Hey guys, I too will be joining everyone on the island in the fall. I'm from Tennessee, anyone from my area attending? I recently visited the island and the school and got a pretty good vibe from the whole scene. See everyone in a few months

Excellent Tom and Soul. Welcome aboard. There is a lot of helpful folks enrolled already. Most will spend some time here over the weekend. For some reason they think they need to study to become a physician.

I just found out that I got accepted too.

Congrats guys and welcome to the Class of September 2008. See you all soon

__________________
Energy & persistence conquer all things.
Carpe Diem

Congrats everyone!

Anyone visited the island yet? I'll be there in August if anyone is there early.

Hi guys

Today i learned that SJMS accepted me , I plan to attend Sept, 2008 session. I am from michigan, is there anyone from mid-west attending SJMS.

I also have question regarding loan, did anyone get private loan and from which company.

Thanks

Hey MKD im from the midwest. I will be starting in September 08, looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Hello Gill781,
Where in midwest are you from? Have you gotten yourself a loan ? Can you help me where to try for it, please?
Thanks.

Congrats to those who will also be starting in Fall 2008! See you guys soon!

Hey soul, if you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.

__________________
St. James School of Medicine c/o 2012
Allegheny College c/o 2008

Welcome to all the new students who just got into Saint James...

Hey everyone... im currently an MD1 student at SJSM and ive been here for approximately a month and a half as of right now. I wanted to congratulate all of you guys who got in already. I know that every single one of you guys have some questions about things like what you should bring, how is the life here, where can i get housing, etc. I can understand that it gets frustrating going to a new place and not knowing anything. Please feel free to send me a message to my email address and ill try to respond to it as best as I can. Ill put my email address at the bottom of this email for you guys.

Some words from a newbie... Lets start with the Island. If your a student, this island is pretty much the best scenario for you. There is some things to do on the island (go to the beach, go out on fridays and saturdays, etc.) but for the most part, the island life is pretty tranquil.. the reason why this is good is because you get the oppertunity to sit and study with minimal distractions. It really is a nice place if you come here with an open mind. Please dont expect to be living in paradise and sipping margaritas while reading your book on the oceanfront... its not like that i promise. The people of the island are for the most part very friendly. Strangers who dont know you will waive to you and say hello. For me this was something that was new because im from chicago and if I waived at some stranger walking down the street I would at least get the finger from them.

As of the school...It is much different than schools from the states. All of the current MD1 professors are of south asian decent and do have an accent to some degree. However, the professors definately know what they are talking about!! For myself, it took me a few lectures to completely understand everything that the professors say but after that it seemed pretty easy to understand what they were teaching. They are incredibly helpful and are very easy to approach. Yes, we do have a cadaver lab the first semester so please make sure you bring a white lab coat or scrubs (both top AND bottom), a dissection kit and most importantly some gloves. Again, if you take every oppertunity to learn as much as you can during your time here, you should be in pretty good shape. Don't stop at just what the professors tell you to study, you'll be cutting yourselves short. Take the time out and actually go further in-depth and read the material and understand it. It's completely impossible for the profs. to go through every single detail that you will see on the USMLE. This means that you, the student, must do independant study in order for you to do well both here and hereafter. Again, in my personal opinion, I believe that the profs. here are an excellent guidence for all of your questions. PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT OUTSIDE OF CLASS!!! Its common courtesy to write the questions down and then LATER approah the profs. with them in your free time. This way you dont distrupt the flow of the class and dont waste both the profs' and other classmates time.

I hope this is somewhat helpful for the new students. Again,the older students are really looking forward to helping you guys out the best that we can. I personally will not be going back between the current semester and the next one so i should be around to help out the best that I can.

Here is my email address for anyone who has any other questions. If you do have one please dont reply on this list because i dont get a chance to check it everyday. I do however check my email at least 3 or 4 times a day so i can assure you that i'll get your questions answered as soon as possible. Good Luck everyone... and GET YOUR IMMIGRATION PAPERWORK INTO THE OFFICE ASAP!!!

Arpit (AJ) Doshi -Origanally from Chicago
arpit702 at gmail.com

p.s. for all of the students who are coming from Canada, my roomate is an excellent source of information about coming here and everything as well. Ill put his name and email address on here as well too. Please feel free to also email him instead of putting the post on valuemd because we both dont get a chance to check it everyday.

Chiru Gade -
Chiru_Gade at yahoo.com

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!