Without financial aid, few can afford 17k USD in tuition and thousands more in other expenses.
Why do you think a 5th yr in NYMC is so vital nowadays?
US-IMGs can easily get rotations at many hospitals: apply individually. Even if they go to others in India,China,Philipines, they can get clinical experience in the US.
If one doesn't know Mandarin, then has to take the 6yr English-medium. If one is fluent, then study 5-yr Chinese-medium. Tuition in both cases are 5k.
-Because it's NYMC. Its hospital affiliations are generally not available to the services that IMG's usually go through (I'll double check, but that's the premise). You'll be rotating with NYMC medical students, rather than at community hospitals that most IMG's rotate at (including those from the Carib, look at Ross' list). Also, you don't have to *apply for this yourself, it's part of the curriculum. Also note, the clinical affiliations of schools in the Philippines at least, are not that great. I do have friends, however; that have done an extra year setting up rotations themselves in the US, in addition to the mediocre US affiliation clinical year that the PI schools set up, and have matched surgery.. not bad, but still, I think rotating with NYMC is better. Also consider the range of clinical experience you would get doing a year in China with greater scope of practice than US students, then come to New York afterwards and show the Attendings what you got, then get an LOR from them vouching on your performance relative to NYMC med students. This might be a stretch, but I can see it happening.
-You get a Master's in Clinical Pharmacy. I don't know the weight of this, and I've heard naysayers about the insignificance of this, but that's all they are, naysayers. It could be a good thing. The premise for this is that you would have greater drug competency than the average MD. Also, an (MD) and a MS, in 5 years is not bad, considering the regular 6-yr (MD) alone program.
-so rather than doing 6 years, do 3 didactic, 1 clinical (China), 1 clinical (NYMC, I think 33 weeks)
(MBBS - MD after the steps)
-Small class size of approx. 30 students. The students I know of are from pretty good universities out of CA (since Beth is based in Irvine), and WA. This, in a small way, tells me that I'll be surrounded by motivated classmates that are focused and won't fool around- and that we'll all be focused on the MLE's.
-12 weeks subspecialty training in specialty and hospital of students' choice, across the nation.
-iFom testing (by NBME, it's a new thing) as an extra measure to prove Int'l competency - School must offer this, an Individual can't just take it. CMU (or Beth exclusively?) offers this testing. Check it out
here
-Deans' LORs from CMU and NYMC
Again, the Premise for all this is to give one a competitive edge over other IMG's and even some AMG's for the match- given of course, you do stellar on the Step 1.
Don't mean to sound like a brochure or anything, but I guess that's what you'd be paying extra for, the perks and the lesser time spent in China (save 2 years). Again, the 17k w/ no FA is a downer.. but other than that, the rest is pretty solid. If the money thing really falls through, I'll have to wait another year for PI med schools (they start in June)- hope not, time is precious.
So what are your top choices, Shoushu? Care to share?
EDIT: added "iFom" link above for your convenience =)
