SGU M3 here.
Idk about the stats that are being thrown around on this thread, but here's how my class worked out:
We entered w/ about 600 students in our class (a January class..which I think now are around 800 students in size).
Quickly, we lost about 50 of those students just to them not handling being away from their home country, or difficulty with the workload, or whatever else. There's some timeframe (I think ~30days) where SGU will give you your money back if you just decide to leave. I don't think those count toward "attrition" by SGU's numbers.
Anyway, those people left, and then between then and the end of Year 2 our January class lost maybe another 100 due to them repeating parts of the curriculum, getting into a US school, or failing (According to SGU the attrition rate is ~8%) I know lots of people don't believe the numbers SGU puts out, and I agree that sometimes they are skewed, but I think this one seems pretty accurate from my experience.
Our class size is big and I mostly focus on studying and my group of friends, so I don't know even half of the people in our class. I say that to qualify that I only personally know 1 person who transferred to a US school, ~5 people who repeated a term, and 1 person who failed out. There are obviously plenty more who did according to the stats, but I just don't know them.
After M2, we took Step 1 and personally I only know 1 person who failed. I'm not going around asking people their scores, but according to SGU's data that they share with us to prepare for Step 1, the average score last year was 226. A 226 isn't stellar but for an SGU grad with no failed steps, and a good work ethic in M3/M4, and decent interview skills, that will definitely be good enough to land a lower tier Family Med, Internal Med, Pscyh, Peds residency. Clearly you have to be realistic if you're going to SGU. You're almost definitely not going to get into Ortho/Derm/Optho/Neurosurgery, etc... People do, but it's a LONG shot, and you need great USMLE scores, tons of research, and to be a hell of a networker.
My partner goes to a upper tier US MD school, so I have a decent idea of the comparison of our curriculums, and I'd say academically they were comparable. SGU students often complain that our curriculum is harder to "weed out" students, but I think the issue is that SGU just starts with a lower tier of students on average. So, there will obviously be a higher percent who fail out or struggle with standardized testing.
SGU has great academic assistance, and students imo are very collegial. Well performing students create groups to teach lower term students how to succeed, we share our study materials, honor society has 1:1 tutoring available for free to other students, and the Department of Educational Services has lots of study strategizing resources. I felt very academically supported there. I definitely also felt home-sick, and being from a big US city, I got pretty bored and had to come up with new hobbies to fill my time. Luckily I had a strong group of friends to keep me motivated.
The prices SGU charges are INSANE and they go up constantly. On the positive side, US citizens are eligible for federal student loans, and therefore certain loan repayment and forgiveness programs. As a previous poster mentioned SGU has a HUGE alumni network, which is very much in your favor in comparison to other IMGs. If you can perform at or above average, you will be fine at SGU. As the famous yet controversial line by SGU goes "98% of eligible US citizen SGU students match within 1 year". The school is very careful about protecting its stats, so they encourage even very good students to apply to >100 programs and scare the sh** out of you before you start studying for Step 1. They will also encourage you to take a research year before applying if they don't think you're going to match. If you don't match they will pay for you to get an MPH or to do research for a year while you build your resume and reapply. If you still can't get in, SGU is dual accredited in the US and UK, so you could apply again in the US or apply to the UK programs. Unfortunately/Fortunately (depending on your perspective), the US match is highly skewed to favor students from US schools. While a US MD student can get a 210 on step 1 with a strong record otherwise, and still get a handful of low-tier interviews in a field like OBGYN, an SGU student wouldn't even be considered at <220. Being from SGU will definitely put you at a disadvantage when it comes to matching, but the drama queens on SDN who tell you it's impossible to match are most definitely wrong the vast majority of the time.
As always MD>DO>SGU>otherIMG when it comes to matching. Be realistic about the workload you can handle and effort you're willing to put in to becoming a physician. If the disadvantages of SGU are worth it to you, then take the risk and come.