This was my email response to Ross University today:
Dear Ross representative:
I recently visited the Ross University webpage where it so succinctly states that Ross University offers an "...excellent allopathic education, avoiding the compromise of a degree in osteopathic medicine" at the bottom of every page on the website. Is this the Ross University mantra?
I find it absolutely amazing as well as disheartening that a medical university of this day and age considers an osteopathic medical degree to be a compromise in medical education and voices this opinion on their website. The most ironic thing is the inference that a degree from a Caribbean medical program is not. This kind of mentality does nothing for your institution other than assure those of us who read it that Ross' interest is primarily a monetary one. It is apparent that Ross University obviously considers US osteopathic programs "competition." What better way to assuage prospective "customers" about the evils of the competitor other than to imply that they are a compromise?
I additionally noted that your webpage lists a copy of a letter to Forbes magazine by CEO Timothy Foster, wherein he states that Ross' Step 1 pass rates are " 82% to 94%" which "outperform US osteopathic students who typically achieve first-time pass rates of approximately 75%." What he left out was the fact that the overall foreign medical student pass rate for Step 1 in 1999 was 65% as opposed to 80% (not 75%) osteopathic pass rate. I guess we are to believe that Ross is just a cut-above every other foreign medical school out there and that their rates are not consistent with the foreign medical student average.
May I congratulate your institution on sinking to an all new low in medical school recruitment?
