Saba Medical School Experience?

[Jbarrie]

I recently got accepted into Saba medical school and would like ONLY the students who are attending or who have attended Saba to tell me their experience (things they liked and didn't like so much) and how Saba prepares students for Step 1. Thanks 🙂

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[delawarepremed]

I know one person who attended SABA, and he is now in an internal medicine residency. He said that the thing he liked is that SABA gave him the chance to become a physician in the United States. What he did not like was the attrition rate at SABA. He also did not like the fact that SABA or any other Caribbean students had to work harder and score higher on the USMLE than an American student (MD or DO) to get the same residency. This is the unfortunate reality of being a Caribbean student. My advice might not appeal to you, and that's fine, and it is your choice whether you will follow it or not. However, if I were you, I would make sure that I take advantage of the AACOMAS grade replacement by retaking some science classes that I didn't do so well the first time. Then, I would apply broadly to DO schools all over the United States. DO schools are much more forgiving than MD schools to students who redeem themselves through grade replacement. Many students have done this, and they are now students at DO schools. I am sure you can do this as well.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

valuemd.com

 

[hallowmann]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/caribbean.90/

or above.

Not a Saba student, but a friend that went there had the attitude that if you made it through, you were well prepared. They said that they were tough, very strict and unforgiving with pre-clinical performance, and the support for struggling students was minimal to non-existent. It led to a stronger general class, but they lost people along the way that may have been fine at a school with more support.

They also said the island itself had very little going on, but it's not like you're going to med school to party.

 

[PL198]

I know one person who attended SABA, and he is now in an internal medicine residency. He said that the thing he liked is that SABA gave him the chance to become a physician in the United States. What he did not like was the attrition rate at SABA. He also did not like the fact that SABA or any other Caribbean students had to work harder and score higher on the USMLE than an American student (MD or DO) to get the same residency. This is the unfortunate reality of being a Caribbean student. My advice might not appeal to you, and that's fine, and it is your choice whether you will follow it or not. However, if I were you, I would make sure that I take advantage of the AACOMAS grade replacement by retaking some science classes that I didn't do so well the first time. Then, I would apply broadly to DO schools all over the United States. DO schools are much more forgiving than MD schools to students who redeem themselves through grade replacement. Many students have done this, and they are now students at DO schools. I am sure you can do this as well.

They get much more time to study, why wouldn't they be expected to do better

 

[Baller MD]

nvm

 

[Mad Jack]

http://www.ecfmg.org/resources/NRMP...atch-International-Medical-Graduates-2014.pdf

The experience of 33 out of 78 of the students that made it to graduation at Saba this year was not matching. See page 22 for results by country, Saba is over toward the right of the first table.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Moving to International Forum

 

[Skip Intro]

See page 22 for results by country, Saba is over toward the right of the first table.

Also interesting from the explanation at the bottom of the table:

Most U.S. IMGs were trained in the Caribbean countries such as Dominica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and Sint Maarten.

That pretty much sums up what you need to know right there, if you're going to go this route.

-Skip

 

[hallowmann]

Dominica:
All Saints University SOM
Ross University SOM

Grenada:
SGU SOM

Saba:
Saba University SOM

Sint Maarten:
AUC SOM
American University of integrative Sciences SOM (formerly University of Sint Eustatius)

Antigua:
AUA COM
UHSA SOM

It would be nice if it were broken up by SOM, but I doubt that would happen any time soon. At least Grenada and Saba are representative of their specific schools. I also suspect that the majority of match applicants are from the bigger of the two schools on the representative islands.

 

[King Dingaling]

Recent Saba grad here, currently halfway through my intern year at a University EM program. Congrats on being accepted to Saba and good luck. Our yearly match list does have some superstars. Hopefully your acceptance to a Caribbean school means you've exhausted most other options stateside though. Here's my 2cents...

