i'm really concerned about RS/CMS

[ocean11]

Hi all,

ok I recently withdrew from 2 schools to go to RS/CMS and now I just found out that their accreditation is on probation. I wasn't able to sleep last night and am really worried about the school eventually being discredited or closing down... which would totally mess up my life.

I called the LCME and they said that discreditation is VERY unlikely. I called RS/CMS and they said that they have addressed 75% of the problems which appear to be administrative in nature. They also told me that the LCME has come up with more 'stringent' rules recently, and that since CMS was one of the few schools to have a survey in 2002, they needed to address the new rules.

Apparently, there were 3 major probs with the school:
1) lack of fin aid support for students
2) school needed stronger ties with teaching hospitals
3) school needed more dept. heads (ie: stronger leadership in various dept's)

The good news is that more staff has being hired (this i noted at my interview) and ofcourse there is a 5 year tuition freeze... in addition, for us incoming students we might have more clinical opportunities in years 3 and 4.

Regardless, I am so upset that this tarnishes the image of our school and am really concerned that in 2 years or so the school will be closed (I know this is VERY rare) but I've worked so hard to get to were I am and I don't want to even take a 0.0001% chance that it might all be flushed down the toilet.

HOWEVER, I did call the LCME and addressed the above concern and they said if that ever happened (which they doubted) the LCME would help students transfer to other medical schools......

In other news.... the university of saskatchewan was put on probation as well!! (though it can't be their tuition... thats for sure!!).

Anyhow, what do you all think about it..... any response would be appreciated......

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[moo]

Well Temple was put on probation too, and as you mentioned U of S as well. I think U of Hawaii was also put on probation a while back. I think even Stanford was threatened with probation because their curriculum was too science oriented, if I'm not mistaken!

If the unlikely ever does happen, you WILL be transferred to another school, you don't have to worry about that. I have known of no school that has lost its accreditation and it is unlikely that Finch will as well. Look at this as a good thing: no tuition increases during your time in school (you will save probably about 3-4k right there), and your school will strive to strengthen itself so your clinical years will be good.

My advice is not to lose sleep over this. Finch has been around for a long time, and has produced some excellent physicians. The new Dean of Students at Northwestern is a graduate of Finch as well as many doctors I've worked with at NU.

 

[LvlyBlkPreMed]

Yeah. I almost passed out when I heard about this issue. I too had just turned down another school for Finch and I was quite upset to hear about this. But after talking with other med students and some physicians, I have learned that while this is not the best of circumstances, it has happend to quite a few medical schools in the past. So right now i'm trying not to lose sleep over it as I rush to prepare to move to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Don't worry about it ocean!!

 

[ocean11]

Hi all,

I feel much better about the situation after talking to the LCME, CMS faculty and students as well as other med school students. I have come to the conclusion that this is actually a good thing! DUE to the probation CMS has frozen tuition and is giving out quite a few scholarships this year. They are also going to get a solid affiliation with a hospital and our clinical years should be pretty good. I doubt that the school will loose accreditation, as this never happened before in the US. Overall we, as students, stand to gain from this. The only negative thing I forsee here is that the 'probation' will tarnish the school's reputation. I just hope that in 4 years when i'm applying to some competitive residency this probation won't hurt my chances of getting in!!

 

[EctopicFetus]

I am currently a student at CMS. While these issues are serious I wouldnt worry about the LCME thing too much. A lot has been done to address the issues. We recently appointed a new Med School Dean and are getting better dept chairs right now. The President of the school is trying to get more NIH $$ which would help with the reputation of the school. I have some serious insight into this topic so if you have specific questions PM me.

Also, the schools rep wont have a huge effect on your residency possibilities. Obviously, there are more opportunities at other places but we managed to place a ridiculous amount of students into top notch residencies in very competetive fields.

3rd Year Ectopic Fetus...

BTW the clinical exposure during the 3rd year is amazing. We have a wide variety of oppotunities in the community.

Once again if you have any Qs PM me about any topic related to CMS. I will answer as best as I can.