University of Sydney 2016

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mcat_taker said:
Thanks :) Do you know of any other Aussie schools that I can still apply to where spots are available this late? Also do you know whats competitive for the new mcat for sydney? Do they interview everyone who gets at least 500?
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The website says above a 500 will get invited for an interview assuming you meet the GPA hurdle
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Ok well I just got a 500 today lol. So I'm applying. Did you guys apply directly or through an agent? I submitted my app today directly. It's the doctor of medicine program right? Its not called an MBBS or any other bs like that right? (Just making sure since I remember Australian "doctorate" degrees used to be research based).
 
mcat_taker said:
Ok well I just got a 500 today lol. So I'm applying. Did you guys apply directly or through an agent? I submitted my app today directly. It's the doctor of medicine program right? Its not called an MBBS or any other bs like that right? (Just making sure since I remember Australian "doctorate" degrees used to be research based).
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I applied directly. It seemed easier in the end to me. haha And, yes, it is the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program.
 
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Did anyone hear anything? I stayed up late again last night and nothing. haha
 
Stayed up as well. No word.
 
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I called last night and the woman said Thursday or Friday...but at this point who knows
 
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aetern954 said:
I applied directly. It seemed easier in the end to me. haha And, yes, it is the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program.
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How will I know if I have an interview. Once you submit the app do they email you for interview?
 
How did you guys upload official transcripts? I just got an email from them saying I need to upload official ones. I'm pretty sure I can get an electronic official transcript from one of my schools emailed (not uploaded to the portal) but my other school only does snail mail ugh.
 
greatjoe4life said:
I called last night and the woman said Thursday or Friday...but at this point who knows
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Hey all,

Somebody called today and they said they haven't gone through all the applications yet so it might even be middle of next week. This is what she said:

"Yeah sure thing. I spoke to the person on the "outside of Australia" international line. Hopefully they get through thingst by tmrw anyhow...but according to him, middle of next week. Boo."

EDIT: I guess not!!! Offers are out!
 
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accepted. Good luck to everyone and I hope to see y'all soon.
 
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Guys will you post your MCAT scores for us second rounders??

Congratttts to everyone!!!
 
Accepted as well! Congratulations to everyone that got accepted first round! Looking forward to second round to see who will be down there as well! =)
 
Congratulations to you guys!! Is there a DMD version of this thread?
 
Maruko said:
Did you apply to UQ?
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Application closed before I could for regular UQ lol. The reason I said that was because 2 years in the states makes a huge difference (in fact required by many residency programs) in terms of getting residency in the states. I personally know a lot of IMGs and they're brilliant people, but have had no luck because of this.
 
emerald6392 said:
Application closed before I could for regular UQ lol. The reason I said that was because 2 years in the states makes a huge difference (in fact required by many residency programs) in terms of getting residency in the states. I personally know a lot of IMGs and they're brilliant people, but have had no luck because of this.
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Yes, that's true.
But in terms of quality of education, though, I THINK that Sydney is better.
9/10 people have said that "lectures' quality is poor" at UQ...
 
Maruko said:
Yes, that's true.
But in terms of quality of education, though, I THINK that Sydney is a bit better.
9/10 people have said that "lectures' quality is poor" at UQ...
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I've heard people complain for both schools honestly. Something about Sydney not training you well in basic sciences while UQ has too many people (which they've addressed this year by admitting 90 instead of 130 internationals). I think people tend to expect medical schools to spoonfeed them like undergrad, but I think these problems can be seen in pretty much every medical school. I think you just have to be good at studying on your own no matter where you go.
 
emerald6392 said:
I've heard people complain for both schools honestly. Something about Sydney not training you well in basic sciences while UQ has too many people (which they've addressed this year by admitting 90 instead of 130 internationals).
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Really? Some people on here said that UQ INCREASES its class size this year to 120...
 
emerald6392 said:
I've heard people complain for both schools honestly. Something about Sydney not training you well in basic sciences while UQ has too many people (which they've addressed this year by admitting 90 instead of 130 internationals). I think people tend to expect medical schools to spoonfeed them like undergrad, but I think these problems can be seen in pretty much every medical school. I think you just have to be good at studying on your own no matter where you go.
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UQ has 120 in ochsner cohort and 110 internationals in regular cohort and 300 australians. Thats 530 per class.
 
mcat_taker said:
Ok. I was just going off of info I saw on a powerpoint slide during their webinar. Not sure why there would be a discrepancy. Ozztrek is also a secondary source and may not have their facts right.
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Oztrekk is pretty darn on top of their s*** but who knows. Either could have messed up on their numbers, although, I did see them change the numbers on their website from 130 to 90 since I've obsessively checked info about UQ before they've closed for 2016 intake.

