Thread: Lets all contact the Dean of Clinical Students and Executive Director of Clinical Ser

In light of the latest situation we all should send emails to the
Dean of Clinical Students and Executive Director of Clinical Services GWM


and the director of clinicals services VH.

and to JM CEO of St. Matts

Lets all ask them why are we paying so much extra for electives while we dont pay extra for cores. Please lets all be professional and polite. They are our superiors and deserve our respect but we also deserve the right to know why we have such a huge extra financial burden during our 4th year. We are not informed of these extra bills while applying to SMU all of those semesters ago. In the tuition break down on St. Matthew's University they show the clinical tuition but there is no mention of an extra elective tuition.

One person is not enough to do anything. So lets all work together.

You could find all of their email addresses on the contact us link on St. Matthew's University I wasnt sure if email addresses are allowed on valuemd.

I agree, I don't think the admin is pushing things hard enough, and if they are they should let us know about it. I am not good with words, but if someone is willing to type up a generic email, I will send it on my behalf.

Originally Posted by spyyder

I agree, I don't think the admin is pushing things hard enough, and if they are they should let us know about it. I am not good with words, but if someone is willing to type up a generic email, I will send it on my behalf.

SAME HERE!!
ITS GETTING ABSOLUTELY OUT OF HAND

I'm actually amazed everyone is asking to cut extra money the school gets when I just read you all calling for them to spend more money to get and secure good core rotations. This is a fitting case to use the old idiom of "You can't have your cake and eat it too." If both could be achieved, more solid and good cores for future students and no additional fees in 4th year, I'd be down, but I doubt it will happen.

UFTIM i am surprised by your statement. This is a business. The Board members want to ensure that they make as much money as possible. This is truly Evident by them accepting 250 1st semester students. (I'm sure that’s a fire hazard, anyways that isnt the point). The current 4th semester class (students taking path II) do not have less than 150 students. 3rd semester has around 130 or more. Someone earlier in this forum suggested that St matts, just in this fall semester, 4 months out of the year made around 25 million dollars. Do you think that is not enough money to pay for rent, faculty, Hospital cores and electives, or any utility bills?

Instead of us students paying for another board member's mercedes or new yacht or 3rd vacation home. how about giving us a 250 dollar elective allowance instead of 135 dollars. Or maybe provide some decent desks at school. Uftim you are a giant I know you were very uncomfortable in those chairs. During our 4th year we will have to pay 1 and 1/2 tuition. That’s ridiculous

I absolutely agree with you (UFTIM)...were going to come out of debt about 180-200 thousand dollars, so who cares if its 20 thounsand imore or less, as long as we get quality education which I think the school does to the best of its capability shouldnt be no complain, If you guys want to save some pocket change, then stop making excuse everytime to go out and drink thats waste of money, at least if the school takes a lot of money from us, they reinvest add more spots, get a new building, etc .instead of what we do is reinvest the money in the toilet bowl the next morning, i'm almost postive that amont if added up for 4 years will equal to the amount you guys are crying about..

w/o making money the school can't make big moves (see : Ross/SGU).

Originally Posted by madeofiron

I absolutely agree with you (UFTIM)...were going to come out of debt about 180-200 thousand dollars, so who cares if its 20 thounsand imore or less, as long as we get quality education which I think the school does to the best of its capability shouldnt be no complain, If you guys want to save some pocket change, then stop making excuse everytime to go out and drink thats waste of money, at least if the school takes a lot of money from us, they reinvest add more spots, get a new building, etc .instead of what we do is reinvest the money in the toilet bowl the next morning, i'm almost postive that amont if added up for 4 years will equal to the amount you guys are crying about..

I DONT THINK YOU GET AZULs POINT! FIRST OF ALL 20Gs IS NO POCKET CHANGE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH/LITTLE YOU ARE SPENDING ON YOUR MEDICAL EDUCATION. SECOND, THE GUY IS MAKING A GOOD POINT. THE CEOs ARE MAKING ABOUT 3 MILLION/YEAR EACH IN PROFIT... IF SOME1 ENJOYS DRINKING...PARTYING ...OR WHATEVA AS LEISURE SO BE IT... THEY SHOULD INFORM US ON EXACTLY HOW MUCH WE HAVE TO DISH OUT IN 4TH YR....

I really have to chime in on this one.

All of you are forgetting one simple thing. This "School" is not a "school" like you are used to. This is not only a business it is a for profit corporation. Just like the for profit corporate holdings that operate the hospitals we do rotations in.

You can complain all you want they don't have to listen - nor will they listen to you. They don't care what you have to say.

Simply put, you bought the product now either follow through with the purchase and pay the extra or go to a site that allows free electives (a la Michigan - while it is still available to you). Otherewise you made the choice now "put up or shut up".

I too have put up with the same costs as you and while I agree it is ridiculous that we pay extra. So are the people from all of the other caribbean schools, in some cases they pay more for cores too. In other words you can go somewhere else and pay the same or even more money for the same electives.

Get over it.

The best thing to do is after 5th semester, try to transfer to another school with secure core rotations such as saba, mua, ross, auc, or aua. The way to change the policies of an institution is to take money out of their pockets. In terms of 4th year, be vigilant in trying to find out how much your electives cost. Don't leave it up for the schools to determine. If you don't report a dollar amount for your electives, the school will automatically charge you $250/week even if your elective is free. The way to get around having to pay for a free elective is to tell the school that the site only charges $135/week, which is what the school already pays.

The reason why they want to know all the details on the electives you choose is so they can find a loop hole for how they can charge you extra for service you've allready paid for via your tuition.---acetre

P.S. To reiterate, the most definitive solution is mass exodus after you pass your boards, so as to not have to get screwed the way smu is going to try and do it to you. When they start losing money, they will change policies.