First off, for me, Happy Mall is not a happy place, nor is Aruba 'One big happy island'. Non-natives of Aruba are treated like garbage here IMO and people will routinely cut in front of you and cheat you in any and everyway they can. I absolutely despise Aruba. It's hell disguised as a tropical island.

That aside, what about Xavier? Well firstly, none of the credits done in the premedical program count for anything, and that fact alone counts for a lot in my decision not to stay. If anything should happen, i.e. if I were deported, my credits and the time I spent obtaining them would have been a waste. Number two, tuition increased $800.00 per semester AFTER I had obtained my loan monies. Number 3, the school appears quite disorganized, with its bookstore and website showing inconsistencies in which texts to purchase - students end up buying books twice. Number 4, deportation - I worry that if I go to visit my family, that my premed course will come to an abrupt end - see point 1. Number 5: we still don't have a physics and calculus instructer after 3 weeks - does this worry me? Yes it does.

So all in all, I think the best thing for me is to complete my premedical courses elsewhere, considering a return for the MD program at a later date as a last resort. Curious word to end with - resort.

I could tell you some horror stories about my experiences here on the island, but for me, a life time of wearing a t-shirt with the caption "I hate Aruba" should be vindication enough.

Hey jasano,
If I am reading this correctly from your posts,
1. No housing
2. Cheated out of your money every where you turned
3. Treated poorly by locals
4. No teachers to teach needed courses
5. Visa issues

For others coming here - this is from a former student who lasted about a month.

__________________
PreMed Forum Moderator

I call it like I see it. I am not paid by ValueMD or any school. Nor do I recruit for any school.

That's funny.

wow ur the first one i've met with issues with the island! I think you just had a bad experiance man i spent 16 months there and loved every minute of it. Had great housing, obviously payed more then the locals what you expect you go any where any country if they know your a foreigner they take advantage of u!

Hi Jasano,
I'm current MED 1 student here at Xavier,aruba. I agreed with you on almost everything. Doing pre-med in any carribean med school, in my opinion, is a waste of time and money. This is useless b/c courses are NOT transferable to the state. So I would recommend to anyone to avoid doing pre-med classes in any carribean schools especially when it comes to residency issues. Where you do your pre-med does matter as well as USLME score. As for me, Med program is actually going good with some competent teachers, but the admin is very disorganized in almost all the cases. However, I wish you all the best if you decide to leave the island. No doubt about that, the school has so many problems with non- academic related issues and they are very slow to in doing things. But the school school continues to grow.

i think this is a pretty typical response by the few ppl who i feel have a slightly narrowed view on things. yes you may have had a bad experience but there are plenty others who've had good ones thus far. as in the rest of life, everything is about perspective. what one person may deem miserable, another may find glorious.

i'm currently in pre-med @ XUSOM and i for one have had no problems at all on the island in any form. i admit the school is slightly more disorganized than what i'm use to back home, but then again, this isn't back home.

to come here expecting everything to be the same as home is almost ignorant to begin with. you have to come here expecting to be taken out of your shell and forced to conform to some degree. unfortunately the world isn't egocentric

my suggestion to others considering a caribbean med school is this; have an open mind, and remember first and foremost that you are the one entering another person's home. no matter how long your stay is here for school, your always the guest. you don't expect every person to live the way you live, believe what you believe or think what you think. so what makes it any different here?

as for the island itself, i've been fortunate enough to have spent some time to explore the island on my off time as i'm not the type to sit at home grumbling about things. if you've even attempted to explore aruba, you'll find some of the most picturesque and beautiful scenery in the world. just check out the northern coast and arikok national park and tell me it's not beautiful.

if you walk around with the frame of mind that everything and everyone is out to get you, then you'll simply view everything negatively, regardless of the actual intent or experience. it's up to you how you decide to approach the situation, if this is your situation because you can't get into med school where you are or you decide an accelerated program is what you want, then as some like to put it, "get with the program"...because the program will not get with you.

it's ultimately up to you how you choose to view your experience here. you can make the most of it, open your mind, and enjoy your time here while you study. or you can expect the world, and be disappointed because you can't get your starbucks latte extra hot with 4 pumps instead of 3.