But what matters is the number definitely went down from last year...they closed around the end of October last year and this year it was mid-July.
 
Maruko said:
Really? Some people on here said that UQ INCREASES its class size this year to 120...
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Just goes to show - careful with who you listen to.

A decrease in int'l student numbers in the regular program had been part of the plan as Ochsner numbers increased, so maybe this is the start of that.
 
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In their email, sydney said that they would be sending the official admission offer within the next 2 weeks. Did anyone receive one yet?
 
My file is finally complete with them. Looking forward to some good news for second round.
 
invincible64 said:
In their email, sydney said that they would be sending the official admission offer within the next 2 weeks. Did anyone receive one yet?
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I haven't received anything either. Glad to hear that I am not the only one though. haha Hopefully it happens early next week, since it is the weekend there now. I want to start digging in. I am anxious to see what all is going to be involved with putting down a deposit and also start figuring out the financial side of things.
 
petyr_baelish said:
Offers out, peeved that USyd won't take American Express. It'd be nice to accumulate all of those miles.
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I know, right!? Are you paying the full amount? I checked in with fin. aid and they are issuing a new offer letter that only asks for 5% of the annual tuition as a deposit instead of 50%.
 
Maruko said:
Accepted but not going (going for UQ-O instead) :)
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Would you mind telling us your reasons of giving up Sydney in favor of UQ-O? It appears that Sydney has several advantages that UQ-O does not have:
1. USyd tuition is about US$14K/year less than UQ-O based on current foreign exchange, and it seems that in the next 4 years the exchange rate is more likely to be more favorable for USD.
2. UQ-O had an about 10% increase in tuition from 2015 to 2016, while Sydney only increased tuition by a normal rate. It is at least an indication that UQ-O tends to hike tuition more than normal practice. If it does keep that trend, it'll be terrible in the next 4 years.
3. USyd is ranked much higher than UQ worldwide. So in case in future one plans to use the degree in another country or even in the US, USyd's degree will be more valuable than UQ or UQ-O's degree. Many also say that USyd's education quality is better. So less money for better education.
4. It seems that UQ-O's students are not allowed to do residency in NY state, as of present, but USyd's students do not have such restrictions. Note that NY residency spaces account for a very large percentage in the total number of residency spots in the US. That means a significantly reduced changes of getting a match for UQ-O students.
5. Sydney is a famous world city regardless of personal taste. Living in the city while studying in Australia can be a good experience.

UQ-O's only advantage is its two years in Ochsner, which is perceived to boost the chances of getting residency match. But USyd also offers some flexibility of doing some clinic rotations in US, making Ochsner rotation slightly less of an advantage. Combined with the fact of being excluded from NY state in residency match, the Ochsner advantage is even less. The Ochsner's advantage for US residency match is only perceived to be an advantage, but ultimately the odds of getting a match is determined by many factors including personal efforts. Do you think that such a small perceived advantage worth the extra tuition and being excluded from NY match?
 
bobiest said:
Would you mind telling us your reasons of giving up Sydney in favor of UQ-O? It appears that Sydney has several advantages that UQ-O does not have:
1. USyd tuition is about US$14K/year less than UQ-O based on current foreign exchange, and it seems that in the next 4 years the exchange rate is more likely to be more favorable for USD.
2. UQ-O had an about 10% increase in tuition from 2015 to 2016, while Sydney only increased tuition by a normal rate. It is at least an indication that UQ-O tends to hike tuition more than normal practice. If it does keep that trend, it'll be terrible in the next 4 years.
3. USyd is ranked much higher than UQ worldwide. So in case in future one plans to use the degree in another country or even in the US, USyd's degree will be more valuable than UQ or UQ-O's degree. Many also say that USyd's education quality is better. So less money for better education.
4. It seems that UQ-O's students are not allowed to do residency in NY state, as of present, but USyd's students do not have such restrictions. Note that NY residency spaces account for a very large percentage in the total number of residency spots in the US. That means a significantly reduced changes of getting a match for UQ-O students.
5. Sydney is a famous world city regardless of personal taste. Living in the city while studying in Australia can be a good experience.

