I sincerely hope it continues out west. I have waaayy too much stuff to do and don't need the academic calendar significantly adjusted...plus I'd like to get into my residential building without having to backstroke...
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Much Ado Re: Irma
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I sincerely hope it continues out west. I have waaayy too much stuff to do and don't need the academic calendar significantly adjusted...plus I'd like to get into my residential building without having to backstroke...
The track just moved slightly west of hitting both our house and our rental head on. I'm still hoping it continues moving west!
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We are good so far - our renters boarded everything up with hurricane shutters and are a mile from mandatory evacuation, so they are riding it out. We don't have any weather to the north, so we are finishing boarding up the rental. I'll keep you posted until we lose power!
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Looks like you'll get your wish. My parents are expecting to come home to significant flood damage on the gulf coast.
Sorry, didn't mean proceed west to tear **** up on the gulf coast, more so meant proceed west into the actual gulf and die out. Wouldn't wish tragedy on anyone if it got me out the hotseat
My house is two miles from the Gulf. When I say west, I mean really far west. Like - out in the middle of the gulf. It's still pretty much a direct hit right now.
Yeah - I think we're both coming from the same perspective on this. We're just hoping for no damage. I've lived through far too many of these at this point.
The current track has the eye going directly over our house as a category 4 hurricane. We feel pretty helpless here, but we've been through worse and I know we'll make it through this. If it continues the same track it will hit us (in our rental) fairly dead on as a category 3, which is a little better.
In other news, we had our first damage of the day - my closet just collapsed. Completely non-hurricane related, but it gave me a laugh. I'm hoping that's the worst damage we sustain today.
In other news, we had our first damage of the day - my closet just collapsed. Completely non-hurricane related, but it gave me a laugh. I'm hoping that's the worst damage we sustain today.
Scary! Stay safe!
Well of course bagels would need to be part of the budding enterprise.
Thank you for the detailed and very informative reply.
The family friend who is a med student at AUC has posted that the US students are being evacuated by the US military and that they believe that the school will reconvene in Chicago area for the fall semester and maybe the spring semester. Since many of the students have families, finding housing for them also complicates matters.
You are right....the island employees, the local economy, and the students have just been banged like a screen door in a Cat5...and Jose is going to further damage. That is why I'm guessing that it will take longer for AUC to resume than what it took during the Grenada Invasion (which I well remember). It would be one thing if only the med school had been destroyed (like in an isolated campus fire with community and local infrastructure intact and poised to focus only on rebuilding the med school), but the entire island has suffered major damage.
With so many students at AUC, I'm wondering where they would put all of them.
At this point, it appears that perhaps 3 of the 4 med school years will be in the US. This school year, and the last 2 years (often in Florida).
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The eye of the hurricane went straight down the main road in our town within two miles of our house. We just got word from our renters that our house is in excellent shape, the shutters did their job well, and many, if not most, of the trees are down - which makes my husband kind of happy since he hated many of the trees anyway. So this is excellent news. They still have some storm surge, but we've never historically been affected by that so I'm hoping for the best. The only problem is that our tenth wedding anniversary is this weekend and we had a very simple plan to celebrate, but I think we'll probably head south to pick up debris and cancel our original plans.
The eye is now headed directly toward us, but the hurricane is much weaker. I feel like we'll probably do fairly well. We (obviously) still have power and internet and all the niceties that go with that. I'll keep you posted tomorrow if I can.
The eye is now headed directly toward us, but the hurricane is much weaker. I feel like we'll probably do fairly well. We (obviously) still have power and internet and all the niceties that go with that. I'll keep you posted tomorrow if I can.
Thanks for the update and good news
The good news is that we made it through the hurricane with power! We are unscathed and our rental looks great. This is the first hurricane where I've had power. The bad news is that the only computer model that correctly predicted Irma's path currently has Jose coming toward Florida ...
Which computer model is that? What part of FL?
I'll have to check the model - it will supposedly hit the east coast somewhere south of Daytona, but I think it was north of West Palm I'll edit this when I see it again. My guess it will go back into the Atlantic, but that was not reassuring!
Nah. No offense taken.
The house looks unscathed and the neighborhood didn't even lose power according to the neighbors across the street who didn't evacuate despite 10 ft storm surges projected for an area that's only 4 ft above sea level.
Our basketball hoop apparently fell over though, so RIP to family games of HORSE when I go down for thanksgiving.
