a few questions about med in general/in aus

[complex]

hi, im pretty curious about med and iv been doing lots of reading about it on various forums, on studentdoctor.com in the oceanic section i find that there are alot of us students curious about studying in aus. how come? i woulda thought that american schools would be better in terms of producing quality doctors/researchers (no offense intended to anyone studying med in aus )

why do they all want to come study here?

iv read a bit and im still confused, say i do everything in australia up to the part where you do residency in a hospital. if i want to practice in america would i do the USMLE and do my specialty/sub-speciality training there?

internationally, are med grads from aus med schools respected? is it a big thing to have a degree from usyd or unsw?

whats life after med school like, im not particularly interested in becoming a physician or gp, im more interested in specializing in something and working on interesting cases, something that would let me consult all over the board. specifically something like infectious disease. what kind of specializations allow someone to do things like this and how is the research scene in aus, is there a way to practice in a hospital and do research at the same time, or is that out of the question?

i know im getting ahead of myself and i probably have no idea what im in for, but im just curious so please dont give me the "you will change your mind a thousand times in med school" talk ;P

thanks in advance and i really appreciate the replies.

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[nwhilk]

Hi complex,

I'll try my best to answer, but since I'm applying now to med schools in Oz, I dunno if my answers are necessarily the best possible answers. I'll do my best, hopefully others can correct me or clarify. Just trying to help anyway.

hi, im pretty curious about med and iv been doing lots of reading about it on various forums, on studentdoctor.com in the oceanic section i find that there are alot of us students curious about studying in aus. how come? i woulda thought that american schools would be better in terms of producing quality doctors/researchers (no offense intended to anyone studying med in aus )

why do they all want to come study here?

Could be for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they have a loved one in Oz. Or perhaps they are dual citizens. Or perhaps they could not get into an American med school. Or perhaps they just wanted to try something different, to experience another beautiful nation and people. Also, I should say, some people are non-science majors, and didn't take any pre-med coursework, and Oz does not require pre-med coursework (only doing well on the GAMSAT/MCAT), so perhaps that's another reason. Reasons probably vary from individual to individual. But these seem to be common ones.

iv read a bit and im still confused, say i do everything in australia up to the part where you do residency in a hospital. if i want to practice in america would i do the USMLE and do my specialty/sub-speciality training there?

As I understand it, but pls correct me if I'm wrong someone, yes, you'd have to pass step 1 and 2 on the USMLE and try to match into a residency in the USA. But it'll be hard to match into a competitiev residency (like surgery) unless you do really well on the USMLE. I think, yeah, you would have to redo your residency here if you came over here (but I'm not 100%) certain about that.

internationally, are med grads from aus med schools respected? is it a big thing to have a degree from usyd or unsw?

I woudl say in the USA, Australian med schools in general would be respected. The only ones that get joked about are Carib. schools.

No one here has ever heard of most of the Australian med schools, though, but ones like USyd and UMelb would probably be more likely to be known since they are associated with well known cities. UNSW I'm sure is a good school (undergrad only, though, at least as of now), but it probably wouldn't be as well known as USyd.

As far as reputation, though, I don't think it should be a big worry. No one has heard of many American schools either. Plus the important thing, at the end of the day, is that you are a good doctor who is knowledgeable and compassionate. So you should go to the school that best trains you. Flinders, few have heard of here in the USA, but don't let what the averge American think reputation wise be of any concern to you. Flinders trains some of the best doctors out of any of the Australian med schools, as I understand it. So although sompelace like USyd would be more well known than Flinders by the average American ,or even by the average American doctor, I'm sure both schools train fine doctors, so that's what's important.

whats life after med school like, im not particularly interested in becoming a physician or gp, im more interested in specializing in something and working on interesting cases, something that would let me consult all over the board. specifically something like infectious disease. what kind of specializations allow someone to do things like this and how is the research scene in aus, is there a way to practice in a hospital and do research at the same time, or is that out of the question?

Sorry I don't really know. Perhaps youre looking more for a research degree? PhD or something similar?

i know im getting ahead of myself and i probably have no idea what im in for, but im just curious so please dont give me the "you will change your mind a thousand times in med school" talk ;P

thanks in advance and i really appreciate the replies.

Hope that helped.

 

[driedcaribou]

stuff

Excellent post.

And to the OP, if you enjoy what you're doing and you're not going to med school for the money and you don't have very narrow financial limitations, you'll survive.

It's just a lot of work going from Australia to the US.... a bit easier to go from the US to any other country in the world and it will likely be that way for the next 100 years.