Saba student, 4th year (Just Matched! yay) - feel free to ask me questions/ general review of the school

[IMGSaba77]

A bit about me - 4th year medical student, Currently have a few more electives to complete before being done here. (I'm hoping)

Pros: get you the MD degree that you want.

Cons: keep in mind, you will be going to a school that is ran by a businessman. The school is not transparent (at all) in how it goes about making policy changes. (you have been warned)

- Basic science faculty is a hit or miss. Most were decent but handful were absolutely terrible (couldnt teach, belittling to the students, or have a heavy accent to the point where you have to ask them to repeat themself slowly) Most of the teachers here are foreign/at saba to teach and provide a better life for their family due to the country they are from/ party - We even had a few teachers with malpractice claims brought up against them in the states (so i am guess they are down there because they can not get a job in the states?) The Class materials can be overwhelming (the saying is true: medical school is like drinking from a fire hydrant lol) but if you keep up to date with the material and study study study, you should be able to make it through the island.

- clinical Administration faculty: Not super helpful. they are all M.D's but I am not sure how much they advocate for the students best interest. You wont be dealing with them too much other then asking them questions on about your clinical electives/application (they arent too helpful with that either). The lady helping you through the matching process is helpful though. The clinical science deans are under the leash and collar of the owner (R3 education owner - steven rogers) EDIT: i think recent another entity took over saba). So they come up with policies out of the blue if needed. For example, The school recently added that the clinical science students MUST take the CCSE (comprehensive clinical science exams) before being eligible to sit for the actual step 2 CK exam. I know of 2 students who were called and threaten by one of the dean that they could face risk of being expelled if they were to take their step 2 CK exam (Keep in mind that they registered for the step 2 CK exam 2+ months ago and that they were scheduled to take in less than 24 hour). The school reimbursed them the cost of the USMLE step 2 CK exam though (which I was surprised). Another recent event that took place with the clinical students: Due to the COVID pandemic, the prometrics center are no longer allowing students to take the CCSE exam (indefinitely at the time this review is written) so about 50+ of the clinical science students who were set to match for 2021 will no longer be able to make the match. The school is unwilling to offer students alternatives to take the CCSE exam. Thus many of us will NOT MATCH for this upcoming cycle.


feel free to post questions here and ill try my best to answer - good luck to everyone!
Remember: you should apply for more than 1 cycle to try to get into the states or canada for medical school before considering the Caribbeans

EDIT 3/16: Matched! yay! so it is doable

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[Gambino.]

You should probably wait to do a general review of the school until after you match honestly as I'm sure that can change people's viewpoints. SABA seems to be on a downward trend and based on your experiences with the CCSE it makes no sense. The big 3 are making things a bit easier for their classes since they have increasing competition from the increased accessibility of DO schools and the like so it's pretty backwards of them but then again most caribs don't make any sense with their decisions.

Was there any benefit to going SABA over SGU, Ross, AUC in your mind? B/c the only one I found before I started at Ross was that the tuition is a few grand cheaper but even looking at match lists there's a lot less variation in SABA's.

 

[Emmet2301]

How does your school compare to SGU/Ross/AUA?

What was the quality of clinical rotations that you have done so far?

 

[undergrad2019]

1st semester here. They changed their curriculum, consisting of short answer questions, and most everyone is doing poorly. Highest - 87% and Average 55%. Everyone expressed discontent about the difficulty and subjectiveness of grader with some of the questions to no prevail. Please beware. They DO NOT care.

 

[IMGSaba77]

You should probably wait to do a general review of the school until after you match honestly as I'm sure that can change people's viewpoints. SABA seems to be on a downward trend and based on your experiences with the CCSE it makes no sense. The big 3 are making things a bit easier for their classes since they have increasing competition from the increased accessibility of DO schools and the like so it's pretty backwards of them but then again most caribs don't make any sense with their decisions.

Was there any benefit to going SABA over SGU, Ross, AUC in your mind? B/c the only one I found before I started at Ross was that the tuition is a few grand cheaper but even looking at match lists there's a lot less variation in SABA's.

Honestly, It most likely wont change my views at this point. I dealt with them enough to get a sense about how this school "does business". And yes, I have heard the other schools like Ross/sgu/AUC making it less difficult for there clinical students. I cant comment on that though (as i do not know of anyone personally who went to those other 3. But i can speak from my experience in saba. me along with about 50+ other clinical students havent heard anything from our clinical department in terms of when we will be able to take the CCSE due to the prometrics currently only giving preferences to STEP exams. (no announcements were made since March!)

Idk about the advantages. Honestly i feel like if you go to any carribean school, they will all have their issues too. i think when i began at saba, they were cheaper then the other 3. also saba is accreadited by NVAO - so you can go techniically apply to do residency and practice in the netherlands after graduation if you wanted. i dont plan on doing that though. other than being slightly cheaper and being eligible to go to the netherlands. Idk their other pros.

Also keep in mind that SABA's match list does not tell you which class the applicant started on back in the island

 

[IMGSaba77]

How does your school compare to SGU/Ross/AUA?

What was the quality of clinical rotations that you have done so far?

