Greetings,
The dictator moderator of this forum keeps locking my rather useful threads. I don't know why but I suspect because they couldn't handle the truth.
Anyways, I was recently accepted to St. George's University. I deferred my admission to January 2019. I actually have pretty decent grades but my AMCAS would essentially keep me out of US schools and my MCAT was fine at 508 but not what US schools are looking for so instead of wasting my time down that route, I said I was going to try the Caribbean and it really only came down to two choices, SGU of course and then MUA because it was the cheapest of the title IV schools and apparently they recently received California accreditation (which I could care less about because I'm nowhere near California or any states that use their "list.")
I know a little bit about SGU because I know some people who went there but I didn't know anything about MUA until maybe a year or so ago. I'm glad I took the time to dig for some information here because I found out a lot of stuff that I think is crucial.
I thought all Caribbean schools are the same but apparently they are not. SGU has lower attrition, a better reputation with PD's, and solid third year rotational spots. All those things make a huge difference when it comes to succeeding. I was somewhat confused as to why MUA had to take a comp shelf, why they have a step 2 comp, why they have a silly research paper requirement, and then a low basic science pass rate. None of that stuff is mentioned in their literature and none of that was mentioned in their webinar.
I did the same digging regarding SGU and SGU does not have an NBME comp shelf, does not have a separate pre-Step 2 exam, does not make you write a research paper, and has a final term pass rate >85%. They take an exam called BSCE II after their fifth term and I found out they have a pass rate on that exam of >85%. On my last thread, an MUA student said the comp shelf pass rate for his class was in the 20% range. You figure that one out. The translation is that MUA is a SERIOUS gamble. It might be cheaper and it might be smaller than SGU but most of those students will not succeed in that program. Now SGU does have high attrition as well but no where near the numbers of MUA and some of these other schools. If you dig a little deeper, you can see that all the schools on St. Kitts and Nevis had a combined match rate of less than 50%. The island with the highest match rate is Grenada and there is only one medical school in Grenada. Dominica was also high on the list as well and Ross is the big school there.
So now I'm talking to you moderator, you seem to think MUA is a good school because you went there but you failed to disclose all of the information I unearthed to the prospective students. You can't possibly make an argument that "I succeeded and so will you." A better argument would be "Go to the school with the greatest chance of succeeding or don't go to medical school in the Caribbean." Even after all the back and forth, you still make silly arguments that MUA is a good school when it is OBVIOUSLY NOT!!! The data clearly shows that this school is a scheme if anything. Not saying SGU doesn't fall into the same category but SGU has a demonstrated track record. What is MUA's track record? Where are the 1000 or so MUA grads? Try and explain that to the prospective student.
In closing, my advice to someone considering MUA is to check out my last few threads and then go verify that information independently. Statistically, MUA is a dead-end of a school. Don't let their brochure or website fool you. If you want to become a doctor by going down the IMG route, my advice is to focus only on SGU and maybe Ross. If you have grades similar to what I have, you should be able to make it at SGU. The people that probably get weeded out come in with really low stats. If MUA is passing their students all the way up to their fifth term and then most of those students are failing that comp shelf exam, that can only mean two things...the students are not prepared and/or MUA is weeding them out. I don't know about you but that's a stupid risk to take.
So in closing, if you want to go IMG, go to SGU. If you can, try and go to a US school. It might take you some more time but it's better than the years you would waste at a school like MUA where the odds of succeeding are clearly stacked against you.