2013-2014 Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

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whyeh said:
Are you trolling with the comment "I realize that my stat might get me into nowhere in US if I apply right at this summer for next year's intake" ?????
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The major problem is that I don't have US citizenship/green card. My premed adviser told me that all successful intl applicants in our college history/she ever heard abt have 3.9ish GPA and 35+ MCAT, and applying US med schools with 3.7 GPA is really like rolling the dice.....
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Anecdotal, but brings home the point that lower grades don't eliminate US schools.

Yale international student with 34 MCAT and 3.5 GPA got interviews at Yale and Penn State. She was accepted to Penn, but not Yale.

She really highlighted her research strengths before she applied, securing more publications than I care to count.

If you shine in some way, 3.7 is great even for internationals.
 
I think you will get somewhere with that stats. My friend got into harvard-mit program with a 39 MCAT.

However consider Duke-NUS if you really want to stay in the long term. (You might as well get married and start a family there since there is a 5 year service commitment for international student after the med school)
 
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t-SNARE said:
The major problem is that I don't have US citizenship/green card. My premed adviser told me that all successful intl applicants in our college history/she ever heard abt have 3.9ish GPA and 35+ MCAT, and applying US med schools with 3.7 GPA is really like rolling the dice.....
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Forgive me if my comment seems hostile. Your stats from a top 10 school would definitely get you interviews if you apply broadly. Only consider Duke-NUS if Singapore is somewhere you would want to settle.
 
Any current MS from Duke-NUS here? May I know (1) how is the student culture at Duke-NUS? and (2) will the first year be very difficult? Thanks!
 
punkfish said:
Any current MS from Duke-NUS here? May I know (1) how is the student culture at Duke-NUS? and (2) will the first year be very difficult? Thanks!
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Were you accepted? I probably missed it, but when did you interview?
 
Am also interested to know what the above poster asked about culture and difficulty of first year. Med school is tough already but with 2 year preclinical curriculum compressed into 1, how does one manage?
 
Hey how is everyone holding up while waiting for the application outcome?
 
I interviewed early January and emailed Tammie last week. I got the standard response: all decisions will be made by April. We'll have to see...
 
What was everyone's impression during the interview? Everyone's very quiet this year!
 
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I thought it went really well! I went to the Singapore session and the campus was very impressive. Both of my interviewers were professors, and they felt really approachable. I guess I'm a little bummed out since I left feeling fairly positive about the entire applicant day experience, but still haven't heard back from them in so long.
 
I also went to Singapore for the early Jan Applicant Day. As enes91 experienced, I thought my interviewers were really friendly. Perhaps my experience does not really reflect the situation...
 
My heart skipped a beat at the feedback email. So anxious. Truly impressed with this school.
 
What do you mean by that? What sort of email was it?
 
No, just the survey for anonymous, post-interview feedback.
 
Ah, right. It's been a while, haha. They actually forgot to send me the TeamLEAD material, and I had to go in person to their office to ask for it the day before the interview. Man, that was scary.
 
So looking at last year's thread, around now is the time decisions START getting sent out. I'm ridiculously anxious.
 
Do they still have interviews in April? I sent in my application on the last day (Dec 1st) but I haven't received any word from them since. I emailed them yesterday and their response stated that my file is still being reviewed. Good sign?
 
Shufflebuff said:
Do they still have interviews in April? I sent in my application on the last day (Dec 1st) but I haven't received any word from them since. I emailed them yesterday and their response stated that my file is still being reviewed. Good sign?
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Are you Singaporean or US? I think for US they are done, but for Singapore, they may have more interviews?

Bear in mind, I know nothing, this is only based on previous threads. I would recommend just calling them. They are uber friendly.
 
Anybody receive any news yet? In the threads for the past couple years, admission have been sending out decisions starting late March.
 
An update to this thread gave me a heart attack! Yeah, silence so far.
 
Are there any singaporeans here who are choosing between Duke-NUS and a US med school? I would like to discuss the pros and cons of going back to SG with someone who is in a similar situation. Many thanks!
 
Wassupboy said:
Are there any singaporeans here who are choosing between Duke-NUS and a US med school? I would like to discuss the pros and cons of going back to SG with someone who is in a similar situation. Many thanks!
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Did you get accepted? Just wondering
 
Wassupboy said:
Are there any singaporeans here who are choosing between Duke-NUS and a US med school? I would like to discuss the pros and cons of going back to SG with someone who is in a similar situation. Many thanks!
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I'm not international, but this is something that has been difficult for me as well (though I haven't been accepted to Duke-NUS). Duke-NUS has so much ambition, and there's so many doors and opportunities it opens, both stateside and in SG. On the other hand, US schools are US schools...

I would say it depends, very much, on what US school, and what your motivations are. If you could share that (and also when you were accepted to Duke-NUS!), I think it'd be easier to voice opinions.
 
type12 said:
I'm not international, but this is something that has been difficult for me as well (though I haven't been accepted to Duke-NUS). Duke-NUS has so much ambition, and there's so many doors and opportunities it opens, both stateside and in SG. On the other hand, US schools are US schools...

