Griffith University 2016

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med_in_oz

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Hey guys, anyone else heading to Griffith University next year? I just sent in my deposit today! I'm Canadian, would be good to meet anyone heading down before we go, Canadian or not.

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No one heading down to Griffith on this forum?
 
Hey, you may have better luck on pagingdr.net They have mostly locals on there, but still quite a few internationals (including Canadians).

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Hey, I've recently applied to Griffith for the 2016 intake.

I'm not seeing anything regarding their selection criteria.....how competitive is it for international students and what determines whether you get interview or not? I'm also wondering what your chances are once you get an interview.
 
Any internationals interviewing for Griffith in the next week (or interviewed recently)?
 
Congratulations..mind sharing yours stats.
 
gpa of 3.0 and mcat 30 .... not sure about cutoffs or how it's ranked
 
I will be going to Griffith in January. Lapse date of offer is 25 of september. A few days away... How do people finance med school? I am speaking with the bank about a line of credit. Any other options? A government student loan will also help, but by no means cover anything completely
 
If you're Canadian, CIBC gives 275k at a pretty decent rate
 
If you're Canadian, CIBC gives 275k at a pretty decent rate

Do they really loan out 275k for students going to an international school (aside from the USA)? I always thought it was reserved for Canada/USA and 225k was the max elsewhere.
 
my family deals with RBC for daily banking so I went to them. Their international LOC max is 150 and their domestic is 250. If what you say is correct about CIBC, I might look into them. Anyway, hope to see anyone else going to griffith in january!
 
I'm in for Griffith (it was a tough choice btw!) and hope to meet you all in person in January!
 
So Griffith accepts MCAT? I only see that they listed GAMSAT under their requirement page.
 
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So Griffith accepts MCAT? I only see that they listed GAMSAT under their requirement page.

Look under international requirements. Every school has separate requirements for domestic and international students.
 
I was just accepted. @Mackenzie_li @med_in_oz @HibikiR

Lapse date of offer is a month, but if I don't pay the deposit my spot isn't guaranteed. I will need to start researching this school ASAP. My ultimate goal is to get a residency back in the U.S. but they've only taken international students for 3 years so I'm not sure they have any data on this. Does anyone here know much about the curriculum? Cadaver labs for anatomy? Positives and negatives about the school? Any advice would be great since the international cohort is so small there isn't much out there. I'm still waiting to hear back on Sydney (any day now) and UQ-O which would be my ideal choice for the U.S. rotations 3rd and 4th year but UQ-O might be full at this point and I'm not sure its worth waiting another year for it.
 
You can try asking to postpone the deposit as I did with UQ-O.

I don't have an issue with when the deposit is due. They give you a month. The issue is that your seat isn't reserved until you pay your deposit, so theoretically the class can fill before I pay the deposit. Most of it is refundable anyway, I think I would only lose a few hundred dollars if I decided not to attend after paying the deposit.
 
How do you know that the deposit is refundable? Do you mind providing a link?
 
Mcat taker, that's exciting news! I always get giddy when I meet potential classmates. You're right that the international spots have only been around for a couple years, so the data just isn't there. Yes, the anatomy labs are cadavers, but tbh I have had a change of heart regarding that teaching method. I volunteer with the local med students here in Vancouver, and from what I've been told and what I've seen, students learn just as well, if not better with computer simulation and models. Cadavers are usually at least embalmed for 2 years, so the skin and organs are severely discoloured and feel foreign. I have first world syndrome, so one of the biggest selling points for me was the new hospital (2013) built for teaching :laugh:. They are a PBL program (a positive for me, but maybe you don't like that style). There's more I could say, but how I rank a school is different from how you do. (My opinion) From a practical standpoint, if you're a hardworking student/doctor, it shouldn't be a crippling decision for which school you decide to attend. Based solely on reputation, there's no school in your horizon that will be so good that you'll learn some secret knowledge or techniques unknown to other schools because the city you study in will have some good doctors/preceptors. In a couple sentences, could you or someone explain how the oschner program works? I'm not familiar with it because I am Canadian
 
Congrats Mcat_taker . The Australian university system is similar to the Canadian system, they're all federally funded and all great schools. Yes some schools will have better name recognition than others, but I don't think the education will be very different from one school to the other. As a Canadian, they don't put much emphasis on which school you go to, but what country you studied at, and Ireland or Australia are your best chances at matching back in Canada. For me, that made my decision simpler, med school is a journey and not a destination, so I decided where I would like to live for the next 4+ years and Gold Coast looks like a perfect match for me.

