Hopefully this post will be able to answer some questions that appear to constantly come up on the message board. I am a Saba University School of Medicine (SUSOM) graduate who was able to secure the residency of my choosing. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity that SUSOM gave me to pursue my lifelong dream of being a physician. However, before anyone partakes on an adventure and invests a tremendous amount of time and money, I feel that they need to have as much information (positive and negative) to make an educated decision. This information is just based solely on my experiences and my thoughts and I am sure that there will be people that have had similar experiences as will there be others that disagree with some of the things I will say. However, here goes.
First off, there have been a lot of posts asking about the comparison of one school versus another. I will say that I cannot possibly compare SUSOM to any other school as I did not attend any other school. However, I will tell you this. There are certain schools that are much more respected than others in the realm of foreign medical schools. There is undoubtedly advantages to certain names. You must decide what type of medicine you want to pursue in terms of a residency. If you want to do primary care, chances are you will not have a problem securing a residency in one of these areas if you are not a horrible student and if you can effectively communicate with others. However, I will tell you that if you have a desire to do some of the more difficult specialties in which to match (for example: ortho, optho, emergency medicine), there is no doubt that there are other schools whose name recognition will make your time easier. Let’s face it, schools like Ross and St. Georges (just to name some) have been around longer than SUSOM, graduate more students each year than SUSOM, and have more students that have matched into these residencies. Therefore, they are better known, and programs have had residents that have graduated from these institutions and are familiar with their education levels. I will tell you that I really believe that had I gone to a school with a little better name recognition, I would have gotten some more interviews; however, the bottom line is I had more interviews than I needed as I was able to match in the residency of my choice and actually matched at my top spot. Bottom line, as unfortunate as it may be, there are some schools who, by virtue of name recognition, their students may get more interview opportunities.
Next issue that I will address deals with living on the island. I was single, so I cannot really comment on schooling, cost of living for families, etc. I will say that people on Saba are extremely friendly. For the most part, the people are thrilled to interact with the medical students. There is not a lot to do in terms of distractions, so Saba is a perfect place to study. Realize that you are going to Saba for 20 months to pursue your dream of becoming a physician. Keep that goal in your mind, and have a primary objective to study and you will do fine. The other piece of advice that I was told before I went to Saba and I recommend for everyone is do not try to compare Saba to the United States. It is very different. Things are adequate on the island; however, be prepared to live without some of the luxuries. Remember, you are down there for one reason….to become a physician.
Next issue deals with the professors on Saba as well as the physical plant. I will start off by stating that they have apparently built a beautiful new campus since I have departed the island, so I cannot really comment on the physical structures on Saba. I was very fortunate to have excellent professors when I was on Saba; however, I also had some not so good professors. The one thing that SUSOM does is they use a lot of PhDs as professors. These PhDs sign on for a three year tour on Saba. During those 9 semesters, they take courses in basic sciences and also teach the area of their specialty. This can have positive and negative implications. For example, if they are poor professors, they are only there for about 9 semesters; however, if they are excellent professors, they are also only there for three years. As a result, a lot of people that are asking questions about professors will really have no idea as to the crop that they will get when they actually show up to the island. I was very fortunate in that I had full time professors for Histology, Psych, Micro, Neuro, Path I, and Path II. These professors were excellent. However, many of these professors left for other ventures and in my estimation, this was a huge loss for SUSOM. These professors, in my estimation, really cared not only about you learning the material, but also cared for you as an individual. Unless SUSOM recruits, and maintains full-time professors, the quality of instruction on the island will constantly be changing. In addition, since most of the professors are PhDs and have never taken the USMLE or practiced medicine, they are unable to guide you to what you may need to know for the USMLE or more importantly, what you may need to know to deal with patients in the future based on their experiences. Now, I know someone is going to say that many US schools have the same situation and that is fine; however, most US schools also have a very large support network to draw from, and they have advisors that can answer your questions.
Next issue deals with clinical rotations. The more flexible you are, the better off you will be. There are some geographic areas where you can do most of your rotations; however, my understanding is that these are typically geared towards families or the top students in the class. The more flexible you are, the better off the chances are that you can do your rotations how you want, and in the order that you want. For instance, I had the opportunity to do many of my rotations at one particular site; however, there was no guarantee as to when I could get my surgery rotation. I would have had to possibly do some electives before doing all of my cores. I knew that I wanted to match in emergency medicine and realized that I needed to have my cores done before I could do electives in EM. I needed to get my EM electives done early so that could get good letters of rec for my application. SUSOM was very helpful with assisting me with both my core and elective rotations with one exception….which brings me to my next point……..
