“I’m considering going to Ross. How many students were in your incoming class? I’ve heard that about only half the class makes it to graduation – is that true?”
Short answer: My incoming class had ~440 students. 76% passed their first semester.
Long answer: Ross University takes three first semester med school classes per year. There is a fall, spring, and summer semester. A lot of students leave after they realize that medical school isn’t for them. For those who just had a bad semester, Ross lets you come back and repeat. I have a few friends who failed once and never failed again and even excelled on their USMLE step exams (the gold standard used to compare medical students nationwide). So failing one semester doesn’t mean you failed medical school. I don’t have the exact statistics on how many people make it from first semester to graduation but you can be certain that if you are smart enough to be accepted to medical school and have the work ethic and dedication to become a doctor then you can certainly graduate.
You also can’t analyze the fact that only 76% of my first semester class passed the first semester without looking at some confounding variables. One of my favorites is this graphic, taken from the Ross University site:
At a glance, its showing you that Ross University accepts students with an average cumulative GPA of 3.22 and a prerequisite GPA of 3.08. Again, those are averages. Which means that there are students well above and below those numbers. So the argument can be made that Ross accepts subpar students. I personally don’t agree with that mantra. Instead, I like to believe that Ross gives students who realized too late that they wanted to go to medical school after they had already done significant damage to their GPA. Though I’m admittedly bias because that’s my story. Overall, you know yourself better than anyone else. You can look at the statistics all you want. At the end of the day, if you are smart, work hard, and stay dedicated towards the goal of becoming a doctor then there is no reason why you can’t graduate.