That’s one thing that I love about SGU…I’ve always heard medical school described to me as very cutthroat and people climbing over each other to get to the top and that’s not how it is. It’s very collaborative environment. We’re definitely here to support you every step of the way. We want you to be successful.
Joshua Theil, Assistant Director of Admissions from St. George’s University spoke with Pre Health Advisor Carmen Gamlin to encourage Pre-Med Titans to consider SGU for their choice for Medical School. During their interview, Joshua discussed what St. George’s is for Medical Students, advice for 2021 Cycle applicants who have not secured an opportunity as of now and options for those students who may need to strengthen their academics before applying to medical school.
What is St. George’s University for Medical Students?
St George’s University School of Medicine is located in Grenada, West Indies and is the top International Medical School creating US Doctors. Joshua highlights St George’s University School of Medicine by providing the University’s statistics on residency matching, placement rates and the success of the graduates from the Medical School.
We were one of the first international schools out there.
If you’re not familiar with SGU, we are actually the largest medical school currently in the world. We’re actually the number one provider of doctors into the U.S. health care system. That’s news as of 2020, we actually are the number one provider. So across the board, over 12,000 currently licensed physicians in the United States right now, at this point are SGU graduates.
We’ve been very successful at matching students into residency as well. We’ve been the number one provider over the last 12 years combined of placing students into residency. Last few years have been well over 1000 students in each class of residency and placed in the residency after graduating from SGU.
Well over a 94% placement rate and that success translates right here in the Midwest. We had over 40 graduates placed into residency spots right here in the state of Michigan this year alone as well.
Advice for 2021 Cycle Applicants who have not yet secured an opportunity for medical school.
So I think it’s important to note that we do have three separate start terms at SGU, so we have availability still and we are accepting applications for August term. But if you feel like that’s going to be too quick of a turn around for you, we do have a January term and an April start term as well.
So we are accepting applications we have quite a bit of flexibility right now and some of that is due to the pandemic and limited availability of students sitting for the MCAT as well. So actually, if you are applying for August, the MCAT is currently waived as well.
Options for students who need to strengthen their academics.
If students are concerned about their academic credentials as they current stand, rather that be their MCAT score or their grades or GPA, their science GPA…we’re definitely understanding of that. I wouldn’t want that to stop you from at least applying to see where you stand.
I think it’s important to note that your application to Med school is actually an application for several different programs. You’re going to be reviewed for like direct entry medical school where you’re starting med classes right away. For students that meet our academic credentials and have a strong MCAT score, they’re going to be able to start classes right away. If you don’t meet that high threshold, then there maybe some other opportunities.
We have a number of foundational programs available for students to kind of coach them up, especially in their science arena.
So, within that, academically, we’re supporting you every step of the way. We have an outstanding DS is our Department of Educational Services Department that helps coach students with tutoring and additional support throughout your time academically to make sure that you can be successful and that you can grasp, become a master of the material so that translates into becoming a master of the field of medicine.
Fees: St. George’s University Application Fee and Cost of Foundational Programs
The Application Fee for SGU is $100. However, SGU has waivers available for applicants. In addition, as mentioned before, SGU offers a few foundational programs for students who have not reached the academic threshold but still want to apply for medical school. Joshua provides the cost of these programs and how they work.
So there’s two different programs you could possibly be placed into. The first one would be our MSET program where we’re kind of evaluating you to see where you’d place and that’s like a four week online program that would be starting before the semester starts. That’s actually a free program. Then you could either from that program go into direct entry program with that DS academic tutoring support or you’d be going into what’s called our Charter Foundation program which is like a foundation which is a full term that you would be doing either online if you did this in August or in person if you did this in January.
The cost of that would be similar to what a term would be on site, probably about $20,000, but it’s important to note that if you pass that program and you move on, good but if you do not pass the Charter Foundation program and your decide you don’t want to try again…We’ll actually refund that $20,000 that you’d be paying.
Assistant Director of Admissions Joshua Thiel invites students to contact him directly via email jtheil@sgu.edu or by mobile phone (616) 345-9170. Also, visit www.sgu.edu for upcoming information sessions!