Medicine and veterinary students at St. Francis College in Brooklyn will now have the opportunity to gain direct admission to Grenada’s St. George's Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine thanks to a new academic partnership between the institutions.
Those accepted into the medical program will also receive a $10,000 scholarship upon matriculating at St. George's, the university said in a press release Thursday.
The partnership is St. George's first-ever with a New York-based school, having similar partnerships with 16 other colleges in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and beyond.
Dr. G. Richard Olds, president of St. George's University, said the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed New York’s shortage of physicians and said he looked forward to “welcoming aspiring doctors from St. Francis and equipping them with the skills and knowledge they'll need to serve their communities."
Students in the "4+4" program will complete their four-year undergraduate degree at St. Francis in a pre-medicine or pre-veterinary medicine program and then go straight on to medical school at St. George's in Grenada.
For those pursuing a Doctor of Medicine degree, the final two years of the combined program consist of clinical rotations at SGU's affiliated hospitals either in the United States or the United Kingdom. The final year of the combined Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program includes clinical rotations at SGU's affiliated veterinary schools in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Ireland.
Pre-medicine students who qualify for the "3+4" program can complete their degrees in three years and then move onto medical school at St. George's before spending the final two years in clinical rotations at hospitals affiliated with SGU.
Students who want to take part in the direct admissions partnership with St. George’s must indicate their interest when they apply to St. Francis, the school said. To proceed to St. George's, applicants must maintain a 3.4 grade point average at St. Francis and obtain a competitive score on the MCAT. A 3.2 grade point average and competitive score on the GRE are required for entry into the St. George's veterinary program.
St. Francis College President Miguel Martinez-Saenz said that offering students a direct pathway into advanced programs in medicine and veterinary science, “strengthens our commitment to support our students to reach their personal and career goals.”