UQ-O's only advantage is its two years in Ochsner, which is perceived to boost the chances of getting residency match. But USyd also offers some flexibility of doing some clinic rotations in US, making Ochsner rotation slightly less of an advantage. Combined with the fact of being excluded from NY state in residency match, the Ochsner advantage is even less. The Ochsner's advantage for US residency match is only perceived to be an advantage, but ultimately the odds of getting a match is determined by many factors including personal efforts. Do you think that such a small perceived advantage worth the extra tuition and being excluded from NY match?
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I don't mind. Did you get accepted to Usyd? :)
I know that Usyd reputation is better than UQ and education quality is better as well (as I've only heard good things about it vs. people saying UQ is "disorganized"). But there are reasons that I have to choose UQ-O:
1/ 2 years clinical rotations in Ochsner makes a difference. SOME residencies out there require "at least 1 year of clinical rotations in the US" for IMGs to be considered, and those happen to be in the 2 states that I want.
2/ Money issue: (a) Sydney is a very expensive place to live in (even more than NYC), (b) I'd want to do US electives but flying back and forth would cost lots of money...
3/ For family reason, I'd prefer NOT staying for more than 2 years in Australia.
I know UQ-O not being approved in NY atm is a disadvantage, but I really hope that it'll get approved before I graduate...
 
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bobiest said:
Would you mind telling us your reasons of giving up Sydney in favor of UQ-O? It appears that Sydney has several advantages that UQ-O does not have:
1. USyd tuition is about US$14K/year less than UQ-O based on current foreign exchange, and it seems that in the next 4 years the exchange rate is more likely to be more favorable for USD.
2. UQ-O had an about 10% increase in tuition from 2015 to 2016, while Sydney only increased tuition by a normal rate. It is at least an indication that UQ-O tends to hike tuition more than normal practice. If it does keep that trend, it'll be terrible in the next 4 years.
3. USyd is ranked much higher than UQ worldwide. So in case in future one plans to use the degree in another country or even in the US, USyd's degree will be more valuable than UQ or UQ-O's degree. Many also say that USyd's education quality is better. So less money for better education.
4. It seems that UQ-O's students are not allowed to do residency in NY state, as of present, but USyd's students do not have such restrictions. Note that NY residency spaces account for a very large percentage in the total number of residency spots in the US. That means a significantly reduced changes of getting a match for UQ-O students.
5. Sydney is a famous world city regardless of personal taste. Living in the city while studying in Australia can be a good experience.

UQ-O's only advantage is its two years in Ochsner, which is perceived to boost the chances of getting residency match. But USyd also offers some flexibility of doing some clinic rotations in US, making Ochsner rotation slightly less of an advantage. Combined with the fact of being excluded from NY state in residency match, the Ochsner advantage is even less. The Ochsner's advantage for US residency match is only perceived to be an advantage, but ultimately the odds of getting a match is determined by many factors including personal efforts. Do you think that such a small perceived advantage worth the extra tuition and being excluded from NY match?
Click to expand...


Also I believe Usyd lets you do two electives abroad, which are 8 weeks each. That's nothing compared to two years in the US and it definitely doesn't fulfill the at least 1 year of clinical experience requirement in the US for the bulk of US residency programs as Maruko stated. I've heard of residency programs that require a minimum of 2 years in the US also.