I was at AUC in the eye of the storm a few days ago. This situation is NOT GOOD. Students still haven't been evacuated. Here's a blog I wrote from my perspective about the hurricane and subsequent days of sheltering and being stranded, because I want the public, as well as my friends and family, to have some insight as to what happened here, and as to how bad the situation is: medschoolmarathoner.wordpress.com and click on "The Day-to-Day Rundown" link on the home page. For whatever reason, SDN won't let me post the direct link... boo.
Thank you for sharing your first-hand account. What is the condition of the campus?
You mention in your blog that AUC expects to resume classes in one week in Chicago. How likely will you all be able to find lodging. From what I understand, some of your classmates have families as well and some are int'ls. How many students are there? Seems like a lot to achieve, relocating a bunch of students to another country and start classes in a week.
When Katrina hit, colleges across the country each took a few college students from the affected univs (for example, a Tulane relative was sent to Harvard for a semester...the common theme was that the college had to have a late start date). That was a somewhat easier thing to do since each accepting college just needed to provide a few seats and dorms. It just seems impossible to suddenly opening a med school with 1000+ med students attending.
It's... all up in the air. We have no official word from AUC regarding returning to our studies or finding housing, just a vague promise that AUC will help at first by providing a student housing option. It does seem like A LOT to achieve, and many of us are pessimistic regarding this, thinking that we will probably have to delay our entire first semester until January. There would be approximately 700 students to relocate, based on a quick estimate I can add up from our master schedule, which states approximate enrollments per each semester.
And you are welcome! I felt like people should know at least a little about what happened there, from a personal perspective of someone in the thick of things. The campus itself is actually in pretty good shape--there are two academic buildings, and building II with the hurricane shelter was built only a couple years ago to withstand a Category 5. Well, it proved it's worth and has relatively little damage... just some water damage in some small patches of tiles. Building I, the older building, *looks* okay on the outside, other than a missing section of the shingles/top of the roof. I don't know much about how it fared, other than it smelled RANK and moldy in one of the lecture halls, so clearly took water damage there. I didn't go into any other rooms of that building. I will say, that the 1st, 4th, and 5th floors of student apartments on campus are MESSED UP. Like, sections of roof caved in and awful flooding.
And you are welcome! I felt like people should know at least a little about what happened there, from a personal perspective of someone in the thick of things. The campus itself is actually in pretty good shape--there are two academic buildings, and building II with the hurricane shelter was built only a couple years ago to withstand a Category 5. Well, it proved it's worth and has relatively little damage... just some water damage in some small patches of tiles. Building I, the older building, *looks* okay on the outside, other than a missing section of the shingles/top of the roof. I don't know much about how it fared, other than it smelled RANK and moldy in one of the lecture halls, so clearly took water damage there. I didn't go into any other rooms of that building. I will say, that the 1st, 4th, and 5th floors of student apartments on campus are MESSED UP. Like, sections of roof caved in and awful flooding.
So, you're an incoming MS1, right?
From your blog, i think you mentioned leaving most or nearly all of your belongings behind. I would imaging that your situation isn't unusual; people just wanting to quickly get off the island and just grabbing very few things.
I think you and your classmates may be right about the possible delay until January. Getting 700 students, some with families, in apartments/dorms/whatever in an extremely short time sounds impossible.
However, i think @gonnif meantioned that AUC needs to get this semester off the ground otherwise they'll have to return a bunch of student loan money.
Anyone know if these students' Cost of Attendances can be adjusted so that more money can be borrowed to allow for all the additional costs these students will be incurring?
Edit to add a recent update from AUC
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I am an MS1/first semester student 🙂.
Leaving mostly everything we owned behind wasn't by choice, it was by military command. We were allowed a single backpack and not allowed to bring anything else, including any pets people had brought to the island. Most people stuffed their important documents (passport, driver's license, etc) and their electronics (laptop, tablets, chargers) into their backpacks and called it a win. I shoved my stethoscope into my backpack, too. Hard copy textbooks, kitchen items, shoes not on your feet, our ICM kits (which included around $1,000 worth of equipment like otoscopes and ophthalmoscopes) and most other articles of daily living had to be left behind with such severe space constraints. Replacing everything will cost us all thousands of dollars, which could unfortunately be prohibitive to some students trying to continue their education.
Regarding finances, students who hadn't paid tuition before the storm hit (myself included) have the option to cancel their loans and return the money if they can't/don't want to continue with school at this time. Some students are suffering PTSD and not mentally prepared to start in the next week or so. I'm not sure what the situation is for the students who took out loans and/or paid tuition before the storm; I was fortunate enough to fall out of both of those categories, since my husband sold his Amazon sign-on bonus stock to pay for my tuition this semester. We were just waiting on the money to hit our bank account, and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise that it was taking longer than we'd expected. Thus, I haven't been in much contact with the financial aid office since Irma, other than to ask if I could hold off on paying tuition until we knew more about how the semester is supposed to be proceeding, if at all. One student *did* mention while we were still on the island that we are eligible for $2,000 disaster loans for students.
