ROSS or AUC

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lacarthic

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Which one is usually EASIER to get into Ross or AUC I am applying to both and just wondering.

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i personally like AUC over Ross, because it is a great place to live. A cousin of mine will be an MS2 there next semester and he loves St Marteen. Both, i believe, offer US govt loans (stafford) and both i believe are expensive (AUC is more). Both are also exceptional schools and part of the big five - AUC, St George, Ross, Saba, St Matthews. check out St Matthews, they are in Cayman and they offer a MD/Masters in Health Service Admin dual degree program which i am going to be starting in a month or so. One year in Cayman, one year in Standish, Maine, then clinicals. StMatthews.edu. :thumbup:
by the way i am from Los Angeles, a cali kid like you
RJ
 
I just saw this in the threads. I have plenty of friends and family who went to both. Based on their reports, I would go to AUC. Ross is on a terrible island and you really are living in third world conditions. I also get the impression that Ross has more of a gunner-like environment. They have a shelf exam that you must pass before they will even let you take Step 1. To be fair, however, I think Ross has a slightly better reputation and their rotations are more structured than AUC. But let's be honest. Carribean school is Caribean medical school. To say that Ross or SGu has a better reputation is like trying to compare whose $h!t smells the best. You are still an FMG or IMG. Go to the school where you will be the happiest. To me AUC has the best environment and campus. If you are going to live overseas and do med school, I would do it in a place where I will at least be happy. I couldn't ever live in those poor conditions that Ross students deal with for 2 years.
 
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We don't have to take a shelf exam and pass it in order to take Step 1.

We take individual shelf exams in every course, like many US allopathic students do.

We have a system here that if you go through your 1st 2 years and if you finish with a gpa of 2.9 or less. Then the school doesn't believe you will pass Step 1 on your first attempt. If you do then you have to take a comprehensive nbme shelf exam to see if you stay on the island for a 5th semester, a comprehensive boot camp review course for the step 1, assuming you fail the COMP or if you pass it. Then you go on to Miami for our real 5th semester site with everyone who had a 2.9 gpa or higher. In miami we get 9 weeks of advanced introduction to clinical medicine.

Plus from there we take step 1. Have about 5 months from the time we leave the island to take it.


I dont know about clinicals. Before Id say Ross was definatly better because AUC was limited to only 12 weeks? in NY. They also had a lot of clinicals in the UK, Ross has none there.

I believe Ross has a better name, but in the end its about how much work you put into it that determines where you go.

Compare the match lists for each school. Better representation of the school's ability to place you in whatever field.


Money, its money and all schools want more of it.

Haven't been to St. Marteen, but from what I hear its a lot nicer than here. Then again, everywhere else is better than here.


AUC is definatly easier to get into. No interview and No mcat.

Ross will require MCAT as of september now. And the people coming in now have higher gpas. Had I applied now with my undergrad gpa I would have been put into this medprep program or rejected.
 
lmbebo said:
AUC is definatly easier to get into. No interview and No mcat.


AUC does have an interview, but it's just not clear why some people have interviews and why some don't.
Also, the MCAT is required now...
 
AmericanIMG said:
i personally like AUC over Ross, because it is a great place to live. A cousin of mine will be an MS2 there next semester and he loves St Marteen. Both, i believe, offer US govt loans (stafford) and both i believe are expensive (AUC is more). Both are also exceptional schools and part of the big five - AUC, St George, Ross, Saba, St Matthews. check out St Matthews, they are in Cayman and they offer a MD/Masters in Health Service Admin dual degree program which i am going to be starting in a month or so. One year in Cayman, one year in Standish, Maine, then clinicals. StMatthews.edu. :thumbup:
by the way i am from Los Angeles, a cali kid like you
RJ

yeah, the problem with St. Matthews (and Saba, at least right now) is that you won't get a license to practice in California if you go there. Saba has applied (a several year-long process) and is having their on-site inspection next month, I understand. After that, who knows how long, or if previous graduates will be grandfathered.

If you want to practice in California (which pretty much seems to mean that you'll be able to practice anywhere in the US) you should check with Pat Park at the California Medical Board yourself. She's terrific about answering email (she answered mine on the Sunday after Thanksgiving!), and very helpful. This is your career, check yourself!

The big-3 schools (AUC, Ross and SGU) are all approved for California, according to Ms. Park.
 
thirdangel said:
AUC does have an interview, but it's just not clear why some people have interviews and why some don't.
Also, the MCAT is required now...


Mann...why... :mad:
 
exigente chica said:
Mann...why... :mad:

Is that about the MCAT or the interview? :)

I don't know much about how they look at MCAT, but I got in without an interview, and it's definately not a stressful application process.
 
St Matthews is in the latter stages of California licensing, but as of now, graduates can not practice or intern or have residency there. visits are scheduled for this summer, so hopefully by December everything will be cleared. The school was also recently cleared by New York for clinicals, residency and licensing, with all current students and those that graduated one yera ago being given all clearance. Those students that graduated prior to that will have to apply on a case by case basis. New York and California are both the hardest states to get clearance in, and with St Matthews gaining clearance in one it seems like the school is on the right path. :thumbup:
 
When deciding on Caribbean Schools, the are four very important things to look into:

1. Step 1 pass rates
2. What states can you do your residency
3. Exactly where are the Rotations (some hospitals are not very good some schools do not let everyone go to the USA)
4. Where and which specialties did they match in the past two years (this is probably the best predictor of the school)

On a side note, I went to Ross and loved it. I kills me to hear that people are choosing schools over which islands have better night lifes and such. If you decide on a school this way than you will not pass step one at any of them. At one of my interviews for surgery this year in South Carolina, the program director told me that I was the only Caribbean student that they interviewed this year. He also told me that in the past he only granted interviews to students from Ross. This is a very bold statement that really shows that it DOES matter which caribbean school that you attend. I usually advise students to go to either Ross or SGU because they tend to match students into better positions because they have simply been around longer than the rest.

Hope this helps. Good luck :luck:
 
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