SGU vs Ross

[kdawg36]

Can someone please advise as to which medical school, St. George or Ross, is better? Which is the best outside the US. I have a 3.6 GPA and 23 MCAT from top undergrad school but am not able to score on the MCAT. I have excellent rec letter, basic and clinical research exp, community service, publications, and more. I have applied to nearly 35 US med schools but was declined acceptance in any of them. I am trying to get admission in Ross for this August, however, St. George's deadline has already passed. Do you advise I enroll in Ross should I be accepted, or wait to hear from acceptance froom SGU to enroll in January? Overall, which one is better and do students get good residencies in US? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

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[Andichad4JC]

Can someone please advise as to which medical school, St. George or Ross, is better? Which is the best outside the US. I have a 3.6 GPA and 23 MCAT from top undergrad school but am not able to score on the MCAT. I have excellent rec letter, basic and clinical research exp, community service, publications, and more. I have applied to nearly 35 US med schools but was declined acceptance in any of them. I am trying to get admission in Ross for this August, however, St. George's deadline has already passed. Do you advise I enroll in Ross should I be accepted, or wait to hear from acceptance froom SGU to enroll in January? Overall, which one is better and do students get good residencies in US? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I am very much so the new kid on the block with this forum so I will probably have a bunch of strings that will correct me. Personally, I found Ross University to meet MY needs best. Although both schools seem to have a strong fan base (and for good reasons), I found that the Ross grads were getting the residency I want (ER) and in the hospitals I want (LLU, USC, UCLA, etc). Get a hold of alumni from both and attend any seminars either of the school might offer.

If you decide Ross, then I will see you there!

Either way good luck and God bless!

~Andy




My response

 

[Shah_Patel_PT]

Can someone please advise as to which medical school, St. George or Ross, is better? Which is the best outside the US. I have a 3.6 GPA and 23 MCAT from top undergrad school but am not able to score on the MCAT. I have excellent rec letter, basic and clinical research exp, community service, publications, and more. I have applied to nearly 35 US med schools but was declined acceptance in any of them. I am trying to get admission in Ross for this August, however, St. George's deadline has already passed. Do you advise I enroll in Ross should I be accepted, or wait to hear from acceptance froom SGU to enroll in January? Overall, which one is better and do students get good residencies in US? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Both are equally good.....Ross is more economical.....

 

[MD2b20004]

Both are equally good.....Ross is more economical.....

I will say SGU is worth the investment, beautiful campus with on campus living, beautiful surroundings, TOP NOTCH faculty, Investment in the Campus is ongoing year by year as the campus grows into a more beautiful and high tech campus. If I were you I would make the investment and go for SGU, you get what you pay for. They will all make you an MD, but it all depends on what matters to you in how/where you obtain your MD. Heck if it was based only on financial, I would tell you go to SABA. But for quality of education, reputation, connections, faculty teaching (most professors been there 18+ years), and overall reinvestment in the campus makes SGU stand out. That is why most call SGU the Harvard of the Carribbean.

 

[Willow]

Remember there are 4 Caribbean schools that have licensure in all 50 states (SGU, Ross, Saba, and AUC). I would not forget about the latter two -- they have as much to offer but have smaller class sizes and are cheaper.

All these schools have pluses and minuses to consider. Personally, my top choice by a mile was AUC, in large part because the island is beautiful and modern and the most habitable. That's where I'm going this fall.

You should definitely check out the forums for each of these schools at valuemd.com. There are zillions of posts addressing your questions.

Good luck!

 

[bluenumber6]

You can see the video of SGU's campus on their website. Man it looks really nice. the Beach surrounds nearly all the campus. Plus, SGU doesnt only involve medicine, it has a wide variety of people in vet, business, accounting, management... etc. so thats a plus for me.
SGU=

Too bad i dont know much about ross. Ross seems pretty good but theres no video link or nothing to show for it! oh and if there is, does anyone know where i can watch one?

 

[bluenumber6]

You can see the video of SGU's campus on their website. Man it looks really nice. the Beach surrounds nearly all the campus. Plus, SGU doesnt only involve medicine, it has a wide variety of people in vet, business, accounting, management... etc. so thats a plus for me.
SGU=

Too bad i dont know much about ross. Ross seems pretty good but theres no video link or nothing to show for it! oh and if there is, does anyone know where i can watch one?

Opps sorry, I overlooked the Ross website, Turns out the video links are right under all 4 quadrants of the contents of the home page.

 

[McGillGrad]

Excellent advice because you made sure to mention that you should go to the schools that meet your needs.

I am very much so the new kid on the block with this forum so I will probably have a bunch of strings that will correct me. Personally, I found Ross University to meet MY needs best. Although both schools seem to have a strong fan base (and for good reasons), I found that the Ross grads were getting the residency I want (ER) and in the hospitals I want (LLU, USC, UCLA, etc). Get a hold of alumni from both and attend any seminars either of the school might offer.

If you decide Ross, then I will see you there!

Either way good luck and God bless!

~Andy




My response

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Can someone please advise as to which medical school, St. George or Ross, is better? Which is the best outside the US. I have a 3.6 GPA and 23 MCAT from top undergrad school but am not able to score on the MCAT. I have excellent rec letter, basic and clinical research exp, community service, publications, and more. I have applied to nearly 35 US med schools but was declined acceptance in any of them. I am trying to get admission in Ross for this August, however, St. George's deadline has already passed. Do you advise I enroll in Ross should I be accepted, or wait to hear from acceptance froom SGU to enroll in January? Overall, which one is better and do students get good residencies in US? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Have you considered applying to DO schools? You will get a SOLID education at any of the top DO schools...PCOM (of course), NYCOM, KCOM, CCOM, etc.

Or you can take the MCAT again and try to raise your score.

G'luck man, it's a tough decision either way.

 

[DD214_DOC]

How many times has the OP taken the MCAT? That seems to be his only barrier. Were I in his shoes, and I was, I would retake the MCAT after putting in a ton of effort.

The caribbean is tough, perhaps more so than stateside schools because of their "weed out" philosophy instead of the, "keep in" philosophy US schools have. I would not advise blindly applying to DO schools. Do some research first and see if they are for you.

One thing keep in mind is that, at some point, you WILL work your butt off whether in undergrad or in a needlessly-difficult caribbean school. Might as well put the work in during undergrad, otherwise med school will be even more difficult than it should be.

 

[utorontograd]

Ross is better for me. Here's why:

-In addition to being approved by NY,NJ,CA,FL they are the only caribbean school considered to have equivalent educational standards to Texas. Concluded by the Texas Medical Board
-Only 16 months outside U.S (semesters 1-4)
-5-10 are done in the U.S. starting with the advanced introduction to clinical medicine in Miami on a campus that's affiliated with the University of Miami Medical School.
-Excellent Faculty and staff
-Excellent high-tech facilities in Dominica
-More economical

These things may or not be important to you but they sure are to me.

 

[rahulazcom]

I'm assuming DO schools are out of the question or you would have already applied. If you don't want to try and raise your MCAT, I would attend Ross in the fall. Personally, I think St. George has a slightly better reputation than Ross but it's not worth delaying your education by 6 months just to attend St. George. If you are going to do that then I would ecourage taking the whole year off to intensely prepare for the MCAT to have another shot at U.S. schools.

 

[bluenumber6]

Ross is better for me. Here's why:

-In addition to being approved by NY,NJ,CA,FL they are the only caribbean school considered to have equivalent educational standards to Texas. Concluded by the Texas Medical Board
-Only 16 months outside U.S (semesters 1-4)
-5-10 are done in the U.S. starting with the advanced introduction to clinical medicine in Miami on a campus that's affiliated with the University of Miami Medical School.
-Excellent Faculty and staff
-Excellent high-tech facilities in Dominica
-More economical

These things may or not be important to you but they sure are to me.

Hi since it is the only caribbean school considered to have equivalent educations standards to Texas, does that mean that Ross grads can practive in texas too? I wanna go to Ross and Practice in the good ole state of texas!

 

[Sundarban1]

Hi since it is the only caribbean school considered to have equivalent educations standards to Texas, does that mean that Ross grads can practive in texas too? I wanna go to Ross and Practice in the good ole state of texas!

There are students from SGU and AUC practicing in TX as well. Licensure is on a case by case basis in TX.

 

[rahulazcom]

-In addition to being approved by NY,NJ,CA,FL they are the only caribbean school considered to have equivalent educational standards to Texas. Concluded by the Texas Medical Board

That is pretty impressive in my opinion. My parents both practice in Texas and are FMG's. They had been practicing in another state for 20+ years so they were sort of grandfathered in but they still had to take some licensing exams. Had my parents moved to Arizona, they wouldn't have been required to do any of that. Regardless, I know that Texas is really strict about licensure in regards to FMG/IMG's. For Ross to be considered to have equivalent educational standards to Texas schools is noteworthy. I'm not advocating Ross or any particular foreign medical school but I will say that is impressive of Ross nonetheless.

 

[bkpa2med]

rahulazcom,
How is Arizona towards IMGs from the carribean?

 

[bkpa2med]

bump

 

[McGillGrad]

bump

I am no expert, but I believe that Arizona goes either by the Texas or California list, so either way they would allow the graduates from the four 50-state schools to apply on an equal basis.

 

[rahulazcom]

rahulazcom,
How is Arizona towards IMGs from the carribean?

I'm not an expert either so I don't want to mislead anyone. I don't really know the legal stipulations. My parents were in a unique situation because they had practicing in the United States for so long prior to moving to TX, but I know that other states wouldn't have required them to take certain written exams to have the rights to practice.

What I can tell you is the residency programs here are pretty relaxed in regards to admitting IMG's with the exception of the Mayo Clinic. Now certain programs will be tough for IMGs and DO like the radiology and surgery programs obviously but the primary care residencies (which I'm interested in) is very open. All of our other programs have IMG residents including the University of Arizona. That could certainly change in the future but as of now, that seems to be the case. It's pretty IMG friendly as far as I can tell.