And about living costs in Sydney, I wonder if people have managed to do part time jobs while in medical school?
 
emerald6392 said:
And about living costs in Sydney, I wonder if people have managed to do part time jobs while in medical school?
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some people here said they did work part-time during med school, but i imagine one has to be really good at time management bc medical curriculum is intense.
 
emerald6392 said:
And about living costs in Sydney, I wonder if people have managed to do part time jobs while in medical school?
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I know a few who have jobs (mostly fast food) but also quite a number who weren't really able to commit to a job/find a job (i.e. no jobs available nearby or it doesn't accommodate our schedules). As someone who has a background in finance, there aren't many opportunities in the field available for international students to work part-time (schedules clash) or they require PR/citizenship. Accountants are in demand though and I qualify for many of the positions but accounting part-time jobs feel like full-time jobs. Investments and some moderate securities trading part-time is what I do with what little free time I have. I find it entertaining to be honest while making quite a bit of money as markets mostly move the same from positive/negative news regardless of where you are in the world.

Costs are quite high relative to Canada. $2000/month for a 1BR apartment is a bit asinine considering I can do better in Toronto for only $1600/month. Groceries cost me about $100/week but I tend to eat out more often than not. I do suggest budgeting properly early on as some of my colleagues who rely solely on loans were too extravagant in their first year and will be facing quite a bit of financial uncertainty.
 
emerald6392 said:
Also I believe Usyd lets you do two electives abroad, which are 8 weeks each. That's nothing compared to two years in the US and it definitely doesn't fulfill the at least 1 year of clinical experience requirement in the US for the bulk of US residency programs as Maruko stated. I've heard of residency programs that require a minimum of 2 years in the US also.


And about living costs in Sydney, I wonder if people have managed to do part time jobs while in medical school?
Click to expand...

I think it isn't fair to say that a bulk of residency programs require 1 year of US-based clinical experience. I didn't look into it heavily, but I pulled up about 50 programs that I feel like I would be interested in based on location and specialty and found no such qualification except for 2 of them. One of them even said that the one year requirement could be met by being in a US-like setting, such as Australia or Ireland. Just from that basic sweep it seems that it is more as Maruko said: SOME. Maybe your information is coming from research for a particular specialty or geographic area? And maybe I am not seeing something right. haha

Also, the flex study document is a little confusing but I think you can do 3 electives abroad. 1. Either a Core or Speciality block; 2. Elective block; 3. PRINT block
 
aetern954 said:
I think it isn't fair to say that a bulk of residency programs require 1 year of US-based clinical experience. I didn't look into it heavily, but I pulled up about 50 programs that I feel like I would be interested in based on location and specialty and found no such qualification except for 2 of them. One of them even said that the one year requirement could be met by being in a US-like setting, such as Australia or Ireland. Just from that basic sweep it seems that it is more as Maruko said: SOME. Maybe your information is coming from research for a particular specialty or geographic area? And maybe I am not seeing something right. haha

Also, the flex study document is a little confusing but I think you can do 3 electives abroad. 1. Either a Core or Speciality block; 2. Elective block; 3. PRINT block
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About the 1 or 2 year requirement, this is what I've been told by my prehealth advisor at my college (in the US).

I work at a non-profit community health clinic where the majority of the providers are IMGs who are here practicing under a US-licensed doctor's supervision so they can get the required amount of clinical experience time down. From the IMGs that I know who have been applying to residency programs, I heard that some do require 2 years of clinical experience. Now, you are correct that I don't know what residency programs they were specifically applying to. It could be that specialties that are considered less competitive are more likely to have the 1 year requirement and vice versa for more competitive programs. From what I've heard from the IMGs, there are some that have been trying to accumulate hours to total two years. Obviously I would still encourage people to do the research themselves (particularly, by contacting programs directly) to see what the requirements are since they can be changing at any time also. But as of this moment, the things I'm stating is based on what my prehealth advisor has told me when I said I wanted to study in Australia.

For the flex study, I guess that gives you 24 weeks in the US in that case. Thanks for clearing that up.

Do you know if non-US citizens are able to undertake those elective blocks in the US also?
 
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emerald6392 said:
About the 1 or 2 year requirement, this is what I've been told by my prehealth advisor at my college (in the US).

