Wow, looks like I stepped into some kinda flame war. Spoiler alert: I talk about my opinions about the USMLE below.
I just posted this in the 2013 thread, but figured it's probably more useful here. I just finished my first year at UQ Ochsner, and I'd like to offer my 2 cents to this discussion as someone who has a fair share of criticism about UQ, but can confidently say that it'll turn you into a doctor if that's your goal. It feels like yesterday when I was in your position, scouring SDN to try and figure out whether or not UQ is legit, and to convince myself that everything is going to be great if I come to UQ. Let's be honest: in order to make the investment and take the risk to come halfway around the world to go to med school, you need a bit of "confirmation bias" that it's going to be OK, by which I mean, you need to weigh the evidence that it's good (good QS international rankings, affiliation with Ochsner, etc) more than the evidence that it's bad (they let you in with a 26 MCAT and a 2.8 GPA, it's international, it's expensive, etc).
If you have already decided to come here next year, you can rest assured, UQ IS a legit medical school, and there are a ton of very well-qualified students in my class who love it. Before I came here, I was very curious about how everyone else "ended up" coming to UQ. I have been very pleasantly surprised that Americans in Ochsner are very good students, and usually interesting, well-traveled people. Some of my best friends here are from Ivy League schools (and that is a very popular ad hominem defense of the school that IMHO doesn't say very much about the education, but it seems to matter to a lot of people). To be honest, I am here because I screwed around too much in undergrad, and there are consequences (3.2 GPA, 31Q MCAT, because I know you are curious). But some of my friends are here simply because they had intense family, interpersonal, or health issues during undergrad that caused them to have one bad semester, and in the med school game, that is unfortunately enough to ruin your application, as I imagine some of you have already discovered for yourselves. The current president of the Ochsner Medical Student Association (OMSA) had something like a 39 MCAT, and he was basically just over-confident in his original round of US applications and turned them in late, another big no-no in med school applications, and that's how he ended up here. But he hit the ground running in Australia as an exemplary student doing all sorts of projects and research and never looked back. He writes on this board a lot, so you have probably read his posts above already, but I can vouch for him as a super-solid example of the kind of student UQ can put out, to the extent that you care about an anonymous stranger on the internet's opinion
As for the Australian students (some of whom are called "twoosies" because they did a 2-year science degree starting at age 17 and then went right into med school at age 19), they are really the cream of the crop here in Australia. UQ is one of the top med schools in the country (depending on the reference... it usually ranks in the top 4 or 5). It can be a bit infantilizing going to classes with 19 year old Australian colleagues. No one prepared me for that before I came here. Sometimes I question just what the hell I DID learn during my 4 year undergrad degree, because a lot of these kids are SMART. It's humbling, and you just gotta get over it if you come here (easier said than done).
There are a few facilities that I found surprisingly good here. The anatomy lab is actually pretty sweet. It's open most days of the week, so you can come in and take a liver or a heart sample out of a bucket and drill down your anatomy. I've never had trouble dealing with that area. The actual anatomy practical labs are crowded and not entirely useful, but that is more than made up for by how good it is on off-hours (i'm going to get in trouble for telling you this, because it's a bit of a well-guarded secret). There are usually tutors or just well-informed colleagues in the lab who are more than happy to help you out. Before I came here everyone made a huge fuss about whether or not there was a wet cadaver lab. First of all, there is. And about half-way through the year, you can start doing dissections. But more importantly, you will learn VERY quickly that the presence or absence of a wet lab really doesn't make much of a difference to your anatomy education. All you surgery hot shots will have plenty of time to get your hands on some organs at the appropriate time; it's not a very important part of year 1 (1).
