SJSM Tuition Increase and Warning about AICM

Here’s the news people, SJSM raised their tuition $300 for basic science and $350 for clinical science. Here is the news letter with the updated info. SJSM was known to be the cheapest medical school in the Caribbean that had descent accreditation but I guess that change. I hope loans come out soon and stay permanently otherwise students will have trouble paying so much for clinicals. In my opinion if you want to go to SJSM but you don’t have money then take 2 years and save up the money, of course by then the tuition can go up even more. SJSM is gaining good accreditation and it’s developing very fast if you look into it. People in Bonaire told me the new MD1 class has 90+ students plus more students from the pre-med group. I don’t know how they could fit so many people in those two campuses. My class had 50+ students and we felt crowded.

As I progress through the months, I realized that AICM could’ve been well optimized if and only if I was better prepared in Bonaire. AICM can be a good program if taught by certain teachers but it can be a waste if it was taught by other teachers; however, the same can be said with Kaplan and Falcon review courses as well. My biggest mistake was that I started to prepare late. I cannot emphasize enough on that enough. When you’re an MD4 use every second of your free time to prepare for the USMLE Step 1. Of course you have to keep up with the MD4 courses, and that should come first, because without passing those you’re not getting off the island. Preparation early is the best option, but the living conditions in Bonaire was horrible for me so I was tired and I was not motivated to study. In MD4 semester all I could think of is how much longer till I get off the island and get back to the beautiful United States of America. But anyways that’s my two cents for now.