Thread: Do not come to sgul unic - its all lies

Dear sgulunicthetruth,

I think you're lucky to get into medical school with spelling like that.

Originally Posted by sgulunicthetruth

What people don't know is that the dean has a financial stake in the medical school in nicosia and also has one in the new school at Ponce. This may be why he's pushing students to go there instead of finding real places for students to go to.

This post reeks of ignorance and elitism. Puerto Rico isn't a "real" place? What does that mean? If you had done a little research you would realize that you're actually lucky to be going to PR, as all of the rotations there are ACGME accredited.

ACGME accreditation only opens the door to three states-- FL, NJ, and MI. While not insignificant, it doesn't matter if the clerkships are accredited if you don't have a third and fourth year experience comparable to U.S. grads, because you won't get a residency anywhere. The whole purpose of 3rd and 4th year is to interview and examine patients-- a feat only possible when free of language encumbrances, especially at our novice level. If every patient-student interaction is mediated through a translator, or worse, a doctor pretending to be a translator, then the student isn't getting the 'real' clerkship experience, as my colleague alluded to. Any one of us here would trade ACGME certification for the opportunity to interview a patient that speaks English as their first language, not out of elitism or racism, but out of the recognition that our trade requires an ability to make connections and elicit complicated facts of peoples' lives from them through spoken communication--a skill that will be grossly neglected in all but sporadic cases in three of our four clinical sites.

SGUL-UNIC and Ponce are, in fact, backed by the same investment company, which is University Ventures. SGUL-UNIC pushing students to go to Ponce simply keeps the money in the circle. It's not as if the students at SGUL-UNIC couldn't have gone directly to Ponce if they wanted since the average MCAT score (22) is rather horrifying. The one thing that may have hindered their admittance is the requirement of fluency in Spanish, which anyone stuck there for 3rd and 4th year will still need if they plan on getting a decent education out of this.

Originally Posted by keepemhonest

SGUL-UNIC and Ponce are, in fact, backed by the same investment company, which is University Ventures. SGUL-UNIC pushing students to go to Ponce simply keeps the money in the circle. It's not as if the students at SGUL-UNIC couldn't have gone directly to Ponce if they wanted since the average MCAT score (22) is rather horrifying. The one thing that may have hindered their admittance is the requirement of fluency in Spanish, which anyone stuck there for 3rd and 4th year will still need if they plan on getting a decent education out of this.

Unless you are a current student at the school I don't think it is your place to comment because none of you really have been through the hell we have. There is only 1 person going to ponce who speak spanish the other have no knowledge and the school expects us to pick it up in 4 weeks even though the ponce medical school require proficiency in spanish as a requisite. How then are we meant to get a decent education out of this when we don't speak spanish. Im doing this post because the school dosn't listen to our concerns, this is the only forum where they will listen. Many parts of the school are great, but this and so many other incidents have left a bad taste in my mouth.

Im not being elitist, what I want is for the school to listen to what the student body wants, rather than telling us what they found as a replacement. People only came to this school because of its connections to Chicago, if you have based you life and circumstances around living in chicago for you 3rd/4th year you deserve to be angry when they tell you that you can't go.

Originally Posted by keepemhonest

SGUL-UNIC and Ponce are, in fact, backed by the same investment company, which is University Ventures. SGUL-UNIC pushing students to go to Ponce simply keeps the money in the circle. It's not as if the students at SGUL-UNIC couldn't have gone directly to Ponce if they wanted since the average MCAT score (22) is rather horrifying. The one thing that may have hindered their admittance is the requirement of fluency in Spanish, which anyone stuck there for 3rd and 4th year will still need if they plan on getting a decent education out of this.

If they could have gone to Ponce (an LCME accredited school) they probably should have. But that's another topic.

Originally Posted by sgulunicthetruth

Unless you are a current student at the school I don't think it is your place to comment because none of you really have been through the hell we have. There is only 1 person going to ponce who speak spanish the other have no knowledge and the school expects us to pick it up in 4 weeks even though the ponce medical school require proficiency in spanish as a requisite. How then are we meant to get a decent education out of this when we don't speak spanish. Im doing this post because the school dosn't listen to our concerns, this is the only forum where they will listen. Many parts of the school are great, but this and so many other incidents have left a bad taste in my mouth.

Im not being elitist, what I want is for the school to listen to what the student body wants, rather than telling us what they found as a replacement. People only came to this school because of its connections to Chicago, if you have based you life and circumstances around living in chicago for you 3rd/4th year you deserve to be angry when they tell you that you can't go.

I understand your frustration. If they promised you Chicago then it is wrong that they're now sending you elsewhere. However, in this situation, there really is a significant silver-lining, if that makes you feel any better. Best of luck.

Consider yourself lucky - you get to do ACGME rotations as an IMG. You can try to improve your spanish if you want, and you get to participate in solid rotations. The real losers here are the students at Ponce that are going to have their LCME accredited, USMD program clogged 3rd and 4th year with 24 IMGs that can't even communicate with the patient population.

Originally Posted by sgulunicthetruth

Unless you are a current student at the school I don't think it is your place to comment because none of you really have been through the hell we have. There is only 1 person going to ponce who speak spanish the other have no knowledge and the school expects us to pick it up in 4 weeks even though the ponce medical school require proficiency in spanish as a requisite. How then are we meant to get a decent education out of this when we don't speak spanish. Im doing this post because the school dosn't listen to our concerns, this is the only forum where they will listen. Many parts of the school are great, but this and so many other incidents have left a bad taste in my mouth.

Im not being elitist, what I want is for the school to listen to what the student body wants, rather than telling us what they found as a replacement. People only came to this school because of its connections to Chicago, if you have based you life and circumstances around living in chicago for you 3rd/4th year you deserve to be angry when they tell you that you can't go.

I am a student that's going through this with you. I know that the students assigned to Puerto Rico don't know Spanish. I'm sorry if my sarcasm doesn't come through in text, but that's how I meant it. I, also, have otherwise enjoyed the program. I've learned a lot since I've been here and I feel that I've gotten a great education thus far. I would've been ok with this if we had been told the truth from the start, giving us a chance to make up our mind based on pure facts and maybe to learn some Spanish ahead of time if desired or possible. I already spent thousands on flights to Chicago and now that money is gone, along with all of the plans that my family made around the expectation that I'd be there for P and F year. I don't disagree with a single thing you said. In fact, I just wanted to back you up and provide some additional facts so people could look up University Ventures and see you weren't lying.