Wow, that's rough about the pets. Now I see why AUC mentions that they're taking care of pets.
A family friend had not yet returned to the island (home for break) and had left a lot of expensive stuff there thinking she'd be back. She hopes to, at some point, get back there to retrieve some things. Not sure if that's even possible.
Glad to hear about the $2k disaster loan. I'm sure that and more will be needed for students needing to suddenly relocate in Chicago or wherever they land. Suddenly having to procure an apt and furnish it will be quite expensive. It's for that reason and, as you mentioned, the PTSD/shock from what they just went thru, that it's all going to take some time.
The family friend just posted this quote from CNN in regards to the situation on St. Maarten:
Why aren't the Netherlands and France taking care of their affected areas?
Why aren't the Netherlands and France taking care of their affected areas?
Sorry to hear about your family friend's stuff 🙁. I can ask around and see how her apartment building fared, but she should be mentally prepared to have lost everything, either due to destruction of her place or to looters.
I'm not sure when this was quoted or if this family was able to make it to one of the hurricane shelters, but I do know that we received a shipment of supplies at AUC from the Dutch government on the 8th, 2 days after Irma. Perhaps the initial shipments of supplies went to the shelters for dispersal, and the quoted family did not choose to stay at a shelter? Both the Netherlands and France have sent both supplies and military personnel at this point, but communication with the island has been difficult since so much island infrastructure has been wiped out. Transportation was also a problem in the immediate days following Irma, because of the threat of Hurricane Jose. There was just too much wind and the waters were too choppy to get much help out to the island.
This is from a CNN story this afternoon. It appears that if these people went to a shelter during the storm, they have returned to their home (probably to avoid looting) and can't get food. People are in a catch 22 situation....if they abandon their homes, their homes will be looted, but if they stay/protect their homes, they have little or no access to necessities of life.
Good news and bad news after the storm. First, the good news: I finally have rescheduled my first interview, so that is a plus. The bad news is that we found out a large pine branch went through our roof during the storm. The renters could finally see it this morning. Good news on top of this is that the renter is a high-end home builder, so I'm pretty sure we can get it fixed up over the next few weeks. But that was not the best thing to wake up to today.
Another note for anyone following this who went through the storm: I am surprised by just how tired I am this week. I didn't consider this a particularly stressful situation. I have been through countless hurricanes and this was just one more. While I didn't think about the experience being stressful, I think that is mainly because I disregarded the stress or simply didn't recognize it. I spent an entire weekend getting one house ready for the storm, making sure our renters got our other house ready for the storm, making room for three additional cats, cleaning up, and trying to get back to "business as usual" right after. I never really thought about the situation, but I also didn't realize how stressful the situation was. Now we're dealing with the aftermath and I feel somewhat guilty sitting in an air-conditioned house with electricity as many of my friends and family are without. I know this is just another bump in the already pock-marked life I have led. We'll get through this.
I remember my freshman year when Hurricane Floyd was supposed to hit Florida. It missed Florida and hit me up at school during my first week there. As a Floridian I had no fear of this "hurricane" that had gotten so much weaker on its way up, but it took our our entire water supply for two weeks. That was my introduction to college. During my last few weeks of finals we had temperatures well over 100 degrees. It was like the worst introduction to college ever. At that time I just kept going and never gave either of those events a second thought (Ok, I lie - I really did NOT like living without A/C in that heat). But these events have real impacts on us physically and emotionally and I need to remember that as I head into the next few weeks.
Best of luck to those who braved the storm or evacuated the islands before it hit.
Another note for anyone following this who went through the storm: I am surprised by just how tired I am this week. I didn't consider this a particularly stressful situation. I have been through countless hurricanes and this was just one more. While I didn't think about the experience being stressful, I think that is mainly because I disregarded the stress or simply didn't recognize it. I spent an entire weekend getting one house ready for the storm, making sure our renters got our other house ready for the storm, making room for three additional cats, cleaning up, and trying to get back to "business as usual" right after. I never really thought about the situation, but I also didn't realize how stressful the situation was. Now we're dealing with the aftermath and I feel somewhat guilty sitting in an air-conditioned house with electricity as many of my friends and family are without. I know this is just another bump in the already pock-marked life I have led. We'll get through this.
