From the President

Welcome to UMHS

At UMHS, we are dedicated to providing you with the best education possible. Our state-of-the-art medical school is for students who deserve and demand a quality education in a small school environment. Our faculty are highly credentialed and recruited primarily from the United States. They love to teach and are fully committed to your success.

UMHS is fully accredited by the Accreditation Commission on Colleges of Medicine (ACCM). This international accrediting body has adopted U.S. standards of accreditation and is recognized by the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA) under the U.S. Department of Education. The Committee has determined that ACCM standards of accreditation, both as written and applied, are comparable to the standards of accreditation in the United States. We also have multiple state approvals providing our students with additional clinical and residency opportunities.

The Basic Science Program, consisting of semesters 1–4, is located at our modern campus on the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Our traditional medical school curriculum compares with most U.S. medical schools. Shelf examinations, created by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), have been incorporated into both the Basic and Clinical Science Programs. Shelf examinations are similar in style and format to the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and ultimately help prepare students for USMLE Steps 1 and 2. The NBME provides each student with a detailed analysis of each exam and information about how they compare to U.S. medical students.

Pre-clinical exposure begins in the first semester and continues throughout the Basic Science Program. While in St. Kitts, students have access to a variety of clinical settings, including the local hospital and our 24-bed virtual hospital/skills lab, located on campus.

The fifth semester, which includes a clinical correlations and board review component, is held at our Portland, Maine, campus. During the fifth semester, students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with more than 30 M.D. preceptors who mentor and fully prepare them to seamlessly transition into the clinical program. Once students have completed the fifth semester and passed USMLE Step 1, they then enter the Clinical Science Program. UMHS is currently affiliated with over 26 teaching hospitals located throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

Graduates of UMHS qualify for residency placement both in the United States and Canada. Our graduates obtain premier residencies in virtually every specialty. Over 92% of first-time applicants obtained residencies in 2024. The hospital list is very impressive and is an indication of the quality of our graduates. Click here for a comprehensive listing of our residency placements dating back to 2016.

Over the last 10 years, we have invested more than $100 million to develop one of the most state-of-the-art medical schools in the Caribbean. Our modern campus is comparable to, or better than, those of most U.S. medical schools. I urge you to visit our video page to view our amazing facilities.

UMHS is affiliated with Kaplan Medical and AMBOSS, which are the premier USMLE Review Programs in the United States. All students have full access to their review materials beginning in the first semester. Outcomes and performance on USMLE are critically important, and we believe in providing our students with the best resources available to ensure their success on USMLE Step 1 and 2 CK.

During the fifth semester in Maine, students are offered a 15-week live review program through Kaplan Medical. We have integrated material from ICM to ensure that the review program includes clinically relevant material which ultimately prepares them for Step 1. We may be the only foreign medical school that provides these resources to students beginning in their first semester. In terms of performance, we are proud to announce that our students had a 95% pass rate on the Step 2 CK in 2023. We offer outcomes that are as good, if not better, than any of the other Caribbean medical schools. Your success is our success. 

Our 4% attrition rate is one of the lowest in the Caribbean. Many offshore schools have attrition rates that exceed 30% as a result of students not qualifying for USMLE Step 1. We believe that we should do everything possible to ensure students' success in medical school. 

We understand the impact of significant student debt, so we work hard to ensure that your education is affordable. Compared to most of the other foreign medical schools, the cost of education is considerably lower at UMHS. In addition, we offer financial aid that can cover the full cost of attendance. Financial aid options include student loans, scholarships, institutional loans, provincial loans, and payment plans. In fact, as further evidence of our commitment to students, we substantially increased our scholarship awards recently.  Please note that in the last five years, we have awarded over $3 million in scholarships. 

Thank you for taking the time to learn about the benefits of attending medical school at UMHS. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Sincerely yours,

Warren Ross, J.D.
President
University of Medicine and Health Sciences