Getting Ready for Med School in Guadalajara Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The workload was fairly light, leaving you time to do as much or as little outside investigation as you wanted. We certainly had time to explore and enjoy the city and state around us. I wouldn't worry TOO much about grades - as long as we did our work responsibly, I think things seemed to go well. Since this program is very closely coordinated between our university and the University of Guadalajara, I felt like I was able to understand what was expected of me fairly well.

On-site administration of your program

Dras. Maclovia and Cecilia were very helpful and kind, and they did everything they could to help us. It's true we did spend 4 hours one day waiting to get our ID's made, but that was not their fault in the slightest - the ID office was in disarray and the ENTIRE staff had recently been replaced, so nobody knew how to do their job. Dra. Maclovia worked miracles for us finding housing that we liked for the hospital component, and Dra. Cecilia was very helpful in organizing rotations for us, in any area we were interested in. Also, Dra. Maclovia met us for lunch once a week during the first five weeks before the hospital, which was really nice, and I can't believe she dedicated that much time to us, considering all her other responsibilities.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The first five weeks we stayed with a host family near the language school. It was a very nice neighborhood, and the family was unbelievably helpful and kind. They were such sweet people, and when they left, they told us that it was our home, and they would be waiting for us to come back whenever we wanted. They provided everything for us, cooked for us, took us to movies and helped us find our way around when we wanted to go out. In the hospital component, we moved to different houses that were nearer the hospital. The neighborhood around the hospital wasn't as nice a part of town, but the program found the nicest houses in the nicest areas, which was good. I felt absolutely fine walking around in daylight, and though I didn't, I know several of the girls walked home very late at night too. These houses were less family-structured. We lived with a single woman, a doctor, and had full access to the kitchen to store and cook our own food. It was more like being a housemate rather than a guest, but that was really fun too. Again, they provided everything in the way of dishes, sheets, etc. We did have to bring our own towels.

The host family mother was SOOOO nice about making sure to cook vegetarian food for me. It was absolutely delicious. Then, in the second house I got to cook my own food. As for eating out - sorry, no recommendations. I got tired of eating quesadillas everywhere I went. :-( However, do look up Alfredo's - chocolate filled croissants!!!

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Puerto Vallarta CEPE trip!!!!! Very fun! SUPER nice hotel.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

City is super-safe. I didn't walk home alone after dark, but I don't do that in the US either. Don't drink the water, don't eat food off of street stands, and you'll be absolutely fine. I never even had so much as an upset stomach. DO, DO, DO take mosquito repellant you can wear all day every day - the mosquitos don't carry so many diseases in this city, but there are a lot of them, and most houses leave the windows open instead of trying to run AC. No vaccines for me.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

The CEPE component of the program was 5 weeks of study in the language school, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. It was definitely necessary for me - I hadn't taken Spanish in 2 years when I started this program. However, the language school wasn't very demanding, and I know that students like to have as little as possible demanded of them, but I still feel I would have benefited from higher expectations and more homework to help the lessons really sink in. I think living with the host family improved my Spanish far more, and was an invaluable experience. Our host family spoke English, but most of our conversations were in Spanish, and it was very helpful. My Spanish still has a long long way to go - I had much difficulty understanding people in the street when they spoke to me, even at the end of 9 weeks, but then again, how much can you really learn in 9 weeks?

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• Host Family
• Other

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• Host Family
• Other

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• Americans