However, there are a lot of things about UQ that drive me crazy. For starters, let's be real: no matter what anyone says, you will probably be less competitive in matching to a residency if you come here. That's just how the world works. Doctor's care about pedigree, and so do we. That's why we're asking all these questions about the pedigree of UQ, right? I'm sick of all the misleading "no one will see you differently" rhetoric, because it's not true. But that on its own is not a reason not to come to UQ. We all know that you are considering UQ because things didn't work out in the US (2). If you don't go to med school, you'll have ZERO chance at matching a residency, so don't dwell on residency stats. Your chances at matching after graduating from UQ are still probably better than if you went to the Caribbean, so as far as studying medicine abroad, the only international school that off the top of my head might be slightly better in terms of pedigree is the Columbia-Israel program, but this is all just speculation; I can't really speak too informatively about that, and very few people can. Be aware before you come here of the fact that you are going to get an MBBS degree if you come here before 2015. Everyone tells me it's exactly the same as an MD. I doubt it's the exact same for the same reasons as I've given about residency matching, but from everything I've read and US doctors I've talked to thus far, it is seen by most people as exactly the same (3). Real US doctors are actually the least judgmental people about Australian med school. The most common response I usually get is, "damn, I wish I'd done that!" This whole paragraph could be re-written as the following sentiment: "don't let 'great' be the enemy of 'good'."
In a more general sense, studying at UQ is probably not what you've always dreamed that "Medical School" would be like. UQ is a giant state university (something like 70,000 students in the whole system or so), and there are about 500 1st year medical students. The administration treats you like a statistic. The administration is a huge pain in the ass to deal with, and they are infamously disorganized. They lost a friend's midterm last semester... that level of disorganization (don't worry they found it eventually, and they always sort out the problems sooner or later). I've heard UQ described as "Kafka-esque," and that is spot on from my experience. "Surgical theater of the absurd" is also a decent pun. There are all sorts of bureaucratic annoyances, It was a bit disarming to have to compete for seating in the lecture hall on my first day of classes. It is equally disarming that this leads to a culture of skipping lecture among Ochsner students, a suggestion you will receive from 2nd years when you first get here that I believe ought to be taken with a big grain of salt.
Perhaps the worst part of the medical education here is the practical labs. They are about as crappy as any undergrad lab you've ever had. Microbio is a joke, seriously. Again, I don't think that is a reason not to come here on its own, although it is quite annoying. The annoyance is two-fold. After the obvious annoyance of having to waste our time in these over-stuffed labs, it is also annoying because it shifts the onus of learning microbio to Ochsner students. Because you need to know microbio for the USMLE Step 1.
Ah, the USMLE , aka, "The Boards." If you come here and want to score some friends quickly, read up on the USMLE before you come here, because Ochsner students LOVE to talk about it. Everyone freaks out about it because it is believed that UQ doesn't adequately prepare its students for the USMLE. To be honest, I can't speak intelligently about this subject. There are USMLE tutorials every week put on by second year med students, and they are as good as tutorials can be from 2nd year med students who haven't taken the test themselves who are busier than you are and just learned this stuff the year before... which is to say there is a range in the quality of the sessions. The issue is the universal uncertainty surrounding the USMLE. People who love to speak authoritatively will do so about the USMLE for as long as you're willing to listen, but that doesn't mean that anything they say is veracious. This leads to a bit of "paralysis by analysis" for some people, who spend half the year searching for the "best" way to study without actually doing any studying for the test. "Which review book is the best?" "Have you started Q bank yet?" "Oh, I use Kaplan, it's better." "Oh, I hate the Made Ridiculously Simple series." Everyone has an opinion. The people who are most successful are good at tuning all this banter out, and just picking a resource and sticking with it. My opinion: you can track to Phloston's 30 page confession about how he studied for the USMLE to get such an insanely high score, and it's pretty insane. Pretty much every first year med student I've met has an initial delusion that they are just going to "buckle down" and do what it takes to get such a high score, and most people realize that they really don't feel like putting in that kind of effort. You can be your own judge, but it reminds me of how most pre-meds talk about how ****ty a 30 is on the MCAT before they take it having no clue of how much studying it takes to do really well on that test.
There are some non-medical aspects to the education that are also a huge pain in the ass. We have to take bioethics for the two australian pre-clinical years. But this isn't heady "bioethics" about categorical imperatives and all that (although there is a bit of that); it's Australian bioethics. So you need to learn a bunch of esoteric facts about Australian Law that will never matter to you once you leave Australia. Some of it is a bit interesting, but most of it is just busywork. Frankly, 100% of my friends just crammed last minute for bioethics exams. Everyone did fine (some of us actually got 7s, the UQ equivalent of an A), but it added what felt like an unnecessary amount of stress. The Aboriginal Health class was actually a bit more interesting if you're the type of person who likes anthropology or public health. If you're going to live in Australia for a few years, I think it's important to develop a bit of an understanding of the culture here, and it was interesting, albeit sad, to learn about the colonialism here and its lasting consequences on Aboriginal communities. That being said, some Ochsner students hated that class, and perhaps you will too, but it can be bearable if you see it as a culturally-enriching opportunity.
