AUC vs. Ross vs. SGU: Additional Factors to Consider

Hello all, I’ve recently received a message from a prospective student asking me to elaborate on the reasons for my decisions to attend AUC as opposed to SGU or Ross, the top three off-shore med schools in the Caribbean. The student is deciding between Ross and AUC and wanted to know what other factors she should consider to help make her decision. I’d like to share with everyone my answer:

Hi,

Thanks for the message. It really all does boil down to personal preference, since whichever school you choose, you can be confident that you’ll get a good education. All three schools are recognized by NCFMEA as being on par with US med schools in terms of accreditation, and have the educational and administrative standards high enough to qualify for US federal student loans. They all have facilities like anatomy lab, computer labs with virtual imaging software, Sim Man, Harvey Cardiac simulator, computer-based testing, access to Up-To-Date and other electronic medical resources, group-learning facilities, etc. They all have very high USMLE first time pass rates, comparable with US med schools, showing they all prepare you well for the USMLE. Although these fields are competitive, both for US med students and Caribbean med students alike, Ross, SGU, and AUC all have histories of matching students into Anesthesiology, Surgery, Pathology, and Radiology year after year. I chose AUC because of the smaller class size, MUCH more developed island (which is very important considering I’ll be living nearly 2 years of my life here), and closer-knit school community, and so far I’m very happy with my decision. I’m quite impressed by the support we get from professors and fellow students alike. I’m also impressed by how everything at AUC is so student-driven, from school-wide events, to community service initiatives, to even the hiring of new faculty (which the school encourages students to actively evaluate).

Besides the basics, additional questions not often asked but important to consider are:

What is the structure of the curriculum?
In terms of curriculum, a major difference between Ross and AUC is that Ross has a system-based approach whereas AUC has a discipline -based approach to teaching medicine. A system-based curriculum structures classes based on organ systems, so you’ll take classes like Digestive System, Renal System, or Cardiovascular System. In the more traditional discipline-based curriculum you’ll take classes like Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, etc. In contrast with Ross and AUC, at SGU, the curriculum is case-based, and so students attend mandatory small group discussions on clinical cases in addition to their class lectures for many, if not most, of their classes. Again, it all depends on your personal preference.

How many exams do you have per semester?
This is very important determinant on how well you can manage your grades. For example, at SGU, a student’s final grade in a class is dependent on two exams, as they only have a midterm and a final for each class. This can make students very stressed as they have longer semesters and more material to cover for each exam. At AUC, in contrast, classes typically have four exams, followed by a comprehensive final exam. As AUC is based on a trimester system, the semesters are shorter and the amount of material you need to study for exams are much more manageable. At Ross, SGU, and AUC, exam questions are all USMLE-style, and so taking more exams means more practice for the USMLE.

How is the anatomy lab run?
Anatomy is a very important class and the knowledge you gain will help you in future classes, and so it is important to learn it well, and the best way to learn it is from real cadavers. I would find out how much contact you have with the cadavers. Do you have the opportunity to dissect, or are they already dissected for you? How many students are there per cadaver? How much lab time do you have? Are there ample TAs in the lab that will aid you in your learning process? A friend of mine from SGU told me that at SGU, there are 15 cadavers shared between the nearly 400 students in his class. At AUC, however, last semester, there were 18 bodies (19 if you include the TA demonstration body) for 208 students, giving students much more contact with the cadavers. At SGU, all the bodies were already prosected (pre-dissected), whereas at AUC, students personally perform the dissections. To me, this made anatomy a much more enriching experience as I connected with my “first patient.” At SGU, students are required to go into anatomy lab 2 times a week, 30 minutes each (but labs are open after hours as well). At AUC, students go into lab usually 4 times a week (and sometimes 5, depending on the week), 2 hours each time. At AUC, the lab is also open after hours for self study. I’m not sure how the labs are run at Ross, but again, it’s worth finding out.

Is there a safety net?
Although we all hope that we will succeed in our medical studies, we need to know if there’s some sort of safety net in case academics don’t work out as we wanted. It’s not something easy to think about but it is important. One policy to consider is what does the school do if you fail classes. At Ross, if you fail a class, you’ll have to retake the entire semester, even if you excelled the other classes. This is not so at AUC where you just retake the one class you didn’t do well in and try again. AUC has a traditional grading scale. A passing grade at AUC is a 70 and you may fail up to 17 credit hours before getting asked to leave. After this, students have the opportunity to appeal in front of a committee consisting of faculty and honor students who will decide whether or not to allow the student to stay. Other schools like SABA have a stricter rule on failure, such as a higher passing grade of 75.

How do students end up doing on the USMLE?
What matters at the end of the Basic Sciences portion of medical school is whether or not students pass the USMLE, and this is where AUC shines. AUC prepares students well to take the USMLE, with access to NBME Shelf exams for every subject and NBME Comprehensive exams, as well as a Kaplan course all included in the curriculum. This is something that other schools may not have. Because of its curriculum and student support, AUC’s USMLE Step I First-Time Pass Rate is 94% with 30% of students scoring 99 (which is the highest 2-digit score you can get). This is equivalent to the US National Average (also 94%). In comparison, the USMLE Step I First-time Pass Rate for Ross is 93%, for SGU it is 91%, for DO schools it is 81%, and for overall international medical schools it is 73%, according to the USMLE site. For more about Step I scores, check out this post.

So in conclusion, there are lots to consider. To read other students accounts of schools, feel free to check out the blog links I have at http://www.caribbeanmedstudent.com/other-blogs . I have quite a lot for AUC. I’ve put asterisks by my recommendations. For a student’s experience at Ross University, I’d check out Kendra’s blog, if you haven’t already. She is a recent graduate of Ross and kept a blog when she was a student: http://www.islandmedstudent.com.

Good luck and let me know if there’s anything else!
Benji