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.
If you're Canadian, CIBC gives 275k at a pretty decent rate
So Griffith accepts MCAT? I only see that they listed GAMSAT under their requirement page.
oh right! Sorry! Thank you for replying.Look under international requirements. Every school has separate requirements for domestic and international students.
You can try asking to postpone the deposit as I did with UQ-O.Lapse date of offer is a month, but if I don't pay the deposit my spot isn't guaranteed.
You can try asking to postpone the deposit as I did with UQ-O.
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 . 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.
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
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?
How do you know that the deposit is refundable? Do you mind providing a link?
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
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.
@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).
What would be my best move, getting student university housing ? Or trying to find an apartment once I'm down there?
@HibikiR Did you get a solo apartment at the GUV?