As for what it's like living in Brisbane, it's a small, but rapidly growing town. If you like sun, you'll love Brisbane. After the brutal (by my standards) summer ends around March, the weather becomes quite temperate for the rest of the year. I personally prefer cloudy days, but I realize I'm an outlier. I love riding the ferry to school. Perhaps because of the weather, people tend to show a lot of skin here. Guys wear short shorts, girls wear short skirts. Perhaps I've just forgotten what it's like to be around 19 year olds. Coffee (a "long black"= an Americano) costs about $3.50-$4.00 for a cup, and beer is about $17 for a six pack. Frankly, you get used to it. I mean, you're planning on dropping like a quarter of a million dollars or something like that on your medical education, nickel-and-diming a few bucks on commodities really shouldn't make or break your decision. It is a bit frustrating that the beach isn't as close as I'd like it to be. I don't have a car here, but I think investing in one, or maybe splitting one with some friends, is a pretty good idea if you want to get out of Brisbane. There are a lot of fun things to do in the surrounding area, and it can be life-affirming to get away from med school stress, if only for an afternoon.
I hope this has added to your appraisal of what UQ is like. I hope I didn't come off as pedantic about anything. Perhaps the biggest thing I learned after a year here is how important it is to be in med school because YOU want to be in med school. It was pretty crushing for me when I didn't get into US schools, and I think I went a bit crazy frantically trying to get to med school at any cost after that. Now that I'm here, I've realized that for me, med school isn't the end all and be all of my life or my ability to help other people. If you want to go to med school because you want to "help" others, I'd recommend doing a bit of soul-searching before you sign up to come all the way to UQ, because whatever factors that led you not to get into US med school in the first place might be telling you that med school isn't right for you. And I think it's important to be OK with that (4).
Good luck with your applications, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
footnotes:
1) I personally don't find anything too educational about dissections after you've got the basic understanding of the body. People make a big deal about anatomy and cutting open cadavers because it is the most aesthetically "med schooly" thing you do in year 1, but it's not THAT important. The reason med schools have reduced the amount of anatomy education we do is because the people who write the curriculum had to endure an unnecessary amount of anatomy during year 1 when they were in med school, and they decided to spare us and use the time to focus on physiology more. And to be clear, I'm not taking a side in the "medicine vs. surgery" debate here; I just don't think it's important for anyone to focus on surgical skills during year one.
2) As the saying goes, if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. If you are wondering why UQ let you in, you just need to follow the money to understand why they are willing to accept you when US schools might have rejected you. International student fees are a huge boom, and the cost to them of having a few of the unqualified international students drop out is much less than the amount they rake in from us. There is a notorious shortage of residency programs in Australia right now, so they are leveraging Ochsner's clinical resources. In turn, Ochsner is leveraging UQ's substantial research resources. This place is really a research powerhouse. You know how they love to brag how they are one of the top 50 med schools in the world according to QS rankings? A lot of that reputation comes from the component of the ranking calculation that comes from research. If they improved the actual teaching, they'd probably rank higher.
3) There is also a lot of talk about whether or not you will be able to practice in all 50 states if you graduate from UQ. The truth is that if you graduate from the normal 4-year uq medical degree, you can practice in all 50 states. The UQ ochsner program simply has not been evaluated yet, but I think there is strong evidence that it will eventually be OK. Trust me, the uncertainty freaks me out too. The only cup-half-full rationalization I can provide is that as doctors, we'll need to be able to feel comfortable with a bit of uncertainty, right?
4) If you went to Ghana every summer of undergrad to help out in an orphanage and used that experience as the linchpin of your medical school application, are you sure that you're favorite part of that experience was the medical aspect? Maybe you are better suited for international aide? I'm not trying to be antagonistic here; I just personally would have benefited from considering this type of thing before I came to UQ. I spent a lot of energy this year trying to understand why I'm in med school, and I that is energy I could have saved if I would have been more willing to consider another career before I comitted to med school. I understand the pressure that you or your friends and family might put on yourself because of the "prestige" of a medical degree, but that might not be enough to make you content with your time at UQ in the long run.