…..Administration and the Gardner Offices. They have their moments. My problem with my rotation stemmed from my surgery rotation. I was able to set up an OB-Gyn core at a hospital in the midwest. I had asked SUSOM if they could set up a surgery rotation for me immediately following my Ob-Gyn as they had students that had done surgery at a nearby hospital. I was informed that they had set it up for me. When I arrived out to the Midwest (about 1000 miles from my “home”, and after signing on for a short-term apt lease, I was informed that there was a problem with the rotation and there was a misunderstanding. They instructed me to contact someone at the hospital where I thought I was going to be doing my surgery. I contacted this person who was very helpful in terms of providing me names of physicians that might be able to precept me. I informed this to SUSOM as I thought that it was their job to set up my cores and I thought that it would be much better to have the physicians hear from the medical school promoting a student rather than having a student “beg” for a rotation. I was then told by SUSOM that they sent out letters to these attendings informing the attending that I would be contacting them. In the meantime, I had met a surgeon that had precepted students from another Caribbean school and was faculty at a US med school with a surgery residency program. He was interested in having me do a rotation with him and he called Dr. Fredrick immediately. He was asked to sent out a CV which he did and he kindly asked that he be informed of the University’s decision to have him precept me. With a couple days left before I was hoping to start the rotation, I asked this surgeon what the story was and he told me that he never heard back from SUSOM. When I contacted SUSOM, I was told that the CV was still on the desk of the President who did not realize that he was supposed to call this surgeon back. In the end, everything worked out well. My other interactions with the President of SUSOM have been less than fulfilling. I was on the island one day in my fifth semester and was talking to Dr. Fredrick (who I must commend is very approachable and is very willing to talk with students). He informed me that the administration in Gardner typically knows who the best (and the trouble) students are. He then pretty much asked me what semester I was and he had no idea of who I was (despite being at that time the top in my class). Anyway, I was talking with him in the Saba offices and he was building up to make a huge point when the phone rang. Next thing I know, he was basically rushing me out of the office and he never made his big point. Another thing, and once again, this is based on my observations from when I was on Saba as well as speaking with someone very close to one of the former Deans….there is very little communication between the Gardner offices and the offices on Saba, and I believe that there is very little respect at times from some of the Deans to the administration in Gardner and vise-versa.
Another thing that is probably most disheartening is what I will term “unprofessionalism” by some of those in the US offices. First off, when I applied and had my interview, I was told that they wanted to hurry up and get me in because they were really impressed with my application and the class was filling up. However, upon talking with my classmates when I got to the island, they all applied much later than I did. The next thing was when I applied, I was told that they had internet access in the library readily available to the students and this did not happen until maybe my 4th semester on the island. The next thing that disturbed me was the fact that since I had applied, I had been told that the application for California was right around the corner. This has been a long time coming, and my understanding is that it is in process right now. Next, I was very upset with the way that graduation was handled at the end of my training. It was held in a very nice facility and was an OK ceremony; however, what was very troubling is that we were all gathered to take pictures in a separate room and then we were handed evaluations to fill out for our 2 years of clinical rotations and were told that we could not leave until they were filled out (now, how am I supposed to remember and give a good, accurate evaluation in June of a rotation that I did almost 2 years prior). Next, we were told that in about 6 weeks we should be getting copies of our grade reports/transcrpits….still have yet to receive these and we are well over 1 year out. Next, the graduation program left out people that were in attendance in terms of graduates. Now, these people invested a lot of years of study, and many of them had invested great expenses to have family come out; however, they were left out of the program. How could this happen? Lack of professionalism in my estimation. Now, I will say that I understand that they did reprint some programs to send out to those whose names were left out; however, I have programs that are missing the names of my friends and classmates. Next in terms of lack of professionalism deals with SUSOM’s use of websites. First off, the old SUSOM website was unupdated for a long time. Next, I am dead set against using an “unofficial forum” such as this one to post residency matches and board scores of students. The matches should be on their own official website, and board scores should not be mentioned at all. Also, take a look at the residency match list(s) up on the official website and notice all of the duplications as well as misspellings. This is totally unacceptable and to me indicates that SUSOM does not care about its image.
The next issue deals with image. SUSOM has been a successful school; however, it cannot rest on its laurels. With the opening of two new schools, perhaps the owners of SUSOM have been spreading themselves too thin. True, there is a new campus that is apparently very nice; however, physical structures and reputation does not make a school what it is…..A school flourishes based on its professors and students. Let me make an analogy that may make some things clearer. The Dallas Cowboys are one of the storybook professional sports franchises. When Jerry Jones bought the team, the team was horrible (Jimmy Johnson was the coach and at first they went I believe 1-15….they were rebuilding). They eventually became successful and won some championships. Next, Jimmy Johnson left and Barry Switzer took over and they were still successful and won a championship almost immediately; however, then they started to fall off. They have gone through coaching changes since and at the present time, they have not done too well in recent years. So, how does this compare to medical school? Saba started off and did build a good reputation; however, despite the owners staying the same, they lost a lot of their professors “coaches”. The players come and go (much like the students do). A new stadium will not mean that the team will play any better (nor does a new campus mean that there will be huge improvements in the school). So, what will make them succeed? A stable framework, and good team interaction. In the age of free-agency, players will come and go, students come and go from medical schools and can pick and choose which ones they want to apply to. What I think Saba really needs to do is focus on where it is and where it wants to go. It, in my estimation, should focus on finding good, committed, full-time professors. Being a player and a coach is virtually unheard of in present times, and I think that being a professor and a student is very hard as well. The Dallas Cowboys are not going to win a championship just by saying that they are the Dallas Cowboys, and SUSOM is not going to stay a good medical school just because it has been a good medical school.
In summary, there are plenty of people that have succeeded attending SUSOM. There will probably be many more people in the future to succeed from SUSOM. There are some excellent, positive experiences from Saba; however, there are also negative issues which need to be addressed and students need to have a full understanding of what they will get into. The best advice I can give is talk with current students as well as former students and pick their brains as to what their opinions and experiences are (both good and bad). Anyone who tells you just the good did not have their eyes open, and anyone who only slams the school is probably very disgruntled. Once again, I am thrilled to have attended SUSOM as it has helped shape to who I am today. SUSOM provided me with a door to get my degree, they provided me with an opportunity to get an education; however, they did not give me my ethics, work habits, study habits, personal relation skills, etc. They are part of the puzzle; however, you need to bring the other pieces to the table to complete the picture.
For those that want to succeed and get some of the more sought after residencies, grades are important, board scores are more important, and good, personalized, letters of recommendation are also a key.
Best of luck to those seeking this path
Posted on Oct 27, 2002, 1:33 PM from IP address 207.74.112.67
