Stewart University: Sketchy New Medical School?
So I come across this link for Stewart Uniersity: New Scotland International School of Medicine, which is apparently a “new medical school” and is somehow just down the road from Stanford. Funny, I’ve never heard of it. So I delve a little deeper, and my “sketchy”-dar (similar to gaydar) starts to go off. As I delve a bit deeper, I’m even more concerned for students and potential applicants (has scamming moved to medical schools now?). Let’s investigate the general info first:
- Right off the bat, the school claims to be “the #1 leader in US medical education.” Them’s some big balls you got there, Stewart.
- “Stewart University is the first medical school to open west of the Mississippi in the past 45 years.SM” Okay, fine, got me there — we need more doctors!
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Stewart University is an International School of Medicine. Our curriculum is the standard allopathic (MD) degree discipline. The accelerated 16 month MD degree curriculum completes the basic science courses in first four semesters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) requires recognized MD degree granting programs to be at least 30 months in length. The Stewart University MD program is 34 months in length for a student with normal degree progress.
So they’re somehow an “International Medical School,” operating in the US. While the WHO may recognize an MD program as one with 30 months of teaching, I’m pretty sure the AAMC and other licensing bodies require a 4-year medical school, no?
Next, Admissions:
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2 years and ten months total program length
3 starting classes per year: January, May, September
No MCAT – NOT required for MD licensure
No Bachelor’s Degree – NOT required for MD licensure
No Minimum Undergrad Credit Hrs -NOT required for MD licensure
No AMCAS Application, Apply Directly via School Website
No Age Limit
Provisional Admittance – for those without prerequisites
Equal Admissions Process for All Applicants
Immediate Admissions Application ReviewOkay, it is freaking awesome that you wouldn’t have to take the MCAT. But really–you don’t even need to go to college? No Bachelor’s Degree?
- Letters of Recommendation are not required.
- Interviews are done over the phone. Fine by me!
- $950 non-refundable “seat reservation fee?” That has to be paid, via Paypal, within 48 hours of “initial acceptance?” Skeeeeetchy.
- Stewart University School of Medicine reserves the right to change or modify tuition rates at will. So I could enroll, and two days later the tuition could be $100,000 an hour?
- I love the handy Tuition Comparison Chart. Wow, if you go to Stewart University, you save a whole $9,000 a year over Stanford or USC. And you receive, according to the chart, a Curriculum with “Equivalent books and instruction as other Calif Med Schools**”. I had no idea.
Faculty/Administration:
- This has to be a joke, right? None of the administrators (most of which appear to have their most recent photo from World War II) have an MD, and there’s only 4 faculty, and only 3 with MDs?
- Two big red flags here: Student Recruiter job posting and one of the 4 staff positions is Marketing Illustrator (shown at left).
- On further inspection: It’s called Stewart University because most of the university is run by The Stewarts! William Bullock Stewart, Sr. is Provost Emeritus, his son, William Bullock Stewart, Jr. is Provost, and his son, William Bullock Stewart, III is Chancellor. The Board of Advisors, Ronald S. Steward, Rosemary E. O’Hara, and James T. Stewart are all of the Stewart clan as well, as well as the Marketing Illustrator.
Curriculum:
- Okay, good, they say they cover all the basic science stuff for preclinical work, and their textbook list is probably pretty similar to what I mostly studied from.
- “The Basic Science phase includes didactic instruction (and may have cable television instruction available also).” Where are they getting the bodies for anatomy? Are they even allowed to have bodies to dissect if they’re not accredited?
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The Clinical phase of the curriculum is intended to be conducted at various U.S. Veteran’s Administration hospitals around the United States and Caribbean Island locations. This affords great flexibility to the student, particularly those on active duty or mobilized, to perform clinical rotations in military treatment facilities and tertiary care military hospitals around the world.
I guess this is how international medical students do it.
Accreditation:
- It would seriously worry me if my school had a whole section on Accreditation, and the first sentence of the page was, “It is not illegal to operate a school without possessing an accreditation.”
- And the kicker, buried in the text: “For-profit institutions almost always have to wait 2 years after starting operations before they are eligible to submit an application for accreditation.” Oh, well there we go. You’re a for-profit medical school. I was guessing I’d find that somewhere. So you can teach, and provide the same training as any other California medical school, and take a cut as profit? Color me skeptical.
- There’s also a blank but present page on Known Falsehoods, whatever that means.
- Finally, there’s a big long-winded explanation about how the school is somehow on “Federal land,” not “California State Land,” so if you call California, they’ll say the school is not recognized, but it doesn’t matter, ’cause it’s on Federal land.
It all leaves me pretty darn puzzled, ’cause when you Google the school’s address, you end up with A Postal Annex Store in Los Gatos, California — no medical school listing — and I’m pretty sure the Postal Annex isn’t Federal Land.
Finally, Beware any medical school catalog whose first page is entitled “California Living.”
