St. George’s University School of Medicine

Reviewer's Name:

Student

Review Date

October 10, 2009

Year of Graduation:

2011

Review Title:

Great until they have your money

Full Review of the Program:

The program is highly clinical based, compared to most medical schools. While important, the extent of clinical training is redundant.

Cons:
The school makes one believe it is a caring school that maximizes the comfort of the student. Once they have your money, and the parents leave, the true nature of the school comes out.
Crime/murders that occur near or on campus are covered up extremely fast. An avg of 2 per year occur. Food availability is quite low. On the weekends, there is no place to get more than a candy bar, on campus, until after 1pm or so. The campus security, although high in numbers, are composed of locals that are on a power trip, and harass the students. In fact, I was just told this morning, at the only dining facility open on the weekends, that they are not making food because they spent the morning making meals for visiting parents. Upon being asked when they were done, and when they will be able to make food on order, they replied they completed the meals over 2 hrs before, and do not know when the WANT to start making food again. One more thing about food: No food is allowed to be eaten indoors, you must stand outside in the heat, or you are written a $50 ticket charged to your SGU account.

When a student is doing average ~70% in a class, the advisers advise to drop the class instead of giving info on where to get help. In my belief, this is done to make more money, for the reason it costs another $20,000 to redo a term, no matter how many classes you are redoing. Getting all C's for instance, puts you at a chance of being kicked out. Whereas in other schools, it is mostly pass fail, and a C is passing.

Pros:
The beaches are beautiful, and the school provided transportation is just as well. Students are given a variety of organized sport options to relieve stress. Transportation is provided to local clubs/bars to aid with security. Exams are usually fair; what you put in is what you get out.
There are waterfalls a busride away that are breathless.



Oh, and the loans, are at around 10% interest, with around $15,000 worth of fees per term. So a $30,000 loan costs you about $80,000 to pay upon graduation. (30,000 covers 1 term)

Advice to Prospective Students:

Of course work hard and try to avoid this school at all costs. If you do work hard and have the option, dont do what I did. I was accepted to 17 of the 18 US schools I applied to, but no school would allow Spring semester starting. Having some current problems in my life, at the time, I felt I needed to "get out" asap. This was the only school I applied to outside of the US, and allowed students to start in spring semester or fall. I Highly regret it. You will rarely hear negative comments from graduates, due to the fact that they make themselves look bad if they talk bad about the school they graduated from.