2011-2012 Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

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sweetsecrets said:
hey smurfedmcat... it went well I hope? I'm not too sure how i fared though. It's really hard to tell cause my interview questions were quite out of the norm I think. ><

And yeah don't give up hope yet guys, i too received the email saying that they are actively reviewing my application.


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Dont worry...thats always the case!!! It is weird that I have never received such an email from them.....was that email a reply to your query or just sent around to all the students!!
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pagenguyen said:
Yeah.. me too. And I wonder how many applications they have for just 54 spots.
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actually i know of at least 6 people who have been offered early admissions...
 
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I had my interview in november and they said the have sent about 20 acceptance letters already. so a little bit more than that now
 
Same here, also received an email telling me that my application is still in active review. No choice, just wait. I remember Dr. Kamei told us during the interview that about 20 people have already been accepted though...
 
i think most, if not all of those acceptances were for the locals because the north American interviews didnt start until November
 
I know someone who interviewed at Durham and has been accepted.
 
hi doctorflower, which interview session you went for in Nov? I had my interview in Nov too but never heard abt the 20 acceptances
 
justdoooit said:
i think most, if not all of those acceptances were for the locals because the north American interviews didnt start until November
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not necessarily, not all those interviewed in singapore are locals. probably around 40-50% of them on my interview day didn't sound local...? (correct me if i remembered wrongly, ncrassa!)
 
anyone invited to interviews in early 2012?
 
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oh, yeah. i think i saw that you interviewed in durham. is duke-nus your top choice? any ties to singapore?
 
Yeah..it's my first choice. It is pretty interesting because in my interview, most of the people did not regard duke-nus as their top choice...
 
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Suc, about seventy percent in our interview group were locals, I think. You're right that some people were definitely international citizens.
 
any idea how many applicants' day has been held or will be held?
 
Really? there are people who received an email saying your application is in active review? was it a reply to your question?
 
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No, I think it's sent for those who applied for early acceptance. I got one saying that I was pulled to the regular pool and still in active review...
 
i'm not too sure, but i doubt so, given how diverse each class had been.
 
The wait is really long and depressing....!! anybody else getting emails saying their application were moved to regular pool!!
 
I'm quite worried that it seems I'm the almost only one who didn't get any email yet.
I also had my interview at Durham but they didn't tell me anything if my application was pulled to the regular pool, rejected or accepted..
what does this mean? I hope this is a good sign!
 
huddy said:
I'm quite worried that it seems I'm the almost only one who didn't get any email yet.
I also had my interview at Durham but they didn't tell me anything if my application was pulled to the regular pool, rejected or accepted..
what does this mean? I hope this is a good sign!
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I didnt as well :'(
 
so i'm guessing it's not really rolling admission if everyone has to wait till feb/march?
 
To anyone who is applying for Duke NUS, this is just a take from the inside to list some if the more negative aspects which you might not see.( Some of the comments are not unique to Duke NUS , but are just what I feel. )
1) It is a really expensive course for anyone contemplating to enter the course at a annual course of 40000 SGD per annum. It costs 109 SGD per day for the course and bare minimum life expenditure it will cost 120SGD per day. Beware of the opportunity costs which you are accumulating as you are in the course, with very average assumptions, the total cost you will have would be around 200SGD per day at a cost of 80000SGD per year.

So unless you may be offered the 10 odd full scholarships the school is offering I reckon you reconsider.
2) Now let us take a look at career prospects, You may think that there will be definitely good career prospects for yourself as a doctor, but normally, this is only so for those at the tip of the pyramid. After graduating from the school, you will have to fight for the minimal training positions in the various health groups in the country. Estimates have it that only 40% of students getting training spots, this is the figure for slots when considering the absolute. When we think about the more lucrative spots like neurosurgery, orthopedics and dermatology, the figure will be going lower.

The school may tell you that the figure is currently being increased by the Singapore healthcare system and the figure is still unknown. And those situations will be improving.
3) But. There are difficulties in these as well. Even through the many years of encouraging doctors to stay in the public sector, there has been a general attrition of doctors towards private practice. This would largely limit the increase in mentors we can have in the system which we would need to increase the training spots.
And Singapore is also boosting the number of new medical trainees who enter the system. This is done through the NTU medical school, attraction of local students back from foreign universities( from formerly unaccepted countries like India, Russia and China) and opening the doors to foreign trainees.
So it is true that the situation is still evolving, but it in the next few years will likely to difficult as the supply of spots will be limited. ( And it may be totally gone when a certain category of doctors exceed required quantity) Kind of like a good pyramid scheme, the ones who get in first gets the most benefits
4) As for those who managed to get into the system, at the junior level, all signs haveit pointing to you will have low pay in the public sector, many hours. It is highly political and nepotic .
5) Well, we have come to an end for now, to many people who say that they want to do medicine because of they wish to help people. Well look at our respected Tan Tock Seng, Ng Teng Fong and Khoo Teck Phuat, many of them have contributed far more to the education of clinicians and treatment of patients. So if you can earn outside the healthcare, just do so and donate. I am sure you will provide more help.