I work at a non-profit community health clinic where the majority of the providers are IMGs who are here practicing under a US-licensed doctor's supervision so they can get the required amount of clinical experience time down. From the IMGs that I know who have been applying to residency programs, I heard that some do require 2 years of clinical experience. Now, you are correct that I don't know what residency programs they were specifically applying to. It could be that specialties that are considered less competitive are more likely to have the 1 year requirement and vice versa for more competitive programs. From what I've heard from the IMGs, there are some that have been trying to accumulate hours to total two years. I think you could go ahead and trust what you are seeing on those program websites and contact the programs you might be interested in directly as obviously what I'm saying is based on what I've heard from IMGs and not the programs themselves.

For the flex study, I guess that gives you 24 weeks in the US in that case. Thanks for clearing that up.

Do you know if non-US citizens are able to undertake those elective blocks in the US also?
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Thanks for the clarification! I haven't seen any programs so far that say 2 years are required. I am only looking at internal medicine programs though. Some explicitly say they don't require any US experience. Some don't list requirements of any kind just that IMGs have ECFMG certification. One program flat out said to not apply if you don't have one year of US clinical or research experience. One said one year in the US or US-like setting. A small percentage but bigger than the one year requirements had criteria of 3 months US experience. I saw a good sampling of that. Again, I don't know if there is a further factor here, but that is what I have found so far. Internal medicine is bound to be way different from more competitive specialties.

I am pretty sure that as long as you secure your rotations and get it cleared with USyd then you can do all 3 of those options as long as you are in an international student seat. Here is the link to the document that explains all of the away rotation information: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/study/md/pacific_bridge_flexible_study.pdf I think the PRINT term will be the only one that would be in question, since it talks about country of origin. I don't know how they define that.
 
aetern954 said:
Thanks for the clarification! I haven't seen any programs so far that say 2 years are required. I am only looking at internal medicine programs though. Some explicitly say they don't require any US experience. Some don't list requirements of any kind just that IMGs have ECFMG certification. One program flat out said to not apply if you don't have one year of US clinical or research experience. One said one year in the US or US-like setting. A small percentage but bigger than the one year requirements had criteria of 3 months US experience. I saw a good sampling of that. Again, I don't know if there is a further factor here, but that is what I have found so far. Internal medicine is bound to be way different from more competitive specialties.

I am pretty sure that as long as you secure your rotations and get it cleared with USyd then you can do all 3 of those options as long as you are in an international student seat. Here is the link to the document that explains all of the away rotation information: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/study/md/pacific_bridge_flexible_study.pdf I think the PRINT term will be the only one that would be in question, since it talks about country of origin. I don't know how they define that.
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Thanks! Very helpful--these websites are so not user friendly in finding information that you actually need.
 
Whoa, there are some updates on this thread. Congrats on all who got accepted. If you end up at USyd, we'll have a beer or something
bobiest said:
4. It seems that UQ-O's students are not allowed to do residency in NY state, as of present, but USyd's students do not have such restrictions. Note that NY residency spaces account for a very large percentage in the total number of residency spots in the US. That means a significantly reduced changes of getting a match for UQ-O students.
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This is restriction is for any IMG who do more than 12 weeks of placement outside of the country the school is based at. Some of USyd students would have the same restriction placed on them because they wanted to do more electives in U.S. You can either choose to do less than 12 weeks of elective and be eligible for NY residencies or do couple more electives and make connections. I'm thinking about doing the latter.

Maruko said:
I know that Usyd reputation is better than UQ and education quality is better as well (as I've only heard good things about it vs. people saying UQ is "disorganized").
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Oh boy, USyd's got its own sets of disorganisation at the moment because of the rather recent change to MD (as oppsoed to MBBS). It's part of the growing pain and all the MD research kinks are getting worked out.

emerald6392 said:
Also I believe Usyd lets you do two electives abroad, which are 8 weeks each.
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USyd allows how ever many electives you can fit into between last week of November and 2nd/3rd week of March, which turns out to be around 15 weeks. Most US electives are around 4 weeks long.
On top of that, you can do a 4 or 8 weeks of core block in the students' country of origin via Pacific Bridge Initiative and 8 week Pre-Internship in the student's country of origin (You can either to core block or specialty block oversea. You cannot do both oversea).
Yeah, it turns out to be about half a year total.
 
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Does anyone know if its possible to get a student loan from an Australian Bank if I have an Australian citizen who is willing to co-sign or be a guarantor?
 
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