However, the US system is much different, and personally my number one choice would be UQ-O. They have gotten great results, but if you are planning to wait a year, are you sure your stats are competitive. If you don't wanna wait another year, and money not being an issue, I would attend University Sydney. The name recognition will help out when you want to match back in the US and from what I hear the university allows many elective rotations abroad and even a core rotation which is definitely a plus. I got accepted to Sydney but unfortunately I could not go cuz it's very hard to justify paying all the extra tuition and living expenses as it doesn't make much difference for Canadians.

Hope that helps, PM me if you need anything else.
 
Mcat taker, that's exciting news! I always get giddy when I meet potential classmates. You're right that the international spots have only been around for a couple years, so the data just isn't there. Yes, the anatomy labs are cadavers, but tbh I have had a change of heart regarding that teaching method. I volunteer with the local med students here in Vancouver, and from what I've been told and what I've seen, students learn just as well, if not better with computer simulation and models. Cadavers are usually at least embalmed for 2 years, so the skin and organs are severely discoloured and feel foreign. I have first world syndrome, so one of the biggest selling points for me was the new hospital (2013) built for teaching :laugh:. They are a PBL program (a positive for me, but maybe you don't like that style). There's more I could say, but how I rank a school is different from how you do. (My opinion) From a practical standpoint, if you're a hardworking student/doctor, it shouldn't be a crippling decision for which school you decide to attend. Based solely on reputation, there's no school in your horizon that will be so good that you'll learn some secret knowledge or techniques unknown to other schools because the city you study in will have some good doctors/preceptors. In a couple sentences, could you or someone explain how the oschner program works? I'm not familiar with it because I am Canadian

Thanks for the info. The ochsner program is a special cohort at UQ where you do your third and fourth year rotations back in New Orleans after doing your two years of basic sciences at UQ in Brisbane- Similar to how the caribbean programs are structured (2 years on island, 2 years of U.S. clerkships)
 
Congrats Mcat_taker . The Australian university system is similar to the Canadian system, they're all federally funded and all great schools. Yes some schools will have better name recognition than others, but I don't think the education will be very different from one school to the other. As a Canadian, they don't put much emphasis on which school you go to, but what country you studied at, and Ireland or Australia are your best chances at matching back in Canada. For me, that made my decision simpler, med school is a journey and not a destination, so I decided where I would like to live for the next 4+ years and Gold Coast looks like a perfect match for me.

However, the US system is much different, and personally my number one choice would be UQ-O. They have gotten great results, but if you are planning to wait a year, are you sure your stats are competitive. If you don't wanna wait another year, and money not being an issue, I would attend University Sydney. The name recognition will help out when you want to match back in the US and from what I hear the university allows many elective rotations abroad and even a core rotation which is definitely a plus. I got accepted to Sydney but unfortunately I could not go cuz it's very hard to justify paying all the extra tuition and living expenses as it doesn't make much difference for Canadians.

Hope that helps, PM me if you need anything else.

Thanks. Still waiting to hear back on Sydney.
 
Maybe. My first priority right now is Canada, but I'll have to see how the timing of the exam and residency matching works out. I don't know if people apply to both or if that's spreading themselves too thin
 
Maybe. My first priority right now is Canada, but I'll have to see how the timing of the exam and residency matching works out. I don't know if people apply to both or if that's spreading themselves too thin

Do you know if Sydney gives you more away elective time than Griffith? I.e. I've heard Griffith lets you do 1 elective and 1 selective away 4th year. I've heard for Sydney that you can spend 15 weeks or so in 4th year on away electives, not to mention do a 4 week sub-internship away. I'm assuming the more away electives I can do in the U.S. the better it will be for residency applications.
 
