Does anyone know for sure if the U.S is still taking carribean med school grads? Does anyone know if Oceana is a legit school, can you find a job in the states?
- jazzy Said:
Does anyone know for sure if the U.S is still taking carribean med school grads? Does anyone know if Oceana is a legit school, can you find a job in the states?
1) licensing is done on a state-by-state basis and is complex, nuanced, and in flux (Link to previous posting on licensing)
2)Oceania is a relatively new school, is legit and is sponsored by the government of independent Samoa. (there american representatives exhibited at our 2010 conference). Its primary mission is to educate physicians for pacific island nations. It finances thus so by offering private students (American, Australian, etc) spots at high tuition. I am fairly sure that one OPM member had been accepted and was attending but you such search the forums to find her postings.
3) I am not sure if the school has graduated and American students or has placed any in American medical residency programs. You cannot get licensed in the US without an American medical residency program. Additionally, due to the increase in American medical graduates without an increase in medical residency slots, the competition for such slots by foreign graduates is becoming more intense. About 94% of american medical graduates get residency slots while just under 50% of american citizens who graduate from foreign schools get slots and this latter figure varies widely by school.
4) It is accredited by a body in the Philippines and I believe much of their clinical rotations take place there. My perception is US medical residency programs do not rate the clinical rotations highly.
5) while Oceania may indeed be a competent program (certainly seem better directed than many other off-shore programs I have encountered), it leaves too many unknowns for me to recommend it to american students wishing to return and practice in the US.
6) Most importantly, I have seen too many non-trads jump into medical school without understanding the process and their options. I would strongly suggest that you follow rule 1: take a breath. You may have other options to consider in your path to medicine
Thanks for tje insight will do more research here at home in th U.S.
I did her Oceania is very very costly and they want the money up front.
For those who want to go to this school, you should look into Saba medical school in the carribean, which is cheaper (about 110K total) than the above mentioned school and has had good track record in having their grads obtaining residencies in the US.
There are some misperceptions here about Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) that I would like to correct.
- All of OUM’s American graduates are placed in residencies in the US. One is fully licensed in Illinois and will be Chief Resident in Internal Medicine next year at her hospital. The others are provisionally licensed in their states, as are all other residents. Our one American graduate for 2011 just matched at her first choice in her hometown in Psychiatry and Family Medicine.
- Most of OUM’s American students are taking their clinical rotations in American teaching hospitals, alongside American medical students. A few take their clinical rotations at the National Hospital in Samoa, where they’re getting more hands-on experience than medical students in American hospitals get. We do not offer rotations in the Philippines, but do have them in Australia and New Zealand.
- OUM is accredited by the Philippines Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, which has been fully vetted and approved by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation. NCFMEA is the organization that evaluates all foreign accreditation bodies for equivalence to the Liaison Committee for Medical Education which accredits US medical schools.
- OUM’s tuition is $7,298 per term, which is comparable to the Caribbean schools. Financial aid in the form of loans and scholarships is available. Several flexible tuition payment options are available. More than half of OUM’s students receive financial aid.
- Most of OUM’s students are healthcare professionals, who are able to continue working until starting their clinical rotations in years three and four.
Thank you chris for clarifying those points.
I’m also going to put you on the spot a little. Many members would like accurate information on a school but often comments by school reps are not well received. So I’m going try a facilitated discussion. Call it 20 questions (this is off the top of my head bear with me.)
Could give a little background on the school. Founding, it is organized as a private entity or related to the independent Samoan government, etc? What is the overall student body like?
Could you go into some of the numbers on the american students that you have had
How many have you had admitted?
Where/how clinicals are setup?
How many have completed the program?
How many who have completed program and passed? STEP 2 have been match in the NRMP?
Any other data/info you think would be germane?
I was wondering where did you get the status that 50% of american foreign med students get residency?
From my research, Im told that every year over 1000 residency slot are not filled. American schools are not turning out enough students to fill the open slots.
I am interviewing with Ross University. I spoke with my mentor at a local med school, who has worked with several Ross Grads. I know of a student now that is doing rotations in the US. I spoke to several grad from Ross that had not trouble getting Residencies.
The bottomline is the connection to US clinical rotations and USMLE scores to get residency.
Is what Im seeing…
- Jobusch Said:
I was wondering where did you get the status that 50% of american foreign med students get residency?
From my research, Im told that every year over 1000 residency slot are not filled. American schools are not turning out enough students to fill the open slots.
I am interviewing with Ross University. I spoke with my mentor at a local med school, who has worked with several Ross Grads. I know of a student now that is doing rotations in the US. I spoke to several grad from Ross that had not trouble getting Residencies.
The bottomline is the connection to US clinical rotations and USMLE scores to get residency.
Is what Im seeing...
From my research, Im told that every year over 1000 residency slot are not filled. American schools are not turning out enough students to fill the open slots.
I am interviewing with Ross University. I spoke with my mentor at a local med school, who has worked with several Ross Grads. I know of a student now that is doing rotations in the US. I spoke to several grad from Ross that had not trouble getting Residencies.
The bottomline is the connection to US clinical rotations and USMLE scores to get residency.
Is what Im seeing...
There are volumes of data from the AAMC, which runs the NRMP (National Residency Match Program), AACOM, and other sources, all of which are readily available (links will be below). Any numbers I state will be taken from these materials
The 50% match for US Citizen who graduated from international medical schools is hot off the press from Advance Data Tables of the 2011 Main Residency Match. It should be stated that this averages all Foreign Medical schools so specific school numbers will varied widely. Ross, along with St. Georges, American University of the Caribbean, and Saba, likely have considerably highly averages. I used the term likely because is no independent data with those statistics in it; only from the school itself. If your are being "told" something and it is not backed up by a volume of data verified by a third party, take it with two grains of salt and a shot of tequila.
The complete data sets for each year of NRMP and other in depth data sets include a detailed section on roughly 15 to 20 medical specialties. Each of these include details of the ranking of the top 20 factors considered by a survey of residency program directors when selecting a candidate.
BTW, my advanced degree is in sociology and I now apply that extensively when examining the mass of statistics and data that is presented in the below links in trying to understand the patterns and social causality of these patterns.
Link to NRMP 2011 Advance Data Tables
Link to NRMP Match Data Website
Link to AAMC (MD) Allopathic Medical School Applicant/Matriculant Data
Link to AACOM (DO) Osteopathic Medical School Applicant/Matriculant Data
Link AACPM (DPM) Podiatric Medical School Applicant/Matriculant Data
Link TMDSAS (Texas Application System MD & DO) Applicant Data
Thank you for the opportunity. Happy to answer all questions about OUM. Some of the information you requested is on our website, so I’ll provide some here that is not…
OUM is a public-private partnership with the Samoan government and an American company that develops medical curriculum content. Any “profits,†and there have been none yet, will be re-invested in the school and create scholarships for Pacific Island students. The motivation of the American company, which is chaired by a businesswoman and philanthropist, is to create a medical school model that could be used in other developing countries. Over the past two years, OUM was fully vetted by a team of Philippine medical educators and was accredited in 2010, as explained above.
The school has remained small intentionally, because its founders and faculty wanted to be sure that they got it right—for accreditation and for the mission. Of the 125 students, approximately 25 are from Samoa and the Pacific Islands, 70 are from North America and 30 from Australia and New Zealand. Most of the Americans are in their preclinical years. Almost all of the Americans are mid-career healthcare professionals—nurse practitioners, physician assistants, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, etc. Average age is 42, and almost two-thirds of the students are women.
Our admission process is very selective—we want to be sure we admit students who have the discipline and support network to balance the rigors of medical school with work, family, etc. It’s not for everyone, and despite the best efforts of our academic student support systems, some do wash out. In 2010, we admitted 12 Americans. In 2011, we will probably admit 20-25.
We have 11 Americans in clinical rotations right now, mostly in teaching hospitals in their communities in such states as Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Maryland. We work with the student and his/her physician mentor and local teaching hospital to create a formal affiliation with OUM (primarily to ensure proper documentation at licensure). In some cases, students cannot get all rotations near home, so we offer a full complement of clinical rotations at Baltimore area hospitals. Of course, all clinical rotations are guaranteed in Samoa. Most of our students will take one or two rotations in Samoa. Two Americans have chosen to do all of them there. Other students rotating in Samoa are from the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. In 2012, the Samoan government will complete construction of a new teaching hospital on the grounds of the National Health Complex, which also houses OUM.
OUM has 17 alumni, four of whom are American. All of the Americans matched through NRMP and are engaged in residencies at US hospitals: two in internal medicine, one in family medicine, and one in psychiatry. Two are finishing this year, and both have passed USMLE Step 3. The other alumni are Samoan and Australian, and they are engaged in internships and residencies in their countries. We will have another American graduate this year, mentioned above, who matched in psychiatry and family medicine at her hometown hospital. All OUM students who have taken USMLE Step 2 have passed it.
Despite expected future competition for residency slots, we expect our students will continue to do well because of their clinical experience, the comprehensiveness of OUM’s education, and our contacts in residency programs.