Universidad de Ciencias Medicas (UCIMED) - Alajuelita, San José

Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (UCIMED) is a small university in downtown Costa Rica, with approximately 2,000 students. It teaches Medicine, Pharmacology, Nutrition and Physical Therapy. Nearly 10% of its student body is foreign, consisting mostly of Latin American students. As opposed to the other comment in this website, I truly believe the school's curriculum has strong foundations in classical medical texts, such as Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, Schwartz's Surgery, and so on. The first couple of years tend to be a little overcrowded, which can easily translate into overwhelming and highly competitive courses. You can find all sorts of students here, from Dr. House-like geniuses to slackers and cheaters, and everything in between. Medicine is a six-year program in which students rotate, from the second-year forth, on A-class hospitals in urban San José. It is very much comparable to Medicine in Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) and Universidad Latina, the other two medicine schools accredited in Costa Rica. The school's greatest benefit for foreign students is its low cost (approximately $7,000 USD per year), and its greatest flaw is having only one Pharmacology course). It also teaches Kaplan courses for the United States Medical License Examinations (USMLE). I, myself, am a third year student, highly supportive of this institution. My older brother graduated a few years back, and he's now a Psychiatry resident in the United States. Many of the professors are school alumni, and highly regarded professionals in their respective fields. Being completely honest, UCIMED is definitely no Harvard School of Medicine, but it has great national recognition.

I went to the school for 2 years. When I enrolled they never told me they were already on probation for the FAFSA loan. I was not informed of this and now Americans can no longer recieve it here. I am forced to change schools, not knowing who will except the credits from here......They are beginning to let almost anyone in and don't have the facilities for the number of students(very overcrowded library). Academics are suspect as most classes are not taught out of a book, but through a professor's powerpoints, with some books listed as references. Waste of time and money. BEWARE...