If you have any questions, just let me know, i will try to give a side which is not given by the marketers.
 
hi angelheart8, thank you for sharing. Any idea what are the criteria for scholarships? Is it really academic based? I'm thinking of retaking my MCAT even though i had been to applicants' day already.
 
angelheart8 said:
To anyone who is applying for Duke NUS, this is just a take from the inside to list some if the more negative aspects which you might not see.( Some of the comments are not unique to Duke NUS , but are just what I feel. )
1) It is a really expensive course for anyone contemplating to enter the course at a annual course of 40000 SGD per annum. It costs 109 SGD per day for the course and bare minimum life expenditure it will cost 120SGD per day. Beware of the opportunity costs which you are accumulating as you are in the course, with very average assumptions, the total cost you will have would be around 200SGD per day at a cost of 80000SGD per year.

So unless you may be offered the 10 odd full scholarships the school is offering I reckon you reconsider.
2) Now let us take a look at career prospects, You may think that there will be definitely good career prospects for yourself as a doctor, but normally, this is only so for those at the tip of the pyramid. After graduating from the school, you will have to fight for the minimal training positions in the various health groups in the country. Estimates have it that only 40% of students getting training spots, this is the figure for slots when considering the absolute. When we think about the more lucrative spots like neurosurgery, orthopedics and dermatology, the figure will be going lower.

The school may tell you that the figure is currently being increased by the Singapore healthcare system and the figure is still unknown. And those situations will be improving.
3) But. There are difficulties in these as well. Even through the many years of encouraging doctors to stay in the public sector, there has been a general attrition of doctors towards private practice. This would largely limit the increase in mentors we can have in the system which we would need to increase the training spots.
And Singapore is also boosting the number of new medical trainees who enter the system. This is done through the NTU medical school, attraction of local students back from foreign universities( from formerly unaccepted countries like India, Russia and China) and opening the doors to foreign trainees.
So it is true that the situation is still evolving, but it in the next few years will likely to difficult as the supply of spots will be limited. ( And it may be totally gone when a certain category of doctors exceed required quantity) Kind of like a good pyramid scheme, the ones who get in first gets the most benefits
4) As for those who managed to get into the system, at the junior level, all signs haveit pointing to you will have low pay in the public sector, many hours. It is highly political and nepotic .
5) Well, we have come to an end for now, to many people who say that they want to do medicine because of they wish to help people. Well look at our respected Tan Tock Seng, Ng Teng Fong and Khoo Teck Phuat, many of them have contributed far more to the education of clinicians and treatment of patients. So if you can earn outside the healthcare, just do so and donate. I am sure you will provide more help.

If you have any questions, just let me know, i will try to give a side which is not given by the marketers.
Click to expand...


Thank you, angelheart8!! These inside opinions are indeed very valuable.

It is true that even though Duke-NUS people say that their tuition is subsidized by Singapore government, the tuition in fact (~S$40,000 without room, board and living expense fee, correct me if I'm wrong) is still as high as a medical school in America (~$60,000 including room and board). In term of admission, fee and financial aid, the only thing that makes this school different is that they widely accept and give financial aid to international students. Although I am not sure how much aid they give out, compared to US medical schools, they are quite generous. Also in addition to MCAT, GPA, recommendation, extracurricular activities, etc, in order to apply to a US medical school, applicants are required to have at least 2 years of training in a credited American college. This is not a requirement at Duke-NUS so the school attracts lots of local people, foreigners study in China, India...I doubt that any international students who is admitted into a US medical school and has no tight to Singapore really consider Duke-NUS as their first choice.

In term of program, Duke-NUS has a very unique MD program adapted from Duke, which is why I apply. I would love to hear more inside opinions/critics about this program at Duke-NUS.
 
angelheart8 said:
To anyone who is applying for Duke NUS, this is just a take from the inside to list some if the more negative aspects which you might not see.( Some of the comments are not unique to Duke NUS , but are just what I feel. )
1) It is a really expensive course for anyone contemplating to enter the course at a annual course of 40000 SGD per annum. It costs 109 SGD per day for the course and bare minimum life expenditure it will cost 120SGD per day. Beware of the opportunity costs which you are accumulating as you are in the course, with very average assumptions, the total cost you will have would be around 200SGD per day at a cost of 80000SGD per year.