I can only comment on what I know/experience. I i know that SGU and AUC has much more clinical sites then SABA does. (they are generating much more money lol). In terms of SABA clinical sites, we have a bunch of locations in the Northeast (new york, CT, ME, MD, Washington DC,) we also have a few here and there in MO, LA, CA, FL, IL but not a lot compare to the other carrib schools. I have enjoyed most of my clinical rotations so far. but I specifically requested not to be in the northeast as i do not like big cities (still ended up in one rotation up there and it wasnt the best (too many students, attendings were annoyed by students/didnt teach/ not organized). My other rotations in Missouri ,Chicago, and Louisiana decent.

 

[IMGSaba77]

1st semester here. They changed their curriculum, consisting of short answer questions, and most everyone is doing poorly. Highest - 87% and Average 55%. Everyone expressed discontent about the difficulty and subjectiveness of grader with some of the questions to no prevail. Please beware. They DO NOT care.

Sorry to hear, I havent been keeping up with the basic science students. How does short answer questions work in anatomy and histology? lol wtf
You are in the first sem so you have time to leave/transfer, its not too late. Keeping trying your best on these exam (if you decide to stick it out at saba). back when i was a first semester, they made us do a intro to medical sciences class and clinical skills for one month and the last 2 months of the semester were anatomy and histology.

 

[apollo18]

lowest stats that you have heard that got in?

 

[melab]

A bit about me - 4th year medical student, Currently have a few more electives to complete before being done here. (I'm hoping)

Pros: get you the MD degree that you want.

Cons: keep in mind, you will be going to a school that is ran by a businessman. The school is not transparent (at all) in how it goes about making policy changes. (you have been warned)

- Basic science faculty is a hit or miss. Most were decent but handful were absolutely terrible (couldnt teach, belittling to the students, or have a heavy accent to the point where you have to ask them to repeat themself slowly) Most of the teachers here are foreign/at saba to teach and provide a better life for their family due to the country they are from/ party - We even had a few teachers with malpractice claims brought up against them in the states (so i am guess they are down there because they can not get a job in the states?) The Class materials can be overwhelming (the saying is true: medical school is like drinking from a fire hydrant lol) but if you keep up to date with the material and study study study, you should be able to make it through the island.

- clinical Administration faculty: Not super helpful. they are all M.D's but I am not sure how much they advocate for the students best interest. You wont be dealing with them too much other then asking them questions on about your clinical electives/ residency application (they arent too helpful with that either). The clinical science deans are under the leash and collar of the owner (R3 education owner - Steven Rodgers). So they come up with policies out of the blue if needed. For example, The school recently added that the clinical science students MUST take the CCSE (comprehensive clinical science exams) before being eligible to sit for the actual step 2 CK exam. I know of 2 students who were called and threaten by one of the dean that they could face risk of being expelled if they were to take their step 2 CK exam (Keep in mind that they registered for the step 2 CK exam 2+ months ago and that they were scheduled to take in less than 24 hour). The school reimbursed them the cost of the USMLE step 2 CK exam though (which I was surprised). Another recent event that took place with the clinical students: Due to the COVID pandemic, the prometrics center are no longer allowing students to take the CCSE exam (indefinitely at the time this review is written) so about 50+ of the clinical science students who were set to match for 2021 will no longer be able to make the match. The school is unwilling to offer students alternatives to take the CCSE exam. Thus many of us will NOT MATCH for this upcoming cycle.


feel free to post questions here and ill try my best to answer - good luck to everyone!
Remember: you should apply for more than 1 cycle to try to get into the states or canada for medical school before considering the Caribbeans

**********************INTERVIEW tomorrow 8/2, any info will help prior*************************looked at videos, very old. Most student doesn’t posts or I'm looking in wrong place. I was assigned an ambassador, but of course work for the school, so answers are polished.

1. What's the phone interview process like?.
2. Are you currently doing virtual or on-campus learning. Was told campus is open even through COVID
3. Campus student body diversity?

Thanks

 

[IMGSaba77]

lowest stats that you have heard that got in?

sorry for the really late reply everyone. most people have a combination of a low GPA/High MCAT or high GPA/Low mcat. I think the lowest MCAT i heard getting in was a 17 or 18 (this was back when MCAT was a score out of 35). in terms of the lowest GPA, i ve heard of people with 2.6 getting in but thy had a high MCAT

**********************INTERVIEW tomorrow 8/2, any info will help prior*************************looked at videos, very old. Most student doesn’t posts or I'm looking in wrong place. I was assigned an ambassador, but of course work for the school, so answers are polished.

1. What's the phone interview process like?.
2. Are you currently doing virtual or on-campus learning. Was told campus is open even through COVID
3. Campus student body diversity?

Thanks

The IV i remember them asking some standard Q's like why saba? what do you know about saba? be prepared to explain deficiencies and such. Idk how the diadatics students are currently due to covid but I heard that they were doing via virtual (might change later as the tide of the pandemic changes). Campus diversity: in my class we were about 50/50 canadians and US citizens. A good mix of people usually. most were mid to late 20s

 

[Doctorowomic02]

1st semester here. They changed their curriculum, consisting of short answer questions, and most everyone is doing poorly. Highest - 87% and Average 55%. Everyone expressed discontent about the difficulty and subjectiveness of grader with some of the questions to no prevail. Please beware. They DO NOT care.

Please, brother are they still doing short answer questions because I just got accepted?

 

[8jsi37]

Please, brother are they still doing short answer questions because I just got accepted?

you're better off rejecting this school and actually work on your application to improve your chances at US MD/DO school.

 

[depressedloser]

Please, brother are they still doing short answer questions because I just got accepted?

no short answer. its all multiple choice