Sure, some of these features go along with some of the features of the Caribbean Medical Schools — but an accelerated curriculum, with almost no requirements for admission, and a campus that appears to be a mailbox in a Mailboxes Etc. store? Stay away, pre-meds, stay far, far away.
(I know my tone in places is snarky or sarcastic, but in all seriousness, I think there are reasons that American medical schools require things like the MCAT, admissions essays, and letters of recommendations. Mainly those being that as an MD you will be responsible for people’s lives, and it’s not something you should be able to just “sign up and do ’cause you feel like it,” which seems like the gist of the marketing campaign of Stewart University. I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot about the Caribbean medical schools or licensure process in the US for IMGs, but these groups at least seem more interested in putting out good doctors than just somehow skirting around the requirements to get an MD through a loophole.)
Update: I just spoke to a man who answered the phone, who was very confrontational when I asked “Where is the school located?” He started rambling about how ValueMD and StudentDoctor have been harassing and stalking people from the school. He admitted the address on the website is a PO Box, and said the school does not release the address or location of the school until an applicant has been accepted. (“Fine by me,” I said, “But it seems a little weird that a medical school wouldn’t be visitable or even map-able.”) He then noted that “members of Al Queda have been in contact” with the school, and the school had to file a “400 page document with the FBI” because of this. Yowsers.
Update 2: A spammer for Stewart University was banned from ValueMD, and a little more searching finds that Stewart University was removed from Wikipedia for possible fraud. According to this poster, none of the MDs from Stewart University were licensed in the state of California.
Update 3:
It looks like the school took over the high school in Oxnard, CA, because let me tell you, these photos are definitely not from beaches in Northern California, and it was trying to buy the high school apparently.
Update 4:
On Stewart University’s News page almost none of the links lead to actual stories. The Stanford Daily has published no stories about it, The San Jose Mercury News has no stories on it, nor does The LA Times. Hmmm.
This is a hoax, right? How can accreditation not be required!? You might as well just pick up your license at super-K together with your plastic toy stethoscope!
This sounds like an idea from the movie “Accepted” or “Shattered Glass.”
Reminds me of: http://alpha-male-method.com/ (For just $39.95 you could learn to become an Alpha Male!)
[...] a bit further into the Stewart Medical School craziness, there’s a Youtube account for someone claiming to be a med student there, and the videos the [...]
ROFL! My favorite part is that you save $9,000 a year over the other medical schools.
OH MY GOODNESS. I just read your updates, they weren’t my RSS feed. Al Queda… FBI… ? hahahaha!! This is the funniest (and scariest) thing I’ve seen online in a long, long time.
I’m checking back for updates 4 and 5!!
Ah, but if you read the main page heading as one run-on line, they are not the #1 medical school, but rather “The #1 medical school established and operating since January 2007″, which I guess could be technically true.
I’m already attending a medical school that actually makes me learn stuff, but if I had extra money lying around after my tuition payments I would totally invest in their stock!
http://www.prnewsnow.com/PR%20News%20Releases/Medical/Dental/International%20Medical%20School%20Stewart%20University%20Offering%20Business%20Investment%20Opportunities%20via%20Promissory%20Notes
It’s frankly disgusting that the Stewrats are fishing for veterans and active servicemen to take advantage of.
On the administrators section: “Chief Operations Officer R. Aubreé Guancione”.
Looks like she used her Match.com photo for the website. WOOHAHAH.
http://www.stewartmed.org/administration.html
I think the beach pictures are of the public beach in Port Hueneme, CA in Ventura County.
http://www.ci.port-hueneme.ca.us/index.htm
Port Hueneme is completely surrounded by Oxnard and that newspaper article says they were holding classes at Naval Base Ventura County, which is Point Mugu and Port Hueneme.
It also looks like they need quite a few instructors. The application asks about membership in Celtic and Scottish organizations(WTF?)!
It makes me wish I still lived around there – I could go to med school!
Gmail always display some kind of ad, and this ad has been showing up many times recently on my email.
http://www.gotomedschool.com/admiss.html
I wonder if anybody is going to apply to this school. It looks like a scam like Stewart.
[...] know if I qualify that as a real medical school someone has written some intereswting ideas on it over my med body! � ***** *****: Sketchy New Medical School? [...]
Do they teach you to begin your patient encounter with, “Hi, everybody!” Or is that just at Hollywood Upstairs Medical College?
[...] pornography conviction would forever keep the prize out of your reach. With this in mind I must ask Graham to stop busting down on this little enterprise, this last best hope for those who could be great [...]
NewFlash:
I currently attend Stewart university. I was stalked by members from valumd and I was also verbally threatened. The good thing is that they ended up arresting some of those people for bashing our instructors.
By the way, its a new school, new means its new, that means things are still being formed.
I don’t believe you, “Jacob,” but if it’s true, boy–get out while you still can. I’ve heard that none of your instructors are licensed MDs anymore, and that is truly very concerning, and should be to you as well.
(Your IP address came from New York City, not anywhere near California, so you’re either lying or doing some very long-distance learning!)
