Austrailian Medical Schools: Flinders University

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As an MS-IV at Flinders, I'm probably qualified to answer any questions as long as they...

-aren't already covered on the Flinders web page

-aren't related to a discussion of "Will I get in?"
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Happy to help in any other way I can!
 
Flinders is actively recruiting US students for its medical school. When I retired I left brochures in my office for my successor so I can't help with details. You might try the cultural section of an Australian Consulate.

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I have a bit of experience with Flinders. My husband is an Australian citizen; most of his family lives in Adelaide, SA. His father graduated from Flinders maybe 40 years ago, did a fellowship at Stanford, and is now about to retire as the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at University of New Mexico. Before I got into med school, my husband and I went back to Australia to introduce our newborn boy to the rest of the family, and I interviewed at Flinders, and saw the campus. I had the pleasure of meeting several of my father-in-law's friends from his med school days who are now faculty at Flinders. I was very impressed- it is the best program in Australia. I was accepted there, but decided not to go, even though my husband wanted to go back. The tuition is about $30000/year, Australian, and Adelaide is a fairly expensive place to live. The school is recruiting international students, so getting in is not the challenge. It's staying in, because the program is extremely competitive. I hope my rambling helped a tiny bit.

 
I appreciate Lisa's posting but am not sure I would agree with her on several points.

Getting in: since Flinders receives in excess of 25 applications per international spot it isn't exactly a guarantee. To be sure, these numbers are less than that of many US schools but simply "actively recruiting" international students does not mean that one is likely to get in.

Competitiveness: if anything, there is too little of this. The first two years are all graded P/F, with the scale being changed to Honors/Credit/Pass/Fail in the final two years (with the exception of electives which are again P/F). This is done in an effort to prevent competitiveness. Students work together in small groups and there is no value in shafting someone else so that you'll do better.

To be sure, every year there are students who either fail outright or must take supplemental exams, but IMHO this is not due to the competitiveness. The only area in which I could see this being an issue is with clinical placements. Frankly, there are too many students per year to be able to get personalized attention during clinical rotations, and sometimes students can be assertive in a manner which puts others out.

Cost in Adelaide: This will obviously vary with respect to where you are currently living, but I actually found Adelaide very cheap. According to the Australian (the national newspaper), Adelaide and Perth at the two cheapest cities to live in. And I definitely found it cheaper than California or Washington DC in most repects. For example:

rent for 4 bedroom two bath house with ocean view (walking distance to school/med centre): $800 AUD, which translates to about $480 US dollars a month. Can't get that in California! Rents vary from $65 AUD to $200 AUD per week for most housing which when converted to US dollars is rather reasonable.

Tuition is $30,000 AUD but again converted it runs about $18,000 USD which, although more expensive than a state school, is cheaper than most private schools of medicine.

Food is cheap, especially dairy and meat products, and with the exception of "international foods" (like Mexican or Oreos), quite reasonable. Since there is no tipping at restaurants you also come out cheaper in the long run.

The Phone company does get you on local calls - you are charged 25 australian cents per call. It can add up, but our monhtly bills for phone, electric and gas generally ran no more than $50 AUD.

At any rate, this is not a cheap option, but Adelaide is cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne and I didn't find it any more expensive than living in a large US city.

Please feel free to write if you want anymore information.
 
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