So unless you may be offered the 10 odd full scholarships the school is offering I reckon you reconsider.
2) Now let us take a look at career prospects, You may think that there will be definitely good career prospects for yourself as a doctor, but normally, this is only so for those at the tip of the pyramid. After graduating from the school, you will have to fight for the minimal training positions in the various health groups in the country. Estimates have it that only 40% of students getting training spots, this is the figure for slots when considering the absolute. When we think about the more lucrative spots like neurosurgery, orthopedics and dermatology, the figure will be going lower.

The school may tell you that the figure is currently being increased by the Singapore healthcare system and the figure is still unknown. And those situations will be improving.
3) But. There are difficulties in these as well. Even through the many years of encouraging doctors to stay in the public sector, there has been a general attrition of doctors towards private practice. This would largely limit the increase in mentors we can have in the system which we would need to increase the training spots.
And Singapore is also boosting the number of new medical trainees who enter the system. This is done through the NTU medical school, attraction of local students back from foreign universities( from formerly unaccepted countries like India, Russia and China) and opening the doors to foreign trainees.
So it is true that the situation is still evolving, but it in the next few years will likely to difficult as the supply of spots will be limited. ( And it may be totally gone when a certain category of doctors exceed required quantity) Kind of like a good pyramid scheme, the ones who get in first gets the most benefits
4) As for those who managed to get into the system, at the junior level, all signs haveit pointing to you will have low pay in the public sector, many hours. It is highly political and nepotic .
5) Well, we have come to an end for now, to many people who say that they want to do medicine because of they wish to help people. Well look at our respected Tan Tock Seng, Ng Teng Fong and Khoo Teck Phuat, many of them have contributed far more to the education of clinicians and treatment of patients. So if you can earn outside the healthcare, just do so and donate. I am sure you will provide more help.

If you have any questions, just let me know, i will try to give a side which is not given by the marketers.
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Hi angelheart8,

From what I understand, the residency training places are more than that in the old BST and AST training route.

I think all the Duke-NUS graduates this year got into residency programs. From what I gathered, all graduates are expected to continue their training in residencies after graduation. It seems that the program is trying train clinicians with a specialised knowledge in an area so that they can possibly contribute to research in that area. It is not their aim to train general practitioners.

What is your take on this?

May I know whether you are working in healthcare or someone who has gone through medical education in Singapore?
 
angelheart8 said:
To anyone who is applying for Duke NUS, this is just a take from the inside to list some if the more negative aspects which you might not see.( Some of the comments are not unique to Duke NUS , but are just what I feel. )
1) It is a really expensive course for anyone contemplating to enter the course at a annual course of 40000 SGD per annum. It costs 109 SGD per day for the course and bare minimum life expenditure it will cost 120SGD per day. Beware of the opportunity costs which you are accumulating as you are in the course, with very average assumptions, the total cost you will have would be around 200SGD per day at a cost of 80000SGD per year.

So unless you may be offered the 10 odd full scholarships the school is offering I reckon you reconsider.
2) Now let us take a look at career prospects, You may think that there will be definitely good career prospects for yourself as a doctor, but normally, this is only so for those at the tip of the pyramid. After graduating from the school, you will have to fight for the minimal training positions in the various health groups in the country. Estimates have it that only 40% of students getting training spots, this is the figure for slots when considering the absolute. When we think about the more lucrative spots like neurosurgery, orthopedics and dermatology, the figure will be going lower.

The school may tell you that the figure is currently being increased by the Singapore healthcare system and the figure is still unknown. And those situations will be improving.
3) But. There are difficulties in these as well. Even through the many years of encouraging doctors to stay in the public sector, there has been a general attrition of doctors towards private practice. This would largely limit the increase in mentors we can have in the system which we would need to increase the training spots.
And Singapore is also boosting the number of new medical trainees who enter the system. This is done through the NTU medical school, attraction of local students back from foreign universities( from formerly unaccepted countries like India, Russia and China) and opening the doors to foreign trainees.
So it is true that the situation is still evolving, but it in the next few years will likely to difficult as the supply of spots will be limited. ( And it may be totally gone when a certain category of doctors exceed required quantity) Kind of like a good pyramid scheme, the ones who get in first gets the most benefits
4) As for those who managed to get into the system, at the junior level, all signs haveit pointing to you will have low pay in the public sector, many hours. It is highly political and nepotic .
5) Well, we have come to an end for now, to many people who say that they want to do medicine because of they wish to help people. Well look at our respected Tan Tock Seng, Ng Teng Fong and Khoo Teck Phuat, many of them have contributed far more to the education of clinicians and treatment of patients. So if you can earn outside the healthcare, just do so and donate. I am sure you will provide more help.