If you are legitimate, however, I’d love to ask you some questions to clear things up.
There is a statement on there that says something to the effect of “clinical rotations are the least of your concerns.” Unbelievable! Anyone who gives them money is asking to be a victim of fraud.
One of the three MDs (Mihaela Pepel) is a naturopath who lives in Oregon – http://drpepelfamilypractice.com/pages/about.html
Also, if you believe Jacob is anything but a member of this outrageous hoax, I have a bridge to sell you in California. It leads straight to the number one medical school in America!
There are no students. This is a malicious band of idiots who are trying to rip off desperate premeds with more money than sense.
Graham,
Ask away, if any of you have questions you can use my e-mail
capitolia1@hotmail.com
HY city, your computer is really screwed up, next time by American
Another thing, you guys actually believe that america’s finest would participate in SCAM!!! The thought of that is not only ridiculous but its also offensive. Our chancellor served in operation Iraqi freedom.
OH and one main thing THE SCHOOL IS NOT CHARGING TUITION UNTIL WE GET LOAN PROGRAMS!!!!
YOU STILL THINK ITS A SCAM
WE HAVE MORE FACULTY THAN WHAT YOU SEE ON THE WEBSITE BUT SINCE WE HAVE BEEN HARRASSED WHY WOULD WE RISK IT?
You want to talk about scams, the caribbean schools are scams. I know one school off the top of my head that was unaccredited for three years and still had students attending classes.
Here are some facts which I encourage all of you to check out for yourselves.
The MCAT is NOT required to be licensed to practice in the US and research shows that stupid exam is not a good predictor of your success in medical school.
In order to be elligible to take the step exams you must be recognized by the WHO. The WHO requires med programs be at least two years and six months.
The school has been operating for over a year and it must be operating for two years before it can even apply for accreditation.
Ask me questions till you guys are satisfied, if I know it I will answer it, if I dont I will tell you I dont know.
and again I am in california,
so Graham why dont you give me your phone number and I can call you.
You can check your phone bill …..
Matt:
The reason they say that is because we are averaging two exams per week with four subjects a semester and you really do not have time to wrroy abouty anything else. The rotations are being setup and the they will be greenbook approved. I asked this same question before I started there.
As for instuctors not being licensed MD’s anymore, again your assumptions prove you know nothing about the school. I would really love to show you their credentials.
any of you want to try again
my exam in gross anatomy is next week so I have a little bit of time on my hands.
Jacob, enough spamming. Your IP address, 96.229.81.232, is based in New York. You’re not in California. If you would like to provide data or evidence for your claims, I’d be happy to post it and I’ll apologize for my claims. (Click the contact link above.) Until that time, however, I see no evidence to the contrary. There are too many things that don’t make sense about your school.
What evidence would this be graham?
Tell me your e-mail
and I see no link and get a better computer your ip address is way off!!!!
What is your phone number?
I will call you and you can check the area code
Okay, so, out of boredom, I emailed their lecturer, Mihaela Pepel, with the following:
I don’t know if you actually check this email or care, but Stewart University, a fairly well-known scam/hoax, is claiming you as one of their lecturers.
http://www.stewartmed.org/faculty.html
Cheers,
Jonathan
——————————————–
She responded! Following:
Thank you.
I am not one of their lecturers.
Do you have any suggestions in how to clarify this issue?
Mihaela Pepel, MD, ND
Dr Pepel Family Practice
15880 SW Quarry Road
Lake Oswego, OR, 97035
Phone: (503)-***-****
Fax: (503)-***-****
http://www.DrPepelFamilyPractice.com
——————————————–
Hahaha! Good times.
Again, why would we post faculty information? You are looking for something, and are desperately trying to find something that is not there. What is there are lectures after lectures and exams after exams.
by the way the website has yet to be updated.
Graham,
I am still waiting for those questions. Or did the caribbean schools pay you to bad mouth a brand new medical school with an administration that has ties to America’s armed forces??
why does everyone affiliated with your school keep saying this “caribbean schools paid you” stuff? it makes me think that you are probably all the same person.
it doesn’t matter how much you say you’ve been harassed. if you were legitimate, you would post all of your information about faculty and what not on your website. if anything, this would STOP the harassment, because people would start to believe that it’s not a total scam. plus, why would anyone go to your school if they have no idea what they are getting in to in the first place, since you give no information about professors or even location. these kinds of things matter when people choose to pay thousands of dollars for their education.
“Jacob’s” email, capitolia1@hotmail.com , is the same email belonging to Saul Amezcua–Stewart’s “student body president” and notorious scam artist. Satisfy your curiosity and google “capitolia1@hotmail.com” or “saul amezcua” or “ohmssoo7″ for more info on this scam artist.
Stepanka,
Thats why you apply…
mmmkay,
Oh man you got me there…
I looked up your e-mail address as well and it turns out you work for one of the caribbean schools
very clever…
Saul,
Could you please post some more videos on YouTube? We all miss them.
Lordy people, get something better to do!