A professor told me that it hasn't been done before, but also he doesn't see a reason why you could not do this - smush your elective and one selective together to make the total duration 14 weeks. Everybody is going to be on their own path in any case, so you'll be talking to the academic manager in your upper years to arrange that. I suppose if you left around a break, you could even add (a couple) more weeks to it. But I am no advisor so I ask not to be held accountable for my own words haha. There's definitely a type of safety associated with an older (and bigger) med school like Sydney since you're likely to run into a few students who are paving a similar path to what you plan, but my guess is that if you can stay on top of where you want to go and you stay in contact with whoever is in charge, organizing your rotations won't be excruciating.

When do you expect to hear from UQO?
 
A professor told me that it hasn't been done before, but also he doesn't see a reason why you could not do this - smush your elective and one selective together to make the total duration 14 weeks. Everybody is going to be on their own path in any case, so you'll be talking to the academic manager in your upper years to arrange that. I suppose if you left around a break, you could even add (a couple) more weeks to it. But I am no advisor so I ask not to be held accountable for my own words haha. There's definitely a type of safety associated with an older (and bigger) med school like Sydney since you're likely to run into a few students who are paving a similar path to what you plan, but my guess is that if you can stay on top of where you want to go and you stay in contact with whoever is in charge, organizing your rotations won't be excruciating.

When do you expect to hear from UQO?

No idea about UQ-O. I've heard its a pretty full class so it might be at a wait list already. And Sydney is supposed to tell us any day now.

So did you decide on Griffith vs Sydney mostly because of tuition just being cheaper at Griffith? At least its in Australian dollars too. UQ-O is USD.

Yea thats a bit scary what you mentioned, that you are pretty much blazing your own path because no one has matched back from Griffith being such a new program and all.
 
As of right now I definitely plan on taking the USMLE exams, I've even already purchased the study notes from Kaplan, was planning to start reading through them but haven't started yet. Griffith is a new school so their track record is fresh, but I know someone studying medicine there and they told me the new facilities are A+. I had calculated it and if I wanted to attend Sydney University, in the 4 years it would have cost me roughly an extra $100,000 when you factor in the tuition and living expense (I'm heading down with my wife and 1-2 bedroom apartments in Sydney are crazy expensive) and just couldn't justify it, especially since my main goal is to return to Canada and everyone I've spoken to has told me the specific school doesn't matter, you'll be considered to have studied in Australia and that's pretty much it
 
How do you know that the deposit is refundable? Do you mind providing a link?

At the end of my offer letter it said that your deposit is fully refundable if for example you don't get accepted for a visa or the school pulls their offer or something if the class is full, but you would pay a fee, 400 dollars if you paid the deposit and then decided not to attend. They would refund the rest.
 
You're on top of it haha! Reading the fine print is a good skill especially when your talking thousands of dollars
 
As of right now I definitely plan on taking the USMLE exams, I've even already purchased the study notes from Kaplan, was planning to start reading through them but haven't started yet. Griffith is a new school so their track record is fresh, but I know someone studying medicine there and they told me the new facilities are A+. I had calculated it and if I wanted to attend Sydney University, in the 4 years it would have cost me roughly an extra $100,000 when you factor in the tuition and living expense (I'm heading down with my wife and 1-2 bedroom apartments in Sydney are crazy expensive) and just couldn't justify it, especially since my main goal is to return to Canada and everyone I've spoken to has told me the specific school doesn't matter, you'll be considered to have studied in Australia and that's pretty much it

I've thought a lot about having a vehicle down south... which may or may not have played a factor in the living cost equation -cough first world problems again cough-
 
What would be my best move, getting student university housing ? Or trying to find an apartment once I'm down there?
 
At Griffith or in general? It's up to your lifestyle preferences. For Griffith, I heard the campus accommodation is generally first year exchange students, aka party animals. But I haven't seen it myself. I'm aiming for private housing along the g link, but haven't really looked into it.
 
haha at Mackenzie, I was actually looking at cars this morning, from what I hear is that eventually you will need a car, I'm planning to get one in the first couple of months, but will probably still take the G-link to campus, vehicle is more for running errands and when we're placed at hospitals/rural settings etc
 
At Griffith or in general? It's up to your lifestyle preferences. For Griffith, I heard the campus accommodation is generally first year exchange students, aka party animals. But I haven't seen it myself. I'm aiming for private housing along the g link, but haven't really looked into it.