If you have any questions, just let me know, i will try to give a side which is not given by the marketers.
Click to expand...

hear, hear.

Guys here should realize that you're not applying for a school, you're applying for a life in Singapore. I understand that graduates from Duke-NUS will have to serve a 5(?) year bond with the public hospitals. So that means you'll be doing your residency/specialist training in Singapore, unless you're willing to serve out those years as a medical officer then go elsewhere and start from scratch. I attended a recruitment event in Sydney (I'm a M4) and upon questioning, the speaker said that ACGME-I is not the same as ACGME. And that after the transition, trainees will no longer sit for the UK royal college exams. Basically it means that you'll come out the other end with a specialist qualification that's only accepted in Singapore and it'll take a lot of impetus to move to another country and start over. Jolly well if you like Singapore but I would like to point out several factors that may cause you to reconsider:

  • The take-home pay is pretty low (at least initially) despite the low taxes, a local PGY1 in SG makes SGD2700/mth while a PGY1 in AU makes AUD4500/mth
  • Housing is expensive anywhere on the island, unlike bigger countries there's no cheap rural suburbs to move to. Of course its cheaper than, say, the heart of Sydney or London.
  • Cars are very expensive, though the public transport is very good so one can easily survive without a car. But that's not the point is it? An above average lifestyle is one of the reasons (be it major or minor) that you get into medicine.
  • Its getting more and more crowded, the population keeps increasing but infrastructure doesn't seem to catch up.
  • The weather, now this is personal preference but I find it too hot too humid.
  • The society, if you're not Chinese or at least asian, you may find it hard to communicate with some patients. I mean no offense but that's just the way the country is, older patients tend to speak their native language, be it a chinese dialect, malay or indian dialect, and they may prefer an asian doctor.
People tend to be short-sighted at certain stages of their lives, I certainly was. Don't be so focused on beating the competition and getting into the school that you lose sight of what you're really getting yourself into.
 
when's your applicant day, nutsie? I heard of acceptances on 23rd december for the october's batch. :X
 
sweetsecrets said:
when's your applicant day, nutsie? I heard of acceptances on 23rd december for the october's batch. :X
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Had mine in Nov.. Seems like from prev thread, most acceptance letters will be sent out in Mar.. Lets just wait it out..
 
hey smurfedmcat! have you received the 'still active review' email yet? I'm getting impatient.. arrggg should i ask them?
 
huddy said:
hey smurfedmcat! have you received the 'still active review' email yet? I'm getting impatient.. arrggg should i ask them?
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hey huddy, i think you shd go ahead and call them to find out. it will set your mind at ease.
 
Congrats smurfedmcat.. seems highly likely that an acceptance letter is on its way to you too huddy! By the way smurfedmcat, do they offer you the financial assistance package along with your acceptance? Was the acceptance made through regular mails or an email notification?
 
The acceptance was made through email as well as regular mail along with financial assistance package...
 
Oh and btw I did get the active review email as well!!! and thanks nutsie....
 
Hi guys! I got my acceptance early December and I'm completely psyched about starting school!! Best of luck everyone who's still waiting to hear from them!! :thumbup:
 
Did anybody in North America get any recent acceptances?
 
Smurfedmcat said:
The acceptance was made through email as well as regular mail along with financial assistance package...
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Hi Smurfedmcat, may I know whether the financial aid you got is enough to cover the school fees?
 
ppanther888 said:
Hi guys! I got my acceptance early December and I'm completely psyched about starting school!! Best of luck everyone who's still waiting to hear from them!! :thumbup:
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Congrats ppanther888, may i know when was your interview date?
 
Sogno said:
Hi Smurfedmcat, may I know whether the financial aid you got is enough to cover the school fees?
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Yes...Kind of....but since I am international I still have to bear some of my living expenses...
 
