INTO St. Goerge's London Vs. St.George's Nicosia

[pachee]

I have to decide between these two programs and can't seem to decide which one is better. Nicosia offers a way better fees structure (almost half of London) but it is operated at University of Nicosia and only has one clinical site in the US (Swedish Covenant hospital) whereas INTO. St. George's has two. Any kind of input would greatly help.

Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Medstart108]

If you can afford it go to SGUL INTO in London.

#1 Your teaching hospital is a British hospital, St. George's Hospital, which is well reputable and just better than whatever Nicosia can offer
#2 Better clinical sites, SGUL has 2 low tier MD schools while Nicosia has a community hospital (Swedish Covenant Hospital)
#3 People have complained about not being placed in rotations
#4 Nicosia is not approved anywhere in the US that requires extra licensing that means most of the big states (Cali, NY and more)
#5 SGUL INTO isn't approved yet but they are applying for it at least and most likely will get it because it is similar to the UQ-O program which did get approved
#6 Nicosia has the added complication of doing your entire medical degree away from the institution which is giving you the degree
#7 You are studying at SGUL which means you will have access to research you won't find at Nicosia.

If you can afford it go to SGUL INTO, this year was Nicosia's first match year and only 1 person out of 30 people could even apply for match in the US and she got rejected because her USMLE scores weren't sent in time.

So a match rate of 0 out of 30 although keep in mind not everyone wanted to go to the US. Several people did get UK foundation years, but its still preferable to match in the US.

 

[pachee]

Thanks for the articulated response. You spoke about the match result for Nicosia, any info on the INTO program in that aspect?

 

[UBC2014]

Don't go to nicosia, its a program that licenses out the name of the real london program.

 

[Medstart108]

Thanks for the articulated response. You spoke about the match result for Nicosia, any info on the INTO program in that aspect?

Unfortunately no news, although I believe the first year is matching next year. So I don't think we'll know anything until then. I don't anticipate the match rate to be amazing for their first year so long as the program is not Cali approved. It'll be interesting to note if the program is NY approved though. I also believe that the INTO program is much smaller than the Nicosia program and presumably more selective.

However I think its a bit of a safer bet since if you enter now you will graduate for 2019, hopefully they will have secured Cali approval by then.

As long as you can scrap by then INTO is probably the safer and better option, the truth is you are taking a financial risk anyways and the only way to solve it is to match. I think its much more sensible to increase your chances of matching rather than taking a risk like that just to save a bit in the short term.