a year abroad in Australia

[Ella Shepherd]

Hello! I'm thinking about studying a year in Australia. I think I'd like to take some pre-med required subjects for med school that I won't be able to take at my home university as well as some other interesting subjects related to my degree program.

I'm not sure if these subjects will be credited by my university but I was just wondering if taking these subjects in Australia will be considered when I apply to med school in the US sooner or later?

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[Winged Scapula]

Most US medical schools prefer, if not outright require, that all of your pre-med courses be completed at a US school.

Take a year abroad if you wish, but take general education courses which you would not be using as pre-med reqs.

 

[Ella Shepherd]

I see. Thank you.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

US medical schools expect all your premed coursework to be completed in the US. Some Australian classes are shorter, Organic Chem is usually one semester in Oz, and is a full year class in the US and Canada. Also the grading system is less sympathetic in Australia, so you could mess up your GPA, you might want to rethink going to Australia to study abroad, since you are planning to apply to medical school. Why not just go backpacking for a year after you graduate in Oz instead.

 

[Winged Scapula]

US medical schools expect all your premed coursework to be completed in the US. Some Australian classes are shorter, Organic Chem is usually one semester in Oz, and is a full year class in the US and Canada. Also the grading system is less sympathetic in Australia, so you could mess up your GPA, you might want to rethink going to Australia to study abroad, since you are planning to apply to medical school. Why not just go backpacking for a year after you graduate in Oz instead.

Good point.

There is much less grade inflation abroad than there is in the US. You may find that because the tendency is to award lower grades in Oz, that your gpa will suffer back in the US.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

You will seriously mess up your academic record here, don't bother.

 

[jaketheory]

more importantly, AMCAS does not request nor accept transcripts from foreign schools so your grade will matter little so long as you passed it. Unless you go through a formal study abroad program through your home university, most US universities transfer your grades abroad pass/fail. because AMCAS will never see your foreign transcript, they will only see if you passed or failed the course on your home uni's transcript.

most med schools will not accept prereqs taken abroad at all. however, if you plan to take a more advanced course upon returning to the US, that would likely be fine, but you would want to ask admissions at med schools in which you are interested to confirm they would allow this. this is similar to the case in which students took the required courses for AP credit or dual enrollment in high school. a lot of med schools will not accept AP credits, but these students can take more advanced courses rather than repeat them. so if you were to take any of the required premed courses abroad, plan to take more advanced courses in the same subject upon returning to your home school. for example, you take general chemistry abroad, but then take one semester each of advanced inorganic chem and physical chem after returning (you would need to ensure you meet lab requirements too). those advanced courses would fullfill your required gen chem courses. even still, i would not advise this unless you are absolutely sure this is what you want to do (eg. you are a chem major in the above example and you HAVE to take those advanced courses for degree requirements). otherwise, you may complete the prereqs abroad and then realize you have no desire to take the advanced courses later, but have to because your other courses were abroad and are useless to AMCAS.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

I actually heard of a student who went abroad to Melbourne for a year. The student had an exceptional academic record at an elite US university, and his year in Melbourne actually destroyed that record. Realistically, you are so much better off backpacking for a summer than taking coursework in Australia. The only foreign coursework recognized by US medical schools is that done in Canada which really is not foreign if you ask me.

 

[jaketheory]

dude, there is nothing wrong with studying abroad! med schools will like that you did a semester abroad. you just cant take courses abroad that you will use to satisfy med school requirements. all else is fair game! i did a semester in aus and loved it, thus why i troll around here! i enjoyed my experience so much, i am trying to make my way back (at least after med school).

 

[JoeNamaMD]

dude, there is nothing wrong with studying abroad! med schools will like that you did a semester abroad. you just cant take courses abroad that you will use to satisfy med school requirements. all else is fair game! i did a semester in aus and loved it, thus why i troll around here! i enjoyed my experience so much, i am trying to make my way back (at least after med school).

Being that you are from Boston, on the other side of the Earth, how have you become an expert on Oz?

 

[jaketheory]

how exactly did this get so specific to australia? the OP was asking about studying abroad in Aus, but the caveats of studying abroad as a premed are not country specific at all. my comments were not specific to Aus. people can study a semester abroad the world over, including 3rd world countries and still go to a US med school.

what did i say that implied i was an expert on aus? what would about aus would i even be an expert of? i have studied abroad in Aus. i have also returned to Aus since then. i am also planning to go to a US med school and am thus familar with problems which can arrise when applying to US schools if one has studied abroad. all relevant to the OP. really, there is no difficulty in doing both; just takes a little planning. many people have done it.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

If I did a year abroad, I would pick Europe over Oz easily. There is a lot more to do over there and a lot more to see. Australia is great for everyday life, but if you want a change from North America, Europe is a great start. If you are bit more adventurous Asia is another option. Australia is largely California 30 to 40 years back in time, even locals say this. Don't get me wrong Australia is nice but other places seem to offer more for students.

When I travel, I really am not in the mood to study, if anything maybe study "geometry".

 

[SirGecko]

I actually heard of a student who went abroad to Melbourne for a year. The student had an exceptional academic record at an elite US university, and his year in Melbourne actually destroyed that record. Realistically, you are so much better off backpacking for a summer than taking coursework in Australia. The only foreign coursework recognized by US medical schools is that done in Canada which really is not foreign if you ask me.

That is odd because I had the exact opposite experience. I'm always overworked at my university and my semester abroad in Australia allowed me to actually have the time to focus on school and have some fun. I did better than I ever did at my "top tier" university here in the states.

Also, are you all assuming that the same percentages mean the same grades for Australia? Because they don't. Most Australian schools anything over an 85 is a high distinction and anything over a 75 is a Distinction. Those roughly translate to an A/A+ and an A/A- respectfully. I mean anything over a 50 translates to a C if I recall correctly.