I remember my freshman year when Hurricane Floyd was supposed to hit Florida. It missed Florida and hit me up at school during my first week there. As a Floridian I had no fear of this "hurricane" that had gotten so much weaker on its way up, but it took our our entire water supply for two weeks. That was my introduction to college. During my last few weeks of finals we had temperatures well over 100 degrees. It was like the worst introduction to college ever. At that time I just kept going and never gave either of those events a second thought (Ok, I lie - I really did NOT like living without A/C in that heat). But these events have real impacts on us physically and emotionally and I need to remember that as I head into the next few weeks.
Best of luck to those who braved the storm or evacuated the islands before it hit.
That might explain why some of the AUC students feel some PTSD and just want to return home. Their website is saying that they're providing one-way tix to students who just want to go home (not sure if going home is just to rest or if those students will be withdrawing).
The one-way tix are for any students wishing to return home to recover for a few days, before we find out what our situation will be! We got an email today saying that Chicago is now an unlikely option. Bummer. We have no other updates on where we are supposed to be returning to classes, should we decide to return this semester.
You have a decent mcat, but your gpa was an issue...something around 3.0-3.3 and 508 mcat...is that right?
You've paid nothing to auc, correct?
@Goro @gonnif this is a first year med student who never got to start at auc. Could she simply not start, go home, maybe take some classes next spring to help her gpa, and reapply to DO schools in the summer??
This is so scary, confusing, and frustrating. I really hope you get your belongings sorted out and then find a feasible solution for medical school.
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Of course!!!
Looks like you may be onto something. AUC found out that it can't move operations to Chicago because of accreditation issues. They are setting up shop in England.
Can't imagine the cost impact to students, surely it will be higher, and that's not counting the costs to move there. If I remember correctly, to get an education visa there, the student has to show full funding for full COA, in advance. There might also be trouble for those who are married and the spouse needs to be able to work.
I suspect that AUC is going to take a big hit in US citizen enrollment for their next couple of admission cycles, at least.
Others here who know a lot about US med school operations may be able to provide some feedback to my questions: @gonnif @LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn etc
Has there been any history of a a US MD (or US DO) school suffering major damage which disrupted enrollment? Tulane's med school after Katrina, maybe? And if that has happened, did other MD (or DO) schools offer to take in a few students in the meantime. If this has never happened, do you think other med schools would offer temporary seats if this were to happen?
Context: After Katrina hit, and the univs affected had no place for their students, American univs around the country offered seats for those undergrad students, for a semester. We had a family friend at Tulane who got to go to Harvard for the semester. I don't know what happened to Tulane med.
Has there been any history of a a US MD (or US DO) school suffering major damage which disrupted enrollment? Tulane's med school after Katrina, maybe? And if that has happened, did other MD (or DO) schools offer to take in a few students in the meantime. If this has never happened, do you think other med schools would offer temporary seats if this were to happen?
Context: After Katrina hit, and the univs affected had no place for their students, American univs around the country offered seats for those undergrad students, for a semester. We had a family friend at Tulane who got to go to Harvard for the semester. I don't know what happened to Tulane med.
This was the absolute first song I started singing when my husband told me there was a Tropical storm called Maria heading our way.
My fav movie - as in, ever! Tues night, I'm going to be drinking a bottle of red wine, and watching it in HD. Hope you had a fabulous weekend! 🙂 (Neighbors decided to take down their storm shutters and trim the trees right outside my "office" door... so much for MCAT with that going on!!!)
Good luck! I'd join you but I have two back-to-back tutoring sessions right after my interview. My interview suit is being held hostage on the coast after I sent it to the dry cleaners, so I'm going to be having a very interesting interview (have no fear - the suit I thought did not fit miraculously fits with control top hose).
What have you decided to do? Will you be going to England? Or will you stay in the US, beef up your GPA next semester, and apply to DO schools next summer?
You're going to rock the i-view
Maybe one day we can celebrate your acceptance 🙂 @precisiongraphic - ty. I'm going to need it. On wrong side of YD right now with no mojo left. Listening to Eric Thomas preach at me - "GRIND or DIE - what's it gonna be girl!?"
By the time hurricane season is over this year...people aren't gonna have to worry about going to med school in the Caribbean. There won't be ANY med schools left there to go to. 😱
Those schools are so profitable they will relocate
Do you think only one current year's worth of students will be lost? I think apps will be down, but I also wonder how many students will not be able to easily relocate to wherever their SOM sets up shop.
And don't these schools have enrollments that start 2-3 times per year?
As mentioned above, AUC is moving to England. I wonder how many will not go.
So you believe the US will suffer w/o those 1000 new docs. I don't disbelieve you, but wondering if our residency programs will just recruit/interview/match more non-Americans who were educated abroad?