Hello Jasano, i understand the things you may have gone through, but you have brought with you many expectations from Canada. Lets put somethings in perspective. We are all here in pursuit of our dream of becoming a professional doctor. We had rough pasts, and could not compete in the higly competitive USA and Canadian schools. With that being said, i came here with one goal in mind. To do well in classes, and score high on the USMLE. i understand your experiences, but none are which should hinder your progression in the feild of medicine. For anyone else reading this understand, that Aruba is just like anywhere else, all foreign countries have their problems, with immigration and with legal issues regarding Visas, this is not unique to Aruba or Xavier. These are things one must expect especially from a school as young as Xavier. Fear not though, the school itself, has a good program, and i know of people who graduated, who are in residencies, and they all have claimed, more than the school and their issues, it was their scores, and their board exams that got them good residencies. So i wish you well in your endevours, but like msshail said b4, if you can't handle being cut in line by locals, how can you bring yourself to tell someone they have cancer, or even look at serious injuries, the blood, everything in medicine will be much scarier than being cut in line...For anyone else considering coming to this school, just leave your expectations behind, and come here ready to learn, to open your books and study, and get your work done, and prepare yourself for a return to America. If your the type that needs your blanket everywhere you go, or needs that extra expresso shot in order to function, or if you can't go 1-2 years without hockey, or watching guys curl a rock down a lane of ice, don't come then, try another profession, i hear Tim Hortons is hiring, they have great uniforms you can wear anywhere. Also if you apply to mcdonalds, i hear employees get great health benefits even on a part time basis, so try your luck, look around u never know rite, as for Xavier, its a good school academically, and looks like its continuing to improve.

- the second coming

Yes, I brought with me expectations from Canada. In Canada, whether you are white, black, brown or anything and everything under the sun, whether you speak greek, papiamento, spanish, english, dutch, etc., you are still treated with respect. So, yes, that is an expectation I went down there with, and one which was quickly dispelled. Second, my GPA is 3.678, meaning I should be a competive candidate here in Canada, but then, as you say, life isn't exactly fair is it?

I could get by the poor treatment that non-Arubans often receive and the poor living conditions on the island if the school itself had merit. But when you have classes without teachers, students being deported, and a complete lack of organization along with absolutely NO RECOGNITION OF ANY PREMEDICAL COURSES COMPLETED ON THE ISLAND, then yes, for me at least, it makes little sense to stick with.

"if you can't handle being cut in line by locals, how can you bring yourself to tell someone they have cancer, or even look at serious injuries, the blood, everything in medicine will be much scarier than being cut in line.." Oh please give me a break. I can handle being cut in line, and I've already been in the position of telling people they've had cancer, along with family members that their loved one is dying. I can do it and I can hack it. I've had blood and feces sprayed up my arm and seen wounds that tunnel right down to the bone. Let's put 'that' 'in perspective'.

This quote shows a lack of maturity to pursue a calling like medicine, which hopefully will improve as his/her course continues:

"If your the type that needs your blanket everywhere you go, or needs that extra expresso shot in order to function, or if you can't go 1-2 years without hockey, or watching guys curl a rock down a lane of ice, don't come then, try another profession, i hear Tim Hortons is hiring, they have great uniforms you can wear anywhere. Also if you apply to mcdonalds, i hear employees get great health benefits even on a part time basis, so try your luck, look around u never know rite..."

Let us all pray that if and when you do start practicing medicine, that you're able to tell them more than just how grim is the outcome they face; let us hope you will have the capacity to treat them with human dignity as well.

I would, for the record, recommend doing the medical program at Xavier, but not the premed. If the courses don't count, you're putting yourself at great risk should anything go wrong.

Yet another immature quote unbefitting a physician, or someone with aspirations of being one. I excel in math actually, and received a 93% in Calculus. It was somewhat insulting for me to be placed in pre-calculus given that I had already aced calculus, but then that's Xavier Premed for you. I digress, however. The point here is that some people do struggle with precalculus, and do need some extra help. Would you boot those people out of the program because they don't measure up to your standard?