Nutsie said:
Congrats ppanther888, may i know when was your interview date?
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I'm actually a reapplicant (I was waitlisted last year but never got off it) so I didn't go through applicant day but instead I had to interview personally with Dr. Kamei at San Francisco and over Skype with Dr. Graham. The personal interview was on 10/30 and the Skype one was on 10/26. I believe the applicant day in SF was the day after my interview on 10/31.
 
ppanther888 said:
I'm actually a reapplicant (I was waitlisted last year but never got off it) so I didn't go through applicant day but instead I had to interview personally with Dr. Kamei at San Francisco and over Skype with Dr. Graham. The personal interview was on 10/30 and the Skype one was on 10/26. I believe the applicant day in SF was the day after my interview on 10/31.
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Determination pays off! So did you have to resubmit your application this year such as rewriting the essays and resubmitting LORs?
 
ppanther888 said:
I'm actually a reapplicant (I was waitlisted last year but never got off it) so I didn't go through applicant day but instead I had to interview personally with Dr. Kamei at San Francisco and over Skype with Dr. Graham. The personal interview was on 10/30 and the Skype one was on 10/26. I believe the applicant day in SF was the day after my interview on 10/31.
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I'm a reapplicant too! You are definitely giving me some hope =)
 
Nutsie said:
Determination pays off! So did you have to resubmit your application this year such as rewriting the essays and resubmitting LORs?
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I had to resubmit the app, but they let me keep the letters of rec in file. Though in the end I decided to get a new one and throw one out, as well as have another one re-written, to make my application more current. As for the personal statements, I kept most of them the same, but revised them a whole lot more and sent them out to a good friend of mine who successfully got into med school last year for more revision. I wrote an entirely new one for one of the them, though. I contemplated retaking the MCAT but decided against it.

keepontrying said:
I'm a reapplicant too! You are definitely giving me some hope =)
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Yay for reapplicants!! Did you also have to do the Skype interviews? When I interviewed with Dr. Kamei I asked him whether it was easier/harder for a reapplicant to get in and he said it was harder (without hesitation! In my head I was like! :eek:) but I guess it makes sense for any school. They want to see how much you've improved. I was initially worried whether I had done enough during the past year to qualify as having "improved" enough. I think it really helped that I have a journal publication underway and I've been working at a research lab since. Duke-NUS really does seem to value research very highly.

As an international student in the US, I had my best chances at Duke-NUS since US schools have a very small quota for internationals and tuition fees are crazy expensive. I was taking my chances this year by only applying to Duke-NUS (the only school I could realistically be accepted, and where I could actually pay tuition) and I'm so glad it worked out. I really like their Team-LEAD approach and I find their small class sizes more attractive since I graduated from a small liberal arts school.

Good luck to both of you, Nutsie and Keepontrying! I hope good news is coming your way soon! :)
 
hey ppanther888, congrats on your admission! the rest of us are still waiting for the letter (good/bad) to come. really happy for you that your determination paid off. :)
 
ppanther888 said:
I had to resubmit the app, but they let me keep the letters of rec in file. Though in the end I decided to get a new one and throw one out, as well as have another one re-written, to make my application more current. As for the personal statements, I kept most of them the same, but revised them a whole lot more and sent them out to a good friend of mine who successfully got into med school last year for more revision. I wrote an entirely new one for one of the them, though. I contemplated retaking the MCAT but decided against it.



Yay for reapplicants!! Did you also have to do the Skype interviews? When I interviewed with Dr. Kamei I asked him whether it was easier/harder for a reapplicant to get in and he said it was harder (without hesitation! In my head I was like! :eek:) but I guess it makes sense for any school. They want to see how much you've improved. I was initially worried whether I had done enough during the past year to qualify as having "improved" enough. I think it really helped that I have a journal publication underway and I've been working at a research lab since. Duke-NUS really does seem to value research very highly.

As an international student in the US, I had my best chances at Duke-NUS since US schools have a very small quota for internationals and tuition fees are crazy expensive. I was taking my chances this year by only applying to Duke-NUS (the only school I could realistically be accepted, and where I could actually pay tuition) and I'm so glad it worked out. I really like their Team-LEAD approach and I find their small class sizes more attractive since I graduated from a small liberal arts school.

Good luck to both of you, Nutsie and Keepontrying! I hope good news is coming your way soon! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks ppanther! I also did the skype interviews and Dr. Kamei said it's likely that reapplicants won't be accepted in the early round. He didn't say whether it was easier or harder though. I, too, have new publications and research presentations this year and got some new awards for my extracurricular so hopefully I have "improved" enough for the school to reconsider me. My gpa is definitely below average so I hope my good MCAT score will compensate for that =)
 
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