Why is Ross Vet School considered one of most expensive?

[Hawky22]

http://www.rossu.edu/veterinary-school/admissions/Tuition-Fees.cfm
According to their website, tuition for one semester is around $20000, and their housing is around $4000. For one year, including living expense, it should be similar to average US school. Are there hidden cost? Or is it because they do not have a strong reputation so their cost is considered more costly?

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[jmo1012]

one thing to consider is that Ross students have 1 extra semester in their curriculum that other schools (except SMU) do not have, so automatically your costs are more. a higher than average number of students end up repeating at least 1 semester as well, so you could potentially have those costs as well. also, i dont think $40-50k is the "average" tuition at most IS US schools.

on average, Ross is more expensive than an IS school. it is more expensive than many, but not all, OS schools as well. there are a few US schools that are more expensive now.

 

[Hawky22]

After looking more closely, its seems Ross DVM program has a total of 10 semesters, so about $200000 for the four years and equivalent to about 50000 per year. It is similar to most OS tuition cost, but yes, a IS tuition would be much cheaper.

Thanks for replying

 

[jmo1012]

http://www.vinfoundation.org/apputil/project/defaultadv1.aspx?id=5327182&said=-1

No they are still significantly more expensive as an OOS school than many without factoring in cost of living. as a caribbean student, I can promise you that cost of living will be much more than you think because things cost more. a lot more. its the cost of importing products and marking up the price to profit on products being desired only by the non-locals. peanut butter would be a lot cheaper if the locals actually thought it was tasty haha. also, flying is expensive as well. i'm not sure how often the Rossies left the island, but most SGU students left each semester because we had 1-3 months off (rather than just 2-3 weeks). my guess is that they leave for at least some of them just to get away and see family/friends/SOs. i think the average SGU student spent $1200 on a round trip flight (dependent on where they came from - cheaper on the east coast, more for middle of nowhere places). I think Rossies also pretty much have to have their own transportation (either personal care or shared with a person or two) because they dont really have a bus system like we did at SGU (there were a lot more of us because our whole school is on the same island and its also safe to live close to campus)

 

[BirdsinMyHouse]

one thing to consider is that Ross students have 1 extra semester in their curriculum that other schools (except SMU) do not have, so automatically your costs are more. a higher than average number of students end up repeating at least 1 semester as well, so you could potentially have those costs as well. also, i dont think $40-50k is the "average" tuition at most IS US schools.

on average, Ross is more expensive than an IS school. it is more expensive than many, but not all, OS schools as well. there are a few US schools that are more expensive now.

Are you referring to the "vet prep" program? If so, not all students go through that. There are 7 semesters on the island and a year of clinicals, during which you still pay Ross.

 

[jmo1012]

No. Traditional veterinary students go through 6 pre-clinical semesters (2 per years 1-3) and not 7, and then 3 semesters of year 4.

Are you referring to the "vet prep" program? If so, not all students go through that. There are 7 semesters on the island and a year of clinicals, during which you still pay Ross.

 

[BirdsinMyHouse]

No. Traditional veterinary students go through 6 pre-clinical semesters (2 per years 1-3) and not 7, and then 3 semesters of year 4.

EDIT: I didn't realize you were referring to stateside students when you said traditional. I thought you meant traditional ross student vs. someone who did vet prep at Ross.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

http://www.rossu.edu/veterinary-school/admissions/Tuition-Fees.cfm
According to their website, tuition for one semester is around $20000, and their housing is around $4000. For one year, including living expense, it should be similar to average US school. Are there hidden cost? Or is it because they do not have a strong reputation so their cost is considered more costly?

They actually have a very good reputation, as far as educating student veterinarians go. The school, as a business, has a not-so-good reputation - they are considered by some to be kind of predatory, accepting students that they believe will likely not successfully complete the program, thereby giving Ross extra money and leaving the student in great debt without a veterinary degree.

 

[Hawky22]

thanks for the replies

 

[ukrainiandude]

In 2006, Diana Reyes was ejected in her sixth semester, leaving St. Kitts with $160,000 in debt and no degree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/b...alling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.html?_r=

 

[Minnerbelle]

And you'd think that would be it for tuition, but depending on which stateside school you go to for clinics, you may owe extra money to that clinical institution

 

[jmo1012]

And you'd think that would be it for tuition, but depending on which stateside school you go to for clinics, you may owe extra money to that clinical institution

i've heard of this for Ross, but I will thow it out there and say it is NOT true for SGU in case there are students out their runing a comparison.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

i've heard of this for Ross, but I will thow it out there and say it is NOT true for SGU in case there are students out their runing a comparison.

How do schools determine that? Why Ross students might pay, but SGU students don't?

 

[Minnerbelle]

How do schools determine that? Why Ross students might pay, but SGU students don't?

Who knows. Probably has to do with whatever agreement the island schools have with the stateside school. The one school I know this to be true takes Ross students but not SGU students, so it may be that SGU won't participate with schools that demand more money than each student is allotted from SGU.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Who knows. Probably has to do with whatever agreement the island schools have with the stateside school. The one school I know this to be true takes Ross students but not SGU students, so it may be that SGU won't participate with schools that demand more money than each student is allotted from SGU.

Ah, that makes sense. So clinical year students might pay SGU for clinical experience that occurs elsewhere? Or do these island schools cut checks to the stateside schools?

 

[jmo1012]

How do schools determine that? Why Ross students might pay, but SGU students don't?

its an administrative detail for ross and sgu, not the clinical year schools

Ah, that makes sense. So clinical year students might pay SGU for clinical experience that occurs elsewhere? Or do these island schools cut checks to the stateside schools?

island students pay their home universities (i.e. i paid tuition to SGU during clinics) who then in turn pay the universities whatever their asking tuition fee is. it varies school to school. i believe SGU probably takes an average of the costs, and pays more for some students than others (or so i've been told).

 

[BirdsinMyHouse]

In 2006, Diana Reyes was ejected in her sixth semester, leaving St. Kitts with $160,000 in debt and no degree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/b...alling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.html?_r=

While her situation sucks, it's pretty rare. The policy at Ross is that you can repeat 1 course once, unless you're in your first semester, then you can repeat 2 courses. So, either she had failed a course previously and failed another one later (making her unable to be placed for clinicals, as the stateside schools won't take someone with two Fs), or failed the same course twice.

I know a lot of Rossies and she's the only one I've ever heard of failing out that late. Everything else in that article is pretty spot-on, but her as an example is... weird.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

While her situation sucks, it's pretty rare. The policy at Ross is that you can repeat 1 course once, unless you're in your first semester, then you can repeat 2 courses. So, either she had failed a course previously and failed another one later (making her unable to be placed for clinicals, as the stateside schools won't take someone with two Fs), or failed the same course twice.

I know a lot of Rossies and she's the only one I've ever heard of failing out that late. Everything else in that article is pretty spot-on, but her as an example is... weird.

And, lets face it, a person can flunk out of any school and end up with a huge debt and no degree. There are probably thousands of med students every year who leave school without a degree and with huge debts too.

 

[battie]

In 2006, Diana Reyes was ejected in her sixth semester, leaving St. Kitts with $160,000 in debt and no degree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/b...alling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.html?_r=

It is what it is. Going through these boards, it seems that a lot of success in vet school is squarely on your shoulders and that it's up to you to figure things out. That seems to apply even more to her since she got past the big attrition hump of Ross through first year. Going to a Caribbean school has it's own pros and cons and it's the applicant's responsibility to know what those are, including that they may or may not have the same support as a state school.