I would say it depends, very much, on what US school, and what your motivations are. If you could share that (and also when you were accepted to Duke-NUS!), I think it'd be easier to voice opinions.
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Didn't mean to excite anyone. I was accepted last year but only decided to post in this thread after getting another acceptance. Aside from the lack of flexibility career wise (due to the bond and lack of recognition of the SG residency system by other countries which don't bother me that much since it's home after all) is concern about getting into a desired specialty. Although a year of research is great, this means that Duke-NUS students have 4-1 = 3 years of medical education compared to those who have 5 years coming from NUS/NTU medical schools. Wouldn't this be a disadvantage when it comes to matching since my clinical skills would theoretically be at a lower level than my counterparts? I've also heard rumors that some preceptors don't believe in the concept of clinician-scientist and are less than cooperative during clerkships.

My other concern is the efflux of physicians from the public to private sector which could potentially compromise medical education as there will be less educators to go around.
 
Wassupboy said:
Didn't mean to excite anyone. I was accepted last year but only decided to post in this thread after getting another acceptance. Aside from the lack of flexibility career wise (due to the bond and lack of recognition of the SG residency system by other countries which don't bother me that much since it's home after all) is concern about getting into a desired specialty. Although a year of research is great, this means that Duke-NUS students have 4-1 = 3 years of medical education compared to those who have 5 years coming from NUS/NTU medical schools. Wouldn't this be a disadvantage when it comes to matching since my clinical skills would theoretically be at a lower level than my counterparts? I've also heard rumors that some preceptors don't believe in the concept of clinician-scientist and are less than cooperative during clerkships.

My other concern is the efflux of physicians from the public to private sector which could potentially compromise medical education as there will be less educators to go around.
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Hi, I am a little confused by what you said. Did you receive another acceptance from Duke-NUS this year? If you did, can you please share the date that you received the acceptance?
 
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Wassupboy said:
Didn't mean to excite anyone. I was accepted last year but only decided to post in this thread after getting another acceptance. Aside from the lack of flexibility career wise (due to the bond and lack of recognition of the SG residency system by other countries which don't bother me that much since it's home after all) is concern about getting into a desired specialty. Although a year of research is great, this means that Duke-NUS students have 4-1 = 3 years of medical education compared to those who have 5 years coming from NUS/NTU medical schools. Wouldn't this be a disadvantage when it comes to matching since my clinical skills would theoretically be at a lower level than my counterparts? I've also heard rumors that some preceptors don't believe in the concept of clinician-scientist and are less than cooperative during clerkships.

My other concern is the efflux of physicians from the public to private sector which could potentially compromise medical education as there will be less educators to go around.
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First off, maybe less rumors and seek advice from clinician-scientists. That could help you more with your concerns in that area.

Secondly, I am not sure if we can gauge clinical skills by means of overall time frame. But do correct me if that wasn't your assumption. :) Perhaps you would want to consider that the first year at Duke-NUS covers quite a lot of ground, maybe that is partly why we see a shorter time frame.

Lastly, about mentors we learn from, you definitely raised a good concern. But it is difficult to say whether medical education is compromised or not. We have a lot to learn and (I personally think) a lot of people to learn from.
 
Wassupboy said:
Didn't mean to excite anyone. I was accepted last year but only decided to post in this thread after getting another acceptance. Aside from the lack of flexibility career wise (due to the bond and lack of recognition of the SG residency system by other countries which don't bother me that much since it's home after all) is concern about getting into a desired specialty. Although a year of research is great, this means that Duke-NUS students have 4-1 = 3 years of medical education compared to those who have 5 years coming from NUS/NTU medical schools. Wouldn't this be a disadvantage when it comes to matching since my clinical skills would theoretically be at a lower level than my counterparts? I've also heard rumors that some preceptors don't believe in the concept of clinician-scientist and are less than cooperative during clerkships.

My other concern is the efflux of physicians from the public to private sector which could potentially compromise medical education as there will be less educators to go around.
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I would like to comment on the bit about getting desired specialties and the duration of the med school.

Duke-NUS has its pros and cons as compared with NUS/NTU med. The lower-level of clinical knowledge or skills resulted from the shorter (3 vs 5 years) training period of Duke-NUS could be expected. However, Duke-NUS got started in Singapore not because it produces the same graduates as NUS YLLSOM but because it is different and potentially great. (Please fill in advantages of Duke-NUS here...)

Don't forget that med school is only the start of one's medical eduction. In the long run, the difference resulted from the shorter training time in med school will fade away. Otherwise, one would expect that graduates from UK system (5-year undergraduate) would perform consistently better than US graduates (4-year graduate) and that Duke graduates (4-1 = 3-year graduate) are the worst among US graduates. This is clearly not the case.

I think the program directors who are in charge of the specialty trainings would understand that Duke-NUS system is fundamentally different from NUS/NTU, so they may have different expectations for Duke-NUS graduates in certain aspects.
 
leonghart said:
First off, maybe less rumors and seek advice from clinician-scientists. That could help you more with your concerns in that area.

