There are very few people that were more conflicted than I to hear the news regarding the failure of UAG to maintain their international program through New York Medical College. My sincere condolences to the students who are in New York right now, and are having to arrange, on their own, how to complete their final semester of medical education in the middle of the match.
I hope we all are thinking of the hapless students who flew to New York over the last few weeks, eager to start their first semester as a pre-intern, whatever that is, as they returned triumphantly back to the United States with a fresh titulo, happy to be done with the insanity of UAG's inane requirements regarding attendance, their ludicrous exams, and never knowing what the future holds. Having moved a few times across the country over the last few years, I know the stages of shock and loneliness that they must be going through, and the difficulty they must be having explaining to their loved ones as to what the hell is going on.
To step back a little bit from the current crisis, I heard many rumors regarding the demise of the fifth pathway when I began my first semester of medical school at the Autonoma. The wounds inflicted upon the student body were still fresh, and the school bore a great deal of responsibility for what ultimately had transpired. I figured that the worst was over, where was there to go after losing the fifth pathway? Mexico was not about to revoke the credentialing of one of many sub-par medical schools, and after all, we could technically do our fifth year anywhere. It was not until later that we learned that in order to do the fifth year, we would have to pay an outrageous sum of $80,000 and admission was neither guaranteed, nor automatic. Ironically I heard from a secretary that the original fifth pathway was also lost due to a missed deadline and unfiled paperwork, but I haven't bothered to verify that.
Over the next three years I would learn that there was no limit to the depths of the incompetence, and the swamp of inefficiency that is the administrative division of the medical school would routinely lose grades, important legal documents, financial aid checks, transcripts, ECFMG certifications, immigration paperwork...and would be the first to drop a dime on a student if your FM3 had expired (which was typically somehow their fault in the first place). They also screwed over students with deliberately bad advice regarding the importance of claiming their right to Mexican citizenship, in some cases making them perform all six years of the medical curriculum. The long series of administrative problems we have had over the last decade with scheduling stateside clinical rotations, vanishing spots in fifth year rotations, changing policies regarding USMLE pass rates, and the general litany of senseless abuse was a lengthy and inevitable preview of our current situation.
So it was not surprise that came to mind when I heard the news, but the steady drumbeat of inevitability. This is what happens when you refuse to invest in your medical school, and more importantly, repeatedly refuse to take the advice of your student government.
As we heard countless times during endless lectures, medicine is a difficult career. The obligations of the field are protean, and exacting care must be taken to fulfill our professional role to the very threshold of our abilities as physicians. Yet the school persistently declined to take even a minimum level of responsibility for any of the constant crisis of incompetence we repeatedly endured. Things were constantly in flux, requirements would change overnight, tests were given on subjects that had not been covered but it always seemed to be the fault of the students. Nothing was even communicated formally to the students, because I suspect it was beyond the ability of the administration to know what was even going on outside the fabuloso-scented marble floors of their main campus. As far as I know, they still have the dubious honor of being the only medical school in the state of Jalisco to not provide an email service to all students. It does give you a certain idea of their priorities.
In conclusion, if you are intending to begin your medical education at UAG, I urge you to look elsewhere. This schools international program is done. There are many fine medical schools throughout Latin America, most of which are eligible for federal loan programs. You will receive a far superior education, endure far less heartache, and you might even become a doctor someday. It won't be easy, but it will be possible.
If you're already in the sisyphean abyss that was formerly our venerable international program (most practicing graduates of any medical school!!!!) I would be very careful with some of these companies that offer clerkships for cash - but you may not have a choice.
I doubt that UAG will be successful in setting up quality programs in Arizona or Las Vegas, they have always managed to self-destruct their way out of finished contracts at the very last minute. On the other hand, it wouldnt take much to have a better fifth year program than the one we had in New York.
If you're already here, it's going to be an even longer, more difficult road to licensure, and it may very take divine assistance to get you across the finish line. Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something. I don't envy your current predicament. But like they say: it gets better. You came this far. Dont give up yet.