Let me start with the pros of the program - The path to success is in place IF you study hard and pass your tests. In my experience, the educators are knowledgable about their subjects and generally have an earnest desire to see you succeed. There are frequest tests on the island (5 block exams per trimester), all of which are computerized in a simulated testing center type atmosphere. This becomes so routine that it actually made me feel riiiight at home taking my Steps haha. There is also a 5th semester Kaplan course dedicated to Step 1 studying. Most students (myself included) despised this class as it was tedious and repetitive, but I assure you that it was definitely time well spent for those of us that used it wisely. I felt thoroughly prepared for Step 1. Lastly, the island is beautiful, incredible, and I had the best view of my entire life there. My roommate and I snorkeled, caught lobsters daily, and the hiking is great. If you don't like what the island has to offer, there's something wrong with you, not the island.
Cons - The class time involves long hours and the subject material is, of course, difficult. I did a post-bacc program in Chicago that shared a few courses with the medical school, and I can tell you that on Saba we spent more than double the time per week in the classroom. This can be tiring. Also, though the island is amazing, it can be terrifyingly small and out-dated. You will run into classmates and professors everywhere you go and sometimes the island feels even smaller than its 5 sq mi. The internet is sub-par and expensive, and having to rely on rainwater to flush your toilets can be quite demoralizing at times. I'm not trying to scare you, just trying to mentally "toughen" you up!

Though it is respected among certain residencies familiar with Caribbean schools, Saba is still a Caribbean school. My board scores were in the 240s, I have 2 Master's degrees, and I rotated in large University hospitals, but it's very difficult to shake that Caribbean title once you have it. I received tons of pushback during my residency applications for this simple fact (I applied to a fairly competitive specialty, but still). So you better be heading down there with something to prove, because if not, you're doing it wrong. Many of my classmates are succeeding in great programs because they worked hard, but even a broken clock is right twice a day...so the onus is on you to perform well. Best of luck to you!

 

[GADoctor]

http://www.ecfmg.org/resources/NRMP...atch-International-Medical-Graduates-2014.pdf

The experience of 33 out of 78 of the students that made it to graduation at Saba this year was not matching. See page 22 for results by country, Saba is over toward the right of the first table.

That table and the quote is misleading as the numbers are split up and divided between us citizen or non us citizen. Compare the countries combined statistics to the any of the other countries, and Saba stacks up pretty well. For example:

SGU - 689 matched /1050 = 66%
Ross - 595 matched /1100 = 54%
Saba- 113 matched /175 = 65%

I left out AUC as there were no non us citizen stats but i am sure they are around the same.

The only other challenger to the big 4 was israel. All the rest did not even compare.

But this is not even a half decent way of looking at it, because none of this data includes SOAP matches, late matches, or outside the match offers. Furthermore, a large proportion of saba students are Canadian and end up matching in CARMS and withdrawing from NRMP. So in reality these number from what I have heard are much higher, and at least for Saba, those that went into the match, the match rate was significantly higher. But it is true that Saba weeds out all others like a Spartan King and only allows the likeliest to succeed to make it to that point. It is hard work, but know this, you will be much more prepared in clinical sciences than most of your Caribbean counterparts and many American counterparts.

Now that it is fully a part of the Netherlands though, I understand they are cracking down on this aspect and expecting more support for students, hopefully that does not dilute our brand.

 

[the argus]

http://www.ecfmg.org/resources/NRMP...atch-International-Medical-Graduates-2014.pdf

The experience of 33 out of 78 of the students that made it to graduation at Saba this year was not matching. See page 22 for results by country, Saba is over toward the right of the first table.

Hey Mad Jack, if you are going to use numbers to try and make a point, you should at least take the time to understand what they actually represent. From the introduction section:

"For purposes of this report, match success is defined as a match to the specialty of the applicant’s first-ranked program because that is assumed to be the specialty of choice. Because preliminary programs provide only one or two years of prerequisite training for entry into advanced specialty training, applicants who ranked a preliminary program first are considered not to have a preferred specialty. Lack of match success includes matching to another specialty as well as failure to match at all."

So those 33 people did not necessarily not match, they just did not match into the specialty that was ranked 1st on their ROL.

Also, if you look further at the data, you will see that the mean time since graduation of the unmatched cohort of US-IMGs is 5.7 years. This means that the majority of people who were unmatched had not "made it to graduation at Saba this year." They are from the relatively small cohort of caribbean US-IMGs that are bad but eventually graduate anyway and can't land a residency position. Those people still apply every year, bringing down the overall US-IMG match rate.

I know, I know, I'm a buzzkill, trying to have a discussion about caribbean medical education that is based on actual facts rather than opinion and speculation

 

[King Dingaling]

Just an update for anyone interested in seeing some match results. It seems recently the 2015 Residency Appointment Match List was released.

I performed the tedious task of counting all of them up...157 matches in total. Mostly primary care matches, but wide range of specialties are represented.