South African/ US citizen and Australian/ NZ med school?

[Medico290]

Hi,

I'm interested in attending medical school in Australia or New Zealand. I was born in South Africa and grew up in the Pennsylvania, I am both a South African and Untied States citizen.

My stats:

@top 100 US university
GPA: 3.10
Degree: Bachelor Science in Physics & one in Chemistry
MCAT: 26P (9 PS/ 8 VR/ 9 BS)

What schools would I be a good candidate for in Australia or New Zealand?

I am also open to studying in Singapore. But I'd really like to stay in the South Pacific. It's my ultimate goal to practice in Australia, NZ, SA, or the US.

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[SilentNight]

Hi -
It is such a coincidence that I checked SDN to find your post. I am also a dual citizen (SA + USA).

Your ultimate goal is quite vague and each country differs in its healthcare system. I can tell you that not many doctors move to SA to practice and in fact there are a large number of South African-trained doctors immigrating to Aus or NZ. Why? Lifestyle and better healthcare system. Also, compensation in SA is far less. If you love the outdoors - NZ and Aus are great countries to be in AND plenty of South African expats, so you can feast on biltong, boerwors, etc.

If SA is your ultimate place to practice then apply to University of Cape Town MBChB programme. It is a very inexpensive school, but quite a long training programme (6 yr study + 1 yr community service + >3 yr training).

Australia has postgraduate 4-year MBBS programmes while NZ has postgraduate 5-year MBChB programmes. With your current stats, I would say you stand a chance of getting into Australia or NZ, but you are still not considered highly competitive.

Hope this helps! Cheers!

 

[Medico290]

Hi -
It is such a coincidence that I checked SDN to find your post. I am also a dual citizen (SA + USA).

Your ultimate goal is quite vague and each country differs in its healthcare system. I can tell you that not many doctors move to SA to practice and in fact there are a large number of South African-trained doctors immigrating to Aus or NZ. Why? Lifestyle and better healthcare system. Also, compensation in SA is far less. If you love the outdoors - NZ and Aus are great countries to be in AND plenty of South African expats, so you can feast on biltong, boerwors, etc.

If SA is your ultimate place to practice then apply to University of Cape Town MBChB programme. It is a very inexpensive school, but quite a long training programme (6 yr study + 1 yr community service + >3 yr training).

Australia has postgraduate 4-year MBBS programmes while NZ has postgraduate 5-year MBChB programmes. With your current stats, I would say you stand a chance of getting into Australia or NZ, but you are still not considered highly competitive.

Hope this helps! Cheers!

Thanks SilentNight! Yeah, I know my goal is kind of vague. I'm just happy to practice medicine anywhere I guess. SA is probably something that is far off in the future, like you said bad compensation. So I'll have to wait until I've paid off my student loan debt to go back, I've still got close family there though.

 

[SilentNight]

Yeah I have family in SA still too. I wish you the best on your decision where you are going to study and practice. Those student loans are going to take a while to pay off, but if it's your dream then go for it.

 

[Rotors]

We have two medical schools; Otago and Auckland

Otago does not take international graduates who are non citizens or permanent residents

Auckland might but you must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and complete a Post Graduate qualification in New Zealand to be eligible for consideration

Not looking too flash sorry mate

Oh FWIW we do not use MCAT or GAMSAT we use UMAT because Medicine is an undergraduate degree

 

[SilentNight]

We have two medical schools; Otago and Auckland

Otago does not take international graduates who are non citizens or permanent residents

Auckland might but you must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and complete a Post Graduate qualification in New Zealand to be eligible for consideration

Not looking too flash sorry mate

Oh FWIW we do not use MCAT or GAMSAT we use UMAT because Medicine is an undergraduate degree

Just to clarify - University of Auckland accepts international applicants provided they have obtained a Bachelor degree already. No UMAT is required for international students and they generally accept a very small # of international students (~10% of the student cohort). I believe the criteria of ranking international students are on grades (60%) and interview (40%).

 

[Rotors]

Just to clarify - University of Auckland accepts international applicants provided they have obtained a Bachelor degree already. No UMAT is required for international students and they generally accept a very small # of international students (~10% of the student cohort). I believe the criteria of ranking international students are on grades (60%) and interview (40%).

Oops I didn't look further down the FAQ document, my bad

International graduate applicants must have completed a relevant degree (e.g. Biomedical Science, Biological Science, etc) from a recognised university in New Zealand or overseas, and UMAT is not required.

International graduate applicants will be assessed on the basis of their academic achievements and an interview. Interviews for international graduate applicants normally take place in September.

So I'm not sure if a Chemistry degree is "relevant"; and it looks like international tuition is NZD70,000 per year, ouch.

This bloke is best to contact [email protected] and ask them!

 

[Lots2offer]

If you do decide to study in South Africa, I recommend Wits and University of Pretoria, both very good schools. I like UCT for its location,close to the sea

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