SGU or Ross January 2011

[cincy3557]

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Just a quick question...

I was recently accepted to both SGU and Ross University's med school programs for entrance in January 2011.

Any thoughts or suggestions on which program to choose? If I choose SGU, will this push my residency placement back a year?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RussianJoo]

i would go with SGU, hands down. much better structure and support system, many more clinical rotations and over all a better island experience. if you're in the Jan 2011 class you'll graduate in the summer of 2015 and be in the 2015 match. not sure if it's waiting a year or whatever. but being in the jan class you will have extra time to study for board exams and or take extra vacation time. you'll also have more time to gather LORs and will be able to take more time off for interviews. not sure when you'd graduate if you went to Ross but i know that SGU is a much better school in every aspect.

 

[PteFabulous]

If you go to ross you'd graduate in 2014, assuming you don't fail any semesters and you do all your clinicals back to back. Now the island is pretty sucky, but its really not as horrible as everyone says it is. You'll have to work hard and have good self study skills, but it's med school, it's supposed to be hard. And even though I hate being here most of the time, in the end I'm going to be a doctor and Ross gave me that chance.

I think you might be better off going to SGU seeing as there's a lot of frustration associated with studying at Ross. If you have any questions about Ross though feel free to pm me.

 

[RussianJoo]

I heard that it's kind of hard to get all Green booked 3rd year cores and 4th year electives back to back at one hospital or at least in the same city. at SGU I spent my 3rd and most of my 4th year at one hospital so that was very nice, and so did about 95% of my classmates.

What percent of the class would you say actually passes all their classes and gets their rotations set up back to back? I also heard that they grade with a bell shaped curve so a certain % of people have to fail the class every semester.

This is just stuff I read on the valuemd Ross forum about the school. that sounds terrible. SGU seems to be a much nicer/kinder environment to be in.

 

[PteFabulous]

I heard that it's kind of hard to get all Green booked 3rd year cores and 4th year electives back to back at one hospital or at least in the same city. at SGU I spent my 3rd and most of my 4th year at one hospital so that was very nice, and so did about 95% of my classmates.

What percent of the class would you say actually passes all their classes and gets their rotations set up back to back? I also heard that they grade with a bell shaped curve so a certain % of people have to fail the class every semester.

This is just stuff I read on the valuemd Ross forum about the school. that sounds terrible. SGU seems to be a much nicer/kinder environment to be in.

Ok I have limited knowledge about the clinicals because I am still in basic sciences right now, and am also Canadian. As far as greenbook though, I thought you only need to have all greenbook rotations if you want to practice in California and Texas. So if you're not worried about practicing in those States getting clinicals back to back is a low easier.

I can't really comment on doing clinicals in one city/hospital, however based on the number of teaching hospitals in certain states, especially New York I doubt it would be that hard to stay in one city.

As for the percentage of students who pass and do clinicals back to back, I think what's more important to consider is how many students actually want that. I know quite a few students who are taking their time with actually writing the step 1, and planning on taking time off while waiting for scores and such.

Also passing scores are not based on a bell curve. The idea that a certain amount of students have to fail every semester is mostly rossip, and mostly because of frustration with exams/school/themselves. The lowest passing score is however different based on how the class does, and its calculated based on the average scores out of everyone who scores below 65. Well something like that anyway.

SGU probably is a kinder environment, but at Ross we also deal with being on a pretty sucky island in addition to all the school stuff. So even though us Rossies complain and are generally frustrated with this school, Ross is still the school that gave us a chance to be a doctor, and as long as you stay focussed and work hard will set you up to do well when you graduate.

I don't actually know if this post was useful, I just think people get the wrong idea from listening to all the frustrated posts on valuemd.

 

[RussianJoo]

thanks for your input.

As for getting all greenbooked you're right some states don't require them, however, why would you want to limit yourself? do you really know with 100% certainty that you won't live in those states. Also state laws in regards to licensing always change so a state that you've been practicing in or want to practice in might start requiring all green book rotations. so just to be sure you're able to practice in every state it's always best to be cautious and do all green booked rotations, I even had all my electives green booked just in case.