Transferring Out or Sticking with Saint James School of Medicine

This relates to the recent events of Bonaire campus becoming the subcampus of Anguilla. Saint James School of Medicine Bonaire is scheduled to be completely closed in December 2014 and operations to be continued in Anguilla after December 2014. The question is, should I stick with SJSM or should I transfer out?

You have to consider several things and everyone's situation is different. First think about how far you are in your MD. If you are in basic sciences on the island or in AICM and still haven't registered with the ECFMG then you have the option of transferring out without any problems.

For those who are not familiar with the ECFMG, it is the US medical organization you need to register with in order to take your USMLE tests since you go to a non-US medical school. When you register with the ECFMG, you basically tell them who are and what school you started medical school with. After registering with the ECFMG, they will know everything after you make any changes you make afterwards.

If you are in AICM 5th semester and you didn't pay for the 6th semester or above, and you didn't register with the ECFMG yet, then you have an option to transfer.

However, for us clinical clerkship students, we have to finish what we started because we already paid the majority of the tuition. Also we already took USMLE Step 1 and some of us are already registered for USMLE Step 2 CK or CS or both so, there's no point in transferring. Transferring after all we did will only make things more complicated with the SJSM, ECFMG, and with residency.

Since our transcript will show that we transferred, it will have a minimal impact from what I was told. The reason is we are transferring from one campus to another, yet we are still with the same school. Therefore, we still have one transcript.

So that's my two cents about transferring. So, if you transfer, make sure you look at all your options and angles before doing so.