Michael E. DeBakey High School For Health Professions In Qatar

[VicMan]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/5804771.html

A branch of DeBakey High School will open in Doha, Qatar. It will ultimately have grades 8-12. It will start with 8-10 in September 2008.

The principal of the Houston DeBakey is going to Qatar to lead the Qatari school.

[LarryDallas]

I went there and graduated in 97. Hopefully, the principal is not the same one we had then. Mrs. Collins was obsessed with the power of the job and really did not seem to care about the students. She only remembered the names of the few kid that were brown nosers. Now Mr. Robinson was VP around 1995 and was the best administrator I had ever known anywhere. He knew EVERY SINGLE student by name, said hello to everyone he passed in the hallway, and never behaved like he was high and mighty while everyone else (except the principal of course) was beneath him.

Honestly speaking the school was good as far as safety and class size. There were a few kids that smoked weed but there was no serious crime problem with stuff like gang activity, drugs, assualts, etc.... BUT....people cheated like crazy on exams and papers. The math and science program was intense yet I'd say maybe 5-10% of the kids took things seriously. Even the nerds mostly just cared about what was needed to get an A instead of learning something new and getting the big picture.

Baylor College of Medicine probably funded the equipment and facility needs more than anything else. The preceptorship as a senior where you go out the work in the med center for 3 months is good exposure to real world stuff but again people did not take it seriously. My class started with about 270 people and only 137 graduated. No one failed and was held back; losses were mostly due to transfers back to the home school.

Starting in 1996 Baylor started giving 10 students in each class full paid tuition for a 4 year BS at U of H followed by free med school at Baylor with the condition that you must have had at least a B+ GPA as an undergrad.

I think only 6 of the 10 in my class made it all the way to an MD.

The program was completely cancelled sometime around 2001 when my sister graduated from the school.

I have no idea what kids are like in that part of the world but if they are anything like kids in the HISD version the school will not do what it was intended to do for as many kids as they wanted to build medical careers for.

BTW, I didn't go into a medical career and neither did 5 of my closest friends. In fact, of the 5 kids with the top GPAs 3 became lawyers.

[Eddie]

I graduated from there in 1986, I wish they had the scholarship program then, I could have used it.

Of course, I never did go to medical school and opted for engineering. Based on the recent 20 year reunion, I'd say over half of the graduates did end up in the medical field.

[houstonmacbro]

Is that the same as the HS for Health Professions right there off 288? My sister graduated from there.