At the table (sitting from left to right) UMSL Pre-Professional Advisor and Program Coordinator Joseph Sutherland, UMHS President Warren Ross and UMSL Associate Teaching Professor of biology Marc Spingola sign the articulation agreement between UMSL and UMHS in St. Kitts. There to witness the signing was (standing from left to right) Dr. Thomas Last, Earl Mainer, Dr. Edwin Purcell and Michelle Peres, all of UMHS. (Photos courtesy of Scott Harrah)

University of Missouri–St. Louis students wishing to pursue medical school can look forward to the benefits of a freshly signed articulation agreement between UMSL and the University of Medicine and Health Science in St. Kitts.

The agreement creates a direct recruitment pipeline from UMSL to UMHS, offering qualified students a simplified admission process to the Caribbean medical school. Instead of multiple interviews, qualified UMSL students can do a single interview via Skype.

“Applying to medical school can be incredibly expensive, and for the students that meet the requirements but would otherwise be considered ‘non-competitive’ for mainland schools, this is a very good way to take the stress out of the admissions process,” UMSL Pre-Professional Advisor & Program Coordinator Joseph Southerland told The UMHS Endeavour news publication.

The agreement, signed this month, creates a direct recruitment pipeline from UMSL to UMHS, offering qualified students a simplified admission process to the Caribbean medical school.

Southerland and Marc Spingola, an associate teaching professor of biology at UMSL, visited St. Kitts to negotiate and sign the agreement this month.

Interested students must meet a number of requirements to apply for admission, some of which include maintaining a high GPA, taking traditional pre-requisite science and math courses and passing the Medical College Admissions Test. For a full list of requirements click here.

While students complete coursework on the UMHS campus in St. Kitts, stateside clerkships are open to them.

“There aren’t any clerkships in Missouri yet,” Southerland said, “but there are several in the Midwest, so after their time on the island, they wouldn’t be as far from home during their rotations.”

On top of the clerkship options, UMSL students considering UMHS will also have access to a modern medical facility.

“You can judge a lot about a medical school by the quality of their anatomy lab, and UMHS has a gem,” Southerland said. “[UMHS President] Warren Ross’s commitment to providing his students with up-to-date technology and resources was apparent in all the rooms that we visited. In short, everything they need to be successful is offered on the campus.”

UMHS is built on the tradition of the best U.S. universities and focuses on individualized student attention, small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. It’s considered a top choice among Caribbean medical schools.

For more information contact Joe Southerland at 314-516-6260 or SoutherlandJ@umsl.edu.