I see. Something to think about I guess. I figured to get on campus housing for at least the first semester until I figure out whats what and where I want to live, the neighborhoods etc. Or I suppose I could live in a hostel until I got an apartment.

It would be nice if they put the international med students together on campus, so we aren't living with undergrad exchange students, but I don't know if they would separate graduate and undergraduate international students.
 
Hey,

Where is everyone located that is going to be attending Griffith in January 2016? I'm in Calgary, AB, Canada.
 
This is still Mackenzie; my account has been wonky so I'll be using this one

@med_in_oz A car would be phenomenal if it's in your budget! Yeah, anything not on a main bus/transit route will be a pain to get to once we have to do more clin skill blocks/shadowing

@mcat_taker My family (not dependants) wants to go early for vacation when I leave, so I might stay in a hostel and then look for a place when I arrive. Living on res is a possibility I guess. From my friends at UBC med, I'm pretty confident that the first semester will be fairly laid back, so if there was any time you'd live in a place with noise pollution at night, that would be it.

@Cana33 I am in Vancouver. Born and raised
 
I'm from Ottawa, Ontario

I created a Facebook account today but notice theres no group for Griffith Med 2016 for either domestic or internationals, anyone know if there is one out there?
 
I added a couple Canadians going to Griffith (med and dent) via Facebook some time ago. I can make a group and send you an invite if you want

One of the griffith groups on Facebook just has spam posts from these tutoring companies. It looks really janky. There's also a canadians studying abroad group that you can find
 
New York, NY. Any other Americans?

Anyone know how the first semester is structured curriculum wise?
 
@DendyPretendy let me know if you make one so I can join

@mcat_taker not sure if this is what you're looking for but it's an overview of the entire 4 years, this is 2015 so don't think 2016 is out yet

https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/...61/School-Medicine-Academic-Calendar-2015.pdf

Also, I assume you're taking the USMLE steps, I was hoping there are some Americans in my class cuz I heard most Canadians end up giving up on the USMLE's because of having to do both Australian and Canadian exams already. Canada is my plan A and US my plan B so I definitely plan on writing the step exams, I've already purchased Kaplan study notes and have been reading through the biochemistry book (I know it's too soon but I come from an engineering background and my science courses are very minimal).
 
@DendyPretendy let me know if you make one so I can join

@mcat_taker not sure if this is what you're looking for but it's an overview of the entire 4 years, this is 2015 so don't think 2016 is out yet

https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/...61/School-Medicine-Academic-Calendar-2015.pdf

Also, I assume you're taking the USMLE steps, I was hoping there are some Americans in my class cuz I heard most Canadians end up giving up on the USMLE's because of having to do both Australian and Canadian exams already. Canada is my plan A and US my plan B so I definitely plan on writing the step exams, I've already purchased Kaplan study notes and have been reading through the biochemistry book (I know it's too soon but I come from an engineering background and my science courses are very minimal).

Thanks that was useful. Guess the breaks aren't that long? Looks like 4th year elective and selective is our only opportunity to do U.S. rotations.

Forgot that Australian schools don't require pre reqs like US schools do. Happy reading!
 
Los Angeles, CA here.

What would be my best move, getting student university housing ? Or trying to find an apartment once I'm down there?

My plan is to go with Griffith University Village for the first year until I get my bearings and figure out where I want to stay for the next 2-3 years.
 
HEY ALL, I'm joining you guys next year! Let's get the party started.


Anyone made a facebook group yet?
 
There's a group made already on Facebook for the whole class of 2019. If you can't find it I'd be happy to direct you to it =D
 
Yeah I sent a request to join a while ago but nobody seems to want to accept me! LOL I would appreciate it if someone can do that for me if they're already in the group.


I'm also considering living in the University Village in my first year since I won't have time to look for places before I fly to Australia.
 
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How did you guys find your accommodation? How much is it to live in the University Village? I think i saw it cost around 245/wk... does this include utilities+wifi?
 
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