Anyway the one thing I'd look out for with abroad programs is how the credit is transfered to a US institution. My credit was only transfered as "credit" which makes it more difficult to get it across in my application that I did really well that semester since it isn't calculated into my GPA. (still trying to figure that out with AMCAS right now)

 

[jaketheory]

Also, are you all assuming that the same percentages mean the same grades for Australia? Because they don't. Most Australian schools anything over an 85 is a high distinction and anything over a 75 is a Distinction. Those roughly translate to an A/A+ and an A/A- respectfully. I mean anything over a 50 translates to a C if I recall correctly.

Where I went, 50% would translate into a C as well; however, this varies from one aussie uni to another. for more info on this, one can check the grade tables in the ACER GMAC admissions guide. It should also be noted that "high deistinction" grades are given out near as much as A's are in the US. So despite, the percentage for an HD being less than what we would assign an A, it is harder to receive than an A.

Anyway the one thing I'd look out for with abroad programs is how the credit is transfered to a US institution. My credit was only transfered as "credit" which makes it more difficult to get it across in my application that I did really well that semester since it isn't calculated into my GPA. (still trying to figure that out with AMCAS right now)

As I have noted above, if you do not study abroad through a formal study abroad program of your home university, your grades will transfer back to your home university pass/fail and thus you will receive credit but no grade. this generally does not matter unless you take required premed courses abroad, which you should NOT do.

 

[sux2bu09]

anyone know of any chill schools to go to in australia to study abroad

 

[jaketheory]

anyone know of any chill schools to go to in australia to study abroad

depends on what your interests are. i know when i went, a lot of students interested most in surfing and going to the beach went to the university of wollongong.

if you go to the big cities, you won't really get the authentic aussie experience since they are so many people from all over the globe there, not just aussies.

my own experience was in adelaide, which is among the smallest of the capitol cities, and i found myself hanging out mostly with other international students, most of which were from Scandinavia. not that I could possibly complain about my roommates being composed of 2 danish blonde chicks and a swedish blonde chick), but if i was looking to hang with danes, swedes, and norwegians i wouldnt have gone to australia. i finally hooked up with this aussie chick at the uni bar and with that made my way into real aussie life. it probably most depends on your personality though and for what you are looking.

i was not preparing to study medicine back then. if i were to do it again, i'd probably try my hardest to go the university of melbourne as they have what i consider the best med school in aus. there are lots of medical research institutes and hospitals there. you could probably even take some basic science courses with the undergrad entry med students, just make sure you complete all your required premed courses in the US though.

keep in mind the difference in seasons. i went during the fall semester of the US academic calendar, so most of the time i was there was during their winter. not the best for beach going, but again, that will depend on where you go. if you went some place like james cook uni (which the only med school in northern Queensland), its probably beach going weather year round. of course its pretty isolated from the rest of australia as is the city of Perth.

 

[sux2bu09]

I was looking at going during the spring semester (Jan.-June). I'm gonna have all my pre-reqs completed by then and i'm applying to med school this summer. Ive been looking at univ. of melbourne but like you said i dont know if big city life would be better than finding somewhere a little smaller. I'm not that restricted on where i need to go b/c its going to be my last semester in undergrad, and i will only have 1 class that I have to take to graduate.. the rest of my classes will probably be more or less filler classes when i go abroad, and hopefully ill have my med school interviews out of the way by then (i hope lol)

 

[jaketheory]

well i would also be privey to go to uni of melbourne cuz i really like melbourne. but if you would rather do the smaller city thing, check out "study 'real australia'". the website does not seem to be working right now: realaustralia.idp.com, but a page that is and has at least some description of it is here http://students.idp.com/study/real_australia_universities.aspx.

if you only need some filler classes, i highly recommend searching the course catalog of the uni you decide to attend. i found the uni i went to had quite a number of courses not available at my home uni back in the US, such as courses on hypnotization and such (you could even get a grad degree in it), which i thought was wicked. i also encourage you to check out courses on australian culture/history or what not. all schools should have some aboriginal studies courses too, which you may find interesting.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

depends on what your interests are. i know when i went, a lot of students interested most in surfing and going to the beach went to the university of wollongong.

if you go to the big cities, you won't really get the authentic aussie experience since they are so many people from all over the globe there, not just aussies.

my own experience was in adelaide, which is among the smallest of the capitol cities, and i found myself hanging out mostly with other international students, most of which were from Scandinavia. not that I could possibly complain about my roommates being composed of 2 danish blonde chicks and a swedish blonde chick), but if i was looking to hang with danes, swedes, and norwegians i wouldnt have gone to australia. i finally hooked up with this aussie chick at the uni bar and with that made my way into real aussie life. it probably most depends on your personality though and for what you are looking.

i was not preparing to study medicine back then. if i were to do it again, i'd probably try my hardest to go the university of melbourne as they have what i consider the best med school in aus. there are lots of medical research institutes and hospitals there. you could probably even take some basic science courses with the undergrad entry med students, just make sure you complete all your required premed courses in the US though.

keep in mind the difference in seasons. i went during the fall semester of the US academic calendar, so most of the time i was there was during their winter. not the best for beach going, but again, that will depend on where you go. if you went some place like james cook uni (which the only med school in northern Queensland), its probably beach going weather year round. of course its pretty isolated from the rest of australia as is the city of Perth.

You got surrounded by Nordic babes, I feel so sorry for you. There are plenty of Aussie blondes too, especially at Sydney's bars and pubs. Sydney and UQ are just as reputable as U of Melbourne for Medicine. According to most measures, Melbourne is the most prestigious medical school in Australia, but some people give that credit to Sydney.