Secondly, I am not sure if we can gauge clinical skills by means of overall time frame. But do correct me if that wasn't your assumption. :) Perhaps you would want to consider that the first year at Duke-NUS covers quite a lot of ground, maybe that is partly why we see a shorter time frame.

Lastly, about mentors we learn from, you definitely raised a good concern. But it is difficult to say whether medical education is compromised or not. We have a lot to learn and (I personally think) a lot of people to learn from.
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Hey Leonghart, did you receive acceptance lately? I notice you changed your status to medical student.
 
Thanks for all the responses so far.

The 'rumors' were actually discussions on forums frequented by those in the medical field. Granted some of the posters might be 'trolls' but it does provide a different point of view to balance what clinician scientists have said since most of them have only described the positives and told me not to worry about negatives. It is true that my assumption was based on length of time. I have acquaintances in Duke (US) who are criticized (not malignant though) during clerkships for not having the same volume of basic science knowledge as other med students. Since Duke-NUS still is relatively young, I'm concerned that this would be more severe.
 
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ChEMed said:
I would like to comment on the bit about getting desired specialties and the duration of the med school.

Duke-NUS has its pros and cons as compared with NUS/NTU med. The lower-level of clinical knowledge or skills resulted from the shorter (3 vs 5 years) training period of Duke-NUS could be expected. However, Duke-NUS got started in Singapore not because it produces the same graduates as NUS YLLSOM but because it is different and potentially great. (Please fill in advantages of Duke-NUS here...)

Don't forget that med school is only the start of one's medical eduction. In the long run, the difference resulted from the shorter training time in med school will fade away. Otherwise, one would expect that graduates from UK system (5-year undergraduate) would perform consistently better than US graduates (4-year graduate) and that Duke graduates (4-1 = 3-year graduate) are the worst among US graduates. This is clearly not the case.

I think the program directors who are in charge of the specialty trainings would understand that Duke-NUS system is fundamentally different from NUS/NTU, so they may have different expectations for Duke-NUS graduates in certain aspects.
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Agree with you there that both physicians from UK and the US systems stack up well against each other but isn't this more of a function of postgraduate medical training rather than medical school? Both have their own established systems for their graduates. The problem I am concerned with is the assimilation of both systems in Singapore such that program directors may end up being biased against Duke-NUS graduates because of any perceived deficiencies. In other words, if I am passed over by an NUS/NTU grad because of this, I won't have the opportunity to prove that I am just as clinically capable during residency.

Your last point about program directors understanding that Duke-NUS students are different is likely but that still poses some uncertainty I would like to avoid if possible. If anyone is able to provide a list of residencies alumni have ended up, that'd be greatly helpful in resolving this concern. Also, keep the comments coming.
 
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PMK0301 said:
Hey Leonghart, did you receive acceptance lately? I notice you changed your status to medical student.
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Hello PMK0301. Yes I am fortunate to have received it. Applied during the regular window. Went for applicant day on the second week of February. Got the news nearing the end of March.
 
leonghart said:
Hello PMK0301. Yes I am fortunate to have received it. Applied during the regular window. Went for applicant day on the second week of February. Got the news nearing the end of March.
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Thanks for the reply. I got interview in the U.S. in Jan, follow up in mid March, still anxiously waiting for results. Would you mind sharing your stats? I just want to guesstimate what is a successful applicant for the school.
 
I'm not sure if its representative. I suppose a lot of factors are considered in an applicant.

But sure, I will share. I got a 31 for MCAT and honors second upper in life sciences. Did a few research projects as an undergrad and worked for a year as a clinical research coordinator and then a research officer up till now.

I wasn't accepted when I first applied. Felt disappointed, but picked myself up soon after and tried to improve myself overall.
 
it's possible to get in with a 2nd upper? i am relieved
 
leonghart said:
I'm not sure if its representative. I suppose a lot of factors are considered in an applicant.

But sure, I will share. I got a 31 for MCAT and honors second upper in life sciences. Did a few research projects as an undergrad and worked for a year as a clinical research coordinator and then a research officer up till now.

I wasn't accepted when I first applied. Felt disappointed, but picked myself up soon after and tried to improve myself overall.
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Thanks again! for sharing

punkfish said:
it's possible to get in with a 2nd upper? i am relieved
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I dont think grade is the only thing matter to them. I am 1st class gpa, mid- 30 MCAT. Been waiting for 3 months now.
 
Any one received any kind of news recently?

PMK0301, You have amazing stats~May I know if you are still doing your undergraduate study...?

Do most of the applicants have obtained their degrees and have been working for a while?...The average age of previous classes is something around 24-25 and successful applicants like leonghart have mentioned that they have that much working experience...
 
This is really a long wait...! Did anyone call to ask?
 
HaiTrang said:
This is really a long wait...! Did anyone call to ask?
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I was told that my file is still under review on April 2nd through email...how is it possible that it's still under review? I guess not all decisions are made...
 
Same here I was told my file is still being reviewed! But at the same time I know of some who have gotten news. So not sure what exactly is going on.
 
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