oooo i know who you are!!!!!!!!!!!!!...hmmm well if you are who i think you are..then you probably are gonna send pm to fossil and "remind him that your a school official" and he can be reprimanded.

The funny part about all this is...that all these concerns about our school and things Fossil brought up....and many other things...finally got the admins attention THREW THIS FORUM. And I was there in Jan 2007 and I saw Fossil have a talk with CB.

thats sad, and honestly the Atlanta Admin has poor poor communication with the students..and its frustrating.

Even when i got to ATL...this admin left my entire class in the dark and threw out orders. And when we would try to get a hold of them...it was impossible. So some one from our class would have to show up to the office and finally get to talk to someone face to face.

Both aruba and Atl admin have thier issues...which can be easily fixed

Personally there are alot of flaws...and things can be done about it, and i have had this complaint, this admin is not student freindly and has poor communication. IF this admin did have great communication, and treated the students good...then no matter what problems this school may have..the students would stand behind it no matter what.

anyhow I hope things start to get better....

It is true that some changes have not taken place at Xavier, or other schools in the Caribbean. Some issues are business and budget oriented, not being dismissed, but have time frame implementation hinderances. No, we are not a US school with all the grants, alumni contributions, and local resources that come with a 50 or even 20 year old school in the states or elsewhere.
This is why as Xavier grows in number and age we have been able to implement more and more for the students. Of course, with all honesty, students' expectations are for a request to be met in their time frame and by their standards. This is quite understandable from that perspective. Well, welcome to the real world where you work with what you have and those that are not happy move on. As you can see from previous posts on this thread, when you have a student enjoying the art of accusations and name calling it makes it hard to distinguish his priorities between thinking that the professors should be forced to dress like him and FTP downloading. Yet he reamins a student, and a good one at that.
Once again, no, not everything brought up will happen at the students' time frame or even request, but it IS our job to work with students to make their time at school more effecient and enjoyable.

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Xavier Admissions
Xavier University School of Medicine

So let me get this straight. You think that we would repremand someone from a public forum comment?? I, and I say I because I am the only person that writes on here on behalf of Xavier, would have no authority to repremand anyone form here. NO ONE has ever been repremanded on behalf of a comment on here. We have no ability to verify names so any logical conclusion would be that you roll with the punches. I try to help where I can, but it seems for some that it is more fun being upset than being in medical school. If communication, which you and I value highly, were an issue why would I hinder it by being upset at a student for their ideas and perceptions?
I apologize for requests that were made to CB that did or have not come to realization. I cannot answer on his behalf, but I do know that he has brought up issues from the student body that has not been able to be corrected yet. Our job is to work to make the school run, and your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
You commented in your last statement that communication with students could easily be fixed. But yet I do not read any answer. I must admit that that is quite ironic.
You do understand that the ATL office works mainly with the students IN ATL. You, or at least your peer, knows where our office is, so what is it you don't know? During the SGA meeting there was a total lack of understanding by PM and MD students as to 5th semester. This could possibly be your question, so let me answer it simply. READ THE WEBSITE! You may not like it, which is why we are working on a new one, but go to the current student section. At the top there is, and has always been, a section called "5th Semester." That info hasn't changed for at least a year.
Hope that helps,
AM
P.S.- Since most of you should know who I am and know where I am, come and give me some suggestions that we can work on. If not, well....... your issues may not mean as much as you let on.

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Xavier Admissions
Xavier University School of Medicine

I agree with you, XUSOM has gotten a lot better then it was when i started with it. But there still remains to be a fact that certain changes that we have asked for, and were promised to us when we started are still not met. I understand the time frame issue,budget etc etc but atleast we should see some movement in that direction. For EG.Health Insurance in the states, none of us have any while other carib students that I speak to are covered, after numerous conversations with admin, were told "we are working on it" Its been over 2 years nothing has come of it. Changes on the website, i remember that in my first week in Aruba it was bought up and same thing was said "we are a credible school we'll change it" Till this day the website is the same with the same inconsitencies.
Also my issue is sometimes certain things are promised to us by ADMIN, as the admin sometimes makes statements which are not true. And then when we go back to find out more about them we hear the same story "we are still working on it". Again i'm not trying to make the school sound bad or anything, I think Xavier is a good school and i would go through with it again if i could, but since this topic was bought up i thought it was important for everyone to understand, we are not an AMERICAN school and thus cant have things that way. And by everyone understanding i mean the ADMIN and the Students, cuz at times the admin expect students to behave like American Grads yet they dont in return and vice versa. There is no right or wrong in this, we have to work together to improve the school.

P.S what about the suggestion of the resdiency list is that valid?

The statistics on current students, USMLE rates, graduates, and residents are being updated again for 2008. We started going through them again startting in January to pull all the information we could that would be useful to current and incoming students.
If you have any suggestions as to what stats/ comparisons you would like, let us know.

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Xavier Admissions
Xavier University School of Medicine

As I am "rolling with the punches"

Here is a solution. There should be a student forum on the school website. There should be a admin from ATL and Aruba dedicated to this forum. IT can be a quick way for students to discuss things, sell things, for admin to communicate things, for students to ask questions and get clarity on things. Kind of like SMU's forum. And the only way you can log on is with your student id number and of course students will have thier own email aswell. And ofcourse non students can sign on as visitors to speak to other students and admin.

Okay so anyways you said that ATL office is dedicated to mainly students in rotations. So everytime there is a problem in Aruba, the admin there say go to MC and the ATL admin..getting threw to them...takes time. This is why i say that communication is poor.

As for the 5th sem, Yes a brief summary is on the website. We are told to be in ATL by a certain date. We show up for that day only..and then we wait, and wait and wait week after week for schedule to be made for ICM and GIR. And so getting in touch with the office, to find out whats going on, whats the status and what not...was difficult to communicate with the admin. The website does not give this information. Had we had proper communication, or had you said.."the schedule is currently being worked on by the preceptor, we do not have a definite date but we are hoping for sometime around "this month. If you any further questions please let us, as of right now continue your kaplan" would have been a very satisfactory form of communication.

Secondly. The school should invest money into its students, and actually have a proper faculty...starting with the dean all the way down. Great teachers can make or break the school. Why are teachers walking out left right and center?? they are not happy..so that should tell you something about the admin. Invest the money to get good admin and teachers. MC (who never passed his boards btw) and G are not real proper deans, and I can go on and on about the teachers....look at Ross...they are that good because they have amazing teachers.

Third, the school should actively help the students in settling them in and making sure they are secure. Mr. A and Mr. N...sorry they are no good. IF you have a standarized service and procedure to recieve, help and settle the students, it would make life alot easier. I had to rough it out and so did many...and i was promised help. Its funny because our activities on the island outside of school is a concern of the school, but helping us get set up (apartment, transportation, airport arrival...ect..) is not really a priority. And i know the school says they do it...but you and i know thats not true.

Fourth, why on earth are we using an outdated question bank for our exit exam. why not use something that will better prepare us for our boards. And why have an exit exam..that proves nothing besides how good your memorization skills are in matter 2 weeks. The ciriculum needs to be more board oriented, and steps need to be taken asap towards that.

Fifth..why dont we have green book rotations in ATL, why does RC pump the fact that it doesnt matter...because it really does matter to the students who have passed thier step 1. It should be a big concern to make sure the students are prepared and pass the step 1, and then go on to proper rotations.

Lastly solve the VISA issue.....Mr. A is worthless at it...students have come in pre med or med1 and finished med 4 and left and never got a visa or paperwork done.

i bring these points forward because I do see a potential for Xavier..yes it is my school, and I take pride in it, and thats why i want to see changes for the better.


ps. is this CM

stats i wish my school or any of our schools down there would have

1)a true first time usmle pass rate not some crud like st mats 97% or some dynamic number when i ask someone from my school or others. then the overall usmle pass rate.

now give the actual true numbers and if it is low then list measures taken to work on imrpoving it

2)attrition rate. both overall and per class each semester
3)what percent of students that start with thier class actually end up leaving basic science on time and what percent decelarate
4)the graduation rate. and what percent of this are students that started with xavier vs. transfer students

i know i don;t attend this school but the above would be welcome by anyone comparing

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

agreed all these sats would be nice to know.

current USMLE data would be interesting...

AUA, Ross and probably SGU etc, students must pass the Comp (Comprehensive basic science test administered from the NBME) before being able to sit for the USMLE. it's not about how much you can memorization, it's about seeing the big picture and doing well on it gives you a greater chance of passing the USMLE. exit exams are usually in place, at least at my school and others, to prevent students who probably won't be passing the USMLE from taking it. they are a great tool and should be in place.

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I'm like Internationally-known