Hello,
I am a current Avalon student at the Curacao campus, and feel obligated to inform incoming students as well as anyone considering Avalon University School of Medicine that the MD5 program being advertised on their website (the one current students signed up for) is being replaced over the vehement objections of essentially the entire student body with one obviously designed to save the school money at the expense of it's students.
The program we all signed up for, and is still no doubt being sold to new students since the website hasn't changed is 16 weeks for MD5 in West Virginia with a review course and properly qualified teachers to prepare us for Step 1. We have all planned our lives around this timetable from both a financial as well as personal standpoint.
The Avalon administration has unilaterally decided to pull a bait and switch on us, and informed us less than two weeks prior to our final exams (when everybody was too busy studying to put up much resistance of course) that MD5 will now consist of 8 more weeks on Curacao followed by 8 weeks in West Virginia. Besides the difficulty of moving 2000 miles halfway though your last semester before the Step, the administration has consistently balked at attempts by students to get them to tell us exactly who these professors on the island teaching the first part will be, or even if they will have taken Step 1 themselves. When pressed on the issue at the only meeting of the student body that was held on this issue, the head of the school on the island replied: "The professors will be aware of Step 1" When pressed further on what exactly was meant by that evasive, abstract and non-committal answer, he refused to answer further questions on the matter. All of this while AUSOM is raising our tuition significantly.
This is a cost cutting measure cloaked in the excuse that this is to provide better supervision to students before the Step as according to the admins, people are not studying in WV, and therefore not scoring acceptably on Step 1. I think it should be painfully obvious to everyone, that if you have not developed good study habits and discipline by the time you get to MD5, you're not going to be a doctor. If you can't motivate yourself to study for one of the most important exams of your life, one that can either make or break your entire medical career, then you don't deserve to be a doctor. It's really as simple as that, and another 8 weeks on the island is not going to fix someone that is not psychologically ready for this sort of undertaking.
This change is slated to happen next semester. The MD4s on their way out of Curacao now will still get the original program, but next semester's MD4s and onward will be subjected to this. The student body is furious about having the proverbial rug pulled out from under us, and many students are realistically considering transferring to another school for MD5.
We are not saying that they cannot make changes to their programs, we are simply wanting to hold the school to the terms we signed on with, and do not think it is right to put this on us after we are too invested to do much about it.
If you are considering Avalon, have already been accepted, or are the parent of someone who is/was, call the Ohio office and demand answers on what is going on and why they think it is acceptable to falsely advertise the location and content of part of their program. There needs to be accountability, and the concerns of current students are falling on deaf ears. Perhaps they will be more receptive if they think people will not come here because of this. At the very least, know what is going on down here before you sign on for loans and/or commit many thousands of dollars to attending a school that is ignoring it's students.
I am a current Avalon student at the Curacao campus, and feel obligated to inform incoming students as well as anyone considering Avalon University School of Medicine that the MD5 program being advertised on their website (the one current students signed up for) is being replaced over the vehement objections of essentially the entire student body with one obviously designed to save the school money at the expense of it's students.
The program we all signed up for, and is still no doubt being sold to new students since the website hasn't changed is 16 weeks for MD5 in West Virginia with a review course and properly qualified teachers to prepare us for Step 1. We have all planned our lives around this timetable from both a financial as well as personal standpoint.
The Avalon administration has unilaterally decided to pull a bait and switch on us, and informed us less than two weeks prior to our final exams (when everybody was too busy studying to put up much resistance of course) that MD5 will now consist of 8 more weeks on Curacao followed by 8 weeks in West Virginia. Besides the difficulty of moving 2000 miles halfway though your last semester before the Step, the administration has consistently balked at attempts by students to get them to tell us exactly who these professors on the island teaching the first part will be, or even if they will have taken Step 1 themselves. When pressed on the issue at the only meeting of the student body that was held on this issue, the head of the school on the island replied: "The professors will be aware of Step 1" When pressed further on what exactly was meant by that evasive, abstract and non-committal answer, he refused to answer further questions on the matter. All of this while AUSOM is raising our tuition significantly.
This is a cost cutting measure cloaked in the excuse that this is to provide better supervision to students before the Step as according to the admins, people are not studying in WV, and therefore not scoring acceptably on Step 1. I think it should be painfully obvious to everyone, that if you have not developed good study habits and discipline by the time you get to MD5, you're not going to be a doctor. If you can't motivate yourself to study for one of the most important exams of your life, one that can either make or break your entire medical career, then you don't deserve to be a doctor. It's really as simple as that, and another 8 weeks on the island is not going to fix someone that is not psychologically ready for this sort of undertaking.
This change is slated to happen next semester. The MD4s on their way out of Curacao now will still get the original program, but next semester's MD4s and onward will be subjected to this. The student body is furious about having the proverbial rug pulled out from under us, and many students are realistically considering transferring to another school for MD5.
We are not saying that they cannot make changes to their programs, we are simply wanting to hold the school to the terms we signed on with, and do not think it is right to put this on us after we are too invested to do much about it.
If you are considering Avalon, have already been accepted, or are the parent of someone who is/was, call the Ohio office and demand answers on what is going on and why they think it is acceptable to falsely advertise the location and content of part of their program. There needs to be accountability, and the concerns of current students are falling on deaf ears. Perhaps they will be more receptive if they think people will not come here because of this. At the very least, know what is going on down here before you sign on for loans and/or commit many thousands of dollars to attending a school that is ignoring it's students.