cbbeu06 said:
Hi Pitman. Thanks for the speedy response. Do you know of the stats for each uni as to the avg. entry mcat score, gpa etc. I am a Canadian, but would like to end up practicing in Australia so I am only seriously considering the Aussie medschools. Which school do you go to? In my situation, between Sydney & Queensland, which would you recommend as my first & second choice?
I only know UQ exam stats (where I am), and for those attending -- 28P MCAT and 67 GAMSAT. While I'd guess that *acceptance* stats for schools here would likely be a little higher, I don't think by much, but alas, none of us on these forums really knows how many of those applicants used Aussie as a backup. UK was actually going to be my backup to Oz, and I had no interest in n america and didn't apply. I know of several others who put Oz/UQ first, they tend to be the higher scorers here, counter to Spherical's reasoning, possibly b.c. such scorers are least likely to need a backup (thus no reason for them to apply here as one) and want to study here for other sincere reasons.
At any rate, 29 should at least be sufficient for an interview at any of the schools.
Practicing in Australia is not easy, but it's doable -- if you're not a citizen, you'd first need to get PR. This can be done using your previous degree or by living with a de facto for a year, and at UQ can be done before you graduate so long as you continue to pay int'l fees. If you put PR off until internship, then you could get stuck without one, as preference is given to residents. After internship, there's no such barrier to continue with training, but after you're done, you're still subjected to a 10-year moratorium (starting from internship), where you can't accept medicare payments. This means you can go to the bush or work in other areas of need during that time, but you can't otherwise do private practice.
I can't recommend one school over another, but can only tell you what I did. I chose UQ after visiting it, USyd and Flinders. I didn't apply anywhere else (UK would have been the backup, but considering i'd be attending here before interviews there, and knowing i'd get in somewhere here, that'd have been silly).
Flinders was great, really responsive administration, small class, but I absolutely hated Adelaide (many really like it, just a personal thing). USyd admins were seriously arrogant, jerking around many applicants the year i applied (we discussed it here actually), and I pissed them off when i pushed the issue during my interview in Sydney after they denied it (was a little more tactful than that, but not much). I liked Sydney on an intellectual level (has the most to offer, more arts and history, etc.) but was not 'moved' by it as much as Brisbane, which is more like a big town (of 1 million mind you).
The students I know at USyd outside of the forums like it a lot. On the forums, most also like it, but there have been one or two nut cases who have decided to blame the world in general, USyd in particular, for their problems.
At any rate, it actually came down to environment/feel for me, and Brisbane is beautiful, warm, and the ppl are warm (from the moment i came off the plane).
It's too bad USyd stopped using its own app -- it used to be that you could apply to usyd, flinders and a third via acer, then decide as things unfolded. But I'd still recommend coming here for interviews, or just before/after, so that you can really see what's up, where you think you'd like for 4 years, and talk to some students in the flesh about their experiences.
hope this helps.
-pitman
