the best residency placements in more competitive fields over many other IMG schools. I'm deliberately being vague with regard to which IMG schools because while I have general ideas and personal opinions about other places, its really no more than that and I can't claim to be an expert. Further, board scores than are about the same as the US schools, and the percent who make it to the boards with their class tends to be pretty good compared to some other schools (but as per last post, not what it was). Finally you can get licensed in all 50 states. I think the name recognition is a big factror in the end. Everyone says "oh my [cousin, brother, friend, kid, etc] went to sgu" inthe field.

Class size has gotten big about 340. I had a class size of 215 and it was never a bad thing. ill let others speak to the current size. Traditionally, there has been an excellent commraderie amongst sgu students, particularly upperclassman helping 1st termers.
Steph

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Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Well, NYC? Shes fine. You must be from here... Its the same old- same old: A crazy blend of the what this planet has to offer concentrated in one tini vertical spot. We are starting to have some decent weather lately, a break from the winter spell.

Thanks for the feedback- that was perfect. This forum is very helpful.
Comments from others here or via PM are very welcome.

Yes, she's my original hometown.

good luck to you. I hope you find a lot of useful information and feel confident with whatever you chose.
steph

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Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Now this is the way professionals share info!

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Saba University School of Medicine

• Step I (234/98) [x]
• Internal Med [x]
• Infectious Disease [x]
• Ob/Gyn [x]
• Family Med [x]
• Pediatrics [ x]
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we try.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Well.... I'll clue you in:
I 'm leaving two professions to enter Medicine.

Monstergirl:

I was purusing the valuemd sites anfd thought I might be able to give you some info. My son is going into his third semester at Ross. He applied to both Ross and St, George but chose Ross because he was ableto get int the fall semester, get off the island after 16 months and spend $40,000 less. He never considered any other schools. He has proven that he was capable of dealing with medical school and has a B+ average.

I don't understand why you would choose Saba over St George except for the cost. Saba doesn't meet the standars of St. George, ROss or even AUC. If you have any doubts about St. George then you should look int ROss or AUC. If you can get into the fall semester and money is no problem then you should go to St, George.

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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!!