UAG - Information about Medical school in Mexico

[KatieJune]

Hello,

I'm interested in studying in Mexico and am wondering about the program in Guadalajara. Does anyone know anything about this program? I would appreciate any information about experiences. Thanks!

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[G-Man]

I am a MS II at UAG. Many Americans an Canadians down here, not just medical students but others majors like spanish. www.uagmd.com This web site may be helpful. There are many links to UAG related info. My opinions on school:

Pros
- oldest private university with all types of majors, not just a medical school
- Many international students (U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Spain, China, etc..)
- English lecture from school faculty and some U.S. med school visiting profs during first two years except intro to clinical med
- Awesome city like you never left home (you can find walmart, sam's, cosco, office max and depot, blockbuster and theaters with english movies and spanish sub-titles, Medical Bookstore owned by Canadian couple with english books, subway, kentucky fried chicken, mcdonalds, burger king, whataburger and even dairy queen.
- Approved by U.S. Dept of Education for Stafford loans
- Great weather
- Kaplan extended prep integrated into curriculum
- Close to home (texas)
- good match rate (95%) for UAG students coming out of Fifth pathway
- etc..

Cons
- six year med school (five year if you choose fifth pathway)
- Some of the english spoken by faculty is bad
- tuition is expensive (19,000 dollars a year), think its gone up for entering students

 

[dwstranger]

I'm graduating from UAG in 107 days! and start 5th Pathway in July. I echo what Gman said, and suggest you do a search of this site. There have been a lot of questions asked and answered about UAG here (I've answered a lot myself...). If you have any specific questions that aren't answered by previous posts, feel free to PM me.

 

[earthlink]

hey gman and dwstranger, why did you opt for guadalajara instead of carribean schools? I've seriously been thinking about uag for the last year. I was supposed to go visit the school this past summer when I visited guanajuato but never got around to it. one thing that I absolutely love is the clinical experience you get from the 1st semester. the tuition is quite high though compared to some carib schools. I currently live in san antonio and have gone to the office here to speak with them. Another reason for considering uag is the fact that I live in south TX and it would be cheaper traveling home via bus. How much debt will you be in when you graduate?

thx for any info



"You smile, the world stands with you, you fart, you stand alone."
-author unknown

 

[dwstranger]

I chose GDL primarily for 2 reasons. First, to improve/become more fluent in Spanish. In general, I think that everyone should be able to speak more than one language. And specifically, I wanted to be able to work with a larger subset of people by being able to speak Spanish along with my (native) English. Bilingual pysicians are really in demand, but that's just an added benefit (at least that's what they say -- we'll see how that pans out when it's time to get a job...). Second, I was living in CA when I went to med school. I wanted to be able to bring my 3 dogs with me to school, and Mexico is closer (it's attached!), and there's no quarantine. I'm not sure if there's a quarantine on the Carib islands (but there definitely isn't one for Mexico), and I didn't want to have to fly all three there -- it would have been horrendously expensive. So we packed up the car and drove from L.A. to GDL.

The trip on the bus from GDL to San Antonio is not bad. It's an overnight trip on the first class or executive bus (leave at 4 PM-ish, arrive in Nuevo Laredo at 7 AM-ish the next day), then a couple of hours from the border to S.A., as you know. When I last took the bus (as opposed to driving or flying), it cost N$800-something (that's pesos). That was July 2001, so it may be higher now.

As for debt -- HA! Tuition for me was $17k+. I borrowed the max in Stafford monies per year ($18,500), and then supplemented that, for living expenses, with alternative loans. Many banks will lend you up to $35k per year, but UAG approves a single student for only $15k/year, married or with kids for $24k/yr, unless you can justify why you need more. And that's pretty easy to do -- you write the school a letter, include a budget, and as long as it's reasonable, they approve you for borrowing more. If you do electives or Coop in the 4th year in the US, you'll need more $$ to live on. Also keep in mind that UAG is technically a 6 year program (4 yrs school, 1 yr internship, 1 yr social service), if you don't do 5th Pathway. Living expenses are phenomenally cheaper in Mexico, so if you have to stay the extra two years, you won't incur the same debt as you would living in the US. If you do 5PW, you have the "extra" US living expenses plus the tuition to NYMC (for us starting in July = $24k). NYMC has set the budget for the entire year at $47k+.

How's that?

 

[Stephen Ewen]

If those numbers scare you too much, and if you are willing to sacrifice:

1) certain accomodations of U.S. students, 2) a quite sure slot in 5PW.

And if you have:

1) some funds of your own, 2) quite high fluency in Spanish already, 3) a high readiness to self-study for the USMLEs.

...other Mexican med schools are about +/- 2K per year.

 

[dwstranger]

True enough. I did mention in a previous post that there are other schools, like U de G (the public university in GDL) which only charges about $70 USD per semester -- although it was a few years ago that I checked this. There's also Tec de Monterrey, which will be opening a GDL med school campus soon (according to a former UAG prof who is now at the Tec). Tec is supposed to be the best school in MX. U de G is a good school, but since it's public, there's often an imbalance between supply and demand -- the number who want to attend and the number of available spots. So private schools may be the way to go for you.

As far as slots in 5PW, Stephen is right. Although some people get scared when they hear that there are only about 73 spots for the July class and 30 for the January 5PW class, and the average class size (although falling in recent semesters) at UAG is over 200 for the August class and about 100 for the January class ("oh, my God - there isn't enough space; what if I don't get a spot?"), there are enough to go around. Our 8th semester class has maybe 150 now (we started with about 250), and there are many who haven't taken or yet passed Step 1. So those people aren't eligible for 5PW. I'm not sure how many spots are full for the July class, but I know some were taken by people from previous classes, and some from ours. I'll bet not even half of our class has even interviewed...

disclaimer: UAG has now adopted the policy that you have to pass Step 1 before 3rd year, or you can't pass into the clinical years (just like US schools), so the above may change somewhat for future classes.

Also, keep in mind that the above pertains to NYMC, currently the only school in the US to offer 5PW. But CA has recently passed legislation to re-open programs there. I'm sure, given the "lightening speed" of government, that this will happen soon... (NOT!); but maybe in a couple of years there will be at least one new program.

Re: private funds: the Dept of Education approves other Mexican schools besides UAG for federal Stafford loans. I believe Tec is on the list. Check their website.

 

[Stephen Ewen]

I am pretty sure U de Noreste in Tampico has the loans too, but cannot say for sure.

Too, Puerto Rico has 5PW for PR citizens only.

Great to hear of your succcess DWS! You may or may not remember, but you and I chated in another context before and as you were entering Guad!

 

[earthlink]

Thanks for the info DWS. I too have pets that I was concerned with taking. It's great to know that I will be able to. I think I would choose UAG over other Mexican schools though. I believe I would be able to handle the debt. Well it still is the 1st option on my list of international med schools. Thanks for the reply and good luck in NYC.

 

[dwstranger]

Yes, Stephen, I remember. Time flies, doesn't it?

Earthlink, as I said earlier, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail/PM me.

 

[LocutusofBorg]

one thing that I absolutely love is the clinical experience you get from the 1st semester.

Its somewhat of a marketing gimmick that you get clinical experience from day one. Its not like the clinical experience is incorporated into your studies. What happens is you get a week or 2 at the end of each semester to volunteer in a clinic. Its not as if you get to do this daily, as part of an academic curriculum, or that you would accumulate many hours before your 5th semester rotations begin.

 

[dwstranger]

Its somewhat of a marketing gimmick that you get clinical experience from day one. Its not like the clinical experience is incorporated into your studies. What happens is you get a week or 2 at the end of each semester to volunteer in a clinic. Its not as if you get to do this daily, as part of an academic curriculum, or that you would accumulate many hours before your 5th semester rotations begin.

While it's true that you only go to clinics for a couple of weeks during the semester, you are learning and practicing your clinical skills in IPM from the first day, albeit on your classmates... It is incorporated into your studies because you have the clinical skills class each semester for the first two years.

 

[nena]

hey guys i have a coupla of questions:

1. how many students average per entering class?
2. i keep seeing the students on the website dressed in all white..do you have to wear all white since first semster?
3. also, what is the interview like? is it stressful? what do they ask you? and 4. Lastly, housing...how is the housing like? i know some foreign places the housing sucks in general, you can't get a good apartment for less than $500, what is it like over there?

sorry about all the questions.. .i sent my app and am waiting for a response.. .just wanna know what i "might" be getting into...THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!