I'm in my last year of med school from AUC -- on the interview trail for the 2014 match. The OP needs to know it's a tough road. I can only speak from my experience. If at all possible try to stay in the US -- either allopathic or osteopathic. The US DO students are doing very well with interviews and matching.
1. I only considered SGU & AUC at the time. The reasons were that I had some buddies at SGU that liked it and AUC was in St. Maarten. In the end I chose AUC because at the time I figured all Caribbean schools were essentially the same in terms of matching to a residency and I REALLY liked St. Maarten (versus Grenada) and also the class size was only 100 students versus SGU & Ross. If you've never been St. Maarten is incredibly modern for a Caribbean islands. Lots of resorts -- a French side & a Dutch side. Air France flies directly to Princess Julianna airport and is the 2nd largest airport in the Caribbean behind San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Dutch side is very 'American' -- McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, etc as well as fantastic ethnic foods from China, Japan, Lebanese, Indian, etc The French side has Grand Case which has some fantastic cuisine. There were $40 million yachts cruising in to St. Maarten all the time. A ton of tourists all the time. Modern resorts with all kinds of casinos. Its a great vacation spot.
2. At least for AUC, the myth of weeding out is absolutely false. At least when I was there 2010-2011, the professors were quite good and always had the sense they were on your side and rooting for you to succeed. Because AUC is in St. Maarten we always had fantastic visiting professors -- Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia, UMass, Northwestern, Hopkins, U of AZ, etc
Many of the visiting profs were the ones that wrote chapters in the standard medical textbooks that are used by all. Majority of the faculty were US Ph.D. or MDs that
were at the tail end of their academic career and just loved St. Maarten and were retiring down there.
So although they were no longer on the cutting edge of research they absolutely LOVED to teach
which is why the same ones came down with their families semester after semester.
3. As far as attrition rate: The bottom line is for the most part all the students were there because they couldn't get into an American medical school. Although there were many that had tremendous GPAs and MCAT scores but for whatever reason fell through the cracks and could not get placed in an American med school. Also, there were students there that probably had no business being down there and if they failed it was certainly not because there wasn't enough support. We have tutors, office hours, fellow students all there to make sure we succeed in the basic sciences. The way it works is that if you fail 17 credit hours, you had to go in front of a board and plead your case. For the most part unless you were very convincing you were given the boot. 17 credit hours equates to failing approximately 3 classes.
4. The one advantage that I saw at AUC versus Ross was that at AUC if you failed a course, you just simply re-took that course -- I've heard that Ross makes you repeat the whole semester for just failing one course which seems to be a big money maker for Ross, not to mention at that time both Ross and SGU were taken in like 500 students at a time.
5. Out of my class of 98 about 50% made it to 5th semester ON TIME. Not to say that 50% left. A couple people left first semester, a couple 2nd semester, a couple 3rd semester, and then many got held back a semester for failing a class. Although 50% made it on time by 5th, I would estimate that 70-80% eventually got to 5th semester and left basic sciences to sit for Step 1.
6. I finished in the top 10 students of my class and I would say my Step scores were average for the top 10% of the class (233, 242). I know many from my class that have scored in the 250s & 260s for the USMLE Step 1 & 2. But once again these are the same students that would of done well ANYWHERE in the world. They were just brilliant.
for the rest of the people scores have ranged from just passing on up.
7.There are a ton of student organizations on campus as well as research opportunities and teaching opportunities. And of course there is all the nightlife/strip clubs/casinos/snorkeling/zip lining/ -- whatever you're into
8. In the 5th semester, they require you to pass the NBME comprehensive before leaving as well as the Kaplan comprehensive. They want to make sure you have at least the minimum passing knowledge -- that's probably why we've had a 96%-100% pass rate in the last couple of years. They bring down the Kaplan guys for integrative workshop. For instance Dr. Lionel Raymon that does the Pharmacology videos for Kaplan comes down and integrates all the basic science for us. He is absolutely amazing in person!
9. Then you leave the island, study for Step 1, pass and then you can enroll for clinical rotatons. We have 3 hospitals that you can do the whole core track -- NUMC (Long Island), Bronx Lebanon (Bronx, NYC) Providence Hospital (Michigan). Or you can opt to jump around to different clinical sites all over the country as well as England. We've got a bunch in NYC, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, California, Florida, and other random places.
10. If you have any questions you can post them here and I'll try my best to answer them. All I can say is for me it has worked out. I have received a lot of interviews from good university programs. Remember, you will not have a shot at the top university programs but you will definitely get interviews from the lower-middle tier university programs. Don't even waste your money trying to apply to the top programs. It won't matter if you have a 270 -- you're not getting an interview from Columbia
However, if you are applying to Family Medicine, Psychiatry, you do have a shot at the upper tier. We've had people go into Family medicine at Ivy league programs.
Of course they had amazing scores
Also -- unless a program has taken a SGU, Ross, or AUC student before -- most programs think all Caribbeans programs are the same and will discriminate you.
The northeast programs particularly NYC are familiar with SGU/Ross/AUC because so many of us rotate through the community hospitals there. You will rotate with NYCOM DO students, AT Still DO students, SUNY downstate, Einstein, etc and other US students that are rotating through these community teaching hospitals.
11. Also, my information is a little outdated. I started in 2010. Things could of changed especially since DeVry bought AUC so AUC and Ross are now sister schools.
DeVry has just spent millions re-vamping the campus, I think to bring in bigger classes so they can make more money. You can check out the campus at aucmed.edu.
In the end, DeVry is out to make a crap load of money -- but the actual basic science professors are some of the most caring people there are. I really adore most of them and have the utmost respect for them. The basic science campus and the people because they are in St. Maarten are sort of disconnected from corporate DeVry -- you don't really feel the profiteering until you get into clinical rotations. That office is out of Miami.
There are several things you need to succeed. You need the maturity and the focus. There are so many distractions on the island. If you're immature you will get sucked into all the distractions and going to end up with horrendous debt. You need ambition and extreme drive -- it is very difficult to be away from friends and family and then thrown into a mix of people from all over the country and so if you're not an adaptable sort of person this can be very draining.
When I say you can get sucked into to stuff, let me give you 1 very heart wrenching example. We had a student die of a drug overdose. He was into drugs before he came and got into it more since it's so accessible on the island. This is no joke. This is your life and so think very carefully about your decision and really know what you're getting into before you head down to the Caribbean. I made the most of it while I was there. I was a student leader and got involved in all kinds of organizations and stuff -- but there were also people that were loners -- people that got depressed -- high level of stress from block exams every month. It is an emotionally grueling endeavor so please take some
time to consider all factors.
Bottom line -- if you're smart and motivated -- you'll get through and match.
If you're a borderline student, emotionally immature -- this could really suck for you and be expensive.
I'm just excited that I'm almost done. I have to get through the rest of my interviews